„Stark ruft das Lied, kräftig reizt der Zauber...“
The Festival Idea
The development of the Festival idea and the emergence of Wagner's main work "Der Ring des Nibelungen" are closely interwoven. When the first Richard Wagner Festival began with "Das Rheingold" on 13th August 1876 and ended in a huge deficit, nobody wanted to imagine that this could become a long tradition.
Originally Richard Wagner wanted to build only a provisional theater on the edge of the Rhine, to perform there once the tetralogy of "Der Ring des Nibelungen". Then the wooden structure should be demolished again.
So, on 14 September 1850, Richard Wagner sketched for the first time the idea of a festival that stayed with him henceforth:
I am genuinely thinking of setting Siegfried to music, only I cannot reconcile myself with the idea of trusting to luck and of having the work performed by the very first best theatre that comes along: on the contrary, I am toying with the boldest of plans [...]. According to this plan of mine, I would have a theatre, made of planks, erected here on the spot and have the most suitable singers join me here and arrange everything necessary for this one special occasion, so that I could be certain of an outstanding performance of the opera.
(Richard Wagner to Ernst Benedikt Kietz (1816 – 1892), 14th September 1850)
[...] - here, where I happen to be, and where many a thing is far from bad - I would erect, after my own plans, in a beautiful field near the town, a rough theatre of planks and beams, and merely furnish it with the decorations and machinery necessary for the production of Siegfried. Then I would select the best singers to be found anywhere, and invite them for six weeks to Zurich. I would try to form a chorus here consisting, for the most part, of amateurs [...] I should invite in the same way my orchestra. at the new year, announcements and invitations to all the friends of the musical drama would appear in all the German newspapers, with a call to visit the proposed dramatic musical festival. Any one giving notice, and travelling for this purpose to Zurich, would receive a certain entrée–naturally, like all the entrées, gratis. [...] When everything is in order I should arrange, under these circumstances, for three performances of Siegfried in one week. After the third the theatre would be pulled down, and my score burnt. To those persons who had been pleased with the thing I should then say, "Now do likewise."
(Richard Wagner to Theodor Uhlig (1822 – 1853), 22nd September 1850)
I intend to perform my myth in three complete dramas that are preceded by a great prelude. With these dramas, though each of them is supposed to form a self-contained whole, I still have no "repertory pieces" according to the modern theatrical elements, but for their portrayal, I hold to the following plan: In the course of a specifically designated three-day festival plus a preceding evening, I intend to perform those three dramas together with the prelude. I regard the purpose of this performance as perfectly accomplished if I succeed, along with my artistic comrades, the real performers, in sharing with the spectators who gathered on the four evenings to learn about my intention, this intention to convey artistically real feelings (not critical ones) and understanding. Another consequence is just as indifferent to me as it seems to me superfluous.
(Richard Wagner, A Message to My Friends, 1851)
With this my new conception I withdraw entirely from all connection with our theatre and public of to-day; I break decisively and forever with the formal present. [...] I can only think of a performance after the revolution: Only the revolution will bring to me the artists and the audience. The next revolution must necessarily put an end to our whole theatre business: they must and will all break down, this is inevitable … From the ruins, I will then call together to me what I need: I will then find what I need. At the Rhine, I will then set up a theatre, and invite people to a great dramatic festival: after a year of preparation, I shall, in the course of four days, set up my whole work, with which I give the people of the revolution to recognise the importance of this revolution, according to their noblest sense.
(Richard Wagner to Theodor Uhlig, 12th November 1851)
The performance of my Nibelung dramas will have to take place at a great festival, to be arranged perhaps especially for the purpose of this performance. It will have to extend over three consecutive days, the introductory drama to be given on the previous evening.
(Richard Wagner to Franz Liszt, 20th November 1851)
The Rhine became the Main, and instead of Zurich, the performances finally took place in Bayreuth.
The annual Bayreuth Festival developed from the original singular project of Richard Wagner to the "mother of all festivals".
What remains is the claim to realize exemplary and standard defining performances of Richard Wagner's works and to ensure always a "superb performance of the opera".