Festspielhaus Bayreuth: In the Memory of Richard Wagner
Festspielhaus Bayreuth or the Richard Wagner Festival is an annual event which takes place in Bayreuth, Germany and has been concerning itself with Richard Wagner’s operas since the 19th century. It was Richard Wagner himself who came up with the idea of Bayreuth Festival or as it is said in German – Bayreuther Festspiele. He further went on to promote the same with the idea to showcase his own work, particularly the famous cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal.
The theatres are specially designed down to the very specifics. Wagner furthermore also oversaw the designing and construction procedures of the theatre. Many innovative techniques and methods were employed while the theatre building was being constructed to materialise the visions of the legendary composer. All the designs were first conceived and written by Wagner, it included a large orchestra and the staging of his works.
This annual festival has quite literally turned into a pilgrimage for the enthusiasts who often end up waiting years to get their hands on the tickets. Each year there are 30 performances along with a special feature of the Bayreuth Festival at the beginning of every performance.
First, there was the idea…
Artists irrespective of their profession have always suffered because of financial matters. This is the very concern because of which Wagner was suffering. Thus to attain financial independence he decided to establish the festival. One of the other matters that tangentially but quite significantly affect Wagner’s decision was his turbulent relationship with Ludwig II of Bavaria, his patron. The situation had reached a point where Wagner was expelled from Munich. Munich was the same location which he had chosen to build his festival. With his expulsion from Munich, Nuremberg was next in line which was also perfect because of it being thematically linked with his works such as Die Meistersinger. However, the course changed, primarily because of the consultation he sought from Hans Richter, and the festival thus came to Bayreuth whose location provided three significant advantages:
- The Venue: The first and the most significant reason was the venue itself. It was point blank splendid. The Markgräfliches Opernhaus dated back to the year 1747 and was built for Margrave Frederick and his wife, Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine who incidentally happened to be the sister of Frederick the Great. The opera house was adequately large enough to provide seating for a large number of guests. Furthermore, its acoustic capacities were regarded by Wagner to be good enough for his operatic performances.
- No Restriction: Secondly, the opera house fell outside the decrees jurisdiction which had prohibited Wagner from performing in or around Munich.
- No Competition: Lastly, Bayreuth by itself had anybody significantly talented enough to compete with the skills of Wagner. This factor is significant because he was thus able to achieve the desired success at a faster pace which otherwise would have had taken him a very long time. Moreover, with the festival in place, it would be the sole attraction and be definitive of Bayreuth’s cultural milieu.
Wagner along with his wife Cosima came to visit Bayreuth for the first time in April 1870. They were quite meticulous in their inspections and they found the opera house was not adequate or suitable enough for their purposes. When this particular opera house was designed in the 18th century it was meant to accommodate the baroque orchestras of the time. Thus, there was hardly any scope for improvisation and nor did it seem proper for the intricacies of the complex stage settings. There also wasn’t much space for the large orchestras which are essential to Wagnerian operas.
Burgermeisters upon hearing Wagner’s concerns, they went on to comply with their demand for a completely new theatre along with the idea of the Festspielhaus Bayreuth. Wagner further went on to meet with Otto von Bismarck, the then German Chancellor hoping to procure funds in 1871 but that meeting turned out to be futile. Thereon he embarked on a journey across Germany to procure funds. He travelled across all the major cultural centres of the country including Frankfurt and Leipzig. Public subscription initially proved to be hopeless. But, that changed soon when he launched many Wagner Societies to improve the number of participants in the Festival. The most important centres of these societies were located in Leipzig, Berlin and Vienna.
All these efforts did not appear to be enough for when the time came he was still short of funds. In a desperate attempt, he went again to Bismarck in August 1873 but nothing had changed. In a fit of reluctant desperation, Wagner in January 1874 went to his first patron, Ludwig II who was hesitant but finally gave in and granted 100,000 Thaler in addition to the construction of the theatre. Gottfried Semper shortly thereafter was appointed for the designing of the theatre. With all the delays, the theatre was scheduled to open in 1876.
