Our third day was so extraordinarily
amazing that we are going to post this with a disclaimer – all the events and
locations were absolutely the best thing ever. There is probably going to be a
world-wide shortage of superlatives after the descriptions are finished and
though it may sound like hysterical ravings of delusional lunatics, it is all
sober fact. It was seriously an emotional, and sensory elevator. I know the
phrase is “emotional roller coaster”, but there were no low points. It was a
perfect day.
We
awoke to the gentle clang of bells from the flock of sheep grazing on the hill
outside our balcony – the flower draped balcony overlooking the cloister and
the surrounding Ammergau Alps. After breakfast we drove through lush countryside,
so velvety green that it looked like it had been stitched together from pieces
of Ireland. The rolling farmlands gave way to dense forests clinging to steep
slopes as we approached this Bavarian “Valley of the Kings”!
Hohenschwangau
was our first destination. https://www.hohenschwangau.de/
This delightful butter colored hunting lodge/ palace was built by Maximillian II
of Bavaria. He became obsessed with the history of the site – it was a
stronghold of medieval knights who had the swan as their heraldic device. The
family adopted the swan – and how. Swans appear in the masonry, precious
stones, bronze fittings, the wall paintings, woven into hangings, carved into
the furniture, rendered in silver and gold ornamentation, and doubtless 1000
other incarnations that we have overlooked. The dilapidated fortress,
Schwanstein was reimagined as a neo-gothic tribute to the age of chivalry.
The interior is notable for being just generally
magnificent. No, it is famous for its spectacular fresco secco paintings. Almost
more amazing than the building and its impedimenta is their superb condition. The
windows were all open! It rains every day in the summer and temperatures ping
pong between 55-85 degrees in the course of 12-14 hours. How is it that
everything we make today begins to disintegrate almost as soon as it is made?
Anyhow, the paintings depict beautifully romanticized scenes from German myth
and legend, such as Parsifal, Tannhauser, and Siegfried. 
Ludwig
II grew up spending his summers here and loved the area. It is truly sublime. From
the second floor Queen’s apartments, the writing room windows afford absolutely exquisite views of Alpsee and the surrounding mountains.
Ludwig II made very few changes to the third floor (King’s apartments) when he
inherited the throne. He added a telescope to track the progress the builders
were making on his new palace, Neuschwanstein, and had holes drilled into his
bedroom ceiling and filled with crystals that could be illuminated to give the
illusion of the night sky. We also saw the piano reserved for Wagner’s use when
he came to visit Ludwig and share selections from his new operas.
After
our tour we hiked back down the cool forest trail marveling at the charming
alpine gardens and wondering why no one ever talks about Hohenschwangau. A 30
minute hike up to the other side of the lake brought us to Cinderella/ Ludwigs’s
castle. He called his Romaneque Revival fantasy Neuhohenschwangau. It was
renamed Neuschwanstein after his death when it was opened to the public. The
names are all mixed up as Hohenschwangau was built by Maximillian on the site
of the medieval Schwanstein and Ludwig’s castle (now known as Neuschwanstein)
was built on the ruins of two medieval fortifications called Vorderhohenschwangau
and Hinterhohenschwangau. 
This
romantic fantasy cost all the money – literally. Ludwig spent his entire
fortune and went into massive debt. His ministers should have restricted his
travel since every time he went visiting, he came home determined to have his
own personal version of whatever he had just seen. There was a contemporary
trend in “restoring” castles during this time period and a look in at the reconstructed
Wartburg near Eisenach and the Château de Pierrefonds, which were undergoing transformations
from ruined castles into Pre-Raphaelite dream palaces.
The
interior bears witness to Ludwig’s veneration of Wagner’s operas and the
tremendous impact of a trip to Istanbul. The design of the building was
actually the work of a celebrated stage designer, Christian Jank, but Ludwig
was personally involved in every detail. The palace merges Romanesque, Gothic,
and Byzantine motifs and elements and even some of the local Lüftlmalerei
fresco style, typical for local Allgäu farmers' houses. Again scenes from
Lohengrin, Tannhauser, Parsifal, and Tristan and Isolde cover the walls and
there is even a Tannhauseresque grotto build in as a passage between two apartments.
He
had a marvelous performance space called The Hall of Singers constructed. The stage
has a painted scene from one of Wagner’s operas, but it was never used in
Ludwig’s lifetime; this is attributed to his dislike of having people around
him, but the palace was not actually finished at the time of his death. In fact
only a very few of the almost 200 planned rooms were completed. I forgot to
mention it, but really, it should go without saying that swans abound.
It
was really fantastic – in every sense of the word. Hohenschwangau was gorgeous
and amazing, but in the traditional palace manner – a genuine living space (for
royalty), comfortable (for royalty), but Neuschwanstein felt different. It
seemed more like a life-sized doll house for Ludwig to play out his personal
theater of kingship or chivalric heroism or whatever. It all seemed like the
world’s most incredible theater setting. In any case, we are sad he didn’t have
the money or time to finish this or to carry out his plan of three additional castles.
I can’t even imagine where he would have gone from here!
We
spent so much time in Ludwigland that we had to forego our planned visits to
Lindau and to Vaduz castle. We jumped into the car and made all speed for
Bregenz! This trip is the realization of two long-held dreams – attending Wagner’s
Ring Cycle at the Bayreuth Festival (incidentally built expressly for Wagner
and to his design by Ludwig II) and attending the Bregenzer Festspiele.
After
ten years on the waiting list we finally scored tickets for Bayreuth! As soon
as we heard I immediately checked the schedule for Bregenz and was euphoric to
discover that the dates lined up so that we could attend Turandot (my favorite
opera since I was seven years old!). I am sure all the other works produced
inside their theater are wonderful, but for us the Bregenzer Festspiele is
about the Seebuhne! That is the stage that is built onto Lake Constance.
Let’s
just preface this section with a statement. We love opera. Opera has the
capacity to be the greatest art form; that is because when done correctly (in
my opinion) it is the synthesis of all the other arts – drama (literature and
theater), music, ballet (had its birth as a sideshow to opera, although you
rarely see any very good dance in opera today – so I’m reaching here), and the
visual arts (costumes, sets, elaborate feats of theatrical engineering).
That rhapsody over, I will now attempt to do justice to the
production we saw….No, can’t be done. It was glorious! The voices were very
good (I didn’t care for Liu, but the rest of the audience seemed to love her –
too much vibrato and the tone was too hard in a role I like to see interpreted
as all innocence and dewy youthfulness). The set design featured ranks of
life-sized replica Xian terra cotta warriors partially submerged in front of
the stage and just visible elevated over the back of the set. The central
portion of the stage was a revolving asymmetrical cylinder set into a sloping
recreation of the Great Wall. The top of the cylinder opened and revealed a
giant video screen.
If you think a performance with light up dragons, battles
with flaming swords, Chinese acrobats, 100 ft. fountains, performers entering
via royal barge, an execution, and a collection of unsuccessful suitors’ heads
in jars would be over the top, you’d be wrong. It was incredible! We thoroughly
enjoyed every second. The glory of the natural setting – like at Santa Fe Opera
Festival, adds an undeniable extra dimension to the richness of the experience.
Lake Constance, or Bodensee, as it is called here is absolutely beautiful. I am
adding links to a couple of the most famous arias –
So
that was it; the best day ever! The absolute cream of Bavaria with a side of
Austria, garnished with Italy!
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