Richard Wagner of the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, who thought the work "divinely composed", and that of the French newspaper "Le Figaro", which called the music "the dream of a lunatic". Amongst the disillusioned were Wagner's friend and disciple Friedrich Nietzsche, who, having published his eulogistic essay "Richard Wagner in Bayreuth" before the festival as part of his "Untimely Meditations", was bitterly disappointed by what he saw as Wagner's pandering to increasingly exclusivist German nationalism; his breach with Wagner began at this time. The festival firmly established Wagner as an artist of European, and indeed world, importance: attendees included Kaiser Wilhelm I,
George Town Festival off with an ensemble of musical performances from throughout Southeast Asia. George Town Festival The George Town Festival is an annual cultural festival held within the city of George Town in Penang, Malaysia. The month-long art festival takes place every August throughout the city. Inaugurated in 2010, the festival was initially mooted to celebrate the inscription of George Town as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has since grown into a ""major Asian arts event"", attracting about 250,000 visitors in 2015. In 2009, George Town World Heritage Incorporated, a state agency tasked with monitoring and promoting the city's heritage, had