The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-11-06
THE OLD HOME OF WAGNER.
EDGAR |. wAKeMAN IN BAYREuTH.
A Spot For IdyIlic Retirement-TheM Musical
Mecca of the CIty-Wagner's Origin
Who Made Him ImmortaI-His
influence on Music.

desired TO seek as deep seclusion as pos
sible, and to retire almost absolutely from
all that had flavor of the modern about it,
his judgment vas not amiss when he
selected Bayreuth. The place is one OF
the oldest OF Bavarian towns. Indeed, il
one consider the irregularity of the streets
and the general struggling, zig-zag hap
hazard arrangement, or rather want of ar
rangement, about everything, the place
must have originally grown up along some
old Roman cow-path, and that one most
eccentric cow-path besides. Somebody has
given Darmstadt the reputation of being
the deadest town in Europe.
That person had not seen Bay
reuth. Il am told that at any time
between the Wagnerian revivals, when
a party OF strangers arrives at Bayreuth, it
is such an event that the church bells are
rung and the visitors are drawn in their
fiakres to an inn by the populace. How
ever this may be, there is a listlessness and
a silence here that are ever painful. Twice
a week the old market-place brightens
up bit. Ii there is any other business
done here there are no evidences of it.
The Rathhaus is a rat-house indeed; the
churches are sullen and ruinous the ho-
tells are wearisome old places with their
"ofices" in a chair in a moldy court, or
on an oaken table no larger than your hat /;
the Tesidences-but a few of which were
built during the present century-are gray
old tombs, about which even wild things
In green have apparently ceased growing ;
the people themselves seem as wraiths,
who dream between tests, and who are
only revived for little time to gather the
pfennigs and marks that those remarkable
events bring here; and as soon as the
strangers are gone the sleep of the years
again Immediately descends for another
dreary cycle.
But a long time ago before Wagner was
born, il seemed that others chose the place
for a spot for idyllic retirement. The hus-
band OF the illustrious Margarine de
Baireuth, sister OF Frederick III OF Prussia,
here built many of the deserted palaces
and stately houses which are now either
used as barracks or are entirely deserted.
The Ermitage is one and Is located about
three miles from Bavreuth. In this, il is
related, the lady named wrote her famous
"Memoirs." Also at this period Frederick
ii built the fine old theater here, decor
ated in the rocco style. which seats a
thousand peSsle, and in which, during his
time, operas and fieras were produced at
great cost. Upon one, IL Is said, $4,000
fiorins were expended. So il will be
seen that Wagner merely revived and sur
passed what once existed here. Besides
the ancient glories of the Margravines, in
terest attaches TO Bayreuth as the home of
Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, whose writ
ings are known to all lovers of literature.
He lived here from 1901 until the date of
his death, in 1925, and lies buried in the
little graveyard just beyond the Erlangen
gate King Ludwig l erected his monu-
ment, the work OF Swanthaler, in one of
the principal squares of Bayreuth. At the
little hosiery called the Rothwenzel, near
the Ermitage, a room is shown where
Richter loved to come and rest and write
But above all else, the pilgrim here is
attracted TO the Richard Wagner theater,
the musical mecca of Bayreuth. 1t is
built fully mile from the center of the
town, halfway up the side of little
mountain, whose top is crowned by the
soldiers memorial OF lS72-73, and
with the exception of few modern
residences at either side of the broad
tree-hordered avenue leading to il. is quite
untidv and even repulsive in exterior APP
peara4ce, and no style OF architecture
could be named in describing it unless, in
deed il might be called Wagnerian-that
IS, INTELLECTUALLY frightful. The material
i a composite OF stone and brick and con-
crete, with here and there the cross beams
OF oak, so common in inferior German
buildings, with ruble stone and plaster in
the interstices. As you approach the level
platz or space, set aside from the theater
and grounds there are 10 the right a
gigantic detached wine cafe and dance hall,
and 70 the left an isolated beer hall and
promenade grounds. To describe the ap-
pearance OF the theater from a distance.
without knowing for what purpose it had
been built, one would he attempted to say
that a German wealthy farmer had built a
large barn, or storehouse, upon hill. Not
quite satisfied with the room he had got.
after a little he had shed for his cattle
and horses erected at either side. Finally,
after several years OF afiuence and deter
mined 10 Quito any farmer in the prin-
cipality, he had put another barn, twice as
high and as large, behind and against the
first one constructed.
But when alive, wise, old Wagner could
give American theater builders points
upon interior construction. The stage and
accessories have been given the most at
tention, and, this portion OF the theater
representing the last barn built by the
farInerj il twice as large as the auditorium
itself. The width OF the stage is ninety
feet; the depth (stage proper is seventy
eight feet; TO which is an extension forty
feet deep and thirty-nine feet wide giving
on occasions like the presentation OF "Par-
sifaF' total stage depth of rs feet. The
hight OF the stage from the floor to the at
tachment OF flies is ninety feet. The open
space below the stage, the stage cellar, has
a depth OF thirty-four feet, and the open
space above the flies is twenty
six feet, giving a total distance
from the highest available point
for use in stage mechanism to the
floor OF the stage cellar of $50 feet. The
auditorium TO American eyes at first seems
as painfully ugly and plain as is possible
for the monkish, morbid genius of man to
create. But one gradually discovers sys-
tenn and arrangement OF wOndrous real
worth. There Is not a proscenium box or
parquet or dress-circle box in the theater
There is no parquet or dress-circle. The
seats circle TO the right and left from the
cavernous space in front of the stage.
where the orchestra is shut out from view,
NO the rear, at an angle of elevation of
About 30'. Following these, at either side,
with lessening projection. are lateral walls
reaching to the ceiling, the ends OF which
are treated with detached Corinthian col
umns with long, square bases These di-
Ininishing columns terminateat the rear at
either end of the princo's gal lery set i'm