Bayreuth, Germany  - The first live, free screening of a Wagner opera on a giant outdoor display in Bayreuth, Germany proved popular, with a gate of 38,000, festival organizers said Monday.

The number includes multiple comings and goings during the event Sunday afternoon on a Bayreuth square, so the number of unique persons who attended was far lower, festival spokesman Peter Emmerich said. Only 15,000 were allowed on the site at one time.

"The broadcast was technically perfect too," he said.

Bayreuth, Germany - Enthusiastic applause greeted the new production of Wagner's Parsifal by Norwegian director Stefan Herheim at the opening of the annual Bayreuth Festival Friday evening.

Herheim presented the late work by the composer as images from an excursion through the various stages of German history. It was greeted with approbation by the VIP audience, including Chancellor Angel Merkel.

The audience was less enthusiastic about Conductor Daniele Gatti, whose interpretation of the score drew the occasional boo.

Herheim set the opera in Bayreuth itself, with the backdrop designed by Heike Scheele using Haus Wahnfried, Richard Wagner's villa in the city, as the setting for the antics of high society in the Wilhelmine period.

Bayreuth, Germany  - Aging Bayreuth opera festival chief Wolfgang Wagner has

Bayreuth, Germany - Wolfgang Wagner, 88, the chief for life of Germany's Wa