 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ElizabethMH
Date: 2026-08-06 21:49
Hello. I've just come back from the Bayreuth Wagner Festival. The orchestra was amazing, when you think that they had temperatures of 40C (104F) down in the pit (or ditch one translation of a review gave me). Everyone was so in tune - I don't know how they did it. I'm almost in disbelief that they could play like they did with those conditions.
The clarinet soloist was sweet. Where might I find the clarinet solos for Siegfried? I do have a book on difficult passages for solo clarinet. I don't think I've seen it in there but maybe it is. (Not that I have the ability to play the solos, but I like to look at them.)
TIA.
p.s. I won't talk about the production - other than that the singers, chorus and players were amazing. Read the reviews if you want - there was one the UK Guardian newspaper, but I haven't read that one.
Elizabeth
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Author: ruben
Date: 2026-08-07 17:49
Elizabeth: I seem to recall that the great Richard Mülhfeldt, for whom Brahms composed his two clarinet sonatas, his trio and his clarinet quintet, played in the Bayreuth Opera orchestra. But, the temperature was certainly lower in those days!
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: ElizabethMH
Date: 2026-08-07 19:03
Nice bit of trivia Ruben. I do think it's a shame that you can't see the orchestra at the Festspielhaus (a 'hood' covers the orchestra), but that's Wagner for you.
Elizabeth
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Author: ruben
Date: 2026-08-07 23:10
Elizabeth; I worked as a translator for the Bayreuth Festival for three years: translating programme notes and a review. I could have had tickets to the dress rehearsals, but the sanctimonious Wagnerian atmoshphere put me off. They paid well though.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: ElizabethMH
Date: 2026-08-08 10:55
That sounds like it was a nice job ruben (especially them paying well). It was the first time I'd been and probably last (it was my husband's thing - he actually won the ballot for tickets), so I probably wouldn't be able to comment on the sanctimonious atmosphere but I think I know what you mean. Certainly the creative team that came up with the AI concept this year seem to think - to hell with the public, they're too dumb anyway to understand what we are trying to do. I did hear from fellow Ring goers that Bayreuth do this all the time. I think Katharina Wagner (who is running it now) really needs to think about what she approves in the future, because that many bad reviews can't help - and everyone listening to the radio broadcasts will have heard the boos, especially when the creative team came out to take a bow at the end of Gotterdammerung
- boos from the whole house. This AI thing was a one-off, there's no Ring next year apparently, but unfortunately my DH and I felt shafted.
Elizabeth
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