Bayreuth canon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bayreuth canon is a term referring to those operas of Richard Wagner that have been performed at the Bayreuth Festival, the festival of his music founded by the composer and continued since his death under the directorship of members of his family. The canon consists of:
- Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, the four components of Der Ring des Nibelungen first performed in its entirety during the first festival in 1876;
- Parsifal, first performed at Bayreuth during the second festival in 1882 and solely performed there until the embargo placed on performances elsewhere by Wagner and his heirs was broken by the Metropolitan Opera, New York in 1903;
- Der Fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, all introduced by the composer's widow Cosima after she started running the festival on a continuing basis.
Together, these make up the last ten completed stage works by the composer, he having come to reject his first three completed operas as immature apprentice works. Although these earlier operas have been given in other opera houses, the Bayreuth canon far outstrips them both in the number of performances given around the world and the number of recordings that are available. The term can therefore also be used as shorthand for those of Wagner's works that form part of the mainstream operatic repertoire.
[edit] Table of Performances at Bayreuth
As of the completion of the 2007 festival, a total of 2382 performances have been given at the Bayreuth Festival of the operas in the canon, distributed as in the following table.
| Opera | First Bayreuth performance | Latest Bayreuth performance | Total Number of festival performances |
|---|---|---|---|
| Das Rheingold | 1876 | 2007 | 204 |
| Die Walküre | 1876 | 2007 | 204 |
| Siegfried | 1876 (world première production) | 2007 | 202 |
| Götterdämmerung | 1876 (world première production) | 2007 | 206 |
| Parsifal | 1882 (world première production) | 2007 | 490 |
| Tristan und Isolde | 1886 | 2006 | 197 |
| Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg | 1888 | 2007 | 283 |
| Tannhäuser | 1891 | 2007 | 196 |
| Lohengrin | 1894 | 2005 | 197 |
| Der Fliegende Holländer | 1901 | 2006 | 203 |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
Gurewitsch, Matthew "Music: Bayreuth, Like Wagner, Survives the Critics", New York Times, September 5, 1999.
Bayreuth Festival site (in German).
