Saturday, 8 July 2006
Why Bayreuth? I can almost see that question coming out from the eyes of a person sitting beside me on the train when he learnt of my destination. Because the composer Richard Wagner spent his last formative years here? Because this is where the Bayreuth Wagner music festival takes place? In a sense, I came on a pilgrimage to Wagner, just as my trip to the Central Cemetary in Vienna for other composers.
As I got off the train, the first thing I looked for was a map of the city (I did not even bring a map with me). Fortunately, there was one right outside the train station. From it, I learnt that the Festival House was on the right-hand direction (north) as one headed out from the train station.
Even though the roof of the Festival House could even be seen from the train station, walking there still took a good 20 minutes. Soon, the roads around the area started to be named by characters or titles of Wagner's music dramas: Siegfried, Tristan, Meistersinger (of Nürnberg), etc. The road leading to the Festival House was heavily wooded on both sides; thus it was difficult to get a clear view of the Festival House until one draws very near. Amongst the woods were various crafted gardens, containing some sculptures. Indeed, it was Wagner's idea that during the intermissions of his long music dramas, the audience would stroll around the gardens, digesting over the materials in the dramas.
The Festival House itself was moderately inspiring, modesty mixed with some extent of airiness. I walked around the Festival House once, peaking through glass windows of locked doors and got a glimpse of the interior. I also tried to imagine how this place would be in a week, when the Wagner music festival would be in full operation (indeed, one nowadays needs to wait anywhere from three to nine years in order to get a ticket; I had been thinking of coming here in the middle of the festival trying to beg for a ticket or get one from a ticket scalper, but then thought better of it--the festival organisers have been known to drag people with "scalped" tickets from their seats and blacklist them).
My only goal in Bayreuth completed, I spent the remaining 20 minutes strolling through the town centre--the main street and a garden of the Bayreuth Residenz. I took the 15:00 train and got back to Munich by about 19:30.