A “Spanish Bayreuth” for 1913: Wagnerians from Madrid and Barcelona in a common project

Abstract

In 1911 the Wagner Society in Barcelona (Associació Wagneriana de Barcelona) and the Wagner Society in Madrid (Asociación Wagneriana de Madrid) decided to join in a shared project: their intention was to build a Wagnerian theater in Zaragoza, on the top of a mountain near the Monasterio de Piedra —a Cistercian monastery located in a natural reserve—, which would be able to accommodate around 2,000 visitors and adequately host the representation of Wagner’s last opera, Parsifal, since its copyright would expire throughout the whole of Europe on 1st January 1914. As if it were a Spanish Bayreuth —a national pilgrimage destination with international resonance—, it was planned to make use of it in future years and even prepare the monastery to host the potential pilgrims. The Wagnerians of the time searched everywhere in order to obtain the necessary funding and awoke the interest of no less than the King of Spain, Alfonso XIII, who even consented to an interview with them on 19th April 1912. The present paper aims to explore the details of this project on the basis of the unpublished  correspondence which both Wagnerian societies maintained from 4th July 1911 until 1st July 1912.