by Christina Waters | Sep 5, 2012 | Art, Home |
In his final opera, Parsifal—whose motifs had been built over a thirty-year period—Wagner fulfilled his vision of operatic “music theater” as something that would go far beyond the classical notion of a drama told in song and music.
The Parsifal of this season’s Bayreuth Festival—direction by Stefan Herheim and set design by Heike Scheele—was in clear and stunning resonance with Wagner’s intention, and used electrifying manipulation of sets, lighting, costume, movement, and voice to achieve a fusion of space, time, and music.
When this production was first mounted several years ago it produced shock and awe. This season the sight of crimson National Socialist banners unfurling swastikas from the ceiling, while the young Parsifal rises from center stage in (more…)
by Christina Waters | Sep 1, 2012 | Home |
If I say “Munich”—most Americans will think, “cuckoo clocks, bratwurst and beer.” But for me Munich meant “Dürer, Weisswurst and Baroque architecture.” More importantly—for the purposes of my trip last week—Munich is the gateway to Bayreuth, a small, prosperous Franconian burg which is famous for one thing. One very important thing. Bayreuth is the capital of planet Wagner, where every July and August, those lucky enough to score expensive tickets gather to sit in an acoustically-perfect opera house and hear some of the greatest music ever composed.
That’s why I went. To feast on the operas of Richard Wagner. But since I also have graduate student memories of pilgrimages to great museums in the capital of Bavaria, IÂ made sure I scheduled time to visit the magnificent collections of Munich’s three grand art palaces, linked by the name “Pinakothek.”
My travel connections flowed easily into each other—the Lufthansa flight morphed into a convenient airport shuttle ride ($12 for 45 minute ride from airport to Munich’s main train station) from which I simply walked across the street to my strategically-located hotel.
Campari and a ham sandwich helped me decompress after the 11-hour plane trip. And the next day I boarded two trains—one the bullet train to Nürnberg, the other a regional train to Bayreuth—and 2+ hours later I was in Bayreuth, where the Festival was beginning its final week.
Make no mistake, Bayreuth knows just how much it owes to the cult of Richard Wagner. During the summer festival devoted to his operas, every hotel and shop window proudly displays a portrait of the controversial maestro. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Sep 1, 2012 | Home |
Drenched with sweat, still filled with the rapturous chromaticisms of Tristan und Isolde, I joined two companions for what became a ritual glass of Veuve Clicquot at an outdoor concession in the opera house gardens. Valhalla Bistro. Every tavern, drug store and street is named for a character in Wagner’s oeuvre, or for one of his operas. Two hours later, at the second intermission, we went into the adjoining restaurant—gorgeous with crimson walls and acres of stemware—and had a surprisingly fine dinner. (I say “surprisingly” because this place is, after all, serving sit-down dinners for several hundred people during each intermission—all orders placed in advance and ready the minute you sit down.) I’d saved all year for this trip. And I was ready to enjoy it. Here shown is a Thai-seasoned entree of crab, veggies and pappardalles.
Operas aside, there was much to enjoy in Bayreuth. Well, just enough to fill those first three days before my operas began. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Sep 1, 2012 | Home |
The three days of opera each cast their own enveloping auras. After Tristan und Isolde—a punishing 5 1/2 hour physical ordeal of heat and wooden seats—I sat almost speechless over Fernet Branca with a few other opera-goers and felt the music swirl inside me. I had undergone a symphonic transfusion from one century to another.
The second night’s Tannhäuser—staged as a multi-story postmodern biofuel factory ignited by intense colors and unbelievable music—showcased the celebrated Christian Thieleman at the podium, utterly confirming his star status. We dined afterwards, under the stars at an Italian restaurant close to the opera house. Sicilian Syrah by Planeta accompanied beautiful salads, olives, gamberetti and vitello tonnato. Spectacular food after spectacular music.
The final opera evening I literally tore into a baguette and bratwurst surrounded by Daniel Craig lookalikes in tuxes. After two hours of the most astonishing Parsifal ever mounted, I was ravenous. And there were still two more acts to go!
And then it was back to Munich, sharing the bullet train ride with music critic Jens Laursen who confirmed that I’d just heard the finest Parsifal in recent history. (Photo above is of hops fields outside Munich.)
Under darkening skies I went with the flow and drifted towards (more…)
by Christina Waters | Aug 31, 2012 | Home |
Even though it sounds like the title of a French film, that headline refers to one of the most satisfying pastry encounters of my food life.
I had just waded through a time-trip of northern Renaissance masters—Dürers, Memlings, Cranachs, van der Weydens, as well as the staggering wall of brilliant flesh that is the Rubens collection—and it was time to give my feet a rest.
The Alte Pinakothek contains a soothing tea room that overlooks the parks surrounding the city’s three main museums.
It was beginning to rain.
I sat with an over-sized cup of Assam black tea and a slice of freshly-made rhubarb and mascarpone torte. The perfume of the tea infusing each bite of tart fruit and voluptuously creamy cheese. This was the pastry I had come to Bavaria to sample.
And by the time I finished, the storm was over, the heat was back and there were a few more bits of monumental architecture to be savored.
by Christina Waters | Aug 30, 2012 | Home |
Here’s where I went — the opera house (Festspielhaus) in Bayreuth, Germany designed and built by Richard Wagner exclusively for the performance of his legendary operas.
And here’s why I went: the annual Bayreuth Festspiel performances of Wagner’s operas, a six-week orgy of music, champagne and over-dressed aficionadoes, which invades this handsome little town two hours northeast of Munich every July-August. Lucky enough to score tickets to three of this season’s five operas —Tristan und Isolde, Tannhäuser and Parsifal—I joined a refined herd of Wagnerites from all over the world last week to swelter in Europe’s blazing heat wave and feast at the high altar of Romantic opera.
It was the musical event of a lifetime, and from comments gleaned by longtime Bayreuth patrons, the operas I saw were definitive—especially the Parsifal I had most anticipated. The man next to me in the bespoke tuxedo expertly wielding an antique black fan—himself a veteran of 16 Bayreuth seasons—pronounced this Parsifal the best he’d ever heard. – to be continued
