Alex Ross's Blog, page 167

Snapshots from Bayreuth

The Festspielhaus is under renovation, and much of the façade is hidden behind a protective simulation.

I did not try the Wagner cocktail.

Sadly, I will miss the Wagnerian DJ night with Boy George.

The Meisterin may well be thinking, "Get that thing away from me." The artist Ottmar Hörl, who perpetrated the Russ homage  in 2004, is responsible for these multicolored statuettes, which are scattered all over the grounds of the Festspielhaus.

Bayreuth 1936

Whose ticket was this? The somewhat surprising answer can be found in my piece "Othello's Daughter."

Hans Sachs in the Hauptmarkt

Marcus Bosch leads an open-air performance of the Festwiese scene from Die Meistersinger, with occasional interruptions by the bell of the Frauenkirche. Guido Jentjens is Sachs.

Impasse Victor Hugo

Intermission in Aix

At the grave of Baudelaire

And that of Samuel Beckett (the message says, "We are with you waiting for Godot," with a smiley face):

César Franck:

Catulle Mendès, of particular interest to anyone writing a book on Wagnerism:

I had not realized that Alfred Dreyfus's granddaughter Madeleine Levy died in Auschwitz:

Previously: Various

Shakespeare, Wagner, Aldridge

Othello's Daughter. The New Yorker, July 29, 2013.

The blues

Geneviève Asse at the Centre Pompidou.

Lullabies of sorrow

Weekend video

Michael Beil's Blackjack, with Ensemble musikFabrik, which plays Stockhausen at Lincoln Center next week.