No more Bayreuth tickets for Wagner Societies

Some people will always find it easier to land a Bayreuth ticket than others. 

For the rest of us, joining a Wagner Society has long been a good way of improving your scoring chances.  Every year the Festival granted them a special allocation (I understand around 10% of the total tickets) for distribution amongst their members.

No more.

Wagner Societies all around the world have received an unwelcome Xmas present - a letter from the Bayreuth Festival informing them the allocation is to be withdrawn with immediate effect. That means no tickets for the 2012 Festival.  No more tickets will be set aside for tour operators either.

The move follows criticism from local and national government funding bodies, concerned that after all the special societies, sponsors, guests and so on were taken care of, less than half the tickets were left for the general public.

According to Festival management:

 "The modifications to ticket allocation procedure have been made following investigations conducted by the Bavarian General Accounting Office and the German Federal Court of Auditors, which are responsible for the Bayreuth Festival. The reports criticized certain measures in ticket allocation and proposed clear conditions to bring about tangible and lasting changes in order to introduce greater fairness in the allocation of tickets and excluding as far as possible the preferential treatment of certain groups or individuals and to improve transparency."

The news will come as a blow to anyone who joined a Wagner Society purely in the hope of netting a ticket. On the plus side, your chances via the public ballot must surely be improved.

Comments

[FragendeFrau]

I sent in a request for tickets in 2012 just as a lark, thinking that I wouldn't get any for 10 years anyway and hoping that by that time Jonas might reappear at Bayreuth. Wouldn't it be ironic if I got some this year, when I can't afford them anyway!

[CruzSF]

I fall into that camp of joining my local Society for a crack at those tickets. Bogus development...

[Michael]

IM - do you know when those who applied this year are likely to find out whether they've been successful?
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Intermezzo replies - in January or February. They contact the successful applicants before the losers.

[B Kevin Edgar]

Also, another change announced is that they will no longer contact the losers. If you have not received word by 31 March 2012, you lose.

[Marco Schmid]

i got my tickets already the second week of Dec. Hollämder und Parsifal.
Happy New Year

[Nikolaus Vogel]

I've just heard that Netrebko has cancelled both her Royal Opera Traviatas! Presumably Jaho does them all. I thought they looked a bit dodgy as there isn't much in it - apart presumably from a juicy fee - for Anna to reprise a role she has already done here in the middle of a run of a routine revival. It will be interesting to see how long the management takes to announce this!

[TheWagnerian]

Not a member of a Wagner Society (following the old maxim of Groucho Marx's telegram:... I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER") I think it may not be over till the fat lady sings.

A little forest bird tells me that this was known about some time ago and the International Association of Societies has already responded before Christmas. Of course, as the Wagner's point out, this is a result of the recent Bundesrechnungshof, report.

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Intermezzo replies - the decision was made in October, as the Festival informed the societies in their letter, but it was only communicated just over a week ago. The societies were not aware of it until that point.

[Deborah]

Letters to successful applicants went out in mid-December, Michael; mine's dated 15th December.

@B Kevin Edgar - not bothering to contact you if your application is unsuccessful was something they introduced for the 2011 season.

[Gi]

Please tell the unknowing: do these societies help funding the Bayreuth Fest?
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Intermezzo replies - not as far as I know. Their membership dues are generally very modest so I don't see how they can contribute a meaningful amount.

[TheWagnerian]

The highest membership at NY Wagner Society is $1000 dollars, at DC $5000 (hardly modest). But what is most important, but very little advertised, is the amount of sponsorship they provide for developing Wagner performers. A large number of Wagner performers might have never been able to afford the eduction they had without the sponsorship of the Societies. They also provide networking tools for performers to make contacts within the industry.

Add to this the direct sponsorship of things like the Wagner Journal, and events which help promote Wagner and their worth is very difficult to measure.

Despite his reputation, (and for some of us his work) Wagner is still a relatively "marginal" artist - at least if we take into account how many times his operas are performed.

Take for example the "easiest" and certainly "cheapest" of his works to perform: Tristan und Isolde and compare this to a Puccini or Verdi opera. In 2012 there will be at least 47 performances of Tosca, 37 Butterfly's and, moving to Verdi, 55 Traviata's(real, not estimated) while there will be only 16 performances of Tristan.

As hard as it is to imagine sometimes, Wagner - and ultimately Bayreuth - needs all of the support he can get. As we speak, Bayreuth has the pressure of the federal audit on their backs, there is a legal investigation into ticket sales and they have just lost their sponsor (Siemens)with no other in sight.

And this comes from someone who is not only not a member but does like "clubs" of any sort.

