Friday 31st July 2015

Sorry – I haven’t much time. Librettos of Der fliegende Holländer and the Götterdämmerung to finish. There are no surtitles in the Festspielehaus because it wouldn’t be pure. Surtitles and air-conditioning have been ruled out to the end of time apparently. Prince Dmitri and I are agreed – we could start the whole thing again next week and take another six Wagner operas run. Oh, we’ll come again to Bayreuth. We must. Last night I suffered not at all on the hard seat for Siegfried after rigorous exercising beforehand. At the end I only wished it could all begin again. Completely enthralling despite the crazy production. Yet I don’t dare to touch it. Not the Wagner. Here, at Bayreuth, it’s so much more than the sum of its parts. So I’m concentrating instead on the parade of outfits beforehand and the German nature of the occasion which is part of its magic and mystery, as well as the proscenium arch inside the Festspeilehaus and the strange way it looks when the curtain is down. Quite extraordinary. No graph will capture the way it seems to recede and how an absolute division between the audience and the stage is established with this dead space around the arch completely bare and plain and the other world lurking there out of sight until the curtain goes up. Then there is the audience which airs itself outside until the brass players from the orch, decreed by Wagner, summon them from the balcony to the confinement of the  hard wooden seats and bare floor within. So many sights to see. Much black is worn by ladies. Even with bright yellow they must have black, giving a Heide meets Siegfried look sometimes. I thought it was black for Wagner but then remembered that until quite recently black was worn by men and women at all evening entertainments in Germany. Of course, to us it has sinister overtones. There’s no doubt the German look is quite firm and purposeful. The outfit statements are uncompromising and they love a glint and a flash from their fabrics but only rarely bright colours apart from yellow for the blonde ladies. National costume is seen as well as lederhosen. What would the equivalent be at Glyndebourniana? Indeed what is the English equivalent of Bayreuth? we wondered. In the end, Prince Dmitri said, ‘The D’Oyly Carte’. It’s true. Gilbert and Sullivan is the English Wagner. What else is there? But Bayreuth is very German. There’s no escaping it although it’s not quite clear what that means.

The Strange Effect before the Curtain Goes Up: No Graph can Capture It

A Look for the Festspielehaus

National Costume

A Heidi Meets Siegfried Look

Legs

This Greatness was at Die Valkyrie and is In Fact English-Speaking.

Another Heidi

Classic Look for the Older German Opera-Goer

This is How Packed in We Are