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The annual Bayreuth Festival in Bayreuth, Germany is devoted principally (but not exclusively) to performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner. Wagner himself conceived of and promoted the idea of a special festival to showcase his own works, in particular his monumental cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal.

Performances take place in a specially designed theatre, the Festspielhaus. Wagner personally supervised the design and construction of the theatre, which contained many architectural innovations to accommodate the huge orchestras for which Wagner wrote as well as the composer's particular vision about the staging of his works. (For more information on the design and construction of the opera house, see the article Bayreuth Festspielhaus.)

The Festival has become a pilgrimage destination for Wagner enthusiasts, who often must wait years to obtain tickets.

Origins of the Festival

The origins of the Festival itself lie rooted in Richard Wagner's interest in establishing his financial independence. A souring of the relationship with his patron, Ludwig II of Bavaria, led to his expulsion from Munich, where he had originally intended to launch the festival. Wagner next considered Nuremberg, which would have reinforced the thematic significance of works such Die Meistersinger. On the advice of Hans Richter, however, the focus fell upon Bayreuth which enjoyed three distinct advantages.

First, the town boasted a splendid venue: the Opera House built for Margrave Frederick and his wife, Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine (sister of Frederick the Great) in 1747. With its ample capacity and strong acoustics, the Opera House was a good match for Wagner's vision. Second, the town of Bayreuth found itself outside of regions where Wagner no longer owned the rights to the performance of his own works, which he had sold off in 1864 in order to alleviate pressing financial concerns. Finally, the town had no cultural life that could offer competition to Wagner's own artistic dominance. The Festival, once launched, would be the dominant feature of Bayreuth's cultural landscape.

In April of 1870, Wagner and his wife Cosima visited Bayreuth. On inspection, the Opera House proved to be inadequate. It was built to accommodate the baroque orchestras of the 18th century and was therefore unsuited for the complex stagings and large orchestras that Wagner's operas required. Nonetheless, the Burgermeisters proved open to assisting Wagner with the construction of an entirely new theatre and the Festival was planned to launch in 1873. After a fruitless meeting in the spring of 1871 with the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to obtain funds, Wagner embarked on a fundraising tour across Germany, including Leipzig and Frankfurt.

An initial public subscription proved disappointing, however. As part of the effort to secure further financing for the Festival and the building of a new theatre, Wagner, on the suggestion of his friend and admirer Emil Heckel, launched a number of Wagner Societies to increase participation in the Festival's subscription. Societies were established, among other places, in Leipzig, Berlin and Vienna.

Despite making direct appeals based on Wagner's role as a composer of the new German Reich, the Societies and other fundraising channels were well-short of the required investment by the end of 1872. As a result Wagner made another direct appeal to Bismarck in August 1873, again to be denied.

Desperate, Wagner turned to his former patron, Ludwig II who, despite his misgivings, agreed to lend financial support. In January 1874, Ludwig granted 100,000 Thaler and construction on the theatre, designed by architect Gottfried Semper, started shortly thereafter. A planned 1875 debut was postponed for a year due to construction and other delays.

Early History of the Festival

Since its opening in 1876, the Bayreuth Festival has been a socio-cultural phenomenon. Present at this unique musical event was an illustrious list of guests: Kaiser Wilhelm, Dom Pedro II of Brazil, King Ludwig (who attended in secret, probably to avoid the Kaiser), and other members of the nobility; and such accomplished composers as Anton Bruckner, Edvard Grieg, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and Franz Liszt.

Artistically, the festival was an outstanding success. ("Something has taken place at Bayreuth which our grandchildren and their children will still remember," wrote Tchaikovsky, attending the Festival as a Russian correspondent.) Financially, however, the festival was a disaster and did not begin to make money until several years later. Wagner abandoned his original plan to hold a second festival the following year, and travelled to London to conduct a series of concerts in an attempt to make up the deficit. Although the festival was plagued by financial problems in its early years, it survived through state intervention and the continued support of influential Wagnerians, including King Ludwig II of Bavaria.