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Intermezzo replies - You are missing a significant point. The purpose of Wagner Societies is to promote the work of Wagner at a local level - not to fund the Bayreuth Festival.

Where higher fee levels are offered, these go to fund local work or member benefits, not Bayreuth (members at lower fee levels of $50-60 can apply for Bayreuth tickets just like everyone else, by the way).

Promoting Wagner is a laudable aim of course. If the Festival had difficulty selling tickets, then the Societies could be regarded as a sort of marketing department. But they don't - as we all know, the tickets are hugely oversubscribed. It is very difficult for the Bayreuth Festival to justify ticketing privileges where no tangible benefit is received in return. Same with the travel agents/tour operators, who are also having their privileges withdrawn.

The case of the Bayreuth Friends is very different - they provide material financial support to cover Festival costs, and so in common with the Friends of Covent Garden, the Met Guild, etc it is reasonable that they receive some kind of ticketing priority in return.

[TheWagnerian]

I think we misunderstand each other - and that is my fault.

Now, as I always maintain, I am no "Wagner expert" but I need to clarify and thus provide a reason why the societies are different to the friends of ROH, MET, etc.

What I am suggesting, is that without the Societies things might be much different for Wagner - ignoring the fact that the societies did fund Bayreuth directly - in a sense - in the beginning by the purchasing, via members, of "patronage Certificates".

Equally, the festival was a financial failure for many years with Wagner himself having to "drag" himself around Europe - including London - to generate extra income. The Wagner Societies - and especially its members - lent much in the way of financial aid at this time. We need to remember that after the first few local societies were formed, others where endorsed and encouraged by Wagner himself with the specific aim of raising funds for Bayreuth.This is historical fact and can be found in Wagner's personal correspondence - never mind that of Heckel, et al.

Then things developed further and Wagner himself saw a different role for the Societies - apart from that of promoting his work. It must be noted that Wagner had always wanted the Festival to be free - alas, it was the every present financial constraints that stopped this ever taking place. It was thus that the societies began the Scholarship program which allowed - among other things - for young musicians to be able to attend the festival - fully funded.

As you can see, this makes the societies very different than MET Guild, etc.

I would also mention, again, that Bayreuth itself continues to benefit from the competitions and support of young performers who may only be able to develop in Wagner roles to the level at which they can perform at Bayreuth with the support of said Societies.

Finally, the work done by the societies in promoting Wagners work - especially outside of Germany - is unequaled.

But let us ignore all of these factors for a moment and think of it in a far different, and more "contemporary" way: The Wagner Societies are the closest any composer of Opera has got to having an "Official" Fan Club. Every "official" fan club in the world gets some sort of benefits - normally discounted albums, priority booking to concerts, etc, etc. The Wagner Societies get only one direct "benefit" and that is a slightly better chance then none members to buy a Full Priced" ticket for a performance - no more than that. And their chance is actually lower than for many others groups. In the German press at the moment there is discussion about how so many specially allocated tickets make there way to "ticket touts" with especial interest in the unions. Compared to none contributing bodies - the unions and travel companies for example - the number of tickets provided to the societies is tiny.

(By the way, while this may not be the place to discuss it, I think you will find an announcement shortly about the "Friends Of Bayreuth" also losing their ticket allocation - I might be wrong of course.)

But lets look at this in at its most basic level:

The societies:

Promote Wagner
Fund Scholarships
Fund Singing competitions
Provide bursaries, etc (in some cases)
Funded Journals
etc

All of this needs money. Many people join Wagner Societies to stand a better chance - they think - of getting a ticket to Bayreuth (see some of the comments above for example). Without that carrot, membership will decrease. This reduces the money available for all of the above. Bayreuth - and Wagner, - ultimately lose out.

And why? Because of yet another overreaction - this time to the Bundesrechnungshof.

It will be interesting to see what the societies say once, or indeed if, they make an official public response.

TW

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Intermezzo replies - Again, you are ignoring the simple point that the societies today make no direct economic contribution to the Festival. This is the justification for the withdrawal of their ticket benefits. The converse, which is that German taxpayers provide significant funding but don't have any special ticketing privileges, is the government's justification for starting the whole investigation into the Bayreuth box office in the first place.

[roger]

I understand there are 134 Wagner Societies around the world with approximately 25,000 members all up. If Bayreuth dumped any association with Bavarian and German Federal government sponsorship (surely the real intention here) and declined their annual seven million dollar tip-in, and every WS member agreed to pay an annual fee of $300, the seven million would be made up and some. Bayreuth would also no longer need to make hundreds of seats available at no charge to government entourages which would pocket the festival even more. Time to shake off the state, Katherina and Eva. You would be so much better off if you did.