VIENNA, July 23, 2009 (AFP) - The curtain rises Saturday on the 98th edition of the world-famous Bayreuth Festival, with a new wind blowing on Richard Wagner's legendary "Green Hill" following last year's change in leadership.

Until August 2008, the annual month-long summer music festival dedicated exclusively to Wagner's works had been under the iron rule of the composer's autocratic grandson, Wolfgang, for a record-breaking 57 years.

But the white-haired patriarch, who turns 90 next month, stepped down at the end of last year's proceedings, handing over the reins to his two daughters, Katharina Wagner, 31, and Eva Wagner-Pasquier, 64.

The two half-sisters -- Eva is Wolfgang's daughter by his first marriage, and Katharina the only child from his second marriage to Gudrun, who died unexpectedly in 2007 -- could not be more different.

Eva is notoriously media-shy, while Katharina is seen as hip and tech-savvy and has brought Bayreuth into the 21st century with a new, trendy multi-media presence.

Eva, an artistic consultant and casting director for some of the world's top opera houses, is responsible for hiring the best singers, conductors and directors.

Star German tenor Jonas Kaufmann has been engaged to sing the title role in a new production of "Lohengrin" next year. And Eva could imagine Russian superstar Anna Netrebko singing in Bayreuth, too.

"If she wants to, we'd let her go on stage immediately. I love Netrebko. She can sing absolutely any role," Eva told the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, suggesting the part of Elsa in "Lohengrin".

Katharina, for her part, is in charge of marketing and is seen as the festival's public face.

Among this year's changes, there will be a new "Wagner for Kids" series, with a specially adapted version of the composer's "Flying Dutchman" made palatable for six-to-10 year olds.

The festival's Internet presence has also been spruced up with a series of podcasts and video insights into the workings of the Festspielhaus, the opera house built to Wagner's own designs.

But with artists' contracts already signed years in advance, any other changes will be no more than cosmetic, for now.

And it may be some time yet before Katharina and Eva, whose own contracts will initially run for just seven years, can really set about rejuvenating redefining the world's most prestigious music festival.

As every year, the 2009 edition will run from July 25 until August 28.

But, contrary to tradition where one new production is staged every year, it will comprise straight re-runs of last year's productions of "Tristan and Isolde", "The Mastersingers of Nuremberg", "Parsifal" and the massive four-part "Ring" cycle.

The idea was to have a sort of transition year given the change in leadership and with Bayreuth already beginning to prepare for Wagner's bicentenary in 2013.

The line-up will not be to everyone's taste: of the current productions, only Norwegian director Stefan Herheim's "Parsifal", which premiered last year, was anything of a critical success.

Indeed, for the first time since World War II, insiders have claimed that demand for tickets has dropped off substantially, highly unusual for a festival where Wagner aficionados traditionally wait 10 years and more for a seat.

Other changes are afoot in the Festspielhaus that will be similarly unwelcome to the organisers, including a possible strike by stage and technical staff, which would be a first in Bayreuth's history.

In the past, it had always been considered an honour to work on Wagner's "Green Hill".

Pay, for singers, musicians and conductors alike, was well below levels paid in other leading opera houses around the world.

The "non-artistic" staff, from programme-sellers to electricians, are given their own special performances, an annual trip and a Christmas party.

"You can have anything you want, just not more money," Wolfgang Wagner once famously quipped.

But the German services sector trade union, ironically called Verdi, like the Italian composer, is calling for a pay increase of at least 20 percent for the 140 largely seasonal technical staff.

A last-minute agreement is looking increasingly likely with new talks scheduled for July 22.