Echo's Chambers by Joseph L. Clarke

Author:Joseph L. Clarke [Clarke, Joseph L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780822988038

4.7. Otto Brückwald, Festspielhaus Bayreuth, 1876. Elevation from 1873 with annotation by Wagner: "Die Ornamente fort!" (Remove the ornament!). Nationalarchiv der Richard-Wagner-Stiftung.

Illusion Walls

Brückwald’s shaping of the auditorium to facilitate new acoustic effects is most evident in two areas: the orchestra pit and the short perpendicular walls projecting from the sides of the auditorium. One of the few surviving early design drawings, a longitudinal section, illustrates how these elements assumed their final form through a process of experimentation and adjustment (plate 7). The part of this drawing that has attracted the most attention was probably the last to be added. It is a correction showing the expansion of the orchestra after the composer informed Brückwald’s deputy, Runckwitz, in 1874 that the pit as it was taking shape was too small.66 Runckwitz dutifully traced the enlarged contours, adding a note: “The orchestra must be expanded during construction as shown in red.” Wagner may have been encouraged about the acoustic feasibility of expanding the pit by a schematic section of an unbuilt performance hall published in 1867 by Adolphe Sax. The composer, who greatly admired the famed French instrument maker, adopted Sax’s idea to tuck the orchestra under the stage (figs. 4.8–9). Wagner continued to fine-tune the orchestra pit, eventually ordering it to be enlarged again and adding a hood over the opening to block light from the musicians’ stands and to blend the sounds of the instruments. Thus augmented, the pit was big enough to possess distinct acoustic regions. Wagner later experimented with the arrangement of musicians, finally placing the brass instruments far back under the stage to soften their raw sound (fig. 4.10).67

Curiously, the underlying section drawing on which Runckwitz sketched the expanded pit was, by 1874, thoroughly out of date. It was likely the only drawing to hand when Wagner approached the builder with his request. The drawing had originated in Brückwald’s office in August 1872 and showed the architect’s first complete design for the Festspielhaus, which he presented to Wagner that month.68 It includes several remnants of Neumann’s design that Brückwald had not yet fully reworked, such as a vomitorium providing access to the center of the auditorium from the floor below. It also shows the second proscenium frame located in front of the main proscenium. This feature, derived from Semper’s design for the Munich theater, had been part of the Bayreuth project from the beginning. Between these two proscenia is a stair giving access to the orchestra pit. In front of the second frame, a third proscenium is also shown. Brandt had proposed this element to Neumann in the summer of 1871 for visual reasons, as the corners of the auditorium would otherwise have been awkwardly bare.69 Beyond the third frame, the side walls of the auditorium are essentially flat but are adorned with pilasters or half columns and ornamental panels.

Sometime after the drawing was originally prepared, however, the design for this area was amended with fragmentary pencil sketches—who drew them is unknown—showing the major transformation of the side walls that Brückwald conceived in early 1873.

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