The Bayreuth canon consists of those operas by the German composer Richard Wagner (1813–1883) that have been performed at the Bayreuth Festival.[1] The festival, which is dedicated to the staging of these works, was founded by Wagner in 1876 in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth, and has continued under the directorship of his family since his death. Although it was not originally held annually, it has taken place in July and August every year since the 75th anniversary season in 1951. Its venue is the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which was built for the first festival.[2] Attendance at the festival is often thought of as a pilgrimage made by Wagner aficionados.[3]
The operas in the Bayreuth canon are the last ten of the thirteen that Wagner completed. He rejected the first three – Die Feen, Das Liebesverbot and Rienzi – as apprentice works.[4][5] Although these have been staged elsewhere and Rienzi was very popular into the early 20th century,[6] the works in the canon exceed them, both in the number of performances given[7] and in the number of available recordings.[8] The term Bayreuth canon is therefore sometimes taken to mean the composer's mature operas.[9] Georg Solti was the first conductor to complete studio recordings of all the works in the canon, starting in 1958 with Das Rheingold and finishing in 1986 with Lohengrin.[9]
The components of the canon are as follows:[10]
As of the completion of the 2018[update] festival, 2725[25] performances have been given at the Bayreuth Festival of the operas in the canon, distributed as in the following table.
symbol and colour | meaning |
---|---|
† | Ring opera |
‡ | Introduced by Richard Wagner |
* | Introduced by Cosima Wagner |
Opera | Completed | Première | Bayreuth première | Most recent Bayreuth season (to 2018[update])[26] |
Total Bayreuth performances (to 2018[update])[26] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Das Rheingold† (The Rhinegold) |
1854[27] | 22 September 1869[28] | 13 August 1876‡[29] | 2017 | 229 |
Die Walküre† (The Valkyrie) |
1856[27] | 26 June 1870[30] | 14 August 1876‡[11][29] | 2018 | 229 |
Siegfried† | 1869[27] | 16 August 1876[31] | 16 August 1876‡[31] | 2017 | 228 |
Götterdämmerung† (The Twilight of the Gods) |
1874[27] | 17 August 1876[32] | 17 August 1876‡[32] | 2017 | 232 |
Parsifal | 1882[33] | 26 July 1882[34] | 26 July 1882‡[34] | 2018 | 536 |
Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde) |
1859[35] | 10 June 1865[36] | 25 July 1886*[11][37] | 2018 | 244 |
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) |
1867[38] | 21 June 1868[39] | 23 July 1888*[11][40] | 2018 | 319 |
Tannhäuser | 1845[41][42] | 19 October 1845[43] | 22 August 1891*[11][44] | 2014 | 220 |
Lohengrin | 1848[45] | 28 August 1850[46] | 20 July 1894*[11][47] | 2018 | 237 |
Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) |
1841[48][49] | 2 January 1843[50] | 22 July 1901*[11][51] | 2018 | 238 |