This study is a critical analysis of the performances and productions of the operatic festival established by Richard Wagner in 1876. Around this artistic history the book traces the institution's association with nationalism and racism, and its postwar liberation from its anti-semitic past.

In this prize-winning and generously-illustrated book--the first to provide a frank and fully rounded history of Bayreuth-Frederic Spotts describes the festival's performances and productions, the Wagner family who have run it, its debasement in 'Hitler's court theater, ' and its postwar liberation from its chauvinistic, anti-Semitic past. Provocative and compelling, the book will fascinate all Wagner enthusiasts as well as those interested in European cultural and intellectual history since 1876.