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Drama in Bayreuth

Strike Threatens Wagner Festival

A pay dispute is threatening to bring the curtain down on this year's annual Wagner opera festival in Bayreuth before it has even begun.

While it's the performers who receive the standing ovation at the end of the show, no theater production would be possible without the work of the backstage crew. This is a lesson being learnt all too late by organisers of the Bayreuth Festival, whose 60 stagehands and lighting engineers and 100 freelance workers have gone on strike over pay.

The walk-out is threatening the festival, due to start on July 25, which pays homage to 19th century composer Richard Wagner and presents his operas to fans from around the world, who have often waited years for a ticket.

Barbara Schneider, regional head of the Verdi services union, said the purpose of the strike is not to disappoint fans, but to gain workers a fair wage.

"We're in a position to let the festival collapse," she told the Associated Press. She added that wages paid to feelance stagehands at the festival amount to about €4 ($5.60) an hour

Current wages were negotiated by former event organiser Wolfgang Wagner, who has since handed over the running of the festival to the next generation -- half-sisters Katharina Wagner and Eva Pasquier-Wagner. While the wages may sound like a pittance, they do not take into account the two nights of the festival the former organiser set aside exclusively for trade unionists. Workers could often make huge profits by selling on tickets to fans desperate to attend the event.

Trade union Verdi is pushing for a more transparent system of pay, according to which workers will earn a higher hourly rate. One suggestion for financing this is through raising ticket prices.

Due to start in less than a fortnight's time, the festival was set to entertain a huge audience of opera fans with an opening performance of "Tristan and Isolde". Now a shadow of doubt has been cast over the whole event as time is running out to negotiate a last-minute deal on pay.

But Toni Schmid, President of the Bayreuth Festival's Board of Directors, says that there won't be a repeat performance of this drama next year. He told SPIEGEL that the strike could "be used as a bargaining chip one time only" -- a hint that if a deal can't be reached, other stagehands can -- and will -- be found before next year's event.

ecb with wire reports