The Bayreuth Festival (German: Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Germany, where musical dramas by Richard Wagner are performed. The first Bayreuth festival (Bayreuther Festspiele) was held on August 13, 1876; it premiered the complete cycle of ‘The Ring of the Nibelung’. In artistic terms, the festival was a success. "Something happened in Bayreuth that our grandchildren and their children will still remember," wrote Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who was present at the opening.

However, creative success turned into financial failure. The next festival was not held until 1882, although Wagner had originally conceived of the festival as an annual event. The second festival featured a performance of ‘Parsifal’, written by the composer especially for its acoustics and functionality. The Festival Theatre (Festspielhaus, now Richard-Wagner-Festspielhaus) was built in 1872, in the northern suburb of Bayreuth.  The innovative architectural design of the building was based on Wagner's own ideas and on unachieved design by Gottfried Semper (1803-1879)   for the Munich Festival Theatre (1865), which was also conceived for the performance of the composer's operas. For the sake of the best possible vision from all the seats (over 1,900) in the auditorium, and in imitation of ancient examples, the rows of seats were arranged in an amphitheatre layout, more democratic than the traditional system for Wagner's time system with a parterre and tiers of galleries. The décor of the auditorium  also refers to antiquity: there are Corinthian columns and the illusionistic ceiling painting that imitates the fabric canopy and the blue sky above the ancient theatre. The orchestra is hidden from the audience.
The theatre building has been undergoing a comprehensive renovation for the past few years, which is due to be completed by 2026, in time for the 150^th anniversary of the festival. Since 2012, the theatre has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Since 1882, the Bayreuth festivals have been held for three to four weeks annually. During the 1st and 2nd World Wars, the festivals were not organized (they were resumed in 1924 and 1951, respectively). The opera cycle “Der Ring des Nibelungen” and other Wagner operas were staged at the Bayreuth Theatre. Sometimes the Beethoven's 9^th Symphony is sometimes.

After the death of Richard Wagner death, the management was taken over by his widow Cosima Wagner. She made Bayreuth not only a Mecca for musicians and admirers of Wagner, but also a mandatory gathering place for the German secular-political elite. At first, only German musicians performed at the festival. However, already in 1904 the famous dancer Isadora Duncan took part in the ballet scene of "Tannhäuser", and the author of the costumes and set designs for the production of "Parsifal" was a German scenic designer and writer of Russian descent Paul von Joukowsky.

The festival was significantly revitalized after the Second World War under the joint leadership of the composer's grandsons, Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner.  The Wagner brothers sought to rid the festival of its reputation for being pro-nationalist and committed to established tradition. For this purpose, they began to invite performers from all over the world. After the death of his brother, Wolfgang Wagner was the sole director of the festival until 2008. German director and professor Katharina Wagner took over as artistic director and festival director in 2008, succeeding her father Wolfgang. Her resignation will mark the end of the era of the composer's family's management of the festival.

In 2024, the festival opened on July 24 with an open-air symphony orchestra concert. This is the third time this has happened: the concert is free of charge for everyone to attend and takes place on the hill in front of the theatre itself. The festival programme includes the premiere of ‘Tristan und Isolde’ in a theater production by Icelandic stage director Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson.  The conductor of the production was Semyon Bychkov. ‘Tannhäuser’ by Tobias Kratzer , first performed in 2019, and ‘The Ring of Nibelung’ tetralogy re-emerged at the festival.

The once aesthetically moderate Bayreuth Stage has now become the most progressive laboratory for Wagnerian theatre in the world: topical directing, educational and intellectual programmes for the public, including, since 2017, the symposium "Discourse Bayreuth", which examines the Richard Wagner phenomenon in different aspects. The Bayreuth Festival occupies an important place in the world opera process. Being both a bulwark of conservatism and an enabler of new ideas in various years, the festival has always remained a highly prestigious forum in which any musician is honored to participate.

“Richard Wagner. To the 205^th birth anniversary”.
Published in the section “Articles and Reviews”, May 2018