Bayreuth Festival 2009: Most of the tickets have been distributed by now...

The majority of tickets have now been distributed for the 2009 Bayreuth Festival. So for those applicants who not having received ticket offers yet, chances are they will receive a polite refusal letter in January.

And remember: Contrary to official bulletins, it does pay off to phone the Festival box office and complain as both seats, numbers of tickets and obtaining tickets at all have been known to be influenced by personal callers. To a certain extent, obviously..

Bayreuth Festival audiences

I do not necessarily question the common knowledge that one has to wait 8-10 years to obtain a ticket for the Bayreuth Festival (with the usual exceptions, obviously). However, during my visits here over the past two years, where I have spoken to at least 50 people, I have yet to meet one, that actually did put in this extended waiting time to get a ticket, save one French woman last year and a couple of rather unreliable black-market ticket sellers.

All the people I talked to got company tickets, press tickets or got the tickets through a ballot of their local Richard Wagner society. I did encounter several people at the ticket office intending to apply for tickets later this year, though.

Now, this is by no means a scientifically valid survey as the demographic segments of the audience I spoke to are not representative of the mean Bayreuth-goer (younger and better looking, obviously....), however it offers an indication as to why the waiting time for ordinary tickets is so long: Simply because there may be relatively few tickets available for general audiences. To be fair, I do not know the exact percentage of tickets available for those applying by mail, but beforehand I imagined it to be close to 100%. Now I imagine it to be closer to 50%.

Which is not an intended criticism of the Festival management, since sponsor and press tickets are an inevitable part of running a business.

All photographs at performances of Tristan and Parsifal on August 14th and 16th 2008.

Around Bayreuth: Nürnberg

Located exactly 82 km south of Bayreuth on the E53 highway, Nürnberg is the major city closest to Bayreuth and a convenient place to stay when visiting the Bayreuth Festival, if staying out of town for one reason or another (read: The inavailability of rooms in Bayreuth unless having booked in advance). However, as the last train from Bayreuth leaves shortly after 10 pm, a car is mandatory unless only attending Rheingold..
Personally, I´d rather miss the Weissbier and make the drive than stay in the town of Bayreuth for an entire week, however most Bayreuth-goers will likely be of another opinion..

Another alternative out of city accomodation is Bamberg, as described last year. Even for those staying in Bayreuth, Nürnberg is an obvious excursion target and the walled medieval city is truly splendid and amazingly accurately depicted in Otto Schwenk´s Metropolitan Opera Meistersinger production.

In fact, the entire medieval cit of Nürnberg was bombed to pieces after WW2 and what stands today was subsequently painstaikingly restaured including the astonishing castle looming over the northern part of the city. On a quiet Sunday morning you´d perfectly well imagine Hans Sachs strolling down the streets to the river Pegnitz, dividing the two sections of the medival town. Apart from being the home-town of Meistersinger as well as Dürer, Nürnberg also was in the rather unfortunate position to be Hitler´s preferred assembly place for the infamous Nazi party rallies in the 1930´s. After the WW2, the Nürnberg Trials firmly placed the city on the world map and the courtrooms may be visited today.

On a more down-to-earth level, I found the most excellent bread in Germany in one of the small bakeries within the walled city.

Around the Bayreuth Festival House

A new 2008 feature: A special VIP area with drinks etc.:

All photographs taken during intermissions of Tristan and Parsifal on August 14th and 16th 2008.

Inside the Bayreuth Festival House

The Mittelloge, Richard Wagner´s (and apparently Hitler´s) preferred seats:

Looking down at the covered pit:

The infamous hard seats:



All photographs on August 16th and 18th 2008 at performances of Tristan and Parsifal.

Bayreuth 2008: Villa Wahnfried revisited

Not much new at Villa Wahnfried compared to my post of last year. The impression of a dusty mausoleum remains, however the main reason for continuing to visit (at least for me) is the collection of staged photographs from the Bayreuth Festival dating back to 1876.

Unfortunately the photographs and the general review of the history of the Bayreuth Festival stops around 1980 and I would much rather see this part of the exhibitioin updated than the numerous paitings present on the ground floor.

Apparently several exhibitions concerning Richard Wagner and Nazism has been shown here previously. However inscriptions like “Despite Winifried Wagner´s personal friendship with Hitler, she still managed to secure the independency of the Bayreuth Festival in an admirable fashion” (my approximate translation) are disgraceful, though technically not entirely untrue.

And I will join the Frankfurter Allgemeiner in pointing out that it is about time that the Wagner family lives up to it´s past and finally gains access to the remaining archives. As one of the most prestigious families in Germany they have extended responsibilities in that regard. I do not care what the truth is. Nobody is perfect and who are we to judge actions in a past context we may scarcely imagine? But it should be out in the open for everyone to examine.