On this day: The premiere of Wagner’s Parsifal in 1882

 

Bayreuth Festspielhaus photographed in 1882.

Richard Wagner’s last completed opera Parsifal had its premiere in Bayreuth, Germany on the 26^th of July 1882.

Advertising for the first performances.

A tradition has arisen that the audience does not applaud after the first act, in order to maintain the mood of the story.

In an attempt to preserve the integrity of the production Wagner only allowed the opera to be performed at the Bayreuth Festival. However this began to change after his death the following year. By 1884 some theatres in other countries were staging the opera.

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On this day: the world’s first trolleybus was premiered

The Electromote, the forerunner of the modern trolleybus, invented by Dr Ernst Werner von Siemens, had its debut in Berlin on the 29^th of April, 1882.

This model was used until the 13^th of June.

 

Christmas in 1882

Christmas 1882. In the station of the German Polar Commission.

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Ethiopian Slave Girl – 1880s

The Arab slave trade was a big deal in Ethiopia in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

This young woman was photographed in Mogadishu in 1881-82. Slavery was abolished by the Italian occupying forces in 1935.