Bayreuth

The Bayreuth Wagner Festival (TIME, Aug. 4) continued. Every opera which will be presented has had by now at least one hearing. The complete Ring cycle was presented: Rheingold, Siegfried, Walkuere, Goetterdammerung, also Parsifal and Meistersinger. All has been carried out in strictest accordance with the traditions established under old King Ludwig's patronage in the ancient golden Wagnerian days. Not a note was "cut" from any of the enormous scores; no concessions were made to the limits of human patience on the part of the audiences. Richard Wagner used to insist on live beasts on the stage for his various animal-parts, and his widow, Cosima Wagner, who is running this show, insists on the same. 'Consequently this year's crop of Bayreuth pilgrims are viewing with glee Fricka's flock of real goats, Wotan's ravens, Siegfried's bear and toad--and, of course, the Dragon. Where the Dragon was found for this year's performance, one is unable to discover at this distance. . . . The Rhine maidens, buxom Bavarian lasses all, were swung, as Wagner directed, by wires attached to the stage-ceiling through the blue-green gauze "waters" of the river. Except for the fact that very few stellar singers could be mustered (most of them having been engaged for the Munich Wagner-season, which opened August 1), the Festival was reported as an unqualified artistic success. The huge choruses, particularly, showed the results of thorough Teutonic drill. The Bayreuth coffers are already well filled, and Wagner-festivals will probably be continued, indefinitely.