Jonathan Knapp wrote:

>Wagner's operas were written to be performed in Bayreuth which has a
>wonderful acoustic and a semi-closed opera pit which allows the voices
>to "ride" with the orchestra instead of fighting through.

This, of course, is not quite right.  PARSIFAL is the only one of the
Wagner works to be written with the Bayreuth acoustic in mind.  While the
RING as a whole was premiered at Bayreuth, the work was laid aside in 1857,
complete as far as the middle of the second act of SIEGFRIED; Wagner laid
the foundation stone of the Festspielhaus on May 22, 1872.  The idea that
DAS RHEINGOLD, DIE WALKUERE, SIEGFRIED, TRISTAN, or DIE MEISTERSINGER, let
alone HOLLAENDER, TANNHAEUSER, or LOHENGRIN, were written for the Bayreuth
acoustic is not only chronologically impossible; Wagner's correspondence
shows that even the later works mentioned above such as MEISTERSINGER
were written with typical German opera house in mind.

Nick
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