|
Much Awaited
Bayreuth's 'Das Rheingold' previewed in Rome,
as experienced by GIUSEPPE PENNISI
These are the weeks when the 'perfect Wagnerians' -- as G B Shaw called them in a pamphlet full of irony -- scramble to get seats for the Summer Bayreuth Festival. The waiting list is seven years long but it is possible to short-cut this, either by means of the Wagner societies -- in many countries they buy books of tickets in advance -- or through specialized travel agencies, which normally charge a fifty per cent mark-up and require lodging in highly priced hotels.
In this small town in Northern Bavaria, next July and August, there will be a very special feast of music and memories because it is the apex of the worldwide celebrations of two hundred years since the composer's birth...
Copyright © 28 February 2013
Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
|