From its inception, the festival has attracted the world’s most talented conductors and singers, many of whom performed without pay. Among these was Hans Richter, who conducted the premiere of the Ring Cycle in 1876 with the assistance of young Engelbert Humperdinck. Another was the talented conductor Hermann Levi, who was personally chosen by Richard Wagner to conduct the debut of Parsifal in 1882. Levi, who was the son of a Jewish rabbi, became the festival’s principal conductor for the next two decades. Felix Mottl, who was involved with the festival from 1876 to 1901, conducted Tristan und Isolde there in 1886.

Up until the 1920s, Bayreuth performances were carried out in strictest accordance with the traditions established under King Ludwig's patronage. Not a note was "cut" from any of the enormous scores; no concessions were made to the limits of human patience on the part of the audiences. Richard Wagner used to insist on live beasts on the stage for his various animal parts, and Cosima Wagner continued to insist the same. Consequently Bayreuth pilgrims saw Fricka's flock of real goats, Wotan's ravens, and Siegfried's bear and toad. The Rhine maidens were swung, as Wagner directed, by wires attached to the stage-ceiling through the blue-green gauze "waters" of the river. The huge choruses, particularly, showed the results of thorough Teutonic drill.

Bayreuth and the Third Reich

In the 1920s, well before the rise of the Nazi party, Winifred Wagner (who headed the festival after the death of her husband Siegfried in 1930) became a strong supporter and close personal friend of Adolf Hitler. Because of this support, Bayreuth was able to maintain its artistic independence under the Third Reich, when other opera houses were turned into propaganda tools. Ironically, Hitler attended performances that included Jewish and foreign singers, long after they had been banned from all other venues across Germany. Winifred's influence with Hitler was so strong that Hitler even wrote a letter (at her behest) to the anti-fascist Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini, begging him to lead the festival. Toscanini refused. From 1933 to 1942, the festival was conducted principally by Karl Elmendorff.

It was under the Third Reich that the festival made its first break from tradition, abandoning the deteriorating 19th century sets created by Richard Wagner. Many protested the changes, including prominent conductors such as Toscanini and Richard Strauss, and even some members of the Wagner family. In their view, any change to the festival was a profanation against "the Master" (Wagner). Nevertheless, Hitler approved of the changes, thus paving the way for more innovations in the decades to come.

During the war, the festival was turned over to the Nazi party, which continued to sponsor operas for wounded soldiers returning from the front. These soldiers were forced to attend lectures on Wagner before the performances, and most found the festival to be tedious. However, as "guests of the führer," none complained. Still, it was painfully clear that they would have preferred to have spent the time with their families.

The New Bayreuth

Two thirds of the town of Bayreuth was destroyed by allied bombing in the final days of World War II, though the theatre itself was undamaged. Following the war, Winifred Wagner was sentenced to probation by a war court for her support of the Nazi party. The court also banned her from administration of the Bayreuth Festival and its assets, which fell to her two sons, Wolfgang and Wieland. The festival reopened in 1951 after a period of use as a theatre for American soldiers.

Under the direction of Wieland Wagner, the "New Bayreuth" ushered in an era that was no less than revolutionary. Gone were the elaborate naturalistic sets, replaced with minimalist post-modern productions. In comparison, the pre-war changes seemed tame. For the first time in its history, the Bayreuth audience booed at the end of productions. Wieland was particularly derided for his 1956 production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Stripped of its pagentry, conservatives viewed the breaking of this "sacred German tradition" as an outrage.

Wieland defended the changes as an attempt to create an "invisible stage" that would allow the audience to experience the full psychosocial aspects of the drama without the baggage and distraction of elaborate set designs. Others have speculated that by stripping Wagner's works of their Germanic and historic elements, Wieland was attempting to distance Bayreuth from its nationalistic past and create productions with universal appeal. Over time, many critics came to appreciate the unique beauty of Wieland's reinterpretation of his grandfather's works.

Wieland’s innovative productions invited comparison to Wolfgang’s, which critics unanimously found to be uninspired. If Wieland’s productions were radical, Wolfgang’s were regressive. Although still minimalist in approach, Wolfgang resurrected much of the naturalistic and romantic elements of pre-war productions. Thus, when Wieland died prematurely from lung cancer in 1966, many wondered if Bayreuth had a future. They began to question Bayreuth’s primacy among German opera houses, and some suggested that more interesting productions were being staged elsewhere.

