Bayreuth Was Closed

May 16, 2015 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | TRAVEL, WAGNER | 1 Comment |

"We're here...who's singing at us?"

22 MAY: Happy Birthday, Richard!

In May 2013, we drove into Bayreuth, figuring we would get our fill of tributes to the Master.

No opera today

No opera today

However, the famed Festspielhaus was closed till bicentenary performances scheduled for June.  No one seemed particularly keen on giving us information…surely they aren’t ‘over’ the Master?

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There appeared to be no direct road connecting to Richard Wagner Strasse.  We drove the wrong way down a one way street* and at the corner of RW Strasse and Wannfried Strasse, an information booth attendant told us the Wagner Museum was closed.

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For a town that owes much to Wagner, it doesn’t ram him down one’s throat…But P visited a charming cemetery near our motel where memorial stones lay for Liszt, several of the Wagner kids, Karl Ritter and Jean-Paul Richter.

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BAY7[* An enraged fellow charged at us when we headed the wrong way – we acknowledged him, waved in acknowledgement and apology but he kept on striding at us. P briefly considered backing over him but it was his town so we decamped speedily, much as Wagner snuck out of Dresden.  We had also blotted our copybook in Munich a few days earlier, unwittingly driving about Marienplatz, startling the locals.]

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