Bayreuth- Diary II: Wagner
The fever dream begins. And I swear, we didn't dream it. I asked Lacelove several times, if this experience was created from my sleep deprivation or Lisztober, but she assured me, everything was a real.
We have never experienced a museum like the Wagner Museum anywhere in our lives. And we really have been to a lot of museums, in Germany, Europe and also in the USA. And this was the freakiest experience we've ever had. By far. Fortunately, we had decided to come in civilian clothes and without costumes. When we took the first pictures of Wahnfried's outdoor area, we could already feel a museum attendant looking out of the window. So we dutifully showed our pre-purchased combined tickets in the entrance hall. ‘If you still want to see the „other“ museum, do that first. It closes at 12.’ ‘We've already been to the Liszt House.’ ‘...’ (WTF?) ‘Would you like an audio guide?’ ‘Gladly.’
‘We'll need your ID or driving licence as a deposit.’ We look at each other. Has there ever been a museum where we had to leave personal IDs as a deposit? Nope. The first exhibition - costumes and props - is in the basement. Everything is black. On the wall is a gallery of all the conductors who have ever conducted Wagner operas. Of course Franz and Hans von Bülow are missing, I say to Lacelove. We are alone in the room. A museum guard approaches us from the other side and says: ‘I'm sure you've noticed that a few conductors are missing here. The women (!?), for example, especially the lady from Sydney. (?) The collection is currently being digitised. Until then, the collection will remain as it is.’ Okay. Okay. He sends us on to the ‘Mensch Wagner’ exhibition, which is located in an empty corridor with a doorway to the left. It's there so that people outside can't look in. That alone is confusing. And the first thing we see there is this.
‘What you always wanted to say to Richard Wagner.’ LOL. Oh, that doesn't fit on any card. It doesn't even fit in a 3 minute song. And we do it. We tell Richard everything we ever wanted to say. In short form. And - thank God - we're not the only ones. ‘How does it feel to justify every immoral act with moral immunity?’, asks Pauline from Berlin. Hey, Pauline, if you ever read this, please get in touch with us. „RIP, Kitschbrother.’ Or critical questions about anti-Semitism, of which there is NOTHING in this exhibition, by the way, except one sentence. In any case, Richard's parasitism crops up very often, but he was just a little scoundrel. Uhu! Er hatte viele Schulden und er liebte alle Frauen!
And now it gets really weird.
Over to Wahnfried. Via a lift, all in black, with buttons that look like they're from a James Bond film. There are only the options ‘Wahnfried’ and ‘Below’, but maybe there's a secret swastika key that leads to the Führerbunker. We don't know.
The lift ends in a black corridor with two corridors to the left (please take a look at the video from our post today and hear us laugh) and right. One of them ends in a Wagner bust and you are selectively bombarded with Wagner pieces. If there's anything more German than that, I don't know what it is.
At some point after this ghost ride with a lot of Japanese tourists nearby, you arrive at the ‘real’ Haus Wahnfried. And, God, @franzliszt-official , how nice it is to see your face. Please save us:
But everything in Cosima's parlour is covered with white cloths. Even in the library. Or under very important glass domes. Drama, baby. And I keep thinking: Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham would have touched herself for this:
Very important information on the first floor. Or not....
And, of course, Crazy Fritz is presented again:
And there are always museum guards everywhere. You're not even allowed to laugh. And we often laugh. This is a serious subject. A mausoleum of art. We feel like we're in a tomb that must be a tomb all the time. With all its German seriousness. So serious and arrogant that it's ridiculous.
At the end, when we go to collect our bags, the museum dude from the conductor's room stands in front of us again. ‘Have you looked at everything?’
‘Yes, of course,’ we say.
‘What did you like best?’
‘The library,’, says Lacelove, without batting an eyelid.
‘Did you look at all the books?’ (YES! LAME! Like we don't look at all the books...)
‘Yes, quite a few standard works.’ (Love you!)
‘More than that! Didn't you look on the right? The books on mythology! He read in 4 languages! And what he didn't understand, he had translated! Amazing, isn't it?’
No. Pretty much standard back then. And every humanities student today works with 4 languages. Can we please talk about what kind of cosmos Franz Liszt already had in his mid-20s without much schooling? No, we can't. Then we won't get our IDs back. And anyway....we shoot the rest of our video at home. Really.
Weimar. I am really sorry, for every rant we have made about you so far. We love you. Please take us back.
And, @chopinski-official , if you ever talk to Wagner again...this is his heritage....
