Karl Wee: “Bayreuth Festival 2005, A Report”

Performances Attended:

Tristan und Isolde, July 25; conductor: Eiji Oue; director: Christoph Marthaler; Tristan: Robert Dean Smith; Isolde: Nina Stemme; King Mark: Kwanchul Youn; Kurwenal: Andreas Schmidt; Brangäne: Petra Lang

Lohengrin, July 26; conductor: Peter Schneider; director: Keith Warner; Lohengrin: Peter Seiffert; Elsa: Petra-Maria Schnitzer; Telramund: Hartmut Welker; Ortrud: Linda Watson; King Heinrich: Reinhard Hagen

Der fliegende Holländer, July 27; conductor: Marc Albrecht; director: Claus Guth; Dutchman: Jukka Rasilainen; Daland: Jaakko Ryhaenen; Senta: Adrienne Dugger; Erik: Endrik Wottrich

Tannhäuser, July 28; conductor: Christian Thielemann; director: Philippe Arlaud; Tannhäuser: Stephen Gould; Elisabeth: Ricarda Merbeth; Wolfram: Roman Trekel; Landgrave: Guido Jentjens; Venus: Judit Nemeth

Parsifal, July 29; conductor: Pierre Boulez; director: Christoph Schlingensief; Parsifal: Alfons Eberz; Amfortas: Alexander Marco-Buhrmester; Gurnemanz: Robert Holl; Kundry: Michelle de Young; Titurel: Kwangchul Youn; Klingsor: John Wegner

Destination Bayreuth

I've come to believe that if you stuff a trip with pleasant little things, you'll be surprised by how much they bring to the experience, no matter how grand your main purpose may be.

       In that spirit, we stopped by Rothenburg on the way to Bayreuth. It’s amazing that a town this touristy and crowded can be so worth seeing. “Medieval grandeur” is probably the best phrase to describe the place.  The famous night watchman’s walking tour featured a hilariously informative English-speaking guide. We also took a walk around the western gate (the Burgtor), which had all the makings of a magical experience.  Traveling the 100 miles to Bayreuth seemed fairly easy on the autobahn.

      In Bayreuth, I highly recommend the Lohengrin Therme, a spa with a large complex of pools filled with ancient hot spring water and fitted with water jets for a good massage. The cost is 8–10 Euro for basic pool access, and there’s a small café for lunch. The experience complements Wagnerian intensity very nicely, but you’d want to set aside at least two to three hours for this experience.

      One of the delights of southern Germany is its simple bratwursts, washed down with fresh local beer or dry white wine. I often prefer this option to fine dining, which can be expensive and fall short of expectations.

       At the Festspielhaus, I found the cafeteria an excellent choice for dinner during one of the intermissions.  The food is well prepared and fresh, and the lines move fast. There’s no need to make reservations, and you often share a table with interesting people.

       I also found that the Festspielhaus lives up to its reputation of being uncomfortable on hot and humid days. The auditorium has no air conditioning, so you'll want to dress as comfortably as possible. Quite a few men wear short-sleeved shirts with ties under their jackets, which they take off before sitting down. Walking up the Green Hill  leading to the Festspielhaus, which sounds swell, can make you sweaty pretty quickly in the heat and humidity. I found the seats reasonably comfortable, but the backs of the seats can be awkward, so I carried a ThermaRest inflatable seat cushion (from REI), which came in handy.

      Another lesson I learned was that because Wagnerian operas can be mentally draining, it’s best to limit your other activities during the day in order to keep yourself in top shape for enjoying the performance. Also, getting up late to compensate for having stayed up the previous night is a good idea. When I did find myself in less than optimal shape, a cup of regular coffee near the end of an intermission turned out to be very helpful.

Tristan und Isolde

Although this new production of Tristan und Isolde is “modern,” I found it convincing in its own way and visually pleasing. The director, Christoph Marthaler, used the same basic, fairly minimalist stage set for the three acts: respectively, the inside of a modern passenger ship, a sparsely furnished room in King Mark’s palace, and a morgue. A nice touch was the way the lights were switched on and off (sometimes by onstage soloists) to emphasize the concept of night versus day in the drama.

      The musical performance was fair but didn’t evince a high degree of clarity. One also got the feeling that the conductor didn’t always understand the music.  That said, most of the major orchestral lines were discernible much of the time; it must be very difficult to get Tristan just right. Among the great moments, the love duet was glossed over, but the Liebestod was excellent. The prelude to Act 1 lacked excitement, but Isolde's recollection in Act 1 was well done.

      The soloist standouts were Nina Stemme as Isolde and Robert Dean Smith as Tristan, who at first seemed a little miscast but came into his own in the tragic Act 3. Tristan is not my favorite Wagnerian opera, but on balance this was a very good performance.

