Big Fest in Small Town

Four centuries ago, Margrave Christian established his residence in Bayreuth. Later, the Prussian Margrave Wilhelmine, sister of Frederick the Great and a dedicated patron of the arts, transformed the princely residence into an arts center and a Baroque jewel.

The city's distinctive landmarks include the "New Palace" with its courtly gardens, the "Eremitage Castle Park" and the Margrave's Opera House, considered Europe's most beautiful Baroque theater.

It all began with a dream

But the picturesque Bavarian city remains best known for its association with the operatic composer Richard Wagner who lived in Bayreuth from 1872 until his death in 1883.

Wagner, composer, playwright and theater director all rolled into one, dreamed of a Gesamtkunstwerk, (a total work of art), that is, a perfect blend of poetry, song and drama. The established theaters in the big cities were completely inadequate for staging plans of that scale.

So Wagner considered staging his own festival. The Margrave's Opera House in Bayreuth, which then had the biggest stage in the German speaking lands, came to his attention. In early 1871, joined by his wife Cosima, Wagner traveled to Bayreuth. But he soon realized that a Baroque theater with balconies would be unsuitable for his festival idea.

"However, the unique charm and the location of the friendly city itself were what I had been wishing for," he wrote. "An utterly beautiful and generous plot of land not far from the town was given to me as a gift and for the purpose of building the theater I had in mind."

The cornerstone to Wagner's Festspielhaus was laid in 1872. In it, Wagner enclosed a piece of paper with the inscription: "Herein I enclose a secret, may it rest for a hundred years. As long as it is protected by stone, it will reveal itself to the world."

The rich and famous

The Bayreuth Festspielhaus is both a world cultural monument and an ultramodern theater reserved exclusively for the works of Richard Wagner.

In the evenings, the stage is set alight by dramatic scenes from the Germanic legends. But from early morning, the grounds outdoors are populated by ticket seekers.

The official route to festival admission can involve a wait of seven years or longer. The number of people seeking tickets exceeds that of tickets available by a factor of 10 to one.

On opening day, Bayreuth is a firework of myth, fashion and media, where presidents and corporate bosses rub shoulders with show business celebrities. Less sensational are the many music critics on hand, who convey every nuance of the performances inside to the world outside, upholding Bayreuth's status as a musical nerve center of the nation and of the theater world.

Since 1876, the Bayreuth Festival has accompanied every high and low point of German history. Its current director is a grandson of the composer: 87-year-old Wolfgang Wagner, who has run the festival since 1951.

The Wagner family, however, has been dogged by a feud over who should run the festival in future.

There is speculation that Wolfgang Wagner's youngest daughter, Katharina could be a possible successor. The 29-year old has earned some critical acclaim as an opera director on other stages.

The coming season starts on July 25 with Katharina Wagner's first production in Bayreuth. She will stage "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg."