The operatic festival Richard Wagner founded at Bayreuth in 1876 is the oldest, most famous and most influential in the world. Its productions and musical standards have been a model for opera houses everywhere, and Bayreuth has become a place of pilgrimage for music lovers, and the ultimate objective for singers and conductors. The story of the festival is however not just about an opera house but about a family, a society and an art form. The creation of a fervent German chauvinist, Bayreuth came to epitomize the tortured development of the German nation after unification in 1871. The festival became a citadel of racism and reaction, and the cultural showpiece of the Third Reich and Hitler's artistic centre. Here for the first time is a full-scale, serious, narrative account of the festival, based on wide-ranging research and interviews, which explains the political, managerial, social and artistic context of the Festival. It provides candid, sharply-etched portraits of the members of the Wagner family, their friends, enemies and critics, and of the controversy that has characterised it for over a century.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Stressing that "Bayreuth demands seriousness" of attendees--the author himself has attended every year since 1955--Spotts, who had the cooperation of the Richard Wagner-Gedenkstatte at Bayreuth, here presents a study of due seriousness, a knowing, engrossing, opinionated overview of the shrine that Wagner established to himself in 1876. The material on the founding of the Festival, and on Cosima Wagner's management of Bayreuth from 1883--following her husband Richard's death--to 1906 is familiar, although no less involving for that, as is the contemporary information. But Spotts's research into the Nazification of the Festival and the Winifred Wagner-Hitler friendship makes this a seminal study for a new generation. Because, as the author notes, Wagnerian opera was perceived among Germans as an extension of nationalism, the composer became Messiah and Bayreuth the last bulwark of true German values. Spotts reviews Winifred Wagner's administration of the Festival after the death in 1930 of her husband Siegfried (Cosima died that year as well), the composer's son, who, in 1915 at age 45, married the 17-year-old German-bred British orphan out of fear that his homosexuality would be exposed. Hitler and his devoted Winifred kept Bayreuth functioning throughout WW II, with the Fuhrer underwriting expenses for his War Festivals; annually he rewarded up to 30,000 of his troops and war workers with free attendance to Bayreuth. Spotts, a former member of the American Foreign Service, also tracks the uncertain fate of Bayreuth under the Allies, until the Festival reverted to the Wagner family in 1950, dual control passing to Winifred and Siegfried's sons Wieland and Wolfgang. It took Wieland's genius to de-Nazify Bayreuth and make it a vital Festival, shows Spotts, who is critical of Wolfgang's management after his brother's death in 1966. If Bayreuth is, as the author argues, a simulacrum of the German nation, it is no less so for devotees of Wagner. The Nazi connection is known at least in outline to younger Wagnerites but is little discussed. Spotts does the music world a service by confronting that legacy. Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This comprehensive history of opera's oldest summer music festival is directed to the general, music-loving public. Regular attendee Spotts supplements his own perceptions and collection of programs with numerous published sources in German and English. He presents Bayreuth, perpetual showplace for only seven of Richard Wagner's operas, as a cultural icon whose history represents not just the composer's art and his family's functions and dysfunctions but wider German artistic and political ideologies and influence from the late 19th century until today. When the repertory is unchanging, new interpretations such as this keep critics talking and writing. For large music collections.
Bonnie Jo Dopp, formerly with District of Columbia P.L.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Bonnie Jo Dopp, formerly with District of Columbia P.L.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book has it all ... and some.,
By
This review is from: Bayreuth: A History of the Wagner Festival (Paperback)
I will never forget the excitement of seeing this book on the shelf. Admittedly, the heavy emphasis on outstanding photography made me hesitant. But, having been to the Festival a couple of times (and having cut through many a book related to Wagner), I had to go with it. I was not disappointed. Indeed, I would be hard pressed to suggest a better written book on the festival, its relationship to Nazi Germany, the conflict of schools of interpretation, Wagnerism, or ... Wagner! This book sails and you are sorry when the trip is over. It also provides a serious, well-organized discussion of the development of Wagner's music and the characters who desired the association of the Wagner household. The musician, performer, historian, critic, biographer, and disciple will all be entertained.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating, well-written and highly readable!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Bayreuth: A History of the Wagner Festival (Paperback)
This book isn't just for Wagner buffs, or opera-goers generally. Fascinating for the way it weaves the history of the festival and the Wagner family into the overall context of German history in the 19th and 20th centuries, it should be enjoyed by a much wider audience. The growth of virulent nationalism, and the birth of National Socialism and all the evil that followed were intimately intertwined with the evolution of Bayreuth, and they are part of this highly interesting story.At no point is this book dull or didactic. The story of the relationships between members of Wagner's family are engaging. The many photographs of the various productions, as well of members of the family and notables from the world of music, are well-chosen. The description of the intrigues and genius behind the design of the Festspielhall and the design of the operas make this a book for all who are interested in the theatre. A highly enjoyable work.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good read, but some odd editorial errors,
By A Customer
This review is from: Bayreuth: A History of the Wagner Festival (Hardcover)
This is a well-written and hard to put down history of the Bayreuth Festival. Thanks are due to Mr. Spotts for sifting through many works in German that are hard to find. However, there are a couple of curious statements that make me wonder about the veracity of the book as a whole. In his discussion of the 1951 reopening, he refers to Karajan as an up and coming young conductor from Aachen. Well, in 1942 Karajan left Aachen to assume directorship of the Berlin State Opera, and by 1951 his associations with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Orchestra had made him an internationally known recording artist. Hardly a young upstart from the sticks!In the same chapter, he refers to a society that was organized around Hans Pfitzner to protest the radicalism of Wieland Wagner's productions. However, Pfitzner died in 1949, presumably without seeing the first of Wieland's stagings in 1951. No explanation is given for this statement. In general, this is a book written by a well-informed and insightful fan, but perhaps one without a strong musical background.
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