Word: wagner
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...course, I did have a few brief moments of recognition: The unhappy faces of the young Wagner children dressed up as Nordic heroes make me realize that they too, at one point, thought the hysteria had gone too far. And when I enter the empty Wagner living room, loudspeakers blare the ride of the Valkyries, from the only Wagner opera I have experienced live. But in the pension, sappy German love songs make me feel that Wagner is ever distant; I did not find him in Bayreuth. I chat with the pension owner about local cuisine and head...
...breakfast in the garden. The train leaves at nine, but there is still time to enjoy the start of the day. Sonja, the friendly pension owner, sits down to drink a coffee with me and discuss the impossibility of getting tickets to the Festspiele. Soon she proudly shares her Wagner calendar, with photos from recent Bayreuth productions signed by assistant directors and former stars: “You are the fourth Rhine Maiden, Sonja.” Next on display is a clay bust of Richard, from her daughter’s days in elementary school...
...courtyard. Sonja brings more coffee and the four of us chat around the table. The two are from Frankfurt, but they decided to stop by Bayreuth for one night—“It’s such an irresistible place.” Max has loved Wagner since the ’70s. He puts himself in the lottery for Bayreuth tickets every year. So far it has worked out three times...
...Richie!” toasts Max, and how could we have done otherwise? There is some gossip to be heard about the controversial new Parsifal production—no one could have doubted that hiring that young director would start a major uprising on part of old Wagner devotees. We move on to other topics—opera productions elsewhere, but also the issues that middle-aged people all over the world love to harp on: why aren’t everyone’s children married yet; detailed descriptions of everyone’s health; the sorry state...
...constantly, Wagner drifts in and out, not like a specter, but like an old friend. For Sonja and Gerlinde, Festspiele productions are ways to remember the year something happened. And of course, there were the times when Gerlinde’s brother-in-law worked at the Festspielhaus: How many productions they got to see then...