Wolfgang Wagner of the World into Music"). Wolfgang Wagner Wolfgang Wagner (30 August 191921 March 2010) was a German opera director. He is best known as the director (Festspielleiter) of the Bayreuth Festival, a position he initially assumed alongside his brother Wieland in 1951 until the latter's death in 1966. From then on, he assumed total control until he retired in 2008, although many of the productions which he commissioned were severely criticized in their day. He had been plagued by family conflicts and criticism for many years. He was the son of Siegfried Wagner, the grandson of Richard Wagner, and the
Bavarian State Orchestra premiere of his opera "Idomeneo", written in Munich. During the 1860s the orchestra, by then an integral part of the "Hofoper" (Court Opera), gave the world premieres of the Wagner operas "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg", "Tristan und Isolde", and "Das Rheingold", followed in 1870 by "Die Walküre". Hans von Bülow was active as conductor at that time. Upon the German Revolution of 1918–1919 the name changed again, to its present form, reflecting the demise of the Bavarian monarchy. The Bavarian State Orchestra is today part of the Bavarian State Opera company, Germany's largest, which it serves as pit ensemble, based