The Bayreuth Festival

Dear festival guests,

No opera festival in the world is as inextricably linked to one single work, one single artist and one single place as the Bayreuth Festival. When Richard Wagner opened his innovative Festival Theatre here in 1876, the whole of Europe took notice of this experiment. Since then, the Green Hill has become one of the most important sites in the history of music – a place which attracts people from across the globe. A place built solely for the purpose of listening to Richard Wagner’s incomparable works. The 150th anniversary of this festival is a fitting occasion to celebrate this fascination. What is more, it is an occasion to pause and reflect – on the history of this place in all its facets, on its elevation to the status of a German myth, and on its enduring significance over the past century and a half for the world of music, as well as for our country.

When it was founded, the festival was a bastion of artistic renewal. Richard Wagner’s idea was to create a work of art that combined music, drama and architecture in a shared experience. This idea still fascinates people today.

However, the Green Hill’s history is not without its dark side. Wagner’s antisemitism, the festival’s involvement with National Socialism, the willingness to offer this place to that criminal regime for its own self-promotion – all of these are integral aspects of an informed picture of Richard Wagner’s tradition in Bayreuth. The academic examination of this past remains a necessary process that has not been completed to this day.

Anyone who wants to preserve and honour this place with all its power and magic cannot ignore its dark history. Both are part and parcel of Bayreuth.

It is the tension between tradition and audacity that keeps this festival vibrant. Wagner’s works are not historical artefacts. They are re-examined, re-interpreted and heard anew here year after year. Directors, conductors and singers from all over the world bring fresh interpretations to the stage of the Festival Theatre every year – thus demonstrating the power of renewal.

I congratulate the Bayreuth Festival on this anniversary. May it retain the courage to renew itself.

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier