Bayreuth Tickets

[Guest]

The Bayreuth Festival seems to have made a significant change to the way you apply for tickets. I've received an e-mail which takes you to this web-page:

http://tickets.bayreuther-festspiele.de/en/info

which has this announcement:

Here you have the opportunity to directly purchase tickets for eleven performances of the Bayreuth Festival 2014 from 13 October 2013, 18:00 onwards. You can receive these tickets without any waiting times as they will be sent to you in a PDF file via email immediately upon payment.

You will not have to pay any additional fees. You will pay the regular ticket price plus the fee of 2.00 Euro for each seat. The processing fee of 6.00 Euro per invoice will be waived.

Successful ticket purchase does not have any effects on your personal ordering statistics. This means, for example, that your existing waiting times will not be affected.

I take the last paragraph to mean that they'll still be operating the usual 'queue' system in parallel. But I imagine internet lines to Germany will crash on the 13th! and effectively the on-line dash will mean we're down to applying for three Ring cycles instead of four.

[Mr Pee]

Much as I would love to visit Bayreuth, until they take a fresh look at their creative approach, I'm really not that bothered about attending.

[DublinJimbo]

Much as I would love to visit Bayreuth, until they take a fresh look at their creative approach, I'm really not that bothered about attending.

Agreed. I was lucky enough to get a complimentary (!) ticket for the Dutchman in 2006. The production had a 'concept', but at least it wasn't totally over the top. A lifetime ambition had been to see Meistersinger in Bayreuth (after which, I told my friends, I could happily die). Imagine if I'd been on the ticket list for seven years and ended up sitting through Katharina's production.

[slarty]

As Long as they continue to serve up this kind of trash -

- http://intermezzo.typepad.com/interm...siegfried.html

then I would not go back to Bayreuth. In fact, I have not been back since 1981.

[gurnemanz]

Thanks very much for that link, which I have made a note of. I have never been organised enough to get around to attending the Festspiele. I lived in Franconia for a year while a student and visited Bayreuth several times without actually getting to a performance.

I have an open mind on "contemporary" stagings. They can be either apt, cogent and well performed or "trash" (as the current Ring appears to be). Traditional stagings can also be disappointing. Since Wagner deals heavily in archetypes, symbols and universal concepts, especially in the Ring, there are many ways in which the action can be presented and remain true to what we think Wagner intended.

The only complete Ring I've seen was Joachim Herz's "Marxist" version in Leipzig in the 70s and I was greatly impressed at the time. More recently, the NT's Othello where the modern dressed troops go off to Afghanistan is a five star show offering genuine insights.

[An_Inspector_Calls]

There's some truth in what the first two replies say. But then, contemporary Wagner performances do seem to err on the mad side. Except WNO usually does manage to stay reasonably sane.

That said, I very much enjoyed the one visit I've managed to Bayreuth. It's a lovely place, very well organized and you're usually on a safe bet as far as the musical performances are concerned. So yes, I'd go again, but then I have to get tickets . . .

[Dave2002]

The Bayreuth Festival seems to have made a significant change to the way you apply for tickets. I've received an e-mail which takes you to ....

... You will not have to pay any additional fees. You will pay the regular ticket price plus the fee of 2.00 Euro for each seat. The processing fee of 6.00 Euro per invoice will be waived.

I take the last paragraph to mean that they'll still be operating the usual 'queue' system in parallel. But I imagine internet lines to Germany will crash on the 13th! and effectively the on-line dash will mean we're down to applying for three Ring cycles instead of four.

Not that it bothers me, but that looks like a price hike - the phrase "each seat" being relevant. Two people going to the Ring would presumably pay 16 Euros for the seat charges, versus 6 Euros for a per invoice charge. I really dislike places which charge fees on a per seat basis.

[DracoM]

May sound insulting, but are you absolutely sure the email comes from the gen Bayreuth place and not some Far Eastern phishing-site?

[french frank]

May sound insulting, but are you absolutely sure the email comes from the gen Bayreuth place and not some Far Eastern phishing-site?

I googled Bayreuth ticket email and then either hoax or scam.

Various results came up but with the words 'hoax' and 'scam' crossed out as not occurring. Suggests nothing has been reported.

[slarty]

May sound insulting, but are you absolutely sure the email comes from the gen Bayreuth place and not some Far Eastern phishing-site?

Try this for information.

http://intermezzo.typepad.com/intermezzo/2013/08/bayreuth-2014-tickets-available-online.html

[DracoM]

Excellent - it's just that there is nothing I would put past scam / phishing expeditions these days, and the richer the client, the richer the pickings.

[An_Inspector_Calls]

Slarty
Thanks for the link. I hadn't heard that Bayreuth has dropped ticket allocations for the various Wagner Societies. Maybe that explains why they can open on-line sales for this one Ring Cycle?

[gradus]

Once upon a time Bayreuth tickets were also sold through a ticket agency in Kensington, that's how I bought ours in 1978. Interesting to know the demand stats for tickets over the last 50 years - the old devil's stock never seems to falter.

[duncan]

We were lucky enough to get tickets for Rheingold in the online application last year and made our first ever pilgrimage this summer. I thought the singing and conducting was generally very good and the performers threw themselves into their roles.

I wasn't very impressed by the production. Modernity or out of period productions are not a barrier for me at all. I've loved Verdian Mafiosi, Handel set in the Raj or in Thatcherite Britain. I felt the hyper-realistic 1970s Texas staging was immaculately done but didn't convey the slightest element of myth. My biggest problem though was with a number of directorial choices, such Wotan, Fricka and Freya frolicking in bed together at the start of the second scene or Mime and Alberich inexplicably tied up when Loge and Wotan arrive in Nibelheim. These and other bizarre ideas seemed to willfully undermine the story and characters which I thought was inexcusable.

The whole Bayreuth experience was wonderful and the famous acoustic is marvelously sympathetic to singers. Franconia is a lovely part of the world, in a quiet understated fashion. I'll certainly be trying for tickets again in October.

[An_Inspector_Calls]

I managed to get tickets for the Ring and Lohengrin - good seats too. The booking system fell apart a little - my invoicing was a mess, and that took two weeks to resolve.

Looking forward to it.