Bayreuth Festival 2017: Wagner’s Work and National Socialism (two-day symposium)

The Bayreuth Festival is launching a new supporting programme this year. It is entitled “Bayreuth Discourse” and is designed as a series of events for the academic and artistic analysis of Wagner’s work and legacy.

A two-day symposium will be held in summer 2017. This year’s theme will be “Wagner’s Work and National Socialism”. Lectures and discussions will examine facets of Wagner’s personality and the effect of his works and writings during the Nazi regime and the long-term consequences. Four concerts will feature music by opponents and victims of Nazi rule.

Bayreuth Discourse is intended to be a platform where the controversies surrounding the composer and ideas about the complex meanings and legacy of the person and work of Richard Wagner can be discussed. Representatives of different disciplines including artists, academics, musicians, and theatre professionals will meet in one-on-one discussions.

Bayreuth Discourse is generously supported by the Gesellschaft der Freunde von Bayreuth e.V. and takes place in cooperation with the Richard Wagner Museum of Bayreuth.

Symposium

28 July 2017: Wagner under National Socialism: A Fall from Innocence?

29 July 2017: Opera without Wagner? Music without Opera? The situation of the arts during the post-war reconstruction

Both 10:00 am – 5:45 pm, Haus Wahnfried, free admission

Concerts

28, 30 July, 1, 22 August 2017

Participants include members of the Festival Orchestra, Daniel Behle (tenor), Jürgen Kruse (piano), and others

Each 8:00 pm, Haus Wahnfried, Admission €25.00.

More information about the symposium here!

Social Media

One of the finest monuments in sound ever to have been raised to the everlasting glory of music. (Claude Debussy on Parsifal)

"The thing about Wagner is that there can be no true success in any production of his operas, only degrees of failure. There is so much in these bloody pieces, all you can do is try to live up to them." (Keith Warner, The Guardian)

"I have never come across an audience with so much hatred, so much anger, such a thirst for revenge. They take everything personally. It makes you a little bit scared, and it's really quite terrifying." (Lance Ryan on the audiences at Bayreuth)

"People sometimes complain that Wagner operas are too long, that they get stiff and sore about 10.30 because they have rushed in to hear one of his works straight from work and are not properly prepared for listening to his music. The audience, as much as the artists, must be prepared for a performance."
(Benjamin Britten to Alan Blyth, Gramophone)

"I was bowled over. It was the year after Wieland Wagner had died; to be able to see his productions was a total knock-out. These bare stagings, where everything was done with lighting. The light changed with the music, and the shadows and patterns seemed as archetypal as the music itself. Nobody had done that on the stage before. I thought it was extraordinary and wonderful."
(Patrick Carnegy to The Guardian)

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