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- Valuable Resources
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2010 BAYREUTH TRAVEL INFORMATION Not all events during the Richard-Wagner-Festspiele
have been posted.
Suggestions, Corrections,
and Additions gladly accepted!
Attending the Bayreuther Festspiele is truly a remarkable experience.
The Wagner Society of Northern California has put together this information
packet in order to assist not only those of you who will be attending
the Festspiele for the first time but also repeat visitors. The material
is intended only as a guide to your Bayreuth experience and does not
represent an endorsement of any particular hotel, restaurant, or event.
We recognize that tastes may vary, hotel and restaurant management change,
and events vary from year to year. Nevertheless, we hope you find it
helpful in your own planning—and we also hope you will make additions
or adjustments for those who will follow you. Some things remain the
same—particularly at Bayreuth—but some things change (especially
prices!), and what was available one year and may not be so in another
year. Valuable Resources Geldautomats (ATMs) are readily available throughout town; Citibank has a branch at Marktplatz. While ATMs will incur fees (all card and banks vary), the exchange rates make this an option far superior to travelers checks and, in some cases, paying by credit card. Bayreuther
Festspiele Tourismuszentrale
Bayreuth Bus Line Number 5 goes from the Bahnhof (Train Station) and the Marketplace (Marktplatz) to the Festspielhaus. The bus ride from the Markplatz takes less than 10 minutes. Once off the bus (Am Festspielhaus), one walks a path up the hill to the Festspielhaus. Hotels.de Travelaxe Die
Bahn www.schloesser.bayern.de Suggested Books (linked to Amazon.com)
Festspiele Experience People arrive at the Festspielhaus well before the curtain—an hour or more in most cases. The park around the Festspielhaus is lovely and makes for pleasant strolls and picnics. The #5 bus (Hohe Warte) provides the closest public transportation alternative, but many hotels also arrange for buses. Parking at the Festspielhaus is ample and free, but you will certainly want to arrive 90-60 minutes ahead of the curtain. Parking lots can be found behind the Festspielhaus—one just above the postcard kiosk and the other a tiny bit higher up the hill. Since this is a summer festival, most people dress for the occasion. At least half wear evening clothes with the ocassional white tie and tails; others wear suits with ties or sport coats with ties and pretty dresses or pants suits. No matter what one wears, the key is comfort. The Festspielhaus is not air conditioned,
and the doors are closed at the curtain. The weather can be beastly
hot or cool and rainy , so you need to plan accordingly
and check the weather prior to leaving home. The successful packers
are those who wear basic outfits and vary them with ties, scarves, shawls,
or jewelry. The Bayreuth seats in the Parkett have no arms and are not particularly well padded, nor are the seat backs. Most people, therefore, bring thin cushions—not thick ones, please, that obstruct the view of those behind you. REI has several Therm-A-Rest inflatable cushions and "trekker" seats. Other participants found an inflatable lumbar cushion that also works well either for the back or the seat. Check out model SBSIRE ($40) at Relax the Back. Several hotels supply comfy cushions, so you may want to ask if they provide this service when you make your hotel reservations. There are a limited number of cushions available at the Festspielhaus coatchecks. Charge is €1 per cushion. However, the seats in the Balcony and the Loge are padded and quite comfortable. Fifteen minutes prior to the curtain, a brass ensemble arrives on the balcony and signals the time with a fanfare taken from the act to follow. Five minutes later, the brass repeats the fanfare twice; and at five minutes prior to the curtain, the ensemble plays the theme three times. For Das Rheingold, there is only the single set of fanfares, as there is no intermission. For a sample of the fanfares , click the trumpet for
a short video. (wmv file) No one misses the curtain which rises at either 16:00 or 18:00 (Rheingold with no intermission). There is no initial recognition of the conductor; the time arrives, the audience spontaneously quiets down, the lights dim, and the glorious sound begins. After the doors are locked, no one will be admitted. If you're late, you're out of luck. Before the beginning of each performance, a photographer takes photographs from the balcony in front of the theater of the people assembled below. The photographs are posted the next day in the front window of the Parsifal Apotheke (pharmacy) on Bahnhofstraße 6 near Hohenzollernstraße and are available for purchase with one day’s notice. The beautiful, multi-lingual annual Bayreuther Festspiele book is for sale (€25) which will also get you a free fabric shopping bag. You will quickly become accustomed to seeing groups of men in tuxedos carrying plastic bags filled with seat cushions, opera glasses, and God knows what else. For full cast and performance information, one must also purchase a program each evening (€0.50). Intervals last at least one hour, but none for Rheingold. The audience is among the best behaved in the world—few coughs (and those are discreet), no cell phones, no whispering, no perfume, and (most important) no applause during the performance or until the house is completely dark and the last note has drifted into the stratosphere. Heavenly. Supertitles? Heavens, no!
Suggestions, Corrections,
and Additions gladly accepted! © 2010 Wagner Society Northern California |
