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The Bayreuth Festival board named half-sisters Katharina Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier on Monday to replace their father at the helm of the German festival dedicated to the music of composer Richard Wagner.

The women – the composer's great-granddaughters – will replace their father, Wolfgang Wagner, who stepped down at the end of August after 57 years as director of the festival.

The question of who would succeed the 89-year-old has generated as much drama as a Wagnerian opera.

Wolfgang and his brother, Wieland, took charge of the festival in 1951. After the death of Wieland, Wolfgang became the sole director in 1967.

In 2001, the festival's board of directors, which includes German federal, Bavarian state and Bayreuth city officials, tried to force Wagner to step down by naming his daughter from his first marriage, Wagner-Pasquier, to take over.

But Wolfgang Wagner refused to quit the post and said he had a lifelong contract. Following the death last November of his second wife and longtime assistant, Gudrun, he agreed in April to step down.

His daughter with Gudrun, 30-year-old Katharina – his preferred successor – submitted an application for joint leadership with Eva, 63, currently an artistic consultant at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France as well as the Metropolitan Opera.

Last week, though, Wolfgang's niece, Nike Wagner, submitted her own joint application with renowned Belgian director Gerard Mortier. Nike is Wieland Wagner's daughter.

Mortier, who helped bring about a successful resurgence of the Salzburg Festival in neighboring Austria, is to become general manager and artistic director of the New York City Opera in the fall of 2009.