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Summary: General FAQ concerning composer Richard Wagner (1813-83). 
 Information about the hmcw newsgroup and posting guidelines.
URL: http://home.c2i.net/monsalvat/wagnerfaq.htm
Version: 2.16

------------------------------

Subject: General FAQ for humanities.music.composers.wagner

The list of frequently asked questions (and their answers) for the news-
group humanities.music.composers.wagner (hmcw), with pointers to other
sources of information.  This version supersedes all previous versions.

The current plain-text version of this FAQ can be found in the FAQ archive 
at < http://www.faqs.org/faqs/music/wagner/general-faq/ >.  

The bibliographical supplement to this FAQ ("Wagner Books FAQ") can be
found at  < http://www.home.no/derrick/booksfaq.htm >.


Table of Contents

I. Welcome to humanities.music.composers.wagner!          
  A. Charter
  B. How should I read and contribute to this newsgroup?
  C. How do I read this FAQ?

II. Who was Richard Wagner?
  A. Wagner's life, work and ideas
* B. Wagner's political and racial ideas
  C. Wagner's philosophy and spirituality
  D. Biographical references
  E. Musical works
  F. Prose and poetry
* G. Abandoned operas

III. Frequently asked questions         
  A. How can I get tickets to the Bayreuth Festival?
  B. Where can I obtain the Ring Disc?
* C. Was Wagner a personal friend of Adolf Hitler?
  D. Wasn't Wagner anti-Semitic?
  E. Why does Siegmund sing the renunciation motif as he draws the sword 
     from the tree?
  F. Why didn't Alberich use his ring to escape when he was captured by 
     Wotan and Loge?
  G. Why is Valhall set on fire at the end of the 'Ring' cycle?
  H. Why didn't Wagner kill off Alberich?
  I. Who are the Wagner family and how are they related to each other?
  J. Does anybody know the title of the helicopter tune in 'Apocalypse 
     Now'?
  K. What about Wagner's women?
  L. What is the name of the mortal woman who is mother to Siegmund and
     Sieglinde?
* M. Which recording of the 'Ring'/ 'Dutchman'/ 'Lohengrin'/ 'Tristan'/ 
     'Parsifal' should I get as my first version?
  N. How can I get inside the Palazzo Vendramin in Venice?
  O. What is the difference between the 'Liebestod' and 'Isolde's
     Transfiguration'?
  P. When can I applaud at a performance of 'Parsifal'?
  Q. What new productions are planned for the Bayreuth Festival?
  R. Who were the Herodias and Gundryggia referred to in 'Parsifal'?
  S. Was Beckmesser based on Eduard Hanslick?

IV. Where can I find more information?
  A. Offline sources
    i.    What books should every Wagner fan have on their bookshelves?
    ii.   Wagner's writings
    iii.  Wagner's musical compositions
    iv.   Diaries of Richard and Cosima Wagner
    v.    Letters to and from Richard Wagner
    vi.   Wagner-related periodicals
    vii.  Sources for Wagner's texts
    viii. The Bayreuth Festival

  B. On-line sources
    i.    A few good, general online sites about Richard Wagner
    ii.   Web sites, synopses and online discographies 
    iii.  Web sites related to the Bayreuth Festival
    iv.   Wagner Societies
    v.    On-line libretti and scores
    vi.   Related newsgroups and message boards 
    vii.  Museums
  
V. Acknowledgements and Copyright


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: I. Welcome to humanities.music.composers.wagner! 
               
Welcome to humanities.music.composers.wagner! In this newsgroup we discuss
Richard Wagner, his life, works and influence.  Steve Milne started this
group back in December 1995. His charter for the newsgroup provides general
guidelines for the scope of discussions here.

The humanities.* placement of the group is intended to reflect the academic
orientation of much of the discussion. 


------------------------------

Subject:  A. Charter for humanities.music.composers.wagner

The newsgroup humanities.music.composers.wagner is intended to provide a
forum for mature discussion of all aspects of Richard Wagner. Subjects
discussed in the newsgroup might include (but are not limited to): 

* The music dramas, their meanings and contemporary relevance. 

