A first timer's experience at Bayreuth, Glyndebourne opera festivals
Remember the giddy excitement of the kids who had Golden Tickets to meet the reclusive candy maker Willy Wonka in Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"? Well, that's pretty much how I felt in October 2013 when I successfully purchased a ticket to the 2014 summer Bayreuth Festival in Germany.
Why all the fuss? When I started becoming interested in opera as a teenager, I would hear stories about how difficult it was to get tickets to the exclusive Bayreuther Festspiele, an opera festival originally founded in 1876 by the controversial 19th century German composer Richard Wagner. Rumor had it that there was a 10-year waiting list to apply for tickets!
But in more recent years, the Bayreuth Festival actually started making select performances available for online purchase. I failed in 2012 in my repeated online attempts to buy a ticket for the 2013 festival, so imagine my joy once I possessed my own golden Bayreuth ticket to see the opera "Lohengrin" (even if it cost around $340 after conversion from euros).
I knew I would have to pack a tuxedo in my luggage because Bayreuth Festival ticketholders are expected to wear evening wear to performances. There's also a strong tradition of patrons wearing formal wear to the 80-year-old Glyndebourne Festival Opera in southern England, so I figured I might as well pay a visit there, too. I'd get some extra mileage out of lugging my penguin suit across the Atlantic Ocean, and it would be fun to compare and contrast my first-time experiences at two European summer opera festivals with sterling artistic reputations.
<b>A Wagner shrine</b>
British author and star Stephen Fry is an ardent, if conflicted, Wagner fan. In a 2010 documentary called "Wagner and Me," Fry likened Bayreuth to a mecca for Wagner fans in the same way that Elvis Presley fans pay pilgrimage to the lake King of Rock's mansion Graceland in Memphis.
Located in southern Germany, the sleepy town of Bayreuth was specially chosen by Wagner to be the location for his custom-built theater that would stage the first complete performances of his monumental Norse mythology-inspired four-opera opus called "Der Ring des Nibelungen" (aka The Ring Cycle).
The 1,925-seat theater known as the Festspielhaus was designed to be a revolutionary reaction against traditional horseshoe configured opera houses where patrons often went more to be seen than to see a performance. In the Festspielhaus, all of its tiered seats faced the stage, the orchestra was concealed in a deep pit under the stage and the auditorium was kept in complete darkness - many innovations that would influence subsequent theater design and practices.
And as luck would have it, the acoustics of the largely wooden theater turned out to be a revelation. In a recent interview for the magazine Opera News, Miss Manners columnist Judith Martin said, "Being inside the Festspielhaus is like sitting inside a violin." I would heartily agree.
But in many ways, seeing Wagner's operas at the Bayreuth Festival requires a lot of endurance. Friends who had been before warned about the notoriously hard wooden seats on the main floor with practically no cushioning and no armrests. Luckily I was seated in the loge, which had seats with plush cushioning and armrests.
And though the backstage areas have been thoroughly modernized through the years with the latest lighting and hydraulic technology, the Festspielhaus auditorium is not air-conditioned. On hot summer days, temperatures during performances can rise to over 100 degrees, though I lucked out with some uncharacteristically cool weather when I attended.
Wagner's operas themselves, often lasting anywhere between three and six hours, can also be difficult for beginners. Bayreuth does not offer any projected texts or translations like most modern-day opera houses, but it's not needed due to the glorious acoustics.
Still, you had better brush up on your German to comprehend what's going on. Or study up the plots in advance, since nearly all directors employed by Bayreuth impose a high concept on their productions that often veers wildly from the original scenarios.
Take, for instance, Director Hans Neuenfels' 2010 production of "Lohengrin," which he revived in 2014. Neuenfels reset the piece in a modernistic landscape that suggested a laboratory with all the choristers dressed as enormous mutant rats.
While many dismiss these Regietheater or director's theater productions as "eurotrash," others liken them to watching pieces of modern performance art. My interpretation of Neuenfels' "Lohengrin" was an extended meditation on the necessity of faith versus a dangerous pursuit of scientific answers that could bring about genetically modified disasters.
Though Neuenfels' production was pretty blunt with its message, it did feature many theatrically beautiful moments. And the music making was definitely world class from the orchestra and the singers.
Yet, when I sought an opinion from a California doctor also making his first trip to Bayreuth, he said he eventually just shut his eyes to appreciate the beauty of the music within the Festspielhaus because he was so frustrated and disturbed by the weird ratty visuals onstage.
<b>Stately manor opera</b>
Productions at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera are also known for directorial tinkering, though often not as extreme as in other European opera houses. For instance, Sir David McVicar's Glyndebourne staging approach to Handel's "Julius Caesar" and Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg" was to update the time periods of both operas while still making them dramatically coherent (both critically acclaimed productions were later imported by the Lyric Opera of Chicago).
