The Bayreuth Festival is the oldest opera festival. However, to this day, there is no standard work on its history. This gap is now filled by the two volumes of the renowned Wagner and Bayreuth expert Oswald Georg Bauer. Spanning 1,292 pages and richly illustrated, they cover the wide arc from Richard Wagner's first idea in 1850, through the construction of the Festspielhaus, the first festivals in 1876, Old and New Bayreuth, all the way to the year 2000. They conclude with the era of Wolfgang Wagner, in which the author was involved as his long-time collaborator. The work not only knowledgeably depicts the tumultuous history of the Bayreuth Festival but also provides detailed descriptions of each individual production and its reception in the press, illustrated with numerous images. A clear structure allows the reader to easily dive into the book at any point.