* Recordings of Wagner's music. Recommendations of recordings. News of
  forthcoming releases. 

* Discussions about performances of Wagner's work - both reviews of current
  opera productions and information about forthcoming productions. 

* Discussions about the history of the Bayreuth Festival, along with 
  information about ticket availability, strategies for procuring tickets 
  for the festival. 

* Debates about Wagner's artistic and theoretical ideas 

* Wagner's contemporaries their influence on Wagner and vice-versa 

* Wagner's influence on art and the theatre. 


------------------------------

Subject:  B. How should I read and contribute to this newsgroup?

 i. If you haven't already done so, now is as good a time as any to read 
  the guide to net etiquette (or "netiquette") regularly posted to the news-
  group news.announce.newusers.  There is an HTML version of the guide at
  < http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/emily-postnews/part1/ >

 ii. If you are new to Usenet, then you should read the rules for posting
  regularly posted both to news.announce.newusers and to news.answers.  You 
  can find an HTML version of the posting rules at
  < http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/posting-rules/part1/ >
     
 iii. DO NOT POST IN UPPER CASE. Submissions in a single case (all upper or 
  all lower) are difficult to read.

 iv. Do not flame. A "flame" is an angry post. Sometimes you will find
  angry posts in follow-up to your own. The temptation may then be to make
  an angry post in response. Think first. Just because somebody calls you a
  bad name, doesn't mean you have to respond in kind. Just because someone
  disagrees with you, it does not mean that he or she is a moron. 

 v. It is advisable to lurk for a few days (or even weeks) without posting,
  before you post a message.

 vi. Keep your postings to Wagner-related topics.

 vii. We may have discussed the topic before - check the Dejanews archive 
  < http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search > to see if past threads 
  might hold the answers to your questions.  Before asking a "basic" 
  question, please read the latest "frequently asked questions" posting.

 viii. Specific questions are more likely to get useful answers than are
  general ones. For general information, you should try to obtain reference
  books from the lists provided in the Wagner Books FAQ (see introduction).
                                       
 ix. Avoid crossposting - ensure that your article is posted only to news-
  groups where its content is appropriate.  Don't spam. Spammers will be 
  reported to their ISPs. If you don't already know about spamming, then 
  you should read the SPAM FAQ: 
  < http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/tskirvin/faqs/spam.html >.

 x. Do not post binaries (pictures, sound files, etc.) to this newsgroup.
  Not everyone can handle those relatively large files and binaries in non-
  binary groups have been known to get those newsgroups removed from some
  ISP's. Instead put them on a web page or post them to an alt.binaries.*
  group and post a notice to their location on this group.

 xi. Do not post in HTML or any other format that uses styles.  Some news- 
  readers can only handle plain text.

 xii. The language of the hmcw newsgroup is English.  Posting in other 
  languages is discouraged. 

 xiii. Many of the postings to the hmcw group will contain quotes in German
  and will occasionally quote in other European languages. It is therefore
  recommended that you set the options in your newsreader for 8-bit
  characters, Western European encoding and the ISO Latin 1 character set
  (ISO-8859-1).

 xiv. Keep line lengths to less than 80 columns. 72 is suggested, to allow 
  for indentation of quoted text in replies.

 xv. When replying to a posting do not quote more of the original than is
  necessary. It is seldom necessary to quote a whole message. Some posting
  software automatically quotes the whole message when you respond but you 
  should delete the portions of the message that are not relevant to your 
  response.  Use ellipses ("...").  Do not quote .signatures.  Do not leave 
  the entire earlier posting at the end of your own posting.

 xvi. If you are not familiar with logic but want to make a convincing case,
  then you should read the following introduction to logic and fallacies: 
  < http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism/logic.html >.

 xvii. You will find that keeping your sense of humour will help you to get 
  the most out of any newsgroup.


------------------------------

Subject:  C. How do I read this FAQ?

Each question/section begins with 'Subject:' on a line of its own. If you
have a suitably equipped newsreader then you can automatically skip to the
next 'Subject:' heading, e.g. "trn" will display the start of the section
when you press ^G (control-G). 

