Jonathan Meese gets the chop despite promising the Wagners a Nazi imagery-free production.

The Bayreuth Festival has decided to axe Jonathan Meese as director for its 2016 production of Wagner’s sacred music drama Parsifal. The controversial freelancer has been in trouble on several occasions in the past for his use of challenging political, social and sexual imagery, and in particular the swastika.

The announcement came last Friday that Meese’s concept would not be affordable. Commercial director Heinz-Dieter Sense said that there had been “financial problems from the very beginning with the set and costumes”. “The result would be a significant overspend on the available budget,” he said. “This is not acceptable to the Bayreuther Festspiele.”

Only last year, Katharina Wagner, the composer’s great-granddaughter, described Meese as “one of the greatest German artists”. When asked if one should play with swastikas, she replied: “No. And I don’t think Jonathan Meese plays in a bad way with such symbols.” But she denied there would be a clause in his contract prohibiting him from using Nazi symbols. “There is still no contract, but a verbal assurance that we made public with...