Bayreuth Festival and foreign singers, long after they had been banned from all other venues across Germany (including heldentenor Max Lorenz, married to a well-known Jewish woman). Winifred's influence with Hitler was so strong that Hitler even wrote a letter (at her behest) to anti-fascist Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini, begging him to lead the festival. Toscanini refused. From 1933 to 1942, the festival was conducted principally by Karl Elmendorff. It was under the Third Reich that the festival made its first break from tradition, abandoning the deteriorating 19th century sets created by Richard Wagner. Many protested at the changes, including prominent conductors
Bayreuth (district) Bayreuth (district) Bayreuth is a "Landkreis" (district) in Bavaria, Germany. It surrounds, but does not include the city of Bayreuth. The district is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Kulmbach, Hof, Wunsiedel, Tirschenreuth, Neustadt an der Waldnaab, Amberg-Sulzbach, Nürnberger Land, Forchheim and Bamberg. The district was established in 1972 by merging the former districts of Bayreuth and Pegnitz, adding the town Gefrees of the former district of Münchberg and the town of Speichersdorf of the former district of Kemnath. The sources of the White Main and the Red Main are both located in the district. The