Volume 21, Number 16 · October 17, 1974
Taking the Wagner Cure
By Robert Craft
The 1974 Bayreuth Festival presented further evidence that the shortage of star-role Wagnerian singers is acute. But even if this were not the case, the most remarkable performance would have been that of the audience. Dressed in full evening clothes in mid-afternoon, the devotees arrive at the Festspielhaus from castles all over the world, but especially from spiritual Berchtesgadens. Then long before starting time the faithful file into cramped wooden pews and, because of the lack of aisles both side and central, remain standing to accommodate stragglers. In the mausoleum-like hall (black curtain, Corinthian columns, Bogenlampen) and in the absence of any sign of an imminent theatrical event—the orchestra, like the Nibelungs, is subterranean—this standing suggests an act of reverence, that a memorial service rather than a stage spectacle is about to take place. Carlyle's 'lay pulpit' is still an apt description of the German theater.
Feature, 3608 words
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