The Festival Hall was finally opened on August 13, 1876 with the Rheingold, which marked the beginning of the first cyclical performance of the Ring of the Nibelung. Due to the deficit from the first festival, the house stood empty for six years, and the next festival was not held until 1882 with the premiere of Parsifal. For Ludwig II's visit to the festival in 1882, the house was extended to include the "King's Building" at the front, but the shy king did not attend the festival again.
One of Wagner's particular concerns was to darken the theater space so that nothing could distract the audience from what was happening on the stage. The complete darkness came about more by chance: the then new gas lighting in the auditorium had only been completed on the day of the first performance in the Festival Hall and could no longer be tested and adjusted. This ultimately meant that the lights were not gradually dimmed at the start of the performance, but instead the lighting failed completely, meaning there was total darkness. This was retained because the effect corresponded to Wagner's intentions. This broke with the theater practice of the 18th and 19th centuries, in which the auditorium was illuminated and at best only immersed in a moderate semi-darkness.
The structural consequence of Wagner's idea, who did not want the "effort of producing sound" to remain visible, was a sound cover over the orchestra pit, which also had the task of preventing light reflections from the orchestra musicians' desk lighting from reaching the auditorium, and created the typical Bayreuth mixed sound.