Recently updated or new questions are marked with a * at the beginning of 
the line in the table of contents.


------------------------------

Subject: II. Who was Richard Wagner?

This section provides only general background information. To find out
more about Richard Wagner (RW), you could consult one of the many
biographies; see subsection C below. There is a chronological table of
RW's life and works at < http://home.c2i.net/monsalvat/wagnerlife.htm >.


------------------------------

Subject:  A. Wagner's life, work and ideas

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) started out as a conductor and composer of
operas, but he soon reacted against the 'whole clinking, twinkling,
glittering, glistening show, Grand Opera!' Wagner (RW) concluded that what
was wrong with the operas of the early 19th century was that drama had
become nothing more than an excuse for the performance of music. He
intended to reverse this, and to create 'music-dramas' (not a term 
introduced by RW but one that has often been applied to his later dramas) 
in which music would serve the purposes of drama. Therefore ideally the 
orchestra would be invisible and the action on stage would be 'deeds of 
music made visible'. In order to achieve a closer unity between poetry 
and music, RW became one of the first operatic composers to write their 
own texts.

RW is perhaps best known for his cycle, 'The Nibelung's Ring', a massive
work that took him almost 27 years to write. During the composition of
this work, RW realized that there was no stage in Europe suitable for the
'Ring'. He set about raising money to build his own 'Festival Theater' in
the small German town of Bayreuth. Although the first festival was a
financial disaster, the Bayreuth Festival, which was the begetter of the
whole festival idea, survives to this day. 

In addition to his talent for musical composition on the largest of
scales, RW was a man of the theatre. His theories, innovations and
experiments had a profound effect on the staging of opera and attitudes to
opera everywhere. 

"A man with a genius for many arts has brought those arts, in his own
work, more intimately into union than they have ever before been brought;
and he has delighted the world with this combination of arts as few men of
special genius have ever delighted the world with their work in any of
these arts." (Arthur Symons, 1905) 


------------------------------

Subject:  B. Wagner's political and racial ideas

Wagner tends to generate rather fierce, lively and often bad-tempered
debate between 'Wagnerites' and 'Anti-Wagnerites', not least where his
political and racial ideas are concerned.  Dieter Borchmeyer has
written: "The merest glance at writings on Wagner, including the most
recent ones on the composer's life and works, is enough to convince the
most casual reader that he or she has wandered into a madhouse.  Even
serious scholars take leave of their senses when writing about Wagner
and start to rant.  There are transcendental Wagnerians with their heads
in the clouds, phallo-Wagnerians whose sights are set somewhat lower,
meekly feminist 'Wagnériennes' and brashly political 'Wagnerianer' --
and in every case there are their polemical opposite numbers, busily
condemning and unmasking Wagner in the name of the very same values and
on the strength of the very same evidence, their desire to unmask Wagner
driving them to the very brink of scientific and psychological flagell-
antism and persuading them to see a causal link between 'Parsifal' and
Auschwitz." (From the preface to 'Drama and the World of Richard Wagner', 
Princeton, 2003).

Wagner was Hitler's favorite composer; this coupled with his own anti-
Semitism (as expressed most clearly in his essay, 'Judaism in Music',
concerning which see below under 'Frequently asked questions') has made
RW a controversial figure even today. His music is still widely
boycotted in Israel; although a recent performance of the 'Siegfried
Idyll' by the Rishon Lezion SO attracted, among a large audience, only
one protester. It needs to be added that RW never advocated violence
against the Jews, nor against any racial or ethnic minority.

During RW's early career, he associated with radicals and revolutionaries
(such as the anarchist Bakunin, whom some people regard as the model for
Siegfried). For his part in the Dresden Uprising of 1849, from which he
made a narrow escape, RW was outlawed in most of Germany and he went into
exile in Switzerland. In his later career, under the sponsorship of the
King of Bavaria, RW became more conservative (although he never renounced
his utopian socialism) and nationalistic. 

