Michael Tanner: Why we should celebrate Wagner 200

‘The overpowering accents of the music that accompanies Siegfried’s funeral cortège no longer tell of the woodland boy who set out to learn the meaning of fear; they speak to our emotions of what is really passing behind the lowering veils of mist: it is the sun-hero himself who lies upon the bier, slain by the pallid forces of darkness — and there are hints in the text to support what we feel in the music: “A wild boar’s fury”, it says, and: “Behold the cursed boar,” says Gunther, pointing to Hagen, “who slew this noble flesh.” The words take us back at a stroke to the very earliest picture-dreams of mankind. Tammuz and Adonis, slain by the boar, Osiris and Dionysus, torn asunder to come again as the Crucified One, whose flank must be ripped open by a Roman spear in order that the world might know Him — all things that ever were and ever shall be, the whole world of beauty sacrificed and murdered by the wintry wrath, all is contained within this single glimpse of myth.’

That magnificent tribute is part of Thomas Mann’s great lecture-essay ‘The Sufferings and Greatness of Richard Wagner’, given on the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death in 1933. Mann the great ironist is here at his least ironic, paying homage to the artist who counted for more in his life than any other. Yet the lecture, delivered in Munich two weeks after Hitler came to power, earned him 12 years of exile, for his alleged ‘lukewarm and patronising praise’.

No one nowadays is likely to be exiled for praise, lukewarm or otherwise, of Wagner, except possibly in Israel. But Wagner remains a figure of violent contention, just as much as he has ever been. And trying to get people to see him in a less contentious light is itself likely to lead to accusations of parti pris, ignorance of his use for political purposes, or simply of a failure to realise that, more than any other artist of comparable fame and stature, his work, and every other aspect of him, is inherently controversial.

Continue Reading At: The Spectator. 

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Wagner discusses Cosima with Liszt - In Comic book form?

Frank Liszt Comics is an irregular blog featuring moments from Liszt's life - both factual and fictional - in comic strip form. There is much there and the interested reader is advised to visit by clicking this link - which will also lead to a full sized reproduction of the strip below. As expected Wagner makes many appearances. Below is one such Wagner strip that includes, in part,  a real conversation Wagner was supposed to have had with Liszt regarding Cosima.

Artists comment:

“If you had such a nice house we’d visit you more often… Or such a wife! Ehhh? Ohh right! I’m sorry, I always forget that she’s your daughter…”
The first two panels are an actual quote… I don’t know, it gives off weird vibes to me. Especially when one considers how insanely jealous Wagner was of Liszt in regards to Cosima…

Source

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Tannhauser Paris premiere - in the form of a comic book

Found over at the blog of Big Time Attic, the following was created in 2010 as part of a writing class. For full details click here - which you should visit for the full story behind its creation. We thought you might find it amusing.

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Balkenhol Sculpture of Richard Wagner Nearing Completion (images)

Stephan Balkenhol working on his sculpture of Richard Wagner, for a memorial for the 200th birthday of Richard Wagner to be erected in Leipzig

Kassel/Leipzig. On May 22, 2013, the 200th birthday of Richard Wagner, a memorial
for the composer will be erected in Leipzig. A prestigious jury selected the design by
sculptor, Stephan Balkenhol from among the artist contest entrants. There was a
special challenge involved in this commission in that the current artist would have to
integrate an existing design, from a different artist from over one-­hundred years ago.
At the same time the complete design would have to project its validity into the future.
At the moment Balkenhol is working on the completion of his design in his Kassel
studio. Richard Wagner is portrayed as a life-­size young man standing in front of his
own exaggeratedly large shadow.

At the beginning of the 20th century an attempt to create a Wagner monument was already
begun. With the whirlwind of WWI and the 1920 death of Max Klinger, the only one intimate
enough with his work, it remained incomplete. The only thing that was actually implemented
was its white marble pedestal, which is now the basis for the new sculpture: In front of a four
meter tall silhouette of the elder Wagner, Balkenhol presents a life-­‐size Wagner as a young
man from his time in Leipzig.

"I'm showing a Richard Wagner yet to be spoiled by fame and recognition: adventurous,
human and approachable," says Balkenhol about his design. Wagner's human size is not only
juxtaposed by the old master, the übermensch genius, in front of whom he seems to stiffen,
but also in contrast to the oversized shadow: "When the composer is taken out of the flat
idealization and becomes more plastic, the viewer can then find a new way of looking at him,"
says Balkenhol.

