SEPTEMBER 2014 -- DECEMBER 2014 WAGNER NEWS Wagner News is published by the TORONTOWAGNER SOCIETY TWS web site: www.torontowagner.org TWS CALENDAR E-mail:[email protected] Monday, September 15 This issue is dedicated almost entirely to 8.00 p.m. Bayreuth and the goings-on there. DVD showing: ‘Wagner, A Genius in Since it reaches you before we can include any first hand reports Exile’. A biographical and musical film (beyond one preliminary one) from members of our society who made by Antoine Wagner, great-great were in attendance, we chose rather to glean through published grandson of Richard. reviews for comments about this year’s version of past Bayreuth * productions. There are no new productions this season, a rather Thursday, October 30 uncommon decision perhaps due to changes in the management; 8.00 p.m. in consequence, most reviewers focused on the differences in the Gerald Finley talks about singing productions between the past season and the current one. Wagner. (Note the different day of the week which Bayreuth today was Finley’s only available date in Construction is in progress on all by a plaster bust of Wagner wearing Toronto). fronts and if we can trust the a hard hat. According to the Museum * predictions, after previously failed and Archives director Sven Monday, November 10 target dates, the opening time is July Friedrich, by the time of the next ! 8.00 p.m. 2015. Festival, 2015, there will be a Stephan Bonfield on ‘Die Meistersinger The Wagner Museum and Archives thoroughly revised permanent today -‘The Artwork of the Future’ and get a new building and a permanent exhibition of the life and work of the exhibition at a cost of approximately composer, including a treasure trove some past perspectives.’ 18 million euros. The renovation of of original musical scores. the Festival house will cost 30 A new glass faced building will meetings at million euros shared with the Town house the history of the Festival, and ARTS AND LETTERS CLUB Hall upgrade. Work has started this events and temporary exhibitions. current year and included in this Siegfried Wagner’s house will deal 14 ELM STREET ambitious drive to modernization of with Richard Wagner and the Nazis, not only the properties relating to and exhibits relating to the ideology Richard Wagner but also upscaling and performance history of Wagner’s the Town Hall, and the Margrave interpreters, such as Adorno, Bloch Opera House, which will cost about and Hans Mayer. 100 million euros. The Festival A cafeteria will be in a new House will get a facelift on the building close to Wagner’s tomb in outside; the interior will stay the way the garden. Not all are happy with it; it is and has been - wooden seats and it is seen as a sacrilege. The now no air-conditioning; all this to deceased granddaughter of Wagner, preserve the existing acoustics.The Iris, found it disrespectful, an financing will come from the opinion shared by many, Federal Government, the Bavarian acknowledged but not heeded. Wahnfried today and yesterday State, the Upper Franconia Wahnfried itself is in semi Foundation and the Society of reconstruction. Only original Friends of Bayreuth. furniture will be shown and what is lost will be replaced by white cover slip-on copies, as though Wagner was traveling. The original dining room of Winifred Wagner will be on view for the first time but not accessible - closed off by a cord. So On the first floor of Wahnfried, we will not be able to sit down as if where Winifred Wagner lived and invited, awaiting to be greeted by the Adolf Hitler visited, one is greeted lady of the house. 2 THE TICKET SITUATION IN BAYREUTH REVEALED ! The Ideal Festival Customer Rarely Attends (Der ideale Festspiel-Kunde geht selber rein) * Interview with the Managing Director, Hans-Dieter Sense of the Bayreuth Festival, conducted by Monika Beer and published in 'InFranken.de * (loosely translated by Frances Henry) There is always a black market when there is high demand. Managing Director Hans-Dieter Sense of the Bayreuth Festival, Therefore I will give a spontaneous answer to the question in that I provides detailed information on the sale of tickets for the Festival. no longer have such a high demand. One should also understand that Some special contingents have been reduced or completely removed, it is much simpler today to work with the black market. As well, so that there are more tickets for the regular applicant. other than the newspaper announcement, it does not cost one cent to The Festival has not had much luck with their internet sales. Since place a ticket on Ebay. One should invest in nothing but the real its beginning in 2012, for tickets to the jubilee production its server - ticket price. But it is for this reason that the black market for the Bayreuth company TMT - was fully overloaded. A worse demand-driven events exists. breakdown in the October 2013 - was followed by the first regular Q. How can you influence the demand? online sales for the Festival in 2014 - also because of data security. Suddenly the following end of March and beginning April, online There are several possibilities. One either increases the number of tickets became available to be purchased immediately. There were performances which, because the Festival does not have its own reasons therefore to ask Heinz-Dieter Sense, the manager of the Ensemble is not possible, or the productions will become so bad that Festival, some questions. nobody would want to attend. I have been in the artistic field for Q: How many tickets does the Festival have per season and such a long time that I say: they cannot be so bad that people would performance? not want to come. There is demand when there is a top production and when there is a flop. When it is only so-so, there is lesser By performance there are 1,925 places that we can sell. There are a demand. Another possibility would be to play the productions for a few more , for Exempel for the entrance staff. All together for the 30 longer time period. But would that be a solution in the minds of performances there are 57,750 tickets. In the Ring years there are visitors if, for example, we extend the highly sought after fewer tickets to sell because the four performances are sold as one 'Lohengrin' until no one wants to see it? ticket. One can dispute that but it is done for artistic reasons. Q. Wolfgang Wagner wanted to drive out the black market Q. How many tickets are recerved for special contingents? through personalized tickets The tickets are personalized as before; the name of the first buyer is At the moment from about 57,750 tickets, 19,326 are taken of which on the ticket. What Wolfgang Wagner wanted was that only the the Association of Friends of Bayreuth receives 14,000. There are named person on the ticket would be allowed to enter. In my also smaller contingents every year who receive service tickets- opinion, that is legally not possible and very difficult to organize sponsors, media and so forth. These contingents must be approved administratively. by management every year. For the open sale, 38,424 tickets remain. We must rather reflect on the quotas with the shareholders on these and other certain premptive rights and build a new sales and service Q. Since when is this so? strategy. As long as I don't give tour operators tickets, what happens In 2008/2009 there were only 19,525 in the open sale. This means now will continue to happen. that the total in the open sale has doubled. In earlier times the Q. The problem persists that many people who have no interest Wagner societies had through a right of sale (or purchase option) in the Festival buy tickets. 6,600 tickets which was reduced to 100 . Completely taken off were the travel agents with about 4,150 places and the 3,850 places of the These are the people who try it out on in a transitional period. two trade union performances and the number of free media tickets Because they will no longer buy tickets if they have no hoped for was more than halved. business I could live in a transitional period. There is also a second problem that happens to our visitors: when there are still seats vacant Q. There are several tour operators on the internet who offer at the beginning of a performance - and this has nothing to do with festival tickets. How did they get their tickets? black market speculation - that people drive to Bayreuth too late and If I knew that, then I would also know how to deal with this problem. given traffic on the highway, arrive too late. And then there is the so- Because of several reasons a secondary market where tickets are called Public Events. Some people want to come to Bayreuth once trated - which don't come from the organizer - has been built. The and when they realize how uncomfortable it is here, they leave in the danger is that on this market, ticket prices are very much higher intermission. This means that as Wagner regulars were pushed out as which raises the pleasurable thought to politicians that our tickets a result of concerns about justice, a new problem has arisen. could be much higher and therefore require less subsidy. And then Q. Hardcore Wagnerians then go somewhere else because they there is also - but that is a development perhaps in the last five years are addicts.