The third of six portraits of great musicians from the past presented by David Mellor. After the defeat of Germany in 1945, Bayreuth was still owned and run by Wagner's grandson's widow, a committed follower of Hitler. Worried
Wagnerites were overjoyed when Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner discarded the Teutonic trappings of the old festivals in favour of the symbolic "New Bayreuth" style. From the pioneering 1951 Parsifal, many productions were recorded.