Wagner Festival, Bayreuth
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It was Wagner’s idea to hold a festival celebrating his own work, the most event-deserving he thought to be Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle) and Parsifal, but his other works are also performed, most popularly Die Walküre and Tristan und Isolde. And popular the festival is, with most opera buffs having to wait between five and ten years to lay their hands on a precious ticket, demand exceeding 500,000 and supply standing around around 58,000. Tickets are given out by a sort of lottery and it can be the luck of the draw whether you get to attend a Ring cycle year (a new version is premiered ever five years or so) where three other operas are also performed or a non-Ring year when five operas are presented. To facilitate and house his showcase, Wagner designed a theatre, the Festspielhaus, which could hold an orchestra large enough to perform his operas as he had intended them and the great sets and theatrical effects he imagined - now a place of Wagnerian pilgrimage. Ever concerned with his ego, Wagner chose Bayreuth as the perfect spot for the festival because before the booming arrival of himself and his showcase in 1876, he found it “culturally wanting“. His works were performed just as he wanted them until the 1920’s, not a thought spared for the stamina and endurance of the performers involved or for the ears and buttocks of the audience. The Festspielhaus survived the war through its close association with Hitler and pure luck that the allied bombs missed it, but during this period some of the sets and scores began to be tempered from the original, so now each individual director and designer sets the tone. The festival has been kept a family business, so is still introduced by a Wagner. Wagner Festival Website (in German)
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Review by editor ‘Get on Down with the Locals: A Festival Guide’Whether a music festival, jazz festival, food festival, religious festival, film festival, renaissance festival or a festival of light, festivals are a great way to party with the locals - read on for advice to heed when on the festival circuit. (Travel article) Read more » ‘Bayreuth Festival’Dedicated entirely to the performance and celebration of the works of Richard Wagner, this festival ... Read more »
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