The sculptor at first distances himself from Klinger's design, which Wagner then elevates and
monumentalizes – the tall shadow paraphrases Klinger's design, because the shadow's
outline is adapted from the shape and size of Klinger's Wagner. The oversized shadow can
not be separated from he who casts it, just as the person and work of Wagner can not be
separated. Shadow and work are distinct from the person, but at the same time they have far-­‐
reaching and super-­‐temporal dimensions. Wagner's compositions as well as his vision of a
Gesamtkunstwerk have grown beyond the person himself. They grow out of the individual
human scale to gain independence in both positive and negative ways. What's certain: This
shadow needs the man Wagner. He is origin and instigator.

The reception of Wagner changes with time, and this time factor has been thematically
melded with his work. Balkenhol says, "The relationship between person/artist,

transience/timelessness is continuously hashed out anew. My design elucidates the historical
nature of Wagner's reputation and at the same time designs a picture of the being of
visionary artistic production: The artist, the genius foreshadows himself."

Balkenhol's exciting scene mirrors the polarity of the Wagner image and at the same time it
leaves many questions open. Just like in his previous work, Balkenhol requests the viewer to
bring himself into the piece: "Only when some things have been left unsaid can the recipient
put his own effort into it. Only by really getting to know the work can the viewer experience
its varied and distinct sensual layers," says the sculptor.

Balkenhol, born in 1957 in Fritzlar, Hessia, Germany has been Professor of Visual Arts at the
State Academy of Visual Arts in Karlsruhe. He lives and works in Kassel, Karlsruhe, in French
Meisenthal and in Berlin and among other things, he is known for his roughly hewn and
colorfully painted wooden sculptures. Even though Balkenhol mostly prefers to work with
wood, due to weathering, both the figure of Wagner and the silhouette will be cast in bronze.

The unconventional design sets itself apart from all of the previous Wagner monuments. This
is how the people are to be made aware of Richard Wagner in his role as son of Leipzig. In
contrast to Wagner cities like Bayreuth, Munich or Dresden, in Leipzig an independent
Wagner picture is in the making.

This project has been graciously made possible by Wagner Denkmal e.V., an initiative of
volunteers, who have the goal of supporting the continued development of Leipzig as a music
and culture city. The realization of this project, without state subsidies, is secured strictly
through donations.

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Wagner: The ultimate seduction

The ultimate seduction: revisiting the case of Wagner

Wagner aimed to overthrow 19th-century silliness and replace it with a new "music drama".
Ed Smith

Still revered and reviled, misunderstood and misappropriated, Richard Wagner was born 200 years ago, on 22 May 1813. Most people agree that Wagner is not like other composers. His music seems to reach parts that other music doesn’t reach, something “outside the province of reason”, as his biographer Curt von Westernhagen put it. Wagner’s music exerts an irrational hold over people of wildly diverging tastes and philosophies, including many who aren’t otherwise particularly interested in music at all.

Thanks to Wagner, my own musical education (still very incomplete) has been back to front. It started with Wagner, from where I’ve had to travel through musical history in reverse. Having immersed myself in the life and work of a great revolutionary, only later did I explore the classical tradition that Wagner vigorously challenged and permanently altered.

A chance conversation with a friend at university led me to sign up for a course called “Wagner and German History”. My logic was simple and ignoble. Given the choice between a year of saturation-level research on the Black Death or spending my afternoons “studying” by lying down listening to opera, Wagner won hands down. The first Wagner lecture proved I’d been even luckier than I thought. Our professor, Tim Blanning, closed the blinds and played us a recording of the Prelude of Lohengrin. I was hooked. Most proper addictions have to be worked at. Wagner got into my bloodstream instantly.

Wagner is an unusually interesting composer; he has always been a “case” rather than just an artist. First, sadly but inevitably, there is the unavoidable if wildly overstated issue of his influence on Hitler and his misappropriation by the Nazis.


Secondly, Wagner did much to reposition and advance the status of the artist in the 19th century. It is hard to imagine a more complete triumph for a composer than the building of an entirely new type of theatre, the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, to make certain that his masterwork (The Ring) was staged in an appropriate environment. Wagner was an inverse outsourcer: he craved, and ultimately achieved, complete control. (He might have admired the sentence that ended Prince’s album sleeves from the 1980s: “All songs produced, arranged, composed and performed by Prince”.) The scale of Wagner’s struggle and ingenuity is remarkable by any standards. In his twenties, he had failed to establish himself in Paris, the centre of the operatic world. He then endured decades of poverty, debt and exile, constantly struggling to secure performances of his work. Wagner’s ultimate triumph was all the more complete because it was on his own terms. He didn’t just break the rules, he invented a whole new game – the apotheosis of Romantic self-belief
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Wagner's Dark Shadow?

