Margravial Opera House

Margravine Wilhelmine, sister of Frederick the Great, had this built between 1745 and 1750 by Giuseppe Galli Bibiena and his son Carlo, and its interior of painted canvas over wood survives essentially unaltered, which almost no other baroque court theatre does; it was UNESCO-listed in 2012 and reopened in 2018 after six years of restoration. Richard Wagner came to Bayreuth in 1871 specifically because he had read that this theatre had the deepest stage in Germany, then found the auditorium unsuitable for his work and built his own Festspielhaus on a hill outside the town instead.

History

Margravine Wilhelmine, elder sister of Frederick the Great, set up the court theatre company in 1737, and the opera house, built between 1745 and 1750, opened for the wedding of her daughter Elisabeth Fredericka Sophie to Duke Charles Eugene of Württemberg; she wrote operas for it and acted and directed in it. After her death in 1758 performances stopped and the building fell out of use, one reason it survived so well, and more than a century later its 27-metre-deep stage drew Richard Wagner, who in 1872 chose Bayreuth for his festival and built his Festspielhaus north of the town. The opera house was added to the World Heritage List on 30 June 2012, shut for refurbishment that October and reopened on 12 April 2018 (Wikipedia, Margravial Opera House).

The main sights

• The original interior - painted wood and canvas surviving from 1750.
• The Bibiena design - illusionistic boxes by a family of theatre architects.
• The deep stage - the feature that first brought Wagner to Bayreuth.
• The restoration - a six-year project completed in 2018.

When to go

Year-round; visits are on timed entries with a short sound and light presentation, and the theatre closes for performances and rehearsals. Booking is sensible.

What to expect

It closes for performances without much notice. The visit is short, around forty-five minutes. This is not the Wagner Festspielhaus, which is a separate building.

Nearby

The Festspielhaus stands outside the town; the Hermitage lies east.

Key facts