Discovery Day: The German Operatic Tradition
Saturday 24 May, 10:30am
CBSO Centre
PARTICIPANTS FOR GERMAN OPERA DISCOVERY DAY ANNOUNCED
Expert
presenters and performers have been announced for the
next THSH Discovery Day: The German Operatic Tradition, at CBSO Centre
on Saturday 24 May. To book click
here
Curated by writer, lecturer and broadcaster, David Nice, the day links four of the greatest Germanic operas (Strauss’s Der
Rosenkavalier and Ariadne auf Naxos, Wagner’s Götterdämmerung and Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron) which are all being performed in Birmingham between May and July.
Distinguished actors led by Dame Harriet Walter join scholars Michael Tanner (opera critic, The Spectator), Prof
William Mival (Royal College of Music) and Stephen Johnson (BBC Radio 3), for what promises to be an entertaining and thought-provoking day of lectures, readings and music.
On his own blogsite, David Nice explains how the idea for the day took shape following a conversation with Dame Harriet Walter.
David Nice writes:
‘Richard Strauss was an ardent Wagnerian in his youth, but in his two best-loved operas, Der Rosenkavalier and Ariadne auf Naxos,
he leavened the Wagner
strain with homages to his beloved Mozart. Distinguished Wagnerian
Michael Tanner looks at the great example of the last Ring opera,
Götterdämmerung, after lively excursions around the rich and
varied sources for the two Strauss operas by David Nice and William
Mival. Finally Stephen Johnson tackles the thorny questions of
Moses and Aron by Schoenberg, the composer who broke with the
traditions preserved by Strauss and found a new voice. All four lectures
will be enhanced by readings from the distinguished libretti by Dame
Harriet Walter and three other actors, and there
will be a musical interlude from Birmingham Conservatoire students’.
The
German Opera Discovery Day takes place at CBSO Centre, Birmingham, on Saturday 24 May from 10.30am. Full details of the day’s schedule and participants here.