Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who this year for the first time in the last 20 years missed the Bayreuth Festival, which is dedicated to the works of Richard Wagner (1813-1883), tried to secretly attend the Salzburg Festival. This is reported by the portal Salzburg24.
The publication notes that Merkel arrived in a tinted Audi, while she covered her face with her hand. The car that delivered the ex-Chancellor to the festival parked in the courtyard of the festival palace so that none of the spectators could notice him.
Merkel undertook a real marathon, visiting the festival three days in a row. The ex-Chancellor listened to Richard Strauss's one—act opera Capriccio on Sunday, August 4; the next day she attended a concert by Soviet and Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov; on Tuesday; August 6 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Giovanni staged by Italian director Romeo Castelucci and Russian conductor of Greek origin Theodor Currentzis.
This year Merkel came to Salzburg without her husband Joachim Sauer.
As EADaily reported, this year Merkel did not come to the opening ceremony of the Bayreuth Festival, nor to any of its events for the first time in 19 years. Merkel is considered a big fan of Wagner's work. She came to Bayreuth during the election campaign for the post of Chancellor of Germany in 2005. Most often she attended not only the opening, but also the performances within the framework of the festival.