Originally published German issue 14/2013 (March 30, 2013) of DER SPIEGEL.

Born 200 years ago, Germany's most controversial composer's music is cherished around the world, though it will always be clouded by his anti-Semitism and posthumous association with Adolf Hitler. Richard Wagner's legacy prompts the question: Can Germans enjoy any part of their history in a carefree way?

Stephan Balkenhol is not deeply moved, overwhelmed or delighted. He doesn't brood over the myth and the evil. It doesn't bother him and he isn't disgusted. He rolls a cigarette, gets up, digs around in his record cabinet and pulls out an old "Tannhäuser" by Richard Wagner, a Hungarian recording he bought at a flee market. He puts on the record, and the somewhat crackling music of the prelude begins to play. Balkenhol sits down again and smokes as slowly as he speaks. He doesn't mention the music, and he still doesn't feel deeply moved, overwhelmed or delighted. For him, it's just music.

That makes Balkenhol, 56, an exception, an absolute one among those who concern themselves with Wagner. Balkenhol remains unruffled. He drops two steaks into a pan, and as they sizzle, "Tannhäuser" fades into the background.

Balkenhol is a sculptor who was commissioned to create a sculpture of Wagner. He has until May 22, the composer's 200th birthday, when the new monument will be unveiled in Wagner's native Leipzig. This is the year of Wagner, but Balkenhol is keeping his cool. He isn't worried about creating a realistic likeness of the composer, with his distinctive face, high forehead, large nose and strong chin. Wagner was somewhat ugly, and Balkenhol won't try to portray him any differently.

The Composer Who Influenced Hitler

He won't need a great deal of bronze. Wagner was 1.66 meters (5'3") tall, and Balkenhol doesn't intend to make the statue much taller. He wants to give the sculpture a human dimension, avoiding exaggeration and pathos: a short man on a pedestal. But that wouldn't have been enough, because it would have belied Wagner's importance, so Balkenhol is placing an enormous shadow behind the sculpture. People can interpret it as they wish, says Balkenhol: as a symbol of a work that is larger than the man who created it, or as the dark shadow Wagner still casts today.

Music and the Holocaust come together in that shadow: one of the most beautiful things created by man, and one of the worst things human beings have ever done. Wagner, the mad genius, was more than a composer. He also influenced Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, even though he was already dead when the 12-year-old Hitler heard his music live for the first time, when he attended a production of "Lohengrin" in the Austrian city of Linz in 1901. Describing the experience, during which he stood in a standing-room only section of the theater, Hitler wrote: "I was captivated immediately."

Many others feel the same way. They listen to Wagner and are captivated, overwhelmed, smitten and delighted. Nike Wagner, the composer's great-granddaughter, puts the question that this raises in these terms: "Should we allow ourselves to listen to his works with pleasure, even though we know that he was an anti-Semite?" There's a bigger issue behind this question: Can Germans enjoy any part of their history in a carefree way?

The Nazi years lie like a bolt over the memory of a good Germany, of the composers, poets and philosophers who gave the world so much beauty and enlightenment in the 18th and 19th centuries: Kant, Hegel, Goethe, Schiller, Beethoven, Wagner and the Romantics. Nevertheless, the Germans elected a man like Hitler and, under his leadership, unleashed an inferno. In only a few years, a nation of culture was turned into one of modern barbarians. Is it not also possible that Germany's illustrious past in fact led it irrevocably towards the rise of the Nazis? Could the philosophical abstraction, artistic elation and yearning for collective salvation that drove the country also have contributed to its ultimate derailing into the kind of mania that defined the years of National Socialism? After all, it wasn't just the dull masses that followed the Führer. Members of the cultural elite were also on their knees.

Some were later shunned as a result, at least temporarily, like writer Ernst Jünger, poet Gottfried Benn and philosopher Martin Heidegger. But the situation is more complicated with Wagner, because he wasn't even alive during the Nazi years. Nevertheless, Hitler was able to learn from him. There was a bit of Wagner in Hitler, which is why the fascist leader also figures prominently in our memory of the composer.

It also explains why the shadow over the composer's legacy is so big. Any discussion of Wagner is also a discussion of denatured history, and of the inability of Germans to fully appreciate themselves and the beautiful, noble sides of their own history. Anyone who studies Wagner can perceive two strong forces, the light force of music and the dark force of the Nazi era. There are many people who cannot and do not wish to ignore this effect. They are at the mercy of Wagner's power. These are the types of people at issue here, people whose lives have fallen under Wagner's spell and who don't know what to make of their fascination.

Hitler as Wagner's Creation

Journalist Joachim Köhler, 60, described the dark side of Wagner in an especially drastic manner in his 1997 book "Wagner's Hitler -- The Prophet and His Disciple." In the 500-page work, published in German, Köhler portrays Hitler as Wagner's creation. When Hitler heard the opera "Rienzi," Köhler writes, quoting the Nazi leader, it occurred to him for the first time that he too could become a tribune of the people or a politician.

Wagner's hateful essay "Judaism in Music" offered Hitler an idea of how far one could go with anti-Semitism. The composer invokes the downfall of the Jews. Köhler detected plenty of anti-Semitism in Wagner's operas. Characters like Mime in "Siegfried" and Kundry in "Parsifal," he argued, are evil caricatures of the supposedly inferior Jews. Köhler felt that "Parsifal" anticipated the racial theories of the Nazis, quoting propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as saying: "Richard Wagner taught us what the Jew is."

In the 1920s, Wagner's daughter-in-law Winifred invited the young Hitler to attend the Bayreuth Festival on the Green Hill in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth. When he was in prison writing "Mein Kampf," she sent him ink, pencils and erasers. According to Köhler's interpretation in 1997, the Green Hill was a fortress of evil and Wagner the forefather of the Holocaust.

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Ryan McKinny Has Spent Years Getting Ready for Tristan and Isolde

How does a person get from Pasadena City College to Julliard to become a Houston Grand Opera Studio Artist, go on to the Met in New York City as Lieutenant Ratcliffe in Billy Budd and then return to Houston to sing in one of the toughest operas in history?

For bass-baritone Ryan McKinny who had never even thought about becoming an opera singer, it was because a professor in that California city college told him he should seriously think about making it a career. And because once McKinny was introduced to opera, he fell in love with the art form.

He ended up transferring to Julliard, was a studio artist with HGO, lived in Germany and now after several roles around the country, he's back in Houston to sing the part of Kurwenal in Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. He's been studying the part for years.

It's an effort that has sometimes defeated other good singers. When Wagner wrote this opera (it usually clocks in at around five hours), based on a well-known legend of the time, others thought it couldn't actually be staged because of its length and difficulty of the roles. And legend has it, it killed the first tenor who sang the Tristan role.
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Sir Colin Davis: 25 September 1927 – 14 April 2013

On 14 April 2013, Sir Colin died at the age of 85 after a short illness. The London Symphony Orchestra announced his death through a statement on their official website.

Sir Donald McIntyre - Wotans Abschied und Feuerzauber - ROH/Sir Colin Davis 

 

 

 

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New Ipad App from Naxos: Wagner - The Ring

Alas, have not been able to access this yet so cannot comment on its quality. Clearly the video below is basically a video "ad" from Naxos.  If any readers do decide to get it and wish to submit a review we shall try to include. To be released in May

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Roger Ebert: 1942 – April 4, 2013

 

The great Roger Ebert: (1942 – April 4, 2013) perhaps the most intelligent and wittiest of film critics - and certainly perhaps one of the only few with whom I consistently agreed - has died today.

There will be much talk by others about his life over the next few weeks but here is the man talking about his own career:

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Useless Wagner Trivia 1: The Ring at Warp Factor Four

Your humble editor has many interests apart from Wagner or indeed "classical" music. One of the more "occult"ones is in Star Trek -  in all of its variants apart from Enterprise perhaps (and no, I don't own even one Federation costume - least you get the wrong idea). But why do I mention this here? Well, during a recent reading session I discovered that both Wagner and the Ring are only ever mentioned once in any of the the Star Trek series or films. In the "Star Trek The Next Generation" episode: "The Inner Light"to be precise.

The full script of the relevant conversation, between Captain Picard, Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge and First Officer William Riker is reprinted below.  While you will be able to impress any Trekkie friends you might have with that bit of information, of more interest is that it seems that in the 24 century (or 23 century depending on who you believe), the Ring will be conducted at a rather faster pace than we are used to: 9 hours for the entire cycle! Oh, and people will hear it all performed at one sitting.  One must pity the orchestra and performers.

Now,  go-out and "out geek" the most obsessive fan. "Full Warp ahead"

Script:

4    INT. BRIDGE

 PICARD, RIKER, DATA, WORF, and GEORDI at their
 positions; N.D.'s as necessary. There is a
 light-hearted mood on the bridge.

     PICARD
   The last time I encountered
   Admiral Gustafson... I ended up
   spending nine straight hours at
   the opera.

     GEORDI
   Nine hours... ?

     PICARD
   The entire "Ring" cycle at one
   sitting...

     RIKER
   That's a little too much Wagner
   for me.

