Wagner and Bayreuth

Bayreuth is a quiet little city in Franconia/bavaria. It has a small but beautiful 18th century opera house, which was what first attracted Wagner here in the 1860s. He was looking for somewhere to stage his Ring cycle of operas. The mayor and town council were impressed with Wagner, and offered him a site on a hill at the northern edge of the town, where he could build both his opera house and a home for himself. Since Bayreuth was within the teritories of Wagner's patron, King Ludwig, he accepted. King Ludwig and the Bayreuth authoriteies paid for the building.

Wagner specified that the opera house would be called the Festspielhaus or Festival House. A vital part of his vision was that it would only be used for the presentation of his operas in a yearly festival.

The Building

The building (capacity 1,925)is more like a concert hall than a traditional opera house. It is built of brick and wood. The auditorium is shaped like a wedge, the rows increasingly wide towards the back of the hall, and with a steep rake that ensures excellent sight-lines from all the seats. There are no galleries or boxes. There are no aisles, so that access is through a series of side doors. The pit for the orchestra is covered with a unique xxxx which directs the orchestral sound towards the singers, before it is reflected back to the hall, and ensures a natural mixing of the sound before it reaches the audience. This feature and the wooden interior give the Festspielhaus superlative acoustics.

The whole building is made inside of natural, unvarnished wood, with very little ornament. Some cynics feel that the foyer resembles the inside of a sauna. There is a separate building with a restaurant, which Wagner wanted to keep away from his actual auditorium.

The Early days of the Festival

In 1876, with money from King Ludwig, Wagner was able to present his entire Ring cycle (of four operas) three times. This lost so much money that it was only six years later that he could stage another festval. This 1882 festival featured sixteen performances of Parsival on opera which he wrote for this house and never wanted to be performed anywhere else. He died in 1883.

Cosima and Siegfried Wagner

His widow Cosima took over the running of the festival, and was Director form 1883 to 1908. She relentlessly followed Wagner's own style of staging and production, and insisted on various traditions, such as finishing Parsifal with a religious silence rather than applause. Her pronouncement of what 'the master said..' was her clinching argument in any discussion. She objected bitterly to the first public performance of Parsifal outside Bayreuth, by the Met in 1903.

In 1908, Siegfried Wagner (son of Richard and Cosima) took over as director. He continued the museum-like tradition of presenting everything as in the original production.

Winifred Wagner and the dark days of the Nazis

Siegfried's English widow, Winifred, took over as director in 1931. She was an enthusiastic supporter of Hitler and the Nazi party, who regarded Wagner's operas as suitable propoganda for their racial superiority. The Wagner's family home, Wahnfried, became a favourite of the Nazi leaders. Winifred's last festival was in 1944, after which the opera house was closed.

Wieland Wagner and the post-war regeneration

In 1951, Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner (the two sons of Winifred and Siegfried), took over the Festival. They began a revolution in operatic staging, dropping the traditional approach for simplified costumes and productions, which depended greatly on lighting effects. This approach cut away many of the Nazi associations and concetrated attention on more universal themes. Wolfgang continued this new approach after Wieland's death in 1966 and is till in hcarge in 2001.

The Festspielhaus and the Festival today

The Festspielhaus has been presenting various combinations of the same 10 operas for over a hundred years, but anyone who tries to buy tickets will realise that its appeal is probably as strong as ever. It is still under the control of the Wagner family, with much in-fighting and public argument as to which of the next generation is best fitted to continue the Wagner tradition.