Bayreuth: A History of the Wagner Festival [Paperback]

Frederic Spotts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 1996

The operatic festival Richard Wagner founded in 1876 is the oldest and most famous in the world. It is also the most controversial, for it became the cultural showcase of the Third Reich. In this prize-winning and generously-illustrated book - the first to provide a frank and fully rounded history of Bayreuth - Frederic Spotts describes the festival's performances and productions, the Wagner family who have run it, its debasement into 'Hitler's court theatre', and its postwar liberation from its chauvinistic, anti-Semitic past. Provocative and compelling, the book will fascinate all Wagner enthusiasts as well as those interested in European cultural and intellectual history since 1876. 'A vast body of historic data - musical, personal, political, and generally artistic - presented in smooth, witty prose ... Spotts tells in absorbing detail the complex story of the relationship between the Third Reich and Bayreuth ... As reliable a guide to Bayreuth as we shall ever have.' Michael Tanner, 'The New York Times Book Review' 'Bayreuth is not just a spiritual and political history of the Festival but a sustained attempt to explain the place, uniquely emblematic, that it holds, and has always held, in German cultural life.' Richard Law, 'Opera' 'A readable, authoritative account of the Wagner festival that is compelling and chilling, sketching the cult's evolution and surveying its achievements ... Definitive.' Edward Rothstein, 'The New York Times' 'Spotts knows his Wagner as well as any professional musician ... he writes illuminatingly about the political as well as the musical context of the Bayreuth phenomenon.' David Mellor, 'The Daily Telegraph' 'Music history, cultural comment, and such issues as the family's embrace of Nazism are all deftly combined.' 'Time' Winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for the best music book of 1994. Frederic Spotts is an Associate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, and a former member of the American Foreign Service.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Spotts traces the complicated and occasionally unsavory history of the famous opera festival.
Copyright 1996 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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (April 24, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300066651
• ISBN-13: 978-0300066654
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #865,282 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #56 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > Sheet Music & Scores > Composers > Wagner

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Customer Reviews

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., October 27, 1998

By 

P. S. Ruckman Jr. (IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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!, June 14, 1998

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, October 24, 1999

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.