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Categories: Theatre
Keywords: Architecture | Music
Relevant passages:
Barbara John «The Sounding Image. About the relationship between art and music—an art-historical retrospective view»
Richard Wagner
«Festspielhaus Bayreuth»
The Festspielhaus Bayreuth is built from 1872 to 1875, in accordance with Richard Wagner’s specifications, carried out by the architect Otto Brueckwald. The construction fulfills Wagner’s most important demands: an effective structure without ornamentation; a lowered orchestra kept concealed; an amphitheater-like auditorium without box seats and balcony, and a tent-roof as found in antique theaters.
Wagner calls the hidden orchestra pit, between the stage and first row of auditorium seats, «the mystic precipice, because he wishes to have the reality and identity separated.» In addition, a perspectival illusion is created by a dual proscenium, which pushes performers into the distance while also, according to Wagner «allowing them to appear enlarged and of superhuman scale».
Dieter Daniels
