Best of Bayreuth, Highlights from Three Decades of the Richard Wagner Festival, Episode 1

Bayreuth is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town s roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of Upper Franconia and has a population of 72, 148 (2015). The town is best known for its association with the composer Richard Wagner, who lived in Bayreuth from 1872 until his death in 1883. Wagner s villa, Wahnfried, was constructed in Bayreuth under the sponsorship of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and was converted after World War II into a Wagner Museum. In the northern part of Bayreuth is the Festival Hall, an opera house specially constructed for and exclusively devoted to the performance of Wagner s operas. The premieres of the final two works of Wagner s Ring Cycle ( Siegfried and Götterdämmerung ); the cycle as a whole; and of Parsifal took place here. Every summer, Wagner s operas are performed at the Festspielhaus du