     PICARD
   And for me... but not, apparently,
   for Admiral Gustafson. She went
   back the next day and sat through
   it all again. I warned her that
   this time --

Star Trek: The Inner Light. Tribute

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Free to view: MET Documentary, "Wagner's Dream"

The feature-length documentary will be available for free streaming on the Met website during the week leading up to the opening night of Das Rheingold on April 6. If you haven't seen it, its highly recommended. Fascinating stuff - in more ways then one

To watch CLICK HERE

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Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine to perform Wagner?

Difficult to say but he will be the featured soloist for an upcoming program in 2014 for the San Diego Symphony that includes Wagner, Vivaldi and Dvorak

Said an official source for Megadeth: "Dave Mustaine will be a featured soloist with the San Diego Symphony in April, 2014, in a program that will include Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" from "Die Walküre", Vivaldi's "Winter" from "The Four Seasons" and Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 (the "New World" Symphony).

Executive director Edward "Ward" Gill said it's all about reaching new audiences, while music director Jahja Ling said he had a good meeting with Mustaine, and he may conduct the concert himself (no conductor is listed

Just goes to prove that Mustaine not only had the good sense to get away from the highly overrated Metallica, but he likes Wagner also.

And with that feeble excuse, let's have some Megadeth and the rather good "Peace Sells". Analyze your way out of that James Hetfield.

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Video introduction to the Ring

Made available by the author: Excerpt from The Great Courses "The Music of Richard Wagner" Lecture 17 - The Ring
Professor Robert Greenberg

Running Time: 60 minutes (as a playlist)

For more visit Robert Greenberg's website by clicking here

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Video Lecture: History and Sexuality in Tannhäuser

William Scott (U. of Pittsburgh): "Unspeakable Songs: History and Sexuality in Tannhäuser"

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Video Lecture: Mark Berry ""Hans Werner Henze, Wagner, and the Weight of German Musical Culture"

 

Mark Berry at Bayreuth

You can continue to read Dr Berry's thoughts on Wagner and much else over at "The  Boulezian"

From the American leg of the Wagner World Wide set of conferences, organized by Professors Nicholas Vazsonyi and Julie Hubbert, held at the School of Music on the campus of the University of South Carolina (USA) 30 January - 2 February 2013.

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Elisabeth Furtwängler (1910-2013) Furtwängler's Love

Apologies for the lateness in this.

The video below is made available by the producers on their youtube page. Recommended.

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Audio Interview: Daniele Gatti on Wagner & Mahler

 From a series of interviews with CNE's Brian McCreath

Gatti On Wagner

Gatti on Mahler

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Richard Wagner: Good or bad?

An interesting 8000 word essay - and accompanying 80 minute audio lecture - from Nicholas Spice published in this months London Review of Books asks, "Is Wagner bad for us?". Made available free, both in written form and in audio. 

Is Wagner bad for us?

Nicholas Spice

In one of the European galleries at the British Museum, there’s a bronze medal of Erasmus made in Antwerp in 1519 by the artist Quentin Metsys. A portrait of Erasmus in profile is on the front of the medal. On the reverse, the smiling bust of Terminus, the Roman god of boundaries, and the words ‘concedo nulli’ – ‘I yield to no one.’ It’s said that Erasmus kept a figurine of the god Terminus on his desk. He wrote: ‘Out of a profane god I have made myself a symbol exhorting decency in life. For death is the real terminus that yields to no one.’

Like anyone who has spent time thinking about Wagner, I have inevitably come back to the subject of boundaries and limits, and in particular to questions about the boundary that lies between Wagner’s works and his listeners, and about the experience, apparently not uncommon, of that boundary becoming blurred or even disappearing, an experience that may hold a clue to the feeling, also not uncommon, that Wagner’s work is in some sense not altogether good for us.

Respecting boundaries was not Wagner’s thing. Transgression he took in his stride – stealing other men’s wives when he needed them, spending other people’s money without worrying too much about paying it back – while artistically his ambitions knew no bounds. There is something awe-inspiring about his productivity under hostile conditions, the way, though living on the breadline, he turned out masterpieces when there was no reasonable prospect of any of them being performed: gigantic works, pushing singers and musicians to the limits of their technique, and taking music itself to the edges of its known universe. Theft; the breaking of vows, promises and contracts; seduction, adultery, incest, disobedience, defiance of the gods, daring to ask the one forbidden question, the renunciation of love for power, genital self-mutilation as the price of magic: Wagner’s work is everywhere preoccupied with boundaries set and overstepped, limits reached and exceeded. ‘Wagnerian’ has passed into our language as a byword for the exorbitant, the over-scaled and the interminable.

