After Wagner: Bayreuth, the Festivals, and Wagner’s Descendants

Among the most important of Wagner’s legacies are the Festival Theater he built in Bayreuth and the performances that have taken place there with comparatively few interruptions since the mid-1870s. Closely associated not only with the composer but with the festivals in particular are Wagner’s successors; these-especially his wife Cosima, son Siegfried and grandsons Wolfgang and Wieland-made Bayreuth one of Germany’s most influential cultural phenomena. This chapter identifies and describes some of the books and articles devoted to Bayreuth, its Festivals, and the Wagner family following the composer’s death in 1883.