Eva Wagner-Pasquier

Who is Eva Wagner-Pasquier?

Eva Wagner-Pasquier is a German opera manager. She is the daughter of Wolfgang Wagner and Ellen Drexel. On 1 September 2008, Wagner-Pasquier and her half-sister Katharina Wagner were named as joint directors of the Bayreuth Festival which is largely dedicated to the stage works of their great-grandfather Richard Wagner.

Following the death of her uncle Wieland Wagner, Wagner-Pasquier acted as her father's assistant at Bayreuth from 1967 to 1975. She was an assistant at the Vienna State Opera, and an opera director at the Royal Opera House. Wagner-Pasquier oversaw opera and concert productions for the Munich-based classical music company Unitel Films until 1984. She was Director of Programming at the Opéra Bastille from 1987–93. She has also worked for Houston Grand Opera, the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Teatro Real, the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, and is currently an Artistic Consultant to The Metropolitan Opera.

The joint appointment at Bayreuth followed a long feud in which Wolfgang had favoured his second wife Gudrun and daughter Katharina as successors, the overseeing committee, the Richard Wagner Foundation of Bayreuth, had favoured Eva, and Wieland's daughter Nike had also put herself forward. The eventual compromise with both Wolfgang and the foundation supporting the sisters followed Gudrun's death in 2007.