Bayreuth is not only known in Germany for its festival of classic music and composer Richard Wagner. The margravial opera house is probably the nicest preserved baroque theatre in Germany. Castles, the historical park of the Hermitage Museum with its idyllic grottos and water fountains, the festival theatre with its outstanding acoustics as well as a huge number of interesting museums attract tourists from all over the world. Particularly, music and theatre festivals lure intellectual guests.

In 2012 the UNESCO world heritage committee decided to add Bayreuth’s margravial opera house on the list of the UNESCO world heritage. It is one of the most beautiful baroque theatres in Europe. This glorious building was built in only four years and opened in 1748.

The Prussian princess and sister to Frederick the Great, margravine Wilhelmine made the royal seat of Bayreuth a glittering cultural metropolis with this opera-house. This opera house could at that time easily be compared to those gorgeous buildings in Dresden, Vienna, Venice or Paris.

A real public magnet is the Richard Wagner Festivals in Bayreuth. Every summer it attracts visitors from all over the world when major artists perform at its stage.

Bayreuth’s Margravial Opera House

UNESCO World Heritage site

Bayreuth’s Margravial Opera House is considered one of the greatest examples of Baroque theatre design of the 18th century. From the moment they walk into this Opera House built between 1744 and 1748, visitors are stunned by the beauty of the colourful interior.

Europe’s best preserved Baroque theatre was built by Giuseppe Galli-Bibiena and his son Carlo, two of the most famous theatre designers of their era. The father and son duo were members of the well-known Galli da Bibiena family of artists from the Toscana who were closely involved with many projects in Italy and across Europe. In 1744, the King of Prussia Fredrick the Great’s sister, Margravine Wilhelmine of Bayreuth hired Giuseppe Galli Bibiena to design the interior of her brand new opera house. Whilst Giuseppe designed the interior, his son Carlo was charged with the supervision of the building and with the management of the entire project. Even today the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth is considered the pinnacle of their career and an unsurpassed masterpiece of Italian Baroque.

Whilst the Galli Bibiena men also left their mark in Dresden and at the court of Fredrick the Great in Berlin, the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth is the only example of the work of these two theatre designers to have been preserved in its entirety and the only opportunity to study late Baroque Italian theatre architecture in its original condition.

The Bayreuth Opera House was considered something truly special even back then in the 18^th century. Rather than being constructed of stone and marble, the interior was entirely built of wood. To ensure the very best acoustics even the columns were carved from wood, covered in paper and then painted to resemble marble. The quote from the great philosopher Voltaire about the city of Bayreuth during the era of the Margravine is often still cited today to characterize the period known as the "Golden Era": "Once poets and artists went on pilgrimages to Naples, Florence or Ferrara. Today they come to Bayreuth!".

However, this role as an earthly Arcadia for the enlightened, absolutist monarchs and their guests from across Europe was to last but a few short decades. In this era of emerging Romanticism there was little tolerance for the pageantry of absolutism: in 1793 the author Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder on his famous Whitsun travels together with Ludwig Tieck wrote: "An Opera House that is so rich and sumptuous inside yet so old-fashioned and so tastelessly adorned with gold, that is almost as large as the Berlin Opera House is destined to be one of the largest and most magnificent Opera Houses in the world”

The Opera House entered a Sleeping Beauty phase, which actually turned out to be its salvation as it is almost certainly due to this that the building was able to remain intact: almost every other Baroque opera house suffered the fate of being burnt to the ground at one time or another.

Today, the fact that the Magravial Opera House has been honoured with the accolade of UNESCO World Heritage is just tribute to the creativity of Margravine Wilhelmine. Yet it is thanks to the work of the Italian architect duo Giuseppe und Carlo Galli Bibiena that the Opera House is now an 18^th century masterpiece worthy of being honoured by UNESCO and being taken under their wing providing it with the organisation’s own special protection. This World Heritage Margravial Opera House captivates the imagination of its visitors today just as much as it 270 years ago. To ensure the preservation of the Margravial Opera House, the Bavarian Palace Department is currently comprehensively restoring this Bayreuth World Heritage site. However, there is still an opportunity for visitors to see the opera house while the work is in progress. Highlight of the actual exhibition is a visit of the first balcony. Furthermore an information centre that has been set up in the foyer building illustrates the various features of the interior and shows how it is being preserved for future generations. 

Further information: http://www.bayreuth.de/english/welcome_to_bayreuth_357.html

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