Nazi Bayreuth

Swastika banners hung from Frau Winifred Wagner's Villa Wahnfried, drooped over the street as Chancellor Hitler drove through cheering Fascist crowds. Scowling Brown Shirts, rifle at shoulder, guarded the entrance of the refurbished Festspielhaus. It was Nazi Day at Bayreuth. Despite Hitler's prohibition of demonstrations "not pertaining to Wagner's immortal music," Karl Elmendorff's flat, insipid conducting of Die Meistersinger could not conceal the fact that Nazi Germany was again parading its national resurgence. Most foreign Wagnerites, regarding the Festival as an act of homage, remained away.

The international character of the Festival used to be its most striking feature. Tickets were sold out long in advance. This time they were still on sale 20 minutes before the curtain rose. Faced with a deluge of cancellations, Propaganda Minister Goebbels had proclaimed that unsubscribed tickets would be distributed to loyal Nazis. When Chancellor Hitler entered the Wagner family box the audience rose to its feet, extended right arms in the Nazi salute, cheered wildly, had to be hushed into silence. Mindful of strictures caused by the audience's bellowing ''Deutschland uber Alles" after the first post-War Festival in 1924, officials distributed printed slips stating: "Our leader wishes the audience to refrain at the close of the opera from singing 'Deutschland uber Alles' and the 'Horst Wessel' song [Nazi anthem] or indulging in any other kind of patriotic demonstration, in respect for the works of the master himself."

Lacking a Toscanini to dominate its fitful orchestra, Bayreuth concentrated on Impresario Heinz Tietjen's elaborate scenic effects, jammed the stage with 700 people in the song-contest scene. Most distinguished performance was the Pogner of famed Basso Alexander Kipnis. Eva was sung by Metropolitan's Soprano Maria Mueller.

Reports that Hitler was angered by the inclusion of Jews in the Festival company, invited by Frau Wagner, were dispelled by the presence of her son Wieland in Hitler's box, announcement that he would remain to hear Richard Strauss conduct Parsifal and Elmendorff's directing of the Ring cycle. Frau Wagner, to whom the Chancellor has often been rumored engaged, was busy backstage during the performance, did not join his party.

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