Download Bayreuth Richard Wagner Opera Festival

HAVE GERMAN WILL TRAVEL
FESTSPIEL
"Bei uns ist immer was los!"
Bayreuther Festspiele / Bayreuth Richard Wagner Opera Festival
(annual month-long summer music festival held in Bavarian town of Bayreuth from end of
July to end of August)
The Bayreuth Festival (German:
Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival
held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at
which performances of operas by the 19th
century German composer Richard Wagner
are presented. Wagner himself conceived
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 Bayreuth 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. The Festival has become a
pilgrimage destination for Wagner
enthusiasts, who often must wait years to
obtain tickets... -----
Bayreuth: Bayreuth is a festival that rewards patience. People who began applying back in 1998
may finally obtain seats at this year's Bayreuth Festival devoted exclusively to operas by Richard
Wagner (July 25 to August 28).
In evening dress, they will reverently take their seats for the first time in the 19th-century festival
theatre, and after such a wait, who would dare complain at the lack of air-conditioning?
Tickets
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 (or more). The process entails submitting an order form every summer,
applicants are usually successful after about ten years. Failure to make an application every year results
in being placed at the back of the queue. Although some tickets are allocated by lottery, preference is
given to members of the Society of Friends of Bayreuth (financial donors), famous patrons, and to
regional and international Wagner societies, which are distributed to their own members through lottery
or the willingness to pay a high contribution.
However, in the 2013 season only one opera production, for which tickets were available exclusively
online and where donors or those on the waiting list had no prior eligibility, sold out within seconds.
The Festival authorities also assiduously police the illegal traffic of tickets, and monitor sites such as
eBay. If the authorities suspect that a ticket has been resold without their consent they are likely to
demand identification from the ticket holder on presentation and may refuse entry to those who cannot
prove to have purchased their tickets legitimately. In practice, this is uncommon.
In 2011 it was revealed that German B undesrechnungshof criticises that only 40 percent of the tickets
are sold on a regular basis.
Der Ring des Nibelungen
A new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen is presented every five to seven years, following a year in
which no Ring is presented. In years in which the Ring is staged, three other operas are presented as
well. When no Ring is staged. five other operas are presented. The newest production of the Ring (by
Tankred Dorst) premiered in 2006.