Bayreuth Festival, also called the Richard Wagner Festival, annual season of performances of Wagner's works, held in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth. Around 1851, Wagner began to visualize a fes...

Nikisch, Arthur, 1855–1922, Hungarian conductor and violinist, grad. Vienna Conservatory, 1873. He played in Wagner's orchestra at the dedication of the Festspielhaus at Bayreuth and with the ...

Cortot, Alfred Denis, 1877–1962, French pianist and conductor. Among his appearances as a conductor were those at Bayreuth (1898–1901). He joined the faculty of the Paris Conservatory in 1907 ...

Crespin, Régine, 1927–2007, French soprano. She made her major debut at the Paris Opéra in 1950. The range, flexibility, subtlety, and richness of her voice were critically acclaimed after her...

Flagstad, Kirsten, 1895–1962, Norwegian soprano. She made her debut in 1913 but sang only in Scandinavia until 1934, when she appeared at the Bayreuth Festival. In 1935 she made her debut at t...

Mottl, Felix, 1856–1911, Austrian conductor. He assisted Wagner in preparing the first Bayreuth Festival, at which he conducted the Ring cycle. Mottl conducted (1881–1903) at the court at Karl...

Fichtelgebirge, mountain knot, in SE Germany, between Bayreuth and the Czech border; rises to 3,447 ft (1,051 m) in Schneeberg peak. The rugged mountains are composed mainly of metamorphic roc...

Kulmbach, town (1994 pop. 28,260), Bavaria, central Germany, on the White Main River. Known in 1035, Kulmbach became (1340) the residence of the margraves of Kulmbach (later known as the margr...

Melchior, Lauritz, 1890–1973, Danish heroic tenor. He made his debut in Copenhagen in 1913, singing a baritone role in I Pagliacci, and sang regularly at the Bayreuth Festivals from 1925 to 19...

Erlangen, city (1994 pop. 102,380), Bavaria, S Germany, at the confluence of the Schwabach and Regnitz rivers. It is an industrial and transportation center. Manufactures include medical equip...