Bayreuth, Germany - Katharina Wagner, 30, co-director of the Wagner Opera Festival in Germany, survived uninjured after the driver of her car died at high speed, aides said Friday. Stefan Mueller, the festival lawyer, died of a heart attack as he and Wagner were on the autobahn home from Berlin just before midnight Thursday. From the front passenger seat, she steered the car to the roadside and stopped it.
Festival spokesman Peter Emmerich said she was unhurt. After stopping, she vainly tried to resuscitate Mueller and called an ambulance and highway police near the Bavarian town of Hof.
She and her half-sister, Eva Wagner-Pasquier, 63, became directors of the festival in September, taking over from their father, Wolfgang Wagner, 89.
The month-long summer opera festival in the city of Bayreuth performs only the works of 19th century German composer Richard Wagner and is permanently booked out up to 10 years in advance.