The initial impact of the theatre
The Festspielhaus Bayreuth was phenomenal not only by design but further in socio-cultural terms more prominently. It was inaugurated on the 13th of August 1876 and Das Rheingold was first of Wagner’s operas that were showcased on that auspicious day. The first day of this musical occasion was – Kaiser Wilhelm, Dom Pedro II of Brazil, King Ludwig had come in secret, probably he was avoiding Kaiser Wilhelm and other members of the nobility. There was also Friedrich Nietzsche, the philosopher and Wagner’s dear friend who was committed to heart and soul to helping him. Among other notables were Anton Bruckner, Edvard Grieg, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Franz Liszt, and Arthur Foote – all of them were accomplished composers of their time.
The Festival was well received and became an instant success. Its gravitas can be understood by the statement when Tchaikovsky famously said, “something has taken place at Bayreuth which our grandchildren and their children will still remember”. With all these successes in the due course, a graving realisation dawned upon Wagner that financially the theatre was still unable to generate enough. It wasn’t until several years had passed that they reached a breakeven point. Wagner had to forego launching the Festival the following year. Instead, he went to London wherein he arranged for a series of concerts, attempting to compensate the deficit. The Festival came through some tough times, it could survive because of the unhindered support received by prominent followers of Wagner such as King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
Festspielhaus Bayreuth since its inception has been a major attraction particularly for the most well-known conductors and singers from all over the world. Some of them have also performed without any pay just for the sheer honour of being here.
When Wagner died, his wife Cosima continued with the Festival which was usually conducted at an interval of every two years. She then went on and completed the Bayreuth canon which was a part of Wagner’s last ten completed operas. Cosima retired in the year 1906 and was succeeded by her son, Siegfried Wagner. Along with being the artistic director of the Bayreuth Festival from 1908 and 1930, he was also quite a skilled opera composer himself. With his early death in the year 1930, the management of the festival went into the hands of his wife – Winifred Wagner and Heinz Tietjen as artistic director.
The milieu of Nazi Germany
It is said that Winifred Wagner was a supporter of the Nazi ideology along with being a close friend of Adolf Hitler. However, none of their correspondences have yet been released by the Wagner family. Furthermore, there were many supporters and members of the Nazi chief ideologue Alfred Rosenberg’s – Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur or the Militant League for German Culture. It was a society which comprised of and propagated nationalistic and anti-Semitic ideologies beginning from the time of the Weimer Republic going right through and gaining much support during the Nazi era.
Under the influence of the Nazi party modernist music was largely suppressed; however, the Festival did manage to retain some of its artistic independence. Hitler used to frequent the theatre quite often and incidentally also attended those operas which included Jewish performers. During this time the theatre broke away from the tradition and the 19th-century sets which were designed by Richard Wagner. This incident was met with protest from important conductors such as Richard Strauss and Toscanini along with some members of the Wagner family.
The Memorial
Winifred Wagner, during the 1970’s received a large number of appeals concerning with the installation of a memorial in favour of the Jewish performers who were associated with many performances and were murdered in the concentration camps. It was only after her death that a plaque was installed which was set in the memory of Ottilie Metzger-Lattermann and Henriette Gottlieb.
The Festival and the changing world
Bayreuth was almost entirely brought down to rubbles because of the Allied bombings during the Second World War. Miraculously, however, the theatre survived. When the war ended a commission was set up which sentenced Winifred Wagner to probation because of her relentless support of the Nazi party. She was also barred from administering the Bayreuth Festival and the associated assets which eventually went to her two sons Wolfgang and Wieland.
The New Bayreuth was created under the guidance of Wieland Wagner and thus the festival entered into the new era. Elaborate, naturalistic sets were forgone and minimalist modern productions took their place. When the production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg ended in 1956 it was for the first time in the theatres history that the audience ridiculed the performance. Conservatives viewed it as damaging to the sacred German tradition.
