that Wagner festival in Bayreuth

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would this be an enjoyable thing to go to, do you reckon? I mean, if you're going to get into opera you might as well go for a bit of spectacle with it.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 19:26 (twenty-two years ago)

C'mon, ILMers, own up. Who of you've been to the Wagner fest?

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 20:08 (twenty-two years ago)

(i haven't)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 20:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm a Wagnerite and would love to go to Bayreuth, but I think the waiting list for tickets is about 900 years. (ie approximately the same length as the Ring cycle itself.)

― Angus Gordon (angusg), Thursday, 9 October 2003 05:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll give it a miss then.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 9 October 2003 09:09 (twenty-two years ago)

me and some friends stopped off at bayreuth on a holiday some years ago. when we asked the womyn at the tourist info place if we cd get tix0r3ts for "the flying dutchman" which was actually playing at that time, she, and several other staff members actually laughed out loud at us. book well in advance, and avoid being humiliated like we were!!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 9 October 2003 09:31 (twenty-two years ago)

what goes on at the wagner festival ? IS there a political element to it ?

― kevin brady (groeuvre), Saturday, 11 October 2003 08:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, lots of people think Wagner's music is itself political, so perhaps yes. It's certainly often become embroiled in politics. There are no Nuremberg-style rallies though, as far as I'm aware! The main purpose of the festival, though, is simply to perform Wagner's works in a venue that was purpose-built for them (the Bayreuth Festspielhaus). This is good because Wagner calls for huge orchestral forces that many opera houses simply can't accommodate. Also it provides an opportunity for Wagnerites from all over the world to get together, which may not be such a good thing.

― Angus Gordon (angusg), Saturday, 11 October 2003 12:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmm. Thanks Angus. I actually live about 150 Km from bayreuth and every year there seems to be some sort of behind the scenes controversy.
I'll ask around and see if theres anything to it.

― kevin brady (groeuvre), Saturday, 11 October 2003 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

Off the plane, on the train and we're on our way to see the Bayreuth Festival! 98 orchestral interludes on Robin's mp3 phone later and we're there! Turns out the whole world actually shows up! No karten for us (that's German for tickets!) Luckily Robin downloads the Entry of the Gods into Valhalla and we score some new friends. Somewhere between the cobblestones, some old church, according to Eddie a Rhinemaiden (Eddie's always seeing Rhinemaidens!), and a rilly cool ooom-pah-pah band that was into Wagner, we realize that the best place on earth is wherever your friends are!!!

― Chinchilla Volapük (Captain Sleep), Monday, 10 July 2006 07:09 (nineteen years ago)

wait-- you went to bayreuth before buying tickets?

― ferzaffe (flezaffe), Monday, 10 July 2006 09:21 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

the French store FNAC is offering a re-issue of Grands Opéras au festival de Bayreuth, a collection of live recordings from bayreuth, for a sickening price: 56 euros for 33 discs. i haven't been able to see exactly what's on it yet (i think i have most of it anyway), but it definitely has the Bohm Tristan and Ring Cycle, plus a Tannhauser and Lohengrin by Sawallisch.

anyway, sweet deal. it's been a great budget year for classical headz what with that stravinsky box and all.

― poortheatre, Thursday, 26 June 2008 16:16 (seventeen years ago)

oh man, forget that. Amazon has it for $62!

― poortheatre, Thursday, 26 June 2008 16:46 (seventeen years ago)

so yeah, course i haven't been, but i imagine there is a political element to it - ie to show that's it's everything that the festival in the nazi period wasn't, self-aware, universal, an emblem of a liberal, guilty germany. at leastm, there have definitely been a number of stagings reflecting this in the past, satirizng or emphasing nazism, ant-semitism etc.

― Frogman Henry, Thursday, 26 June 2008 17:26 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/93751492-3bcd-11dc-8002-0000779fd2ac.html

― Chelvis, Thursday, 26 June 2008 17:43 (seventeen years ago)

seventeen years pass...

How is Parsifal’s running time less than “comedy” Meistersinger?

― This dark glowing bohemian coffeehouse (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 8 November 2025 22:04 (one month ago)

hahaha God Meistersinger is sooooo long

― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, 8 November 2025 22:23 (one month ago)

And that’s still true if you truncate the endless “grandpa ruined Thanksgiving” rant about Holy German Art like most modern performances do.

― This dark glowing bohemian coffeehouse (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 8 November 2025 23:26 (one month ago)

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that Wagner festival in Bayreuth - classic or dud