# Are the 'cheap seats' at Bayreuth any good?



## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Bear with me on this. I was talking to someone today who told me that you can pay for seats at Bayreuth that are basically only good for listening, where you have no view of the stage. Perhaps something like those seats idiotically placed behind a column in old cinemas.

Anyway he said they were a fraction of the cost and as little as €20. I was sceptical so when I got back I looked it up and it's true. They are even cheaper at €10, but I don't know how rapidly the seats will sell out for the 2018 festival.
The thing is the seating plan guide is flat and not much use for seeing what the position might be like. It's probably awful, but I don't know.

Now I know the wait for the best tickets and 2nd best tickets is clogged up for years, but what about the 'cheap seats'? Are they more or less ignored because fans want to see the action, or are they snapped-up just to be there in any capacity?

I'm not a major cheapskate, but I'm not enthusiastic enough for a €300 seat and a 5-10 year waiting time. I'm going to be in Austria two weeks before the festival begins and I can travel to Bayreuth on my return. 

It might be worth it.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I just bought cheap seats for $14.00 at Music Hall in Cincinnati. It says obscured viewing, but I'm not worried about that. With Classical music, the ears are your biggest tool for enjoyment anyways. Besides, looking at the hall can be more enticing than the musicians on the stage during a performance I feel!



Hope that helps a bit!

:tiphat:


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

> I'm not a major cheapskate, but I'm not enthusiastic enough for a €300 seat and a 5-10 year waiting time


I said this once on this forum and they told me I was stupid, well they said it nicer, seems you can on-line tickets if you know the right time .


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## Taplow (Aug 13, 2017)

Pugg said:


> I said this once on this forum and they told me I was stupid, well they said it nicer, seems you can on-line tickets if you know the right time .


I'd gladly pay €300 for a seat at Bayreuth ... once. But I'd love to know how one can get cheap seats or buy online at "the right time". It seems to me that the only way to avoid the 7 year waiting list is for your name to be something like Angela Merkel.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Taplow said:


> I'd gladly pay €300 for a seat at Bayreuth ... once. But I'd love to know how one can get cheap seats or buy online at "the right time". It seems to me that the only way to avoid the 7 year waiting list is for your name to be something like Angela Merkel.


I did mean, one can get "normal" seats on-line in stead of being on the waiting list.
I also never heard anything about "cheap" seats.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

eugeneonagain said:


> Bear with me on this. I was talking to someone today who told me that you can pay for seats at Bayreuth that are basically only good for listening, where you have no view of the stage. Perhaps something like those seats idiotically placed behind a column in old cinemas.
> 
> Anyway he said they were a fraction of the cost and as little as €20. I was sceptical so when I got back I looked it up and it's true. They are even cheaper at €10, but I don't know how rapidly the seats will sell out for the 2018 festival.
> The thing is the seating plan guide is flat and not much use for seeing what the position might be like. It's probably awful, but I don't know.
> ...


And then these days you don't even know what is happening on the stage is actually by Wagner!


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

In the 2017 season they had one opera set in a 'gas station in the mid-west of the United States'.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

First of all, it seems a little strange to compare cheap seats at a concert hall to cheap seats at Bayreuth. I mean, it's a *theater*, right? Unless you really don't care about the stage production at all and just want to listen to the music.

But that raises my other question. Would there be obscured-viewing seats at Bayreuth? That strikes me as odd, since Wagner designed his theater with a number of innovations--the lack of box seats, the covered orchestra pit, the double proscenium, the darkened house--all intended to focus the viewers' attention on the stage and immerse them in the drama. The kind of haphazardly located cheap seats you're talking about sound more like the careless design of more conventional theaters.

But hey, I could be wrong. It's happened once before.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

No doubt they've had a few other thoughts since RW passed on. The theatre does have box seats: centre, left and right.

On the seating plan there are 13 seats in the gallery with 'no view' and 39 seats with 'limited view'. These are fitted in where the pillars/columns are situated.


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