Bayreuth To Stream 'Meistersinger' Live Online

Wagner fans who fail to get tickets to the Richard Wagner Festival at Bayreuth, Germany, this year can watch "Die Meistersinger" live on the Internet on July 27, according to the festival's Web site.

"Richard Wagner dreamed of making the festival accessible and affordable for everyone," the Web site says. "We take his ideas seriously and realize them using modern technology."

Katharina Wagner, the great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner and a candidate to lead the Bayreuth opera festival after her father Wolfgang Wagner resigns in August, told Die Zeit newspaper that she hopes the live broadcasts will help attract a new, younger audience for the 132-year-old festival.

Ten thousand online tickets for her staging of "Die Meistersinger" will be available at a cost of $77, Die Zeit reported. As many as 15,000 spectators will also have the opportunity to watch the opera at no charge on a public screen in Bayreuth, the paper said. Applicants can normally wait many years to get tickets for the festival.

"Public viewing won't ruin the character of the festival," Ms. Wagner said in the interview.

Wagner family members have until August 31 to agree on a successor to Wolfgang Wagner, and their proposal will be given priority by the foundation that runs the festival. Katharina Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier, Wolfgang's daughter from his first marriage, submitted a joint leadership proposal earlier this year.

"I cannot predict what decision the foundation will take," Ms. Wagner said in the interview. "In theory, they could choose someone else to run the festival."

This year's festival runs from July 25 to August 28.