The Glyndebourne opera I saw was the company's premiere of Mozart's rarely performed 1775 comic opera "La finta giardiniera" ("The False Garden Girl") for about $240 after conversion from British pounds. Director Frederic Wake-Walker capitalized on the word "false" in the title to play up the artifice of theater production itself. So though the cast was costumed in what looked like period outfits, they later ended up stripping down their clothes to emphasize the performer underneath. The ensemble also ended up trashing and dismantling the set during Act II.
Though Glyndebourne is known for specializing in Mozart, the company is not limited to producing the works of just one composer like at Bayreuth. And though formal wear is expected for this opera festival held on the grounds of a manor home owned by the wealthy landed Christie family, everything felt much more relaxed to me at Glyndebourne.
Part of the reason is that the Christie family invites patrons to stroll and picnic along the estate's gardens and lawns before performances and during the long dining interval. Glyndebourne also stages its productions in a state-of-the-art 1,200-seat theater that replaced its old cobbled-together venue in 1994. So many of the modern-day comforts that you expect in opera houses (projected translations, cushy seats, air-conditioning) are there to be had.
The history of the Glyndebourne Festival is also more charming than and not nearly as disturbing as that at Bayreuth. Wagner's own documented anti-Semitism and his descendants' well-known friendships with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler will forever taint Bayreuth (though Wagner's great-granddaughters are more open about the festival's troubled past - even installing an outdoor display of Jewish artists whose lives and careers were damaged and destroyed by the Nazis in a nearby grotto once solely dedicated to a bronze bust of Wagner).
Glyndebourne founder John Christie fell in love with and married soprano Audrey Mildmay, later producing opera in a 300-seat theater on his estate starting in 1934. That family tradition continues today, since current Glyndebourne executive chairman Gus Christie, John Christie's grandson, married the Australian-American soprano Danielle de Niese in 2009.
So I'm pleased that I can finally check off visits to Bayreuth and Glyndebourne off my bucket list. Due to the advance planning involved and the sheer expense of attending these opera festivals, both should be once-in-a-lifetime experiences for me on a journalist's budget. Yet as another operagoer friend warned me, once you go, you'll want to go back again and again.
Bayreuth
Getting there: Munich and Frankfurt are the closest major German cities to Bayreuth with direct flights from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (try the airlines United or Lufthansa). Then utilize Germany's extensive train system to get to Bayreuth, since the city is so compact and walkable. Rent a car if you plan to explore other Bavarian cities for day trips, though many operagoers attending the Bayreuth Festival prefer to stay put. Many choose to rest up beforehand due to the sheer length of most Wagner operas which call for physical and mental alacrity to fully appreciate the productions.
Where to stay: Hotels in Bayreuth typically raise prices during the summer Wagner festival, though cheaper options can sometimes be found if you book early and stay over an extended block of time. There are a range of price options ranging from the Bayreuth youth hostel (bayreuth.jugendherberge.de), to the very comfortable ARVENA Kongress Hotel (arvena-kongress.de) which about a 20-minute walk from the Festspielhaus and features a comprehensive breakfast buffet included with the price of a room.
Other Bayreuth attractions: Unfortunately the Richard Wagner Museum in Villa Wahnfried (the composer's former home) is currently closed due to renovations. Instead, take a tour ofBayreuth's ornately baroque Margravial Opera House from 1748 to see the kind of showy theater that Wagner was reacting against with his revolutionary Festspielhaus.
Tickets: Dues-paying members of international Wagner societies often get first priority to tickets, which can reach into the $400 range after conversion from euros. But with the Festival's recent forays into selling select performances online, you don't necessarily have to repeatedly mail in applications or wait years to obtain tickets. Just be aware that online tickets become available in September for the follow year's festival.
Information: 011 +49 921 / 78 78 0 or
Glyndebourne
Getting there: Several airlines offer direct flights from Chicago to London's many international airports like Heathrow or Gatwick. It's then probably easiest to reach Glyndebourne in the Sussex Downs via rental car, though the festival operas are scheduled to allow guests to commute via train from London to Lewes (the closest town). There is shuttle bus and taxi service available from Lewes Station to Glyndebourne, though many require a round-trip purchase in advance.
Where to stay: It's possible to stick with London accommodations if you take the train, or you can choose to lodge closer to Glyndebourne at a number of nearby bed-and-breakfast inns or hotels. These accommodations range from Lewes youth hostels (
yha.org.uk), to converted stately homes like Gravetye Manor (
gravetyemanor.co.uk), which is a 40-minute drive from Glyndebourne.
Other attractions: The seaside holiday towns of Brighton-Hove and Eastbourne are within a 45-minute drive from Glyndebourne, while in nearby Lewes is its historic castle, the remains of Lewes Priory and Bull House (a former home of American Revolution rabble rouser Tom Paine).
Tickets: To guarantee ticket dates and to buy before the general public, send in an application to become a donating Glyndebourne Festival Society Member or an Associate Member (applications are respectively due Dec. 1 and Jan. 19). General sales commence online on Monday, March 9, 2015.
Information: 011 +44 1273 815000 or