All you need to know about Bayreuth in three adjacent signs

All you need to know about Bayreuth in three adjacent signs

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norman lebrecht

August 11, 2015

bayreuth sign

courtesy proskenion Agentur

1 festival theatre, 2 mental hospital, 3 labour exchange

Comments

  • Simon S. says:
    August 11, 2015 at 2:50 pm

    Funny, but must be a couple of years old. It’s more than ten years now that the Arbeitsämter were renamed into “Agentur für Arbeit”

    Reply
  • PDQ.BACH says:
    August 11, 2015 at 5:58 pm

    This might have been (but rest assured, it is not) drawn straight from an early edition of Herbert Rosendorfer’s immortal “Bayreuth für Anfänger”.
    To my knowledge, that gem of a guide, as indispensable as it is funny, has not yet been translated into English.

    Love or hate Wagner: if you can decipher the tiniest bit of German, do thyself a favour, postpone the purchase of that Thielemann-imprinted shroud, or that phial containing a drop of holy oil from Thielemann’s anointment, and order thee that book.

    Reply
    • Theodore McGuiver says:
      August 11, 2015 at 10:31 pm

      Agree absolutely. Rosendorfer was a wonderful author, and his account of his years as a civil servant in Bayreuth are extremely entertaining. Germanophiles should also read his ‘Briefe in die chinesische Vergangenheit’. The sequel, ‘Die grosse Umwendung’ is not as good, but worth a few evenings of anyone’s time.

      Reply
    • Alexander Brown says:
      August 12, 2015 at 5:31 am

      Verily, thou hast said rightly! The book is on my list of future purchases. Incidentally, I still cannot fathom Thielemann’s enshrinement there – there are other conductors whose interpretations are far more musical and communicative than his rather mechanical, soulless renditions.

      Reply
  • John Borstlap says:
    August 12, 2015 at 11:37 am

    The signs describe an upward trajectory: first, looking for a job and getting crazy of it; second, recovering in the institution where the nurses sing ‘Weia walhalla’ from Rheingold; third, working as a set designer at the festival.

    Reply

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