He was particularly negative about the French, especially after the
failure of his opera 'Tannhäuser' at the Paris Opera in 1861 (hence RW's
'A Capitulation' of 1870, in which he obviously enjoys the idea of the
besieged Parisians eating rats). According to RW (in 'German Art and
German Policy', 1867) the Germans were capable of developing a culture
superior to the civilisation of the despised French -- a culture in which
German art, not least Wagner's art, would occupy centre stage.


------------------------------

Subject:  C. Wagner's philosophy and spirituality

Wagner's study of philosophy and spirituality gave his music-dramas a
depth and universality that sets them apart from most other works for the
musical theatre. Although RW lost interest in institutional religion
during his teens, he developed a lasting interest both in mysticism (both
in western mystics such as the Dominican Meister Eckhart, and in eastern
ones such as the Sufi poet Hafiz) and in that part of philosophy closest
to theology. He dedicated his essay, 'The Art-Work of the Future' (1849)
to Ludwig Feuerbach, the philosopher and author of 'The Essence of
Christianity'.  Commentators have seen the influences of Feuerbach's 
philosophy of religion and of Hegel's philosophy of history in the 'Ring'.

Five years later, a friend introduced him to the writings of another
philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, whose 'The World as Will and
Representation' he read four times in less than a year. This book not only
revealed to RW the meaning of his own 'Ring' poems, but led him to write
new texts (notably 'Tristan und Isolde') that deal with human existence in
terms of this philosophy. Infected by Schopenhauer's interest in Indian
religions, RW began to study books on this subject recommended by
Schopenhauer. These studies led him to begin a work that he never
completed, the Buddhist drama 'Die Sieger', and to another which he did,
'Parsifal'.


------------------------------

Subject:  D. Biographical sources

It is sometimes claimed (inaccurately) that more books have been written
about RW than anyone who has ever lived, with the exceptions of Jesus
Christ and Napoleon Buonaparte. In fact there have been thousands of books
and articles published about RW and his works, ranging from the scholarly
to the totally wacko. 

A selection of the biographies of Richard and Cosima Wagner can be found
in the Wagner Books FAQ, Section II.


------------------------------

Subject:  E. Musical works

The complete catalogue of Wagner's musical works is the 'Wagner-Werk-
Verzeichnis'. It lists 113 works, although it is reasonably certain that
no music was written for a handful of them.

Here is a shorter list of the major works among them, grouped by category,
with the dates of their completion and of their first performance: 

* Completed Operas and Music Dramas

  T= date of completion of text (with the exception of any small changes
  made later), M= date of completion of music, P= date and location of first
  performance.

  _'Die Feen'_ (The Fairies), grand romantic opera, WWV 32. This work is in 
  a mixture of German and Italian styles.  T: February 1833.  M: Spring 1834.
  P: 29 June 1888, Munich.

  _'Das Liebesverbot, oder Die Novize von Palermo'_ (Forbidden Love), grand
  comic opera, WWV 38. This German comedy was completed in 1836 and
  performed only once - the second performance had to be abandoned before the
  curtain rose and the bankruptcy of the opera company prevented any further 
  performances that season. The music is clearly influenced by Bellini, as 
  well as by Donizetti, Rossini, Marschner and Auber. T: December 1835. 
  M: March 1836, revised Spring 1840. P: 29 March 1836, Magdeburg.

  _'Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen'_ (Rienzi, Last of the Tribunes), grand
  tragic opera, WWV 49. This was Wagner's attempt to create a French Grand
  Opera in imitation of Meyerbeer. Wagner also acknowledged the influence of
  Halévy. T: early 1840. M: September 1840. P: 20 October 1842, Dresden.

  _'Der fliegende Holländer'_ (The Flying Dutchman), romantic opera, WWV 63.
  This is the first work in the 'Bayreuth canon', i.e. the works that are
  regularly staged at the Bayreuth Festival. It is a German opera on
  supernatural themes, showing the influences both of Weber and of Marschner
  (in particular, of his 'Der Vampyr'). T: May 1841. M: October 1841. P: 2
  January 1843, Dresden.

  _'Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg'_ (Tannhäuser and the Song
  Contest on the Wartburg), grand romantic opera, WWV 70. Completed in 
  1845, but substantially revised at least three times:
  * Version 1.  T: April 1843.  M: October 1845.  P: 19 October 1845, 
                Dresden.
  * Version 2.  T: Spring 1847. M: May 1847, revised September 1851,
                not published until June 1860.  P: 1 August 1847.
  * Version 3.  T: March 1861.  M: March 1861.  P: 13 March 1861, Paris.
  * Version 4.  T: September 1861, revised Spring 1865.  M: Autumn 1861.
                P: 1 August 1867, Munich.
  
  _'Lohengrin'_ , romantic opera, WWV 75. After completing this opera in
  1848, Wagner became mixed up in politics, with the consequence that he had
  to leave Germany. As an exile, he was unable to arrange for it to be
  performed or to supervise the first performance, conducted by Franz Liszt.
  T: November 1845. M: April 1848. P: 28 August 1850, Weimar.

  _'Der Ring des Nibelungen'_ (The Nibelung's Ring), a 'stage festival
  play', WWV 86. Wagner's original intention, which was shared by a number
  of other composers at the time, was to write an opera based on the
  'Nibelungenlied', to be called 'Siegfried's Tod' (The Death of Siegfried).
  Wagner actually got as far as writing the music for the first two scenes
  before he abandoned it, in favour of a cycle of four dramas. Once the text
  of all four had been completed (except for revisions later), Wagner
  composed the music to the first and shortest of the dramas in his cycle. 

  _'Das Rheingold'_ (The Rhine Gold), preliminary evening of the 'Ring' 
  cycle,  WWV 86a.  T: November 1852. M: September 1854. P: 22 September 
  1869, Munich.

  _'Die Walküre'_ (The Valkyrie), first day of the 'Ring' cycle, WWV 86b. 
  T: July 1852.  M: March 1856.  P: 26 June 1870, Munich.

  _'Siegfried'_ (originally 'Der junge Siegfried'), second day of the 'Ring'
  cycle, WWV 86c, was well under way before Wagner, despairing of ever
  getting this hugely expensive project staged, put it on hold. Wagner
  needed to find something more practical, if not profitable. He would not
  finish the music until 1871, and staging would have to wait until after a
  new theatre had been built for the 'Ring'. T: December 1852 (but then
  substantial changes during composition). M: February 1871. P: 16 August
  1876, Bayreuth.

  _'Tristan und Isolde'_ , WWV 90, was intended to be a small, practical
  opera that Wagner could get staged. Interrupted by a marital crisis, it
  was completed in Venice and Paris in 1859. After King Ludwig put the
  resources of the Munich Court Theatre at Wagner's disposal, his
  revolutionary work was staged there in 1865. 'Tristan-fever' has continued
  to this day. T: September 1857. M: August 1859. P: 10 June 1865, Munich.

  _'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'_ (The Mastersingers of Nuremburg), WWV
  96. For the first time since 'Das Liebesverbot', Wagner returned to comedy
  (again of a rather heavy, Germanic kind). T: January 1862, revised January 
  1867. M: October 1867. P: 21 June 1868, Munich.

  _'Götterdämmerung'_ (The Twilight of the Gods, or Night Falls on the
  Gods), third day of the 'Ring' cycle, WWV 86d. The 1848 text of what had
  been 'Siegfrieds Tod' was substantially rewritten in 1852 and revised in
  1856. It then gathered dust until Wagner had returned to and completed
  'Siegfried', when he was able to compose the music for the final part of
  his cycle. T: December 1852 (revised May 1856 and 1872). M: November 1874.
  P: 17 August 1876, Bayreuth.

  _'Parsifal'_ , sacred stage festival play (Bühnenweihfestspiel), WWV 111.
  Inspired, according to 'Mein Leben', on and by Good Friday 1857, this
  drama too had a long gestation. A detailed prose draft was written in
  August 1865, but the libretto was not completed until 1877. After it was
  first performed in Bayreuth in 1882, the Wagner family lawyers ensured
  that it was not staged anywhere else for the next twenty years. The
  Metropolitan Opera in New York was the first to defy Bayreuth, by staging
  this drama in 1903. T: April 1877. M: January 1882. P: 26 July 1882,
  Bayreuth.

