Bayreuther festspiele as a field for application of Peter Berger's and Thomas Luckmann's Theory of social construction of reality

The Stage festival in Bauyeuth (Bayreuther Festspiele), established in 1876. by German composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883), is, even nowadays, a complex and unique phenomenon which continually attracts the attention of scholars from various (mainly humanistic and social) scientific fields. In many different methodological approaches to Bayreuther Festspiele, including those made by social scientists, one can not find the application of the sociological theory of Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann. However, one has to bare in mind the important fact that Richard Wagner founded his completely innovative festive institution mainly in order to carry out and to spread his regenerative Weltanschauung - already formulated in his numerous theoretical writings and incorporated into his musical dramas. The fact that Wagner’s Weltanschauung was based on the idea of changing the reality of everyday life by constructing the new reality, is of equal importance. Considering all this, it becomes appropriate to explain Wagner’s motivation for establishing the stage festival, as well as his idea of festival, from the standpoint of the theory of social construction of reality.