Wagner has kept me awake at night. Sleepless, I turn my thoughts to Tristan und Isolde, Wagner’s most extreme work and the nec plus ultra of love stories, and I notice a kinship between aspects of Tristan and Isolde’s passion and the experience of a certain kind of insomnia. The second act of Tristan und Isolde is Romanticism’s greatest hymn to the night, not for the elfin charm and ethereal chiaroscuro of moonbeams and starlight, the territory of Chopin and Debussy, but night as a close bosom-friend of oblivion, a simulacrum of eternity and a place to play dead. Insomnia is a refusal to cross the boundary between waking and sleeping, a bid to outwit Terminus by hiding away in ‘soundless dark’, a zone beyond time. As garlic is to vampires, so clocks are to insomniacs, not because they tell of how much sleep has been missed, but because they bring the next day nearer. As Philip Larkin, poet of limits, knew so well, sleep has the one big disadvantage that we wake up from it: ‘In time the curtain edges will grow light,’ he wrote in ‘Aubade’, bringing ‘Unresting death, a whole day nearer now’. For Tristan and Isolde, too, night must not give way to day, not for the trivial reason that day will end their love-making, but because dawn brings death one day nearer. They must stay awake, for to sleep is to allow the night to pass, to awake from the night is to live and to live is to die. And when, inevitably, day dawns, they have only one recourse. To Tristan and Isolde, in their delirium, it seems that by dying they will preserve their love for ever: by dying, they will defy death.
Tristan and Isolde’s need to stay awake is embodied in the opera’s famous Prelude, perhaps the most quoted and analysed piece in the history of Western music, and a gift to musical semiotics because of the way it withholds closure. The usual thing to say about this (and Wagner himself said something along these lines) is that the music enacts the experience of desire, forever on the verge of satisfaction but never satisfied, a state of suspension symbolised by the first three bars, which ‘resolve’ the startling discord of bar two – the famous Tristan chord – onto a dominant seventh, itself a discord crying out for resolution. But we can also read this reluctance to resolve as the musical equivalent of staying awake: a bid to suspend the passage of time, in which sleep gratefully acquiesces.
I am interested in the way we take in Wagner’s music, or the way it takes us in. In tonal music a final cadence is an acceptance that things end and a release into process. The Prelude to Tristan und Isolde, avoiding final cadences, refuses to sleep, holding the listener in a state of unrelieved alertness. For example, the opening 17 bars of the Prelude lead to an interrupted cadence that gently forbids us to leave the musical line. At the same time, beyond the expressive qualities of this opening passage, it’s striking how clearly Wagner enunciates his musical argument, and how easy the grammar is to follow, as he takes the material of the first three bars through a series of iterations, with changes of register, instrumental colour, phrase contour and harmonic position creating difference within similarity. This use of repetition with variation is one of the ways that Wagner focuses our minds on what he is saying without boring us.

To continue reading or to listen to the full audio presentation - with musical samples - please click here

 

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Review: Estonian National Opera Premiere: Tannhauser

Kindly provided by Michael Amundsen at Tallinn Arts

ESTONIAN NATIONAL OPERA PREMIERE: TANNHAUSER–MARCH 14Michael Amundsen

It’s a big year for Wagner aficionados. The bicentenary of the birth of the “genius of Bayreuth” means a plethora of productions worldwide, featuring Teutonic troubles in misty realms. Wagner’s music is undeniably sublime, but are the moral sentiments of his works relevant to contemporary life? The Estonian National Opera and English stage director Daniel Slater took up this question with the premier of “Tannhauser” on March 14.

For Slater, this meant ditching period costumes and medieval backdrops and presenting the problems of modern romantic love. Slater’s conception of “Tannhauser” required soprano Heli Veskus to perform the roles of both Venus and Elisabeth, the dual love interests for the opera’s eponymous hero performed with the right measure of insolence and indifferent fatalism by Mati Turi. The opera’s dramatic tension arises from Tannhauser’s confused needs, his lust expressed for Venus while in her lair at Venusberg and his failed romance with Elisabeth, the landgrave’s daughter at the castle of Wartburg, who loves him despite himself. Wartberg is home of the minnesingers, romantic bards who sing songs of love.

The staging for this production is intriguing because neither the world of Venusberg or Wartburg are particularly appealing options for Tannhauser. One is a ceaseless parade of erotic illusions, skillfully and humorously evoked as tropes of the modern male’s pornographic fantasies. The other is a realm of cruel Philistines who have clearly never encountered fun. All things being equal, Venusberg seemed the better option, which I doubt was Wagner’s intended message.

