Hot Bayreuth

Another round date anniversary in 2013 is Richard Wagner's 200th birthday on May 22. Although somewhat late, yesterday's opening of the 102nd Richard-Wagner-Festspiele in Bayreuth was something special.

Remember my blog about Marx?
This time artist Ottmar Hörl merchandises his plastic Wagners for 300 euros.
In the back is the venerable Festspielhaus (©BZ).

I love classical music, but Wagner has always been too big for me. Many of my countrymen and -women feel alike: I find his music overblown, bombastic, and sometimes flatulent, and I do not like his ant-antisemitism (Ameisen-Antisemitismus), as Stefan Mickisch called it in this year's introductory lecture.

The Brits and the French particularly adore Richard's music as typically German, or should I instead write Teutonic? They pay a fortune to sit in the Bayreuth Festival Theater (Festspielhaus) on the Green Hill without air conditioning on wooden seats. Yesterday with temperatures approaching 40 degrees centigrade, they devoutly listened to The Flying Dutchman together with Germany's high society.

From left to right: Bayreuth's Oberbürgermeister Brigitte Merk-Erbe,
Bundespräsident Joachim Gauck, Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel and
Ministerpräsident Horst Seehofer in front of Richard Wagner's birthday cake (©DPA).

The foreign aficionados came for the music, and the politicians came to be seen. This is why Bavarian Governor Horst Seehofer invited the latter to an official reception (Staatsempfang) at the Neues Schloss (New Castle). 

"Tricky Horst" (Finten-Horst) and Bayreuth's Lord Mayor Brigitte Merk-Erbe, offered the first slices of Wagner's birthday cake to our President Joachim Gauck and Chancellor Angela Merkel. Jochen and Mutti (Mom) said that they liked the performance of Der fliegende Holländer but did not comment on the cake.

*