Bayreuth

Bayreuth is a town in Bavaria, south Germany, on the Red Main River, 40 miles northeast of Nuremberg.

From the 13th to the late 18th century Bayreuth was a possession of the Hohenzollern family. 

In 1874 the German composer Richard Wagner moved into a house at Bayreuth that he called Wahnfried (“Peace from Illusion”).

Two years later, Wagner designed Bayreuth, an opera house made possible by the generosity of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. He wished to have a building, which would meet his extravagant musico-dramatic ideals.

The Festspielhaus, home of the Bayreuth Festival by Rico Neitzel

The theater introduced new concepts of opera house design, including provision of an enlarged orchestra pit extending below the stage and projecting the sound outwards and upwards.

In 1876 the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg went to Bayreuth to hear the first performance of Wagner’s Ring cycle. He wrote a review of the operas for a Norwegian newspaper.

Today, Wagner festivals, annual performances of Wagnerian operas, are held in Bayreuth every summer.

In 1886, the composer Franz Liszt visited his daughter Cosima Liszt, Wagner's widow. who was still living in Bayreuth. He died there as a result of pneumonia which he contracted during the Wagnerian musical festival hosted by Cosima. 

Both Liszt and Wagner are buried in Bayreuth; however, Wagner did not die there. Rather, he passed away in Venice in 1883, but his family had his body brought to Bayreuth and he was buried in the garden of Wahnfried. Liszt is buried in the Central Cemetery. 

Sources Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, Hutchinson Encyclopedia