Bayreuth Festival And talks about reopening of the Wagnerian Festival started. Finally it reopened on 29 July 1951 with, as always, a performance by the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra under conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, followed by the first post-war premiere of Wagner's opera, "Parsifal". Under the direction of Wieland Wagner, the "New Bayreuth" ushered in an era that was no less than revolutionary. Gone were the elaborate naturalistic sets, replaced with minimalist modern productions. In comparison, the pre-war changes seemed tame. For the first time in its history, the Bayreuth audience booed at the end of productions. Wieland was particularly
Presteigne Festival ‘Open Borders’ Festival, which commissioned twelve new works, one from each of the then European Community countries; 1993 Appointment of George Vass as Artistic Director. Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts Limited registered as a charity; 1994 Establishment of annual composer-in-residence scheme; 1999 The Festival was short listed for one of the annual Royal Philharmonic Society awards(nominated again in 2003); 2006 Pēteris Vasks first non-British composer-in-residence; Baltic music feature; 2007 25th anniversary festival which included seventeen world premieres. Australian musician Peter Sculthorpe was composer-in-residence; 2008 New executive structure introduced, which enabled the Festival to become more flexible and professional