Lohengrin

The music in Lohengrin had good clarity. The prelude to Act 1 was slow but, surprisingly, didn’t seem to drag. Most of the great passages were done well, with the exception of Peter Seiffert as Lohengrin in the love duet in Act 3, which was really a matter of acting rather than music making. Lohengrin’s arrival in Act 1 was glorious in both the music and the staging—a great rendition of what is, for me, one of the finest examples of Gesamtkunstwerke.

       The staging was generally faithful to Wagner, but with some playing at the fringes. The dark lighting and the whole mysterious atmosphere made the suspension of disbelief much easier by disguising the modernity of some of the costumes.

      The best singing was by Reinhard Hagen as Hein-rich, and the best acting by Petra-Maria Schnitzer as Elsa. The solo performances were good rather than outstanding, but this was a case where the overall experience was greater than the sum of its parts. The opera itself, the musical performance, the staging, and the flawless choral and soloist performances came together to make a memorable evening.

      During the night of Tannhäuser, my Swiss neighbor told me that his friend had found this performance the best Bayreuth Lohengrin in decades. High praise indeed!

Der fliegende Holländer

The musical performance of Holländer was dull, with the harmonic ”spiciness” that really makes this opera missing. The director appears to have made the whole story into a dream or hallucination by Senta [echoes of Harry Kupfer? –Ed.].  It was not at all faithful to Wagner, and the logic of it was not immediately obvious. I suppose one can explain away any unreality by wrapping it in a dream, but I fail to see the reason for wanting to insert these unrealities. There was a mix of applause and booing when the director took his curtain call.

      Among the soloists, Jaakko Ryhaenen as Daland was best, Jukka Rasilainen as the Dutchman lacked a brooding demeanor, but there was good singing to be had by Adrienne Dugger as Senta.

Tannhäuser

The music of Tannhäuser was exquisite. Conductor Christian Thielemann brought out the full glory of Wagner's music in the Festspielhaus, which, in my opinion, is not as easy as one might think and therefore to be treasured.  (See “The Festival Experience.”) The beginning of Act 3 was the best example. (Unfortunately, the Bacchanal and transition to Act 1 were omitted in this Dresden version.)

      The staging, with its science-fiction style costumes, lent more credibility than does modern dress. This production was generally faithful to Wagner, with the sole exception that Tannhäuser’s friends were protrayed as hypocritical and hostile (for example, frolicking with their women during the hunt). The meadow and Wartburg looked abstract but pleasing. Most important, the events were wholly believable.

     The acting and singing were excellent all around. I particularly enjoyed Ricarda Merbeth as Elisabeth.  Also look out for Tannhäuser's funny mockery of Biterolf during the latter’s militant-style singing at the contest.

      Overall, this music “will make you drunk with pleasure,” as Mark Twain put it. The final applause was thunderous.

Parsifal

I was aware of the controversy surrounding the work of Pierre Boulez. I heard his conducting for the first time here, and I can give him only praise. Boulez brought out nuances beautifully, and it’s hard to see why he is said to have a radical view of Wagnerian musical interpretation.

       Unfortunately, the staging was the undoing of this experience for me. [This was the same production as last year’s controversial one. –Ed.] It was unfathomably complex and ugly. Even if you gave every benefit of the doubt to the director and blamed yourself for all your failures to comprehend, the sheer quantity of symbolism made the opera impossible to understand. Predictably, the booing overwhelmed the applause during the director’s curtain call.

      All soloists performed at least adequately, with John Wegner asKlingsor putting in the best effort. During the performance, I thought how sad it was that this very hall had once seen beautifully luscious and ornate scenes of the forest and castle. Would the ghosts of past generations rise up now to protest their successors?

The Festival Experience

The acoustics of the Festspielhaus have always been controversial. While my experience convinces me that it’s possible to give Wagner’s music good clarity of detail with the right conductor, I suspect there is selective attenuation (and general attenuation) as the sound travels back and forth (from the orchestral pit, against the reflective board to the stage, and finally against the background out to the audience).

      The Bayreuth chorus lived up to its fine reputation, but I sometimes wished the directors would make the members face the audience more directly so I could hear more details.

      That said, the technical flawlessness, the believable characters with at least adequate singing and acting, the chorus, the overall music-drama experience, the sense of history, and the camaraderie with fellow Festival goers made this a very memorable journey for all.

Useful Reading

The Wagner Society of Northern California put together a guide for the Festival goer.  See their Web site at http://www.wagnersf.org. Mark Twain, a Wagner outsider, wrote a very entertaining account of his Bayreuth pilgrimage in 1891. Go to the following site: http://users.telerama.com/~joseph/shrine.html.

–Karl Wee