- Bayreuth Festspielhaus
The Bayreuth Festspielhaus ("Bayreuth Festival Theatre") is an
opera house north ofBayreuth ,Germany , dedicated principally to the performance ofopera s by the 19th-century German composerRichard Wagner . It is the exclusive venue for the annualBayreuth Festival , for which it was specifically conceived and built.The design was adapted by Wagner, without the architect's permission, from an unrealised project by
Gottfried Semper for an opera house inMunich , and built under Wagner's supervision. Its construction was funded principally by King Ludwig II ofBavaria . Thefoundation stone was laid on22 May 1872 (Wagner's birthday). The building was first opened for the premiere of the complete four-opera cycle of "Der Ring des Nibelungen " ("The Ring of the Nibelung"), fromAugust 13 ,1876 toAugust 17 ,1876 .Only the entry
façade exhibits the typical late-19th-century ornamentation, while the remainder of the exterior is modest and shows mostly undecorated brick stone.The most famous and significant feature of the Festspielhaus is its unusual orchestra pit. It is recessed under the stage and covered by a hood, so that the
orchestra is completely invisible to the audience. This feature was a central preoccupation for Wagner, since it made the audience concentrate on the drama onstage, rather than the distracting motion of the conductor andmusician s. The design also corrected the balance of volume between singers and orchestra, creating ideal acoustics for Wagner's operas, which are the only operas performed at the Festspielhaus. However, this arrangement has also made it the most challenging to conduct in, even for the world's best conductors. Not only is the crowded pit enveloped in darkness: the acoustic reverberation makes it difficult to synchronise the orchestra with the singers. Conductors must therefore retrain themselves to ignore cues from singers. Most, if not all, of the festival's conductors have found the Festspielhaus venue the most challenging of their careers.The Festspielhaus also features a double
proscenium , which gives the audience the illusion that the stage is further away than it actually is. The double proscenium and the recessed orchestra pit create, in Wagner's term, a "mystic gulf" between the audience and the stage. This gives a dreamlike character to performances, and provides a physical reinforcement of the mythic content of most of Wagner's operas.The Festspielhaus remains the venue of the annual Bayreuth Festival, during which Wagner's operas, such as the "Ring" cycle and "
Parsifal ", are given on a repertory basis.References
* Spotts, Frederic, "Bayreuth: A History of the Wagner Festival", New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994.
* Burlingame, Edward L., "Art, Life, and Theories of Richard Wagner", New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1875 [http://historical.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cul.cdl/docviewer?did=cdl137&view=50&frames=0&seq=9 Available Online]ee also
*
List of opera festivals External links
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