Unable to review Bayreuth’s Ring, the NY Times polls its audience Operanorman lebrecht August 07, 2026The former newspaper of record no longer has a chief music critic, ever since it buried Zachary Woolfe on the obits desk a year ago. Nobody, then, to make a call whether to review the Ring at Bareuth in its 150th anniversary year, a significant moment in the opera calendar. “It’s a religion,” said Barbara Stüwe, sitting nearby at a card table where she rents opera glasses to patrons. Katharina, now 48, is the composer’s great-granddaughter, and inherited the family business from her father, Wolfgang Wagner, when he died. They feel a sense of collective ownership over the event and a closeness to the family that runs it….