Travel tips for opera lovers – Bayreuth and Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss had an intense relationship with Bayreuth. His father was a horn player in the Munich Court Opera and played in the premieres of “Meistersinger” and “Tristan” in Munich and was frequently in Bayreuth with the orchestra. He was a sharp-tongued critic of Richard Wagner and fought many a battle with the composer.  For example, he sat as the first horn player in the orchestra during rehearsals for “Meistersinger” and once even organized a strike after a particularly long day of rehearsals. Wagner took it with humor, saying, “Old Strauss may be an obnoxious fellow, but when he blows the horn, you can’t be mad at him.”

Strauss’s father took his son to Bayreuth in 1882 to see a performance of Parsifal as a reward for passing his Abitur exams, and it was there that Richard met the master in person. Strauss subsequently became an ardent Wagner devotee.

Strauss subsequently became an ardent Wagner supporter. He befriended Cosima and in 1889 became assistant conductor to Hans von Bülow. Cosima recognized Strauss’s potential and even wanted to pair him with her daughter Eva, and in 1894 he was allowed to conduct the Tannhäuser premiere in Bayreuth (with his future wife Pauline as Eva).

The once friendly relationship between Cosima Wagner cooled with Strauss’ opera Salome, about whose musical style Cosima was not at all edified (“an opera about a Jewish girl”). Later the two made up, and Strauss stepped in as conductor in 1933’s “Parsifal” when Toscanini left Bayreuth in a rage.