Bayreuth: A History of the Wagner Festival

by Frederic Spotts

In this prize-winning and generously-illustrated book, 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.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, Classical Music

344 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 1994

Reviews

[Benjamin Hoffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprised that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. I read it because I got it for free and figured I would learn something. The tracing of Wagner's operas as vehicles for antisemitism and German nationalism was enlightening and interesting. The descriptions of the various performances were quite good, not too long or overly descriptive. The characters of the Wagner family were also fun to read about even if most of them are quite despicable. My only criticism of the book is that he would list long lists of names of who sang what. None of those names mean anything and they change constantly so seems kind of pointless.

A good book overall and recommended for anyone interested in German history or Wagner's operas.

[Isidore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly an excellent overview of Bayreuth's history, vividly written and full of useful information not to be had elsewhere in English.

The first two-thirds of the book are generally excellent, although Spotts does not explore individual productions in great depth. Here he is resolutely fair-minded, giving Cosima and Siegfried their due, while acknowledging their defects. And it's particularly pleasing to see Tietjen and Preetorius's pre-War work get some applause––Tietjen was so vilified by New Bayreuth that it's actually surprising to learn that he (unlike Wieland and most of the performers at the 'de-Nazified' Bayreuth) was a lifelong social democrat.

I am less happy with his coverage of the Wieland & Wolfgang years, since he seems overeager to praise the directorial self-indulgence which has characterized postwar Bayreuth. Andrew Porter used to say that productions of the late Verdi operas based on the composer's abundant but invariably ignored stage instructions would be artistically revelatory; I suspect the same is true of Wagner. Instead, we must endure some overweening stage director's foibles and obsessions.

I wish Spotts had spent more time describing the pre-Wieland productions, and there are a few areas where he seriously misleads the reader (for example, Melchior's abrupt departure in 1931 had nothing to do with the quality of his singing). But in focussing on the book's flaws, I hope I haven't failed to make clear that I enjoyed it thoroughly and regard it as an essential addition to a Wagnerite's library.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have just finished re-reading this book, now actually in Bayreuth itself, and need to bump it up to a full 5 stars. Of course it makes even more sense given that I am experiencing so much of what is written here first-hand. Still this is a fair, lucid, fascinating account of the oldest, most legendary, most controversial music festival ever produced and deserves the highest marks.

[Richard Larraga · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful history of Western music's greatest and most notorious composer. Spotts takes us behind the curtain of this truly dysfunctional family and the art they guard. My only disappoint is that the pictures of the sets are not in color. Spots spends paragraphs describing Wieland Wagner's sets when a color photo would suffice.

[Evan]

The great Wagner fest at Bayreuth has concluded for 2010. Because the day has been dramatic I shall listen to some Ring of the Nibelungen CDs in my collection. It suits my need to be swept along in grandiosity.