* Orchestral Works 

  The young Wagner had ambitions as a symphonist. His first attempt was the
  Symphony in C of 1832 (WWV 29) an imitation of Beethoven. Although there
  were a few false starts, Wagner never completed another symphony. Despite
  the dismal failure of his youthful 'Drum-beat Overture' (WWV 10) in 1830,
  he persevered in composing overtures; the best example being the 'Faust
  Overture' (originally intended as the first movement of a symphony) in d
  minor (WWV 59) of 1840/1855. He also wrote a few marches, including one
  for the American Centennial (Grosser Festmarsch, WWV 110), written in
  1876. 

  Two other orchestral works are noteworthy: the Funeral Music (Trauermusik,
  WWV 73), for the return of Weber's ashes to Dresden, is for an enormous
  wind band. The 'Siegfried Idyll' (WWV 103) which at one time bore the
  title 'Symphony', and which is for an orchestra of 13 players, Ernest
  Newman believed had begun life as a string quartet. It was first performed
  as a birthday surprise for Cosima in 1870. 

* Choral Works 

  Wagner composed a variety of choral music, of which the following pieces
  are the most noteworthy. 'Das Liebesmahl der Apostel' (The Love Feast of
  the Apostles, WWV 69) is a biblical scene for choir, first performed by
  massed choral societies in Dresden in 1843. It is a strikingly original
  work, despite its hurried composition. 

  'An Webers Grabe' (WWV 72) is another piece composed for the return of
  Weber's ashes to Dresden. It was performed at the reburial ceremony on 15
  December 1844. 

* Vocal Works 

  The young Wagner composed several arias for insertion into operas by other
  composers, including a bass aria for Bellini's 'Norma' (WWV 52). He also
  composed a number of songs for solo voice and piano, including (during his
  miserable existence in Paris) a setting of Heine's 'The Two Grenadiers'
  (WWV 60). The most important of his songs are the 'Five Songs for a Female
  Voice' (WWV 91), to texts of Mathilde Wesendonck (1857-58). These songs
  are closely connected to (or studies for) 'Tristan und Isolde'. 

* Piano Works 

  Wagner's piano music mainly consists of small pieces, such as the
  'Albumblatt für Frau Betty Schott' of 1875 (WWV 108), or the 'Ankunft bei
  den schwarzen Schwänen' (Arrival of the Black Swans) of 1861 (WWV 95).
  Three more substantial works were composed in 1831-32: the Fantasia in f#
  minor (WWV 22), Sonata in B flat (Wagner's official 'opus one', WWV 21)
  and the 'Grosse Sonate' in A major (WWV 26). In 1853 Wagner composed
  another piano sonata, in A flat: 'Eine Sonate für das Album von Frau MW'
  (WWV 85), which some consider to be the most important of these piano
  works. 

  Wagner also made a number of piano arrangements during his Paris years, of
  which the most substantial is the four-hands version -- it could even be
  called a rewriting of -- the 'Grande fantasie sur la Romanesca' by Henri
  Herz (WWV 62c, 1841).
    

------------------------------

Subject:  F. Prose and poetry

  Besides his activity as a composer and a librettist Wagner wrote an
  astonishing number of books, articles and poems: the list published in 
  the "Wagner Handbook" contains about 240 titles.  There are a number of
  minor writings that are not included in that list, however, so the total
  is probably over 300. The literary spectrum ranges from aesthetic theory 
  to political speeches. 


------------------------------

Subject:  G. Abandoned operas

  In addition to works that were published during his lifetime, Wagner's
  output included sketches and drafts for stage works that were never
  completed. His first attempt at writing opera, at the age of 17, was
  soon abandoned and neither text nor music from his "pastoral opera",
  based on a play by Goethe, 'Die Laune des Verliebten', has survived. 
  His next operatic project was 'Die Hochzeit', WWV 31, from which three
  numbers have survived, although he destroyed the libretto. 

