Today In History (August 13 1876) Richard Wagner

[WhiteHealer]

TODAY IN HISTORY

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1876: The Bayreuth Festspielhaus opens with the first complete performance of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

[Douglas Mercer]

August 13 1876: The Bayreuth Festspielhaus opens with the first complete performance of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle. For the several nights of the event a wide array of European Royalty was present as well as the cream of European Society and the Art World. Tchaikovsky later wrote that after the final's night's performance a barely five-foot-tall man wearing baggy pants limped slowly on to the stage, doffed his floppy hat, and pointed behind himself and said: "This is what me and my musicians are capable of. This is the art of the future. If you want to you can make it too."

[FolkishFreya]

The Ring Cycle took Wagner 26 years to complete, and is over 15 hours long depending on the composers timing. The Bayreuth Festspielhaus opera house was built by Wagner especially for his music.