Bayreuth’s Nazi Past Resurfaces in Exhibition, Casting Choices

Jewish musicians who were persecuted, exiled, deported and in some cases, murdered, are remembered in an exhibition called “Verstummte Stimmen” (Silenced Voices) at the Bayreuth Festival this year.

The biographies of 53 musicians who performed at Bayreuth before World War II -- and there are many who were barred -- are described on boards in the festival theater park, where visitors in shimmering gowns and dinner suits lingered to read them during the long intervals of “Tristan and Isolde.”