The Bayreuth Festspielhaus ("Festival Theater") is completed …
Years: 1875 - 1875
December
The Bayreuth Festspielhaus ("Festival Theater") is completed in 1875, and the festival scheduled for the following year.
Richard Wagner is responsible for several theatrical innovations developed at the Festspielhaus, for the design of which he has appropriated some of the ideas of his former colleague, Gottfried Semper, which he had solicited for a proposed new opera house at Munich.
These innovations include darkening the auditorium during performances, and placing the orchestra in a pit out of view of the audience.
Wagner overlays leitmotif upon a continuous moving harmonic structure, and revolutionizes the operatic form by including all the arts.
Wagner had decided in 1871 to move to the town of Bayreuth as the location of his new opera house.
The local council donated a large plot of land—the "Green Hill"—overlooking the town, as a site for the theater.
The Wagners had moved to the town the following year, and the foundation stone for the Bayreuth Festspielhaus ("Festival Theater") had been laid.
Wagner had announced the first Bayreuth Festival for 1873.
Since Ludwig had declined to finance the project, the start of building had been delayed and the proposed date for the initial festival had been deferred.
In order to raise funds for the construction, "Wagner Societies" have been formed in several cities, and Wagner himself had begun touring Germany conducting concerts.
By the spring of 1873, only a third of the required funds had been raised; further pleas to Ludwig had initially been ignored, but early in 1874, with the entire project on the verge of collapse, the king had relented and provided a loan.
The full building program includes a handsome villa, "Wahnfried" ("Peace/freedom from delusion/madness" in German), into which Wagner, with Cosima and the children, had moved from their temporary accommodation on April 18, 1874.
Richard Wagner is responsible for several theatrical innovations developed at the Festspielhaus, for the design of which he has appropriated some of the ideas of his former colleague, Gottfried Semper, which he had solicited for a proposed new opera house at Munich.
These innovations include darkening the auditorium during performances, and placing the orchestra in a pit out of view of the audience.
Wagner overlays leitmotif upon a continuous moving harmonic structure, and revolutionizes the operatic form by including all the arts.
Wagner had decided in 1871 to move to the town of Bayreuth as the location of his new opera house.
The local council donated a large plot of land—the "Green Hill"—overlooking the town, as a site for the theater.
The Wagners had moved to the town the following year, and the foundation stone for the Bayreuth Festspielhaus ("Festival Theater") had been laid.
Wagner had announced the first Bayreuth Festival for 1873.
Since Ludwig had declined to finance the project, the start of building had been delayed and the proposed date for the initial festival had been deferred.
In order to raise funds for the construction, "Wagner Societies" have been formed in several cities, and Wagner himself had begun touring Germany conducting concerts.
By the spring of 1873, only a third of the required funds had been raised; further pleas to Ludwig had initially been ignored, but early in 1874, with the entire project on the verge of collapse, the king had relented and provided a loan.
The full building program includes a handsome villa, "Wahnfried" ("Peace/freedom from delusion/madness" in German), into which Wagner, with Cosima and the children, had moved from their temporary accommodation on April 18, 1874.
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Years: 1875 - 1875
December
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