To emphasize the monotony of life at Wartburg all, men and women, are dressed in black business suits and the settings are sterile white and silver backdrops which rotate between scenes. The drabness highlights the static milieu of the place, a Nietzschean “eternal return” of narrowly lived virtue.

“Tannhauser” has probably seen more different interpretations than any of Wagner’s operas. The composer himself produced four and was contemplating a fifth at the time of his death. The one constant is the music which is beautiful, and some of which is famous. The overture would be recognized by fans of the classical genre as a standalone piece in programs of symphonic music.

There were some wonderful musical moments in this production. Choral and ensemble singing, both on and off stage, was haunting and majestic and reinforced the story’s spiritual message. In Act III baritone Rauno Elp, as Wolfram von Eschenbach, sung the aria “Song to the evening star” with transcendent emotion and beautiful timbre. It was a good night too for bass Pavlo Balakin, who has tended to have smaller roles in Estonian National Opera productions. His turn as Herman was strong, and Balakin has the commanding stage presence and singing prowess for leading roles.

The music for this “Tannhauser” was the night’s champion. The Estonian National Opera Orchestra led by conductor Vello Pahn, performed magnificently, bringing out all of the magic of Wagner’s score. By all means, beautifully done for a first try.

More at Tallinn Arts

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Video Lecture: John Deathridge "Living with Wagner"

Part of Wagner World Wide 2013. If you have not we really do recommend his "Wagner: Beyond Good And Evil"

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ROH Parsifal: Dates confirmed. Pape, Finley, Denoke, White

 

As we noted about a year ago, the ROH have finally confirmed dates and cast for this years new production of Parsifal  - in a 2013-14 season otherwise lacking any other  Wagner. Full details below. Will be included in the ROH cinema relays. Only art work at present seems to consist of a box or it might be a semi transparent fridge - we are somewhat unsure. But it is in the middle of some vegetation  - so there's a start.

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LNOBT April 2013. Tristan, Walkure, Lohengrin & Zambello's Dutchman

To celebrate Wagner 2013 LNOBT are staging a series of Wagner and Wagner related works over one week in April. Full details below including director comments and   images. 

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'Blue Tulips: A love story' A new and very different Wagner-related book

We received the following recently and thought it might be of interest.

A book about and for Wagner lovers, for art lovers ...  actually for all lovers 

People who write books about Wagner's music are usually musicologists or historians, but a book has appeared on the market from a very different vantage point. Australian author Elizabeth Gordon has published an intimate, funny and ultimately brave autobiographical account about Wagner's music and its impact on her life.

Elizabeth Gordon is an artist (and scientist) and although much of her artwork is inspired by music she reacts as a listener, not musicologist. She writes with verve and humour, weaving her account about the effect Wagner's music is having on her life into an autobiography that is passionate, funny and moving. If you have ever tried to find a book for a friend who has not yet discovered Wagner's music, this is the one to buy as it tells the stories behind the music at the same time as describing their effect. 

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EGO3D produce bust of most irritated Wagner ever?

We wouldn't normally but he just looks so "annoyed" at something in this bust. Had Cosima burnt the dinner or something? Perhaps it is water retention? Answers on a postcard please to: Twitter @thewagnerian

Available from EGO3D

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Wagner and Bad-Lauchstädt

The house in which Wagner stayed and met his first wife, Minna Planer

Bad-Lauchstädt, a small town in Saxony-Anhalt, was a place of inspiration for Richard Wagner. Yet the link to one of the world's greatest composers is something hardly anyone knows about that these days.

Richard Wagner wanted to pack up his things and leave. It wasn't because in a mere two days he was set to conduct a production of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" without the luxury of a single rehearsal. Rather, it was the director of the Magdeburg Theater Company, Heinrich Bethmann, whom Richard Wagner found so off-putting. The director was unshaven, had a fondness for alchohol and had little regard for the social graces of the day. Wagner himself had, as he later wrote, "hit rock bottom."

It was at the end of July 1834 that Bethmann and his company found themselves in Bad-Lauchstädt and in desperate need of a new musical director. The job was offered to the then 21-year-old Wagner, an up-and-coming musical figure who had already grabbed attention with a series of powerful performances of his own compositions. Wagner, at that time without any fixed engagements, accepted the job at once, jumped into the next stagecoach bound for Bad-Lauchstädt…and was met with only disappointments. He intended to stay for one night and leave the very next day.

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Nederlandse Opera Ring Cycle Released On DVD

If Opus Arte ever managed to get its website working (now down for about 6 months with  a simple place holder only)  we would provide you with the usual full details.

