Opera nudity not embraced at Wagner fest

BAYREUTH, Germany, July 27 (UPI) -- Boos outpaced oohs at the nudity and plastic phalluses in the staging of Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg" opening night at a German festival.

The audience's reaction was important to Wagner's great-granddaughter, Katharina Wagner, who staged the performance for the monthlong Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday. Good reviews could mean the 29-year-old would be better positioned to take over the festival over Nike and Eva Wagner, both 62.

Her father, Wolfgang, 87, is the current festival director.

Katharina Wagner's characters reversed roles, with the opera's flamboyant hero portrayed as a conformist while his rival shed his stuffed-shirt mien.

"You have to take risks to build something new," she told The Daily Telegraph before the festival began. "In Germany there is a problem that people always have tradition on their minds, like folk dress and lederhosen. Of course I break with that."