Photos & video courtesy of John Callister
Fanfare:
Our unostentatious means of arrival…
It proved rather difficult to escape images of you-know-who…
or of his second wife and her father…
Cosima and Richard lived in Bayreuth in the villa you see at the top of this page, which the composer named Wahnfried. An early example of social housing (it was paid for by Ludwig II of Bavaria), it has a granny-villa to the side for aging, composer / virtuoso pianist, father-in-laws.
The opera house itself, while not the loveliest of buildings…
…is justly famous for its almost perfect acoustic, though not, it must be said, for catering for the comfort of its audience…
…whose fundaments are somewhat challenged by the seating, and who can easily get the impression that they’re inside a sardine tin.
Then there’s the productions – modern updates of the dramas that would frequently have Wagner spinning in his grave. Take this, the final scene of Mastersingers, for example (note [as if you could miss it!] the large, upside-down, inflatable cow):
…though I must confess to thoroughly enjoying this fairground/ holiday interpretation of the work.
But what people really come for is the extremely high standard of performance and, of course, the music itself which, despite Rossini’s mauvais quart d’heure, often rises to magnificence:
A section of the prelude to Act I of Lohengrin. The prelude depicts the Holy Grail descending to Earth:
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The Art of Listening 