Wieland went on to defend the changes that were made and thereon attempted to create an invisible stage which would further the intensity of the psychological experiences. The atmosphere did become stable but due to the sudden death of Wieland in 1966 the future of the Bayreuth Festival again came into question. It went on to conduct performances in Paris and Barcelona but the situation was going downhill. In 1973 the Festival and its assets were transferred to the Richard Wagner Foundation. This foundation was administered by the Wagner family and Wolfgang was its chief.
With the end of the 2008 Festival, Wolfgang retired leaving the charge to his daughters Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Katharina Wagner. Katharina Wagner also became the cultural minister of Bavaria and in her place Thomas Goppel took charge of the Festival.
Following is a list of the directors of the Festival since its conception:
- Richard Wagner (1876-1883)
- Cosima Liszt Wagner (1883-1908)
- Siegfried Wagner (1908-1930)
- Winifred Williams Wagner (1930-1945)
- Wieland Wagner and Wolfgang Wagner (1951- 1966)
- Wolfgang Wagner (1967-2008)
- Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Katharina Wagner (2008 – 2015)
- Katharina Wagner (2015 – today)
Tickets:
You can get the tickets for the Bayreuth Festival both via post or online mediums. However, it is important to note the schedule of the advance booking sessions. For instance, the Festival set to be conducted in 2016, its ticketing process had commenced on the 14th September 2015. This means that you would have had to place your order by the 14th September at the latest.
In case you are using the post you will be required to download or procure the forms from the ticketing office and then send the filled form back by the 14th September 2015.
The address is as follows:
Bayreuther Festspiele
Ticket office
Postbox: 10 02 62
D – 95402 Bayreuth, Germany
Monday to Thursday: 10 am – 12 noon and 14:00 – 16:00
Fridays: 10am – 12 noon
Phone: +49 921 / 7878 – 780
Email: ticket@bayreuther-festspiele.de
Payment systems
In case the order has been processed through the post then the fee is 6 euros. However, in the case of an online order, this particular fee is waived off.
Every invoiced ticket will cost you: 2 euros.
It is important to note that the payments are accepted only in Euros through bank transfer or credit cards.
Following is a list of the programs that are scheduled to be showcased in 2016:
- Monday: 25. July, 16:00, Parsifal
- Tuesday: 26. July, 18:00, Das Rheingold
- Wednesday: 27. July, 16:00, Die Walküre
- Friday: 29. July, 16:00, Siegfried
- Saturday: 30. July, 18:00, Der fliegende Holländer
- Sunday: 31. July, 16:00, Götterdämmerung
- Monday: 01. August, 16:00, Tristan und Isolde
- Tuesday: 02. August, 16:00, Parsifal
- Wednesday: 03. August, 18:00, Der fliegende Holländer
- Friday: 05. August, 16:00, Tristan und Isolde
- Saturday: 06. August, 16:00, Parsifal
- Sunday: 07. August, 18:00, Das Rheingold
- Monday: 08. August, 16:00, Die Walküre
- Tuesday: 09. August, 16:00, Tristan und Isolde
- Wednesday: 10. August, 16:00, Siegfried
- Friday: 12. August, 16:00, Götterdämmerung
- Saturday: 13. August, 16:00, Tristan und Isolde
- Sunday: 14. August, 18:00, Der fliegende Holländer
- Monday: 15. August, 16:00, Parsifal
- Tuesday: 16. August, 16:00, Götterdämmerung
- Wednesday: 17. August, 16:00, Tristan und Isolde
- Thursday: 18. August, 18:00, Der fliegende Holländer
- Saturday: 20. August, 18:00, Das Rheingold
- Sunday: 21. August, 16:00, Die Walküre
- Monday: 22. August, 16:00, Tristan und Isolde
- Tuesday: 23. August, 16:00, Siegfried
- Wednesday: 24. August, 16:00, Parsifal
- Thursday: 25. August, 16:00, Götterdämmerung
- Friday: 26. August, 18:00, Der fliegende Holländer
- Sunday: 28. August, 16:00, Parsifal