Great performances of Wagner’s music can be found all over the world these days. Furthermore, the famed Wagner Festival at Bayreuth, Germany, has been frequently marred by familial strife and controversy in recent years. And yet, still, Bayreuth is arguably the toughest ticket in classical music, with a waiting list of seven years to buy a seat. So what is it about Bayreuth? The performance space certainly has something to do with it: “Wagner’s opera house, the Theater on the Green Hill, as it has long been called, is truly one of the glories of the opera world.”