‘This is asking a lot of the buttocks’: my 23-hour Wagner marathon on a rock hard seat in a heatwave
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- The critic sat through a 23-hour Wagner marathon on Bayreuth's notoriously unpadded wooden seating during a heatwave, quipping that the experience "is asking a lot of the buttocks."
- Bayreuth festival is celebrating its 150th anniversary, with the critic's marathon covering a full-throttle Ring cycle plus additional Wagner works.
- Liszt and Bruckner were present from the festival's earliest days, while Debussy, Mahler and Puccini subsequently made the pilgrimage — underscoring the event's century-long draw for classical music's biggest names.
- The venue's rock-hard seats, already infamous among opera-goers, became especially punishing during a heatwave that pushed the physical demands of the marathon even further.
Why it matters: Bayreuth's 150th anniversary doubles as an endurance test: 23 hours of Wagner on unpadded seats in a heatwave. For opera fans, the piece confirms that attending remains a rite of passage — punishing physical conditions are baked into the festival's identity, not a side effect of it.
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