The “Walk of Wagner” originated in 2013, a copy of the famous “Walk of Fame” in Hollywood. The “Walk of Wagner” connects the Richard Wagner Residence with the Festival Opera House.
Walk of Wagner – Masters
The “Walk of Wagner” was created by the Bayreuth Marketing & Tourism GmbH, as a copy of the famous ”Walk of Fame” in Hollywood. The walk connects the Wagner residence Wahnfried with the Festival Opera House on the green hill. On 19 concrete cubes, which also serve since 2014 as pedestals for Ottmar Hörls colored sculptures, numerous personalities of different epochs are presented to the visitors. Along authentic Richard Wagner sites the visitor learns by reading informative and entertaining texts about the influence of architects, like Gottfried Semper and Otto Brückwald, on Richard Wagner, as well as the origin of the Festival Opera House. The visitor learns about the connection between the teachings of Siddhart Gautamas and Buddha with the operas the “Meistersinger” and “Parsifal”. Radical left orientated persons such as Karl Marx, Michail Bakunin or Ludwig Feuerbach influenced Richard Wagner, as well as Anti-Semites such as Theodor Uhlig and Jakob Friedrich Fries. Musically Richard Wagner was influenced by many composers of earlier epochs as well as his time: you find strong sounds of Rossini, details of works of Bellinis, Spontinis and Meyerbeers in Richard Wagners works. Other famous names which are mentioned in the” connection with the “Walk of Wagner” in 2017 are E.T.A. Hoffmann, Mendelsohn Bartholdy, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Joseph Haydn, Carl Maria von Weber, Johann Sebastian Bach and of course Ludwig van Beethoven. Important impulses for Richard Wagners work came from antique poets and texts: Homer, Aischylos and Sophokles were the dramaturgical forefathers for Wagner‘s works. At the end of his life Richard Wagner excluded, besides Johann Sebastian Bach, only one person from all criticism: Shakespeare, who influenced numerous Wagner operas. A plaque is also dedicated to him.
The new exhibition was financially made possible by many, various sponsors. By the hotel industry, gastronomy and retail. Additional support gave the chamber of commerce of upper Franconia, the Bank Sparkasse Bayreuth, the ticket office, the Bayreuth shop and the Bayreuth Sunday Newspaper.