Bayreuth Festival Facts for Kids

The Bayreuth Festival is a famous music festival held every year in Bayreuth, Germany. At this festival, people perform operas by the German composer Richard Wagner, who lived in the 1800s. Wagner himself wanted to start a festival just for his operas in Bayreuth. He even designed the theatre because he wasn't happy with how other theatres were built.

The theatre he designed is called the Festspielhaus, which means "Festival House." Wagner watched the building being constructed to make sure it was exactly how he wanted it. He had new ideas for theatre design. For example, he wanted the orchestra pit (where the musicians play) to be so low that the audience couldn't see the orchestra.

When the theatre first opened in 1876, Wagner's famous series of operas called Der Ring des Nibelungen was performed completely for the very first time.

The festival quickly became famous around the world. Almost every serious musician in Europe wanted to visit Bayreuth to hear Wagner's music. Composers often either loved his music and were inspired by it, or they disliked it and created their own different styles.

The festival still happens every August. It's very hard to get tickets because so many people want to go. People often wait for ten years before they can get a ticket!

Why the Festival Started
Early History of the Festival
Bayreuth During World War II
The New Festival
The 21st Century Festival
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Why the Festival Started

Wagner wanted his festival to be in a small town. This way, people could focus only on his music. Bayreuth already had a theatre, but it wasn't right for modern opera. The town also didn't have a busy cultural scene that would compete with Wagner's music. Another reason for choosing Bayreuth was that it was outside the area where he had sold the rights to perform his operas.

King Ludwig II of Bavaria gave a lot of money to Wagner to build the new opera house. Wagner also traveled across Germany to raise money for it. Groups were even formed to help collect funds.

The architect who helped design the opera house was Gottfried Semper.

Early History of the Festival

The first festival opened on August 13, 1876, with a performance of Das Rheingold. Many important people attended, including Kaiser Wilhelm, Dom Pedro II of Brazil, and King Ludwig. Famous thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche and composers like Anton Bruckner, Edvard Grieg, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and Franz Liszt were also there. Hans Richter was the conductor.

During Wagner's lifetime, the festival mainly performed the Ring Cycle and his opera Parsifal. After Wagner died, his wife, Cosima, continued to run the festival. She slowly added Wagner's other operas to the festival's performances. The operas were always performed exactly as Wagner had intended, with no changes allowed.

After Cosima retired in 1906, Wagner's son, Siegfried, took over. He made some changes, introducing new ways of staging and performing the operas. When Siegfried died in 1930, his wife, Winifred, became the festival's director.

Bayreuth During World War II

In the 1920s, before the Nazi party became powerful, Winifred Wagner became a close friend of Adolf Hitler. Because of this friendship, the Bayreuth Festival continued to receive a lot of money during the Nazi period. Wagner's works were used by the Nazis for propaganda. It's interesting that Hitler attended performances in Bayreuth that included Jewish and foreign singers, even after they were banned from performing elsewhere in Germany. Winifred's influence with Hitler was so strong that he even asked the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini to lead the festival. Toscanini refused.

During this time, the festival made its first big change from tradition. They stopped using the old 19th-century scenery on stage. Many people, including Toscanini and Richard Strauss, disagreed with this. They believed the performances should stay exactly as Wagner had known them.

During World War II, the Nazi party managed the festival. Operas were performed for soldiers who had been injured in the fighting. These soldiers were sometimes required to attend lectures about Wagner before the performances, even if they weren't interested in music.

The New Festival

Much of Bayreuth was destroyed by bombing at the end of World War II, but the theatre itself was not damaged. After the war, Winifred Wagner faced consequences for her support of the Nazi party. Ironically, it was because of Winifred that the theatre was not bombed. She had prevented it from being used for military purposes, so it wasn't a target. After the war, the theatre was used for other concerts for a few years. The festival started again in 1951. It opened with Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, followed by Wagner's opera, Parsifal.

Wieland Wagner, the composer's grandson, had very new ideas, including using abstract scenery. Some audience members even booed. Wieland wanted to make a clear break from the past and its connection to Hitler. Wieland died in 1966. For a while, people wondered if the festival would continue. There were many disagreements within the Wagner family. Wieland's brother, Wolfgang Wagner, remained in charge of the festival for the next 42 years.

Wieland Wagner also started a workshop in Bayreuth. Here, directors could meet and discuss new ways to present the operas. This helped new ideas be accepted and brought new energy to the festival.

The centenary (100th anniversary) of the festival was celebrated in 1976. A famous French director, Patrice Chereau, created a great production of the Ring Cycle. His production focused on showing how the Ring was about the working class being used by wealthy capitalists in the 1800s. Some people thought it was the best opera performance they had ever seen, while others strongly disliked it.

The 21st Century Festival

There was a lot of discussion about what would happen after Wolfgang Wagner retired. Many people wanted the festival to stay under the management of the Wagner family. On September 1, 2008, Wolfgang Wagner's daughters, Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Katharina Wagner, were chosen to take over the festival. They have said they want to "bring opera to the people." In 2009, Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde was even streamed live on the internet. People could also watch it for free on a big screen in the center of Bayreuth.