Bayreuth Festival Quotes

[on Richard Wagner] A beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn.

I hate you, Richard Wagner . . . but I hate you on my knees.

I just can't listen to any more Wagner, you know...I'm starting to get the urge to conquer Poland.

For me Wagner is impossible... he talks without ever stopping. One can't just talk all the time.

Wagner has some great moments, but a lot of miserable half hours.

The first 'Ring' in Bayreuth was about the poetical world, the mythological world.

I have witnessed and greatly enjoyed the first act of everything which Wagner created, but the effect on me has always been so powerful that one act was quite sufficient; whenever I have witnessed two acts I have gone away physically exhausted; and whenever I have ventured an entire opera the result has been the next thing to suicide.

They see me all the time at Bayreuth and think I only like Wagner's music, and it's not true.

You might say that Richard Wagner was the Queen Victoria of Europe. He had musical children everywhere!