"I would like to state explicitly that Katharina Wagner is changing the culture of remembrance in Bayreuth." With these words, spoken from the stage of the Bayreuth Festival, German-Jewish author Michel Friedman encapsulated the central message of the festival's two-day opening celebration.
Friedman spoke during a commemorative event titled "Silenced Voices," dedicated to Jewish artists who worked at the Bayreuth Festival and were later murdered or oppressed under the Nazi regime. Despite initial organizational turbulence, his talk became one of the key events of the opening celebrations on July 26, alongside the concert on the eve of the festival and the premiere of a new production of the opera "Rienzi."Katharina Wagner (center) with Michel Friedman and guests during a tour of the exhibition "Silenced Voices"Image: Daniel Löb/dpa/picture alliance
Friedman also visited the exhibition with Bayreuth Festival director Katharina Wagner and several members of the local Jewish community. In the park surrounding the Bayreuth Festival grounds, directly beside the bust of Richard Wagner, a series of gray memorial steles stands as a powerful reminder of the Jewish artists whose lives were lost. A cantor from the Jewish community recited a prayer for the victims, and their names were read aloud.
