Mastodon Frank Castorf tells booing Bayreuth audience, "You're mental mate" - The Wagnerian

Frank Castorf tells booing Bayreuth audience, "You're mental mate"

Written By The Wagnerian on Thursday 1 August 2013 | 1:07:00 am

Frank Castorf tells audience, "And you know what you can do 'an all"

Oh dear! How etiquette has fallen at Bayreuth. As is fairly "traditional", at the end of tonight's Gotterdammerung Director Frank Castorf made his first appearance on the stage. Alas, this did not go well, as he was meet with a shower of, equally traditional, booing - although this was perhaps a little more "energetic" than normal. It seems that after standing still for nearly ten minutes while much of the audience booed and whistled at him loudly, he lost his composure somewhat first "egging" the audience on to boo louder and then pointing first at the audience and then his forehead. A time honoured indicator that he thought that it was not he and his production that was "out of its mind" but the audience. And perhaps in keeping with the "Carry On" theme of this years Ring cycle

We are unsure if the audience's response was what set designer, Aleksandar Denic meant when he told Reuters: "I like it if there is a response, that is the biggest compliment to me".