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The Wagner Sisters:
"Tickets? We have very goods seats thanks. |
I wasn't going to report this but wait for developments following the response of Bayreuth to a recent letter from the International Association of Wagner Societies. However, it has been pointed out to me, that
Interrmezzo and prior to that
The Wagner Blog, have already covered this in part. I have also had one or two emails about what I might know. With that in mind I thought I might let you know what a little bird or two (of the forest variety) has informed me in the vague hope of attempting to clarify. A note of caution however, following Groucho Marx's maxim about never being a member of a club that would accept me as a member, I would like to point that I am not a member of any Wagner Society. Equally, I have no vested interest in acquiring any more tickets to Bayreuth -
or at least not till they stop all the silliness with the mice and the biogas.
As reported here back in June, a recent report by the the Bundesrechnungshof, the federal audit office, was highly critical of the manner in which Bayreuth distributes its tickets. It pointed out that the festival - which receives $7 million of state funding - makes only 40% of tickets available directly to the public and worse only 16% of tickets to any premiere is available . The other 60 percent involves quotas given to specific organisations: Society of Friends of Bayreuth, Travel Agents, Federation of German Trades Unions, etc (click
here for more details). The report went on to point out that the festival must introduce both greater transparency of its allocation procedures and also greater distribution of the tickets to the general public.
As I have already reported
here, the German workers union DGB, has only recently been informed that its annual allocation of tickets has been withdrawn. Now in a further turn of events, the international Association of Wagner Associations received a letter from Bayreuth, signed by Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Katharina Wagner and dated 14/12/11, informing them of the outcome of a meeting of the shareholders of the festival held on the 18/10/11. In this letter they state that that ticket allocations for both Wagner societies and, in a strangely out of place addition, travel agents has been withdrawn. They point out the recent report from the Bundesrechnungshof and the need for greater transparency in the allocation process. They go onto say that no further "order forms" will be sent to societies and that any applications made via the internet will remain unprocessed. They do however conclude,perhaps less than helpfully, by saying that members of the societies can continue make applications for tickets like everyone else.
Needless to say, the International Association of Wagner Societies has already responded and in a letter dated 21 December they show their surprise at the decision. They have pointed out the long history between themselves and the Festival since their foundation in 1872; the involvement of the associations in the building of Bayreuth and their continued, and what one must say is significant and unpaid, voluntary, support of the festival, etc by its 22, 000 members, They also point out that the removal of ticket allocation was first brought to their attention recently without any communication from Bayreuth- and prior to the Bayreuth letter -
and only when individual members were chasing-up applications to the box office! They conclude by recognising that they have no right to ticket allocation but hope the Festival will reconsider their decision at the next Shareholders meeting.
I have to say that the decision and the way it has been handled, by Bayreuth has surprised even me. A quick search through just this blog will supply an idea of the sort of self funded, voluntary, promotional work the societies do in the name of promoting Wagner's work. To this we must add the national and international singing competitions and the large amount of sponsorship and promotion provided to up and coming Wagner performers - many of whom would have struggled to develop their careers without such support.
It is understandable that Bayreuth may have wanted to stop the profiteering of the travel agents but stopping allocation of full price tickets to societies that support them - and initially not even telling them they had ceased their allocation - seems a to hasty, and ill thought-out response to the criticisms of the Bundesrechnungshof Perhaps, if increasing tickets for public consumption is an issue, then reducing ticket allocations for societies would be acceptable but removing allocation seems an extreme and perhaps foolish move.
More as things develop.
Posts
...or at least one does (although it is confirmed that Wagner Society in London has spoken to the International Association as other societies seem to have done) : The Wagner Society Of Scotland have given a detailed response to the recently announced changes to ticket allocations to "special interest groups" (which it has been suggested elsewhere would include "The Friends of Bayreuth" while other sources suggest this organisation is excluded). I quote directly, if selectively, below from the Societies news letter (for the full, highly detailed reply, follow the link below where a further rather confusing letter from Bayreuth dated 22 December can also be found)
I wouldn't normally bother reporting this but I think as the societies themselves seem to be so "low-key" about it that it might seem, at least to their members, that they are not doing any in response. However, sources tell me this is far from the case.
Bryn Terfel has regrettably had to withdraw from the role of Hans Sachs due to a chest infection. We are pleased to be able to announce that the role will be taken by German bass-baritone Wolfgang Koch, who has been delivering outstanding performances as Sachs in the current staged production at the Royal Opera House. Koch has previously triumphed as Hans Sachs at the Vienna Staatsoper, and his highly praised Wagnerian roles also include Alberich (Das Rheingold, Siegfried) and Amfortas (Parsifal). All other casting remains as before. 
Out of the morning land,
I wasn't going to report this, instead I was going to leave it till I compiled an article on all of Bayreuth's new changes to ticket allocations. However, I came across a prominent English language source that recently seemed to misrepresent what had taken place and thought it worth clarifying - or at least as well as my operatic German will allow. 
A newcomer to Longborough this year will be Stuart Pendred, singing Hagen in Götterdämmerung. Stuart trained as an actor and his career has spanned film, television, theatre, musicals, radio and the music industry including two solo album projects. Stuart’s operatic and oratorio performances include Escamillo Carmen – Impact Opera; Baron Duphol La Traviata – Opera Bearwood; Escamillo Carmen; Sarastro The Magic Flute for New Vic Opera; Marullo Rigoletto and Tristan & Isolde for Grange Park Opera and Sciarrone Tosca and Montano Otello for Dorset Opera; Handel’s Messiah and Brahm’s German Requiem
“Wahn, Wahn, überall Wahn” while Wagner – and indeed Schopenhauer if he had done so – was certainly using it in a very different way, it is a phrase that I am often reminded of when reading a variety of reviews on the same production. Let us forget for a moment any thought of the “Will” (either to “live” or indeed “power”) and let us also ignore any associations with clinical psychosis - or neurosis even. Further, let us remove the usual translation of “madness” (very unlikely to be taken literally in any clinical sense given Wagner’s favoured philosopher and its use within the opera) but instead let us use a different and no less valid translation: of delusion or self deception. Although again not the only translations but the ones that best serve our purposes here. Now, with that very weakly established definition, one can say with some certainty that all “delusion” is the result of a combination of the sense receptors and perhaps most importantly, in most cases, sense processing facilities of the individual in combination with our ”personal history” - as I am sure pop psychology books would say. And we are all of course prone to these “delusions”. In its extremes this is as simple as one person reading Dan Brown and finding it, to them, fine literature with great secrets to be revealed while another can’t help laughing at its, again to them, inane prose, ridiculous plot, and badly stolen, and already well investigated concepts. Indeed, is this not the very centre of all conflict? Militarily and political? Economic and social? Perhaps not, but it certainly doesn’t help. And with that pop psychology firmly in mind, let us now turn to our review round-up where I think we will find our very loosely argued concepts of individual sense processing never so clearly apparent – especially in regard to the performances. “Wahn” indeed seems to be “everywhere” - although, not completely everywhere.
