The Wagner Family

Since the Bayreuth Festival began in 1876, the opera house on Green Hill in Bayreuth has become a legend in the classical music world. Patrons sometimes wait years for tickets. Click for a look at the family that has reigned on top of the hill for well over a century.

Composer Richard Wagner founded the Bayreuth Festival in 1876, where his massive four-part opera cycle "The Ring" premiered. What would (great-)grandpa say about the current festival leadership?

Winifred Wagner is pictured here with Adolf Hitler on March 6, 1934 at the ground laying for the Richard Wagner Memorial in Leipzig. She was the wife of the composer's son Siegfried and the mother of Wieland and Wolfgang (who would later direct the Bayreuth Festival), Verena and Friedelind. Winifred Wagner's membership in the Nazi party and long-time friendship with Hitler damaged her reputation after the war, though she was able to prove that she had rescued many people from the concentration camps. It is well known that Hitler particularly enjoyed the music of Richard Wagner.

Wieland Wagner (1917 - 1966) was Richard Wagner's grandson. He directed the Bayreuth Festival together with his brother Wolfgang from 1951 until his death in 1966. Legendary German singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, pictured here on the left, is getting last minute tips from Wieland Wagner before he takes the stage as Wolfram von Eschenbach in the 1961 performance of Tannhäuser.

Wolfgang Wagner has directed the Bayreuth Festival for over half a century. The passing of the baton cannot occur without his blessing. He has not yet announced a date for his resignation.

Wolfgang Wagner is seen here with his wife Gudrun (left), who he at one time recommended as his successor, and his daughter Katharina at the 2003 Bayreuth Festival.

Katharina Wagner, 29, is considered to be the most likely candidate to succeed her father Wolfgang as the director of the Bayreuth Festival. She is making her directorial debut there this year with "Meistersänger von Nürnberg," which opens the festival on July 25.

Nike Wagner (pronounced "Nee-ka") is the daughter of Wieland Wagner and an outspoken critic of the Bayreuth Festival leadership. She has studied musicology, theater and literature in Berlin, Chicago, Paris and Vienna and currently directs the "pèlerinages" art festival in Weimar.

Wolfgang Wagner's daughter from his first marriange, Eva Wagner-Pasquier, is considered a possible yet unlikely candidate to take over the festival. The experienced stage director was appointed to the position in 2001, but later withdrew.