Well there is the long way that takes a few years (8 according to you) of writing in every year in Sept. and no later than sometime in Oct. until you make the cut for the next year. Keep in mind there are like 60,000-62,000 seats per Festival. And about 700,000 writing in every year.

Wolfgang Wagner
Number +49 (0) 921 78 78 0
Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH
Festspielhügel 1-2, 95445
Bayreuth, Germany


Bayreuther Festspiele
Kartenbüro
Postfach 10 02 62, D-95402
Bayreuth, Germany


I believe tickets are now €30-€210




You can also join your local Wagner Society. They get a limited amount of tickets that members win by lottery.

You can become one of the Friends of Bayreuth the initial fee is around €1000 with an annual subscription of €550. They are given a limited amount of tickets every second year.

You can go the tour package method, which costs up to $3000 per person per night. Depending on the night and Opera. I think the Ring goes for $8,000. And that does not include transportation from wherever you are or room & board.

You have the black market, which usually gets you banned for life from the city of Bayreuth when you are caught. You have to leave Dodge before sunset if you know what I mean. It seems they are always caught. We have witnessed it a few times. A couple of times it was not pleasant for the person involved.

There is also the option of showing up at the box office dressed in your formal outfit and praying for a mircale. Think of a mircale along the lines of walking on water or feeding 5,000 people. Though not quite the parting of the Red Sea or raising Lazarus. You would be suprised how many just show up with no tickets at all and dressed up for the opera.


Finally, you can be lucky enough to be in Germany for business and have a wife that is a LOT NICER and who easily (freaky easy) makes friends. Who then meets and makes friends with a wife on the board.


I will let you guess which option I went with.

Mahler / No. 9 / Berstein / 1967

Holst's (my hero!) Venus: The Bringer of Peace from the Planets. The piece is so relaxing.

Bartók - "Sonata For Solo Violin"

Who's playing the Bartok, mine friend...?

Einojuhani Rautavaara / Sym. No. 7 / Dances with the Winds / Cantus arcticus

Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra

Schumann / Piano Concerto in A minor / Vogt, Rattle, CBSO

I like Vogt's and Rattle's matching purple shirts on the cover.

Still don't know what's so bad about Richter/Matacic...

Guillermo Figueroa - Violin

Ilhan Mimaroglu & Freddie Hubbard - Sing Me a Song of Songmy

I have been listening to all of the music I have by Schnittke for awhile. there is way too much to list here for the time being, and my Schnittke fest is almost over. Afterwards I'll put on Dmitri Shostakovich - String Quarter no. 8 in Cminor performed by the Emerson String Quartet, Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring, and top it all off with Penderecki - Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima.