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Stephen Fry to Manage Wagner/Verdi Festival & Simon Callow To Star As Wagner

Written By The Wagnerian on Friday, 24 May 2013 | 1:52:00 pm


Simon Callow IS Richard Wagner
This year’s Deloitte Ignite Festival at the ROH will be curated by  Stephen Fry. A multi-media/multi-art form event, 2013's festival will be different to past years in that it will be spread over four weekends rather than 3 days.

Events related to Wagner will include: 

  • An interactive sculpture installed in the Covent Garden piazza. Created by set designer Es Devlin (Les Troyens, Take That‘s Progress Tour (Really? Ed), and the London 2012 Closing Ceremony), the installation will feature  behind-the-scenes footage captured during a performance of  the ROH's Die Walküre. 
  • An "original take" on Die Walkure by  Gandini Juggling (Yes. They juggle)
  • Mime artist Andrew Dawson, who will perform a potted version of Wagner’s Ring cycle (Is it just me that is having flashbacks to the 60's with David Bowie, Lindsay Kemp  and Threepenny Pierrot ? Ed)
  • And in what maybe the most interesting event,  Simon Callow will  present a one-man show - Inside Wagner’s Head - commissioned specially for the festival, in which Callow will play Wagner.
Stephen Fry said:

"This is an incredible year for opera lovers. The two-hundredth birthdays of Verdi and Wagner and the centenary of our very own Benjamin Britten’s entry into the world. Very proud and pleased to be associated with Deloitte Ignite’s contribution to this celebration and the opening up of opera to as wide an audience as possible.’

The festival will run from 6 – 29 September.