In 1973, faced with overwhelming criticism and family infighting, the Bayreuth Festival and its assets were transferred to a newly created Richard Wagner Foundation. The board of directors included members of the Wagner family and others appointed by the state. As chairman, Wolfgang Wagner remained in charge of administration of the festival, his skill for which had never been in question.

The Wagner Werkstatt

While Wolfgang Wagner continued to administer the festival, beginning in the 1970s, production was handled by a number of new directors in what Wolfgang called Werkstatt Bayreuth (Bayreuth Workshop). The idea was to turn the festival into an opportunity for directors to experiment with new methods for presenting the operas. The change came out of necessity, as it was impossible for Wolfgang to both administer and direct the festival. It also provided an opportunity for Bayreuth to renew itself with each production, rather than continue to present the same operas in the same way, year after year. Ingmar Bergman, who famously produced a Swedish version of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, turned down an invitation to direct the festival.

The most sensational production in Werkstatt Bayreuth was the Centennial Ring Cycle under the direction of French director Patrice Chereau. Chereau used an updated 19th century setting that followed the interpretation of George Bernard Shaw who saw the Ring as a social commentary on the exploitation of the working class by wealthy 19th century capitalists. The audience reaction was split between those who saw the production as an offence and those who considered it the best Ring Cycle ever produced. The ensuing conflict between supporters and detractors was unprecedented in the history of the festival. The acting, however, was without dispute some of the best seen in the world of opera.

Other notable directors to have participated in Werkstatt Bayreuth included Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Sir Peter Hall of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Goetz Friedrich and Harry Kupfer, both from Berlin State Opera in the former communist East Germany. In the end, Wolfgang’s decision to bring in experimental directors helped rejuvenate Bayreuth and restore its reputation as the world leader in Wagnerian opera.

Bayreuth in the 21st Century

The festival continues to be administered by Wolfgang Wagner, who refuses to step down, even though the festival's 21 member board of directors voted in 2001 for his daughter, Eva Wagner-Pasquier, to succeed him. Wagner plans eventually to hand control over to his second wife, Gudrun, and their daughter Katharina.

Despite the behind-the-scenes feud for control, the festival draws thousands of Wagner fans to Bayreuth every summer. It is very difficult to get tickets, because demand (estimated at 500,000) greatly exceeds supply (58,000 tickets); the waiting time is between five and ten years. Although tickets are allocated by lottery, preference is given to members of the Society of Friends of Bayreuth (financial donors), famous patrons, and Wagner enthusiasts.

A new production of the Ring is presented every five to seven years, following a year in which no Ring is presented. In years in which there is a Ring, three other operas are presented. When no Ring is presented, five other operas are presented. The next production of the Ring will premiere in 2006.

Discography

DVD

Laserdisc

  • Tristan und Isolde (1983) Conductor: Daniel Barenboim, Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele, Staged and Directed by: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Soloists: René Kollo, Johanna Meier, Matti Salminen, Hermann Becht, Hanna Schwarz, Unitel, Laserdisc Philips 070-509-1

VHS

  • Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1984) Conductor: Horst Stein, Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele, Staged by: Wolfgang Wagner Video Director: Brian Large, Soloists: Bernd Weikl, Siegfried Jerusalem, Hermann Prey, Mari Anne Häggander, Graham Clark, Unitel

CD

Historical productions
  • 100 Jahre Bayreuth auf Schallplatte: The Early Festival Singers, 1887-1906, Gebhardt Records
This 12 CD set put together all of the surviving recordings done by the Gramophone and Typewriter Company in 1904 at Bayreuth and includes some of the original artists from the 1876 debut. Listen
  • First Bayreuth Recordings Vol. 1: Tristan und Isolde (1928) Conductor: Karl Elmendorff, Soloists: Anny Helm, Gustav Rodin, Label: Grammofono 2000
  • Götterdämmerung - Live 1942 (1942) Conductor: Karl Elmendorff Soloists: Camilla Kallab, Egmont Koch, Label: Music & Arts Program
Original radio broadcast from Deutsches Rundfunk. This is what German soldiers would have heard as "Guests of the Führer."

Modern productions

References

External links

Opera festivals | German culture

Richard-Wagner-Festspiele | Festival de Bayreuth | Festival di Bayreuth | פסטיבל ביירוית | バイロイト音楽祭 | Festival de Bayreuth | Bayreuthfestspelen

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Bayreuth Festival".

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