Will Bayreuth's 2016 Parsifal Director Now Have To Withdraw From The Festival?

"A swastika is a no-go, not only in Bayreuth. " Christian Thielemann talking about Yevgeny Nikitin's disputed tattoo last year.   Last year, Yevgeny Nikitin withdrew from Bayreuth's Dutchman due to media accusations that he had had a swastika...

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Jonas Kaufmann To Sing Siegfried

...And Tristan, and all of the other major Wagner Heldentenor roles it would seem. If anyone was concerned that Kaufmann's first CD for his new record label Sony Classical - a  collection of Verdi arie -  meant he might be leaving the Wagner...

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The Ring Saga: A New Ring Cycle In Copenhagen - August 2013

The Ring Saga Celebrating the 200th birthday of Richard Wagner 2013 Consisting entirely of Scandinavian singers Der Ring des Nibelungen in Jonathan Dove & Graham Vick’s adaptation from 1990 Experience The Ring Saga in Christian’s Church (Christians...

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Anthony Negus To Take Over Melbourne Ring Cycle?

It seems that "strong" rumours are being whispered in Australia that LFO and WNO's Anthony Negus may take the presently, and so suddenly made, vacant podium to conduct the Melbourne Ring cycle. Given that Opera Australia are very unlikely to get the...

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Special Performance of Siegfried Idyll In London - 25% Off Tickets For Readers

Some-time ago, we brought to your attention a special performance of the Siegfried Idyll at Kings Place, London, on Friday 28 June at 8pm by Aurora Orchestra -  part of Wagner 200 Titled "The Gift", it provides a dramatized re-creation...

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Sofia Opera's Ring Cycle at risk from Antisemitic, anti-Romany Nationalists?

According to the Sofia Globe, Sofia National Opera, has complained in an open letter to the media that the ultra-nationalist Ataka Party, is putting at risk their performance of the first full Ring cycle to be performed in the Balkans., Sofia Opera...

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“Music of the Future, Music of the Past: Tannhäuser and Alceste at the Paris Opéra,”

Bayreuther Festspielen 1930. Excerpt from William Gibbons, “Music of the Future, Music of the Past: Tannhäuser and Alceste at the Paris Opéra,” 19th Century Music 33 (2010): 228–42. Reprinted by kind permission of the author. Images added here by...

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Aidan Lang Appointed As Seattle Opera's General Director

Aiden Lang Aidan Lang will take over from Speight Jenkins as Seattle Opera's General Director in September 2014. Prior to that he will join the company in March 2014 to work together with Jenkins during the transition period. Beginning immediately,...

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Richard Wagner: The Musical, The Trailer?

It's either this or Frank Castorf's new Ring cycle. You decide. The Berlin choreographer, award-winning dancer and artistic director of the Berlin State School of Ballet Gregor Seyffert is staging a cross-genre "spectacle" with a combination of dance,...

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Mini Review: P. Craig Russell's The Ring of the Nibelung

"The comic-book artist P. Craig Russell sees the "Ring" as a crucial evolutionary step in the development of superheroes as we know them today. "I think it's a continuum -- from Ulysses to Wotan to Superman,"  LA Times: 2011 "Russell, whose...

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Trailer: The National Theater Mannheim Ring Cycle or: A Ring In 2 Minutes

One assumes your reaction to this will depend on how much, or not, you liked Achim Freyer's  LA Ring cycle More Details At: The National Theater Mannheim...

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20 Wagner Related Desert Island Discs.

Chosen either because of their direct connection to Wagner  or because they somehow interest us and included Wagner in their Desert Island Discs.  In all cases, the full show is available with the music included. Average running time,...

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Listen Complete: Lotte Lehmann on Desert Island Discs - 1959

The BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs was first broadcast on 29 January 1942 and continues to broadcast. It invites "castaways" to choose eight pieces of music, a book (in addition to the Bible - or a religious text appropriate to that person's...

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New CD: Pape, Hampson, Skelton, Domingo and more sing - John Denver?

Bet you thought you'd never see a John Denver CD here? Well, frankly neither did we but it shows the sort of horrors we go to to provide as much Wagner related news as possible.  And look at it this way, Birgit Nilsson selected her own rendition...

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WNO, Wagner Dream: Review Summary

It must be said that when Jonathan Harvey's Wagner Dream was premiered in 2007, a more than interesting soundscape, and dramatic idea, together with a wonderful production  was somewhat marred by what might be kindly described as an "naive" libretto....

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Tannhauser: Melchior Flagstad Janssen Thorborg Leinsdorf

Our editor makes a lucky find on youtube and feels like sharing. We promise you will not hear more from him for sometime. Presently  reading volume 2 of  Paul Dawson-Bowling's The Wagner Experience  (An unusual book. Expect a review...

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Opera Australia Remain Confident Of "Ringing" Success

Lyndon Terracini.finds a use for spam emails? Talking this week about recent events, Opera Australia's Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini has said the he has received about 50 emails from conductors and agents touting their availability and readiness...

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Editorial: Why Greek Opera Should Not Be Alone In Giving Wagner To The Unemployed

Warrant for the arrest of Richard Wagner.16 May 1849 "The Wagnerian" "does not do politics". In part because of the variety of our readers political persuasions, in part because so many others seem to do little else,  and in part because few...

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Annette Dasch To Perform Wesendonck Lieder. Middle Temple Hall. London. September

On September 23rd, Annette Dasch is coming to Middle Temple Hall to give a Temple Song recital. The highlight of this recital will be Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. Annette Dasch has sung Elsa in Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival and in...

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Opera Australia's Ring in Melbourne loses its conductor. Nessun dorma?

Richard Mills, taking a backseat? In a very odd turn of events , Richard Mills has decided to quit as conductor of Opera Australia's high profile, and sold out, Ring cycle in Melbourne - due to premiere in just five months time. And  why has...

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"Wagner and the Jews". By Daniel Barenboim

"Another taboo that continues to be maintained in Israel is the performance of Wagner’s works within the country. To this I must say that the rumor that my performance in 2001 with the Staatskapelle Berlin of the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan...

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Bank Of Latvia Release Richard Wagner Silver Coin

"The auditorium of the old Stadttheater ...was a pretty gloomy place. A native of Riga (who later) compared it to a "barn" (while in) conversation with Wagner asked him how he had been able to conduct there. Wagner replied there were three things about...

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Lecture: Wagner 200. Dr Paul Coones. The Bodleian, Oxford

A video lecture by lecturer and conductor Dr Paul Coones  celebrating the 200th birthday of Richard Wagner. The talk is preceded by Siegried's Horn Call played by Sophie Dillon and includes the rarely performed Kinder-Katechismus zu Kosel's...

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Why No Love For Wagner In The USA? Alex Ross Ponders

As a writer who likes the work of Wagner in the USA, is Alex Ross on his own? “One hundred years ago there was an enormous fad for Wagner in this country" “We’re not going to forget about the Nazi association, but I think we can have a richer and...

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British Library Puts Wagner's Early Original Manuscripts Online

From MS 119 – pencil doodlings on the name Wagner. To mark Wagner 200, the British Library have made available online its entire collection of Wagner manuscripts, mostly from early on in his career. The earliest work included is Wagner's original...

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Audio: WNO Lohengrin's creative team in conversation with Tom Service

Recorded at the Hay Festival the day after WNO's new Lohengrin premiere: Director Antony McDonald, Associate Director Helen Cooper and Peter Wedd in discussion with Tom Service about Wagner's "last opera"  Click To Listen Here Running time...

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