THE MARQUESS AND THE MAESTRO

FROM GILDED ROCOCO PALACES TO WAGNER'S AWE-INSPIRING FESTSPIELHAUS, BAYREUTH TELLS A STORY OF TWO LEGACIES-ONE ROYAL, ONE MUSICAL

- ANINDITA GHOSH

NORTHERN BAVARIA IS AN INCREDIBLY scenic part of Germany. Imagine craggy alpine mountains mellowing into verdant pastures, thick forests, and streams rushing along picture-perfect villages with their halftimbered farmhouses.

I was travelling from Nuremberg to Bayreuth (pronounced Bai-Royt and not "Beirut," as the Munich airport immigration officer corrected me sternly!) to attend the German National Tourism Board's brand Summit and Convention, and I spent much of the hour-long journey transfixed by this almost Wordsworthian spectacle.

Bayreuth is situated in Upper Franconia, between the Fichtelgebirge and Fränkische Schweiz ranges. It is blessed with rolling hills, limestone cliffs, forests, and the Red Main River (Roter Main), which winds through the city. However, the tourists who make their way here, often on day trips from Nuremberg and Bamberg, are as much drawn by the city's unique historical character as by its picturesque setting.

For journalists like us, it was a stroke of luck that the convention was organised in Bayreuth, the home of extraordinary monuments like the splendid Margravial Opera House, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, built in the 1700s by the incredible Margravine Wilhelmine, princess of Prussia and wife of Margrave Frederick of BrandenburgBayreuth. It is also where the famous German composer Richard Wagner built the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. This acoustically perfect concert hall still comes alive with music at the Bayreuth Opera Festival every summer.

A MECCA OF MUSIC