THE FESTIVAL HOUSE AT BAYREUTH
Monograph Number Two in The Mentor Reading Course
It was in 1870 that Wagner’s dream of a theater of his own gave promise of full realization. In 1864 King Ludwig of Bavaria, at the age of nineteen, gave Wagner his patronage, and backed him financially. By this means, in the years 1865-1870 Tristan, Meistersinger, Rheingold, and Walküre were performed in Munich. The King wanted the festival house there, but the court and the populace regarded this plan with jealous resentment. Moreover, Wagner preferred a more remote place better suited to fostering a new art undertaking. So the little town of Bayreuth was chosen. Wagner obtained from the municipality a free grant of land for a festival-theater and his own house. The architect Gottfried Semper was commissioned to prepare definite plans. Everything was settled but the money, and the estimated cost was 1,125,000 francs. Wagnerian societies were formed all over Europe, and in the United States, and the interest of financial men in Germany was secured. The foundation stone of the Festival-Theater was laid with great ceremony by Wagner himself on May 22, 1872, the 59th anniversary of his birth. The work of construction proceeded rapidly, although the subscriptions were short of the total sum required. Ludwig made up the amount lacking.
Thus, after forty years of struggle, Wagner saw his colossal project realized in 1876, when the Festival-Theater was opened for the production of the Ring of the Nibelung. Three representations of the Ring took place during the summer of that year. Then for six years it was impossible to open the theater for want of money. In 1882 Parsifal was produced there, and since then festival performances have taken place there about every two years. Wagner, however, died in 1883, so he saw only two of his own great music festivals.
The theater was a model in its way—which means in Wagner’s way. It was planned entirely with the thought of the performance and not at all for the display of the audience. It contains 1344 seats, arranged in a fan-shaped amphitheater. There are thirty rows of seats, and at the very back of the hall there are nine boxes, reserved for royalty and for Wagner’s invited guests. Above the boxes there is a large gallery containing 200 seats. The orchestra is sunk, and invisible. Musicians descend on steps a long way under the stage into a kind of cave, which has received the name in Bayreuth of “the mystic abyss.” The space reserved for the stage is even larger than the hall. The curtain divides the building almost into two equal parts. There is no foyer for the public. The audience steps out readily from any of the rows in the auditorium directly into the outer air, and can find refuge and refreshment in one of the many cafe restaurants in the vicinity. On the same floor with the royal boxes an annex was built in 1882, which affords entertainment rooms for privileged guests.
The spirit that permeates the Festival-Theater is one of unselfish devotion. The characteristic of everyone who takes part there is a complete surrender of personal interests. Each one comes to Bayreuth with a sole purpose of contributing the utmost to the festival play. Therefore, no one, singer or members of the orchestra or chorus, instructors or conductors, scene shifters or aides, receive any salary or reward. Their travel expenses are paid and they are lodged in Bayreuth at the expense of the administration—that is all. And in return they are treated not as paid artists, but as honored guests.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 3, No. 24, SERIAL No. 100
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
THE VALKYR’S RIDE—From the Painting by K. Dielitz
The Ring of the Nibelung