  Shortly after completing 'Das Liebesverbot' (see above), he attempted to
  write a grand historical opera, 'Die hohe Braut oder Bianca und
  Giuseppe', WWV 40. He completed only the libretto, which among other
  influences showed that of Schiller and which he allowed his friend Jan
  Bedrich Kittl to set to music. Kittl took such liberties with the book,
  however, in particular diluting the revolutionary content of the work
  and making much of the plot confused and unmotivated, that Wagner asked
  that his name be removed from it. The libretto that appears in volume 11
  of Wagner's collected works is the one rewritten by Kittl; it is unclear
  how much of Wagner's text remains in it, although a comparison with his
  prose draft shows that Kittl made significant changes. At about the same
  time, Wagner drafted a comedy based on a tale from the Arabian Nights:
  'Die glückliche Bärenfamilie', WWV 49. Unfortunately he abandoned the
  project after sketching the first three numbers.

  Later unrealised opera projects included 'The Mines at Falun' (Die
  Bergwerke zu Falun) WWV 67, 'Friedrich Barbarossa' WWV 76, 'Wayland the
  Smith' (Wieland der Schmied) WWV 82 and 'The Victors' (Die Sieger) WWV
  89. Only for the last of these did Wagner sketch any music; see Osthoff,
  1983.


------------------------------

Subject: III. Frequently asked questions

The answers given below have been compiled from responses given to similar
questions when they have been posted in the newsgroup. These answers do
not necessarily reflect the views of the editor.

         
------------------------------

Subject:  A. How can I get tickets to the Bayreuth Festival?

1. You can try writing, in English, German or French, to the box office of
  the Bayreuth Festival, not later than the middle of September, at the
  following address:

       BAYREUTHER FESTSPIELE
       Kartenbüro
       Postfach 10 02 62
       D-95402 Bayreuth
       Germany

  Ask for a booking form. When this arrives, you will need to complete it
  and send it back, to arrive not later than the closing date (which seems
  to get moved earlier almost every year; last year it was October 15th). 

  Now for the bad news. You won't get tickets. All you get is a 'negative'
  registered in the box office computer-system. You have to repeat this
  process each year until you have enough 'negatives' to qualify for
  tickets. Currently the waiting list seems to be about 8 years. The reason
  for this is very simple. In any season there are no more than 60,000
  tickets available. Some of these are allocated to the Wagner Societies or
  to other organizations, and a few go to tour operators. The remainder are
  sold via the box office, which gets about 600,000 ticket applications each
  year.

  If you are not concerned about attending particular performances, or about
  particular parts of the house, you can write "EGAL" across the appropriate 
  column. In other words, "I'll take anything".  You might also improve your 
  odds, by asking for older rather than newer productions.

  Do not rely on getting an order form automatically each year. Make a note
  in your diary to write in July.

2. You can join your local Wagner Society (see the list of home pages
  below). Each society gets a small allocation of tickets, probably in
  proportion to their paid-up membership. These are then allocated, usually
  by a ballot for which only members can apply. Apparently non-European
  Wagner Societies are allocated more tickets in proportion to their
  membership, than are European Wagner Societies.

3. If that also fails, the last thing you can do is come to Bayreuth and
  queue in front of the box office from early in the morning (with your
  evening wear in a bag, just in case) until just before the performance
  (when, sometimes, returned tickets appear as if by a miracle). 

4. After giving up at the box office, you can sit in front of the
  Festspielhaus, in your best evening wear, holding up a sign that says
  "Suche Karte" and with a sad look on your face. Do not give up even after
  the performance has begun; sometimes patrons leave during one of the
  intervals and give their tickets to some of the pathetic creatures sitting
  on the pavement. At least you get to see the last act. 

5. If money is no problem, buy a package tour that includes travel, hotel
  and a ticket. There are various opera-travel specialists who advertise in
  magazines such as 'Opera'. Call them and ask about Bayreuth packages. Try
  'Carlson Wagonlit' or 'Thomas Cook'. 

6. If you are wealthy, buy a ticket on the black market. WARNING! In recent
  years the attitude of the Festival management has hardened not only
  towards the "scalpers" who trade in black-market tickets but also those
  who buy such tickets. A "scalper" is anyone who asks more for a ticket

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