Theatre Design & Technology - May 1972 - 9

terpretative use of lighting had been
witheringly rejected, Appia's books
found their way into the library at
Wahnfried [the Wagner Family villa
at Bayreuth], and Gertrud [Wieland's
widow] recalls with whatavidityWieland used to study them in his
youthful days. Siegfried Wagner had
been interested in Gordon Criag, and
Craig's books were also on the
shelves at Wahnfried." ... 7
This assurance from Skelton and
Gertrud Wagner is good to have. A
number of Bayreuth visitors, who
are also theatre-crafts or sta~e-de-
sign experts, have, in addition to
noting the obvious Appian Way of
lighting, been struck by compositions, by use of abstract forms, or
even by details in costumes and
props which set off reverberations
in their memories, echoes of the designs of Gordon Craig. Specific questions on this subject were usually
dismissed, but WielandWagneronce
touched on it, in discussing what he
believed to be The Ring's link with
ancient Greek theatre and the theories of Bertolt Brecht. As he then
said: "Brecht was a pupil of Meyerhold, and Meyerhold, through the
painstaking study of his writings, a
pupil of Richard Wagner-who was
deeply bound to the classic theatre,
the classic tragedy. Actually, therefore, since 1951, we've realized on
the Bayreuth stage what Wagner
himself wanted, but which could not
be realized with the tools of his
time. The theatre of naturalistic illusion covered up the heart of the
work more than it revealed it. Appia,
Meyerhold, and others were the first
to realize that the deep symbolic
content of the work could neither be
interpreted by gesticu lation nor with
their equivalent in naturalistic scenery ... and, a staging is-if I may
express it this way-an exactly defined spiritual space which is worth
filling. The stronger the conception,
the more compelling for the performers to be right . ... "8 That final
comment does suggest the longing
for the perfect performer, freed from
exaggerated cliches and conventions

THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

as Craig wished. Wieland Wagner's
surviving brother Wolfgang now runs
the Festival alone, also being responsible for mounting productions.
Recently, some of his designs and
stagings have been attacked for being reversions to older styles: to
what Wieland had called Preetorius'
"Japanese tea-garden style," and
even older models. He bridles at
this, pointing out that although he
is less addicted to abstractions, his
use of detail is not realistic or illusionistic in feeling or effect. And
certainly his 1 970 Ring, which
echoes one he mounted in 1961,
owes nothing to the Romantic, the
historical, the specific, or the merely
decorative. It is entirely in the tradition of the New Bayreuth he and his
brother founded- often incorrectly
rendered by New York Times' music
critic Harold Schonberg as Neo-Bayreuth. He says of this cycle of
operas: "The Ring is a difficult
problem: a drama of violated nature.
I believe a visible Fafnir at one time
must have been a very attractive
thing- but you can't do that now.
Film techniques have made it impossible to do on the stage with such
naivete. Walt Disney does it better.
But there, the significance would be
wrong. It would become a fairy-tale,
which it is definitely not!"9
He adds: "One has to be careful,
because there is so much in the
music, not to do too much on stage
-only what is really important.
Otherwise, what you offer is a
'S how.' That's not what we want to
do: a big American revue! I think we
must do all we can, with modern
techniques and communication devices, to be more intelligently limited. "
But Wolfgang Wagner does not
speak of Appia and Craig as direct
or important influences. On the
chance that somewhere in the vast
Wagner Family Archives there might
be recorded some comment about
the ideas and designs of Craigsince his ghost could so often be
glimpsed here and there on the Bay-

MAY, 1972

reuth stage during the 1950's and
1960's-a query was directed to
Herbert Barth, who is chief of press
and publishing activities for the Bayreuth Festival. His response: "Unfortunately I have to disappoint you,
for there are no concrete remarks
from Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner
concerning the influence on their
ideas by Appia and Craig, with reference to the ir activity at the Bayreuth productions."1o
Under an interesting section labelled, Child of a Revolution, the
German critic Walter Erich Schafer
demonstrates what he believes are
Wieland Wagner's direct debts to
Craig and Appia with illustrations of
models and actual production photographs, and he singles Wagner out
as the successor to Craig and Appia
in his practical application of their
ideas.'1 Walter Panosky also emphasizes the Craig ian and Appian
elements in the major Wieland Wagner productions in his definitive study
of the man and his work. 12
If this needs further confirmation,
there is the additional testimony of
Skelton: "There was much in his
use of scenery, costumes and lighting to suggest that Wieland had already learnt from the writings of two
men whose influence he later acknowledged: Gordon Craig and the
Swiss designer Adolphe Appia."13
It is interesting to speculate, for
instance, whether this passage from
Craig's On the Art of the Theatre inspired some of Wieland Wagner's
breathtaki ng but abstract Bayreuth
settings:
First and foremost comes the scene.
It is idle to talk about the distraction
of scenery, because the question here
is not how to create some distracting
scenery, but rather how to create a
place which harmonizes with the
thoughts of the poet.
Come now. we take Macbeth. We
know the play well. In what kind of
place is that play laid? How does it
look, first of all to our mind's eye.
secondly to our eye?

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - May 1972