As an aside, and while on this subject, the attitude of many, but thankfully not all,   providers of  classical music - and opera in particular - continues to leave us flabbergasted. The fact that Opus Arte's website has now been down for months is a symptom of this. No other part of the "entertainment industry" (which whether it would like to admit it or not opera is) would be so downright "lacklustre"  either in its general marketing or the face it presents to the general public. Imagine for example a film distributor - which Opus is in the classical music DVD field - such as Warner's or 20th Century doing the same? If the public has grown used to this it is rather sad, however, if artists have - whose livelihoods rely on companies like Opus Art marketing and distributing their work  to the widest potential audience -  have grown accustomed to it, it is not only a sad indication of the state of the industry but  has a direct impact on their "earning potential" and their ability to reach new audiences.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. As the distributor seems unable we will reprint the press release below. Have a read, then a look at the video and you may even decide to feed some starving member of the Chorus or Orchestra.

 De Nederlandse Opera
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (Götterdämmerung & Die Walküre)
The Hague Philharmonic (Das Rheingold)
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (Siegfried)
Conductor: Hartmut Haenchen
Director: Pierre Audi

Running time: 16 hours 48 minutes approx
Subtitles: EN/FR/GE/SP/IT/NE/JA
Sound format: 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS

This 1999 production of The Ring was the first to be based on the definitive complete edition of Wagner’s music. Pierre Audi’s production for the etherlands Opera blends the lyrical, mythical and philosophical qualities of Wagner’s tetralogy into a profound unity. Amazing sets by George Tsypin and wonderful costumes by Oscar-winning Eiko Ishioka complement singing and playing of great intensity from the cast under the baton of Hartmut Haenchen, who leads an unusually flowing, texturally sensitive interpretation, creating a vigorous yet often intimate impression that comes closer than many modern performances to the scale of Wagner’s original conception.

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Melbourne scrambles to save Orchestra Victoria from the pit of despair with Wagner

THE deep E-flat that sounds the beginning of Der Ring des Nibelungen will be played in Melbourne in November not by Orchestra Victoria but by a special ensemble called the Melbourne Ring Orchestra.

In all but name, the two orchestras are the same. Orchestra Victoria is Opera Australia's pit orchestra in Melbourne and plays for all its performances there.

For the larger forces required for Wagner's magnum opus, OV will hire extra players from other orchestras as well as freelance musicians. Other small orchestras would have to do the same.

However, for reasons apparently to do with marketing the Ring as a Melbourne event, Orchestra Victoria is to play under another name. The misnomer may be a small matter in the scheme of things but it is emblematic of the larger problems that beset Melbourne's second orchestra.

Orchestra Victoria has had three names in 30 years. Because it plays in the pit and under the marquees of Opera Australia, Victorian Opera and the Australian Ballet, it does most of its performances out of view, although it has worked hard to make a name for itself with concerts, regional tours and education programs.

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Washington National Opera: 2013-14 season to feature Tristan with Voigt & Storey

The 2013-2014 season of Washington National Opera (WNO) has just been announced by Artistic Director Francesca Zambello. The season includes Tristan and Isolde, a new production of The Force of Destiny, the East Coast premiere of Moby-Dick, The Elixir of Love, and a new production of The Magic Flute. WNO will also present the world premiere of The Lion, The Unicorn, and Me, a holiday-themed family opera commissioned by WNO and written by acclaimed American composer Jeanine Tesori. A second season of the American Opera Initiative will continue WNO's efforts to commission new American works.

In partnership with the Washington Nationals, WNO will present a free Opera in the Outfield simulcast of The Magic Flute to Nationals Park in May 2014. New pre-show events before every performance in the Opera house will expand the WNO experience and help educate new audiences. Highlights from the 2013-2014 season will be performed by the WNO Orchestra and special guests at a free preview concert on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 6 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Opera House.

"I'm excited to bring you my first season as Artistic Director, in which I have been able to bring together and create so much of the casting and programming," said Ms. Zambello. "You'll begin to discover many developments designed to make Washington National Opera broaden its reach. We will have more events in a variety of Kennedy Center venues, we will be emphasizing American works and American singers, expanding our education and outreach programs before every performance, and adding more events with our members of the Domingo- Cafritz Young Artist Program. I hope these initiatives will continue to entice both new and returning audiences to the Kennedy Center to experience our wide range of thrilling performances."

A celebration of Wagner and Verdi

WNO's 2013-2014 season opens with a celebration of the bicentenary of two of opera's most important and beloved composers-Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi. First is Wagner's classic story of the glorification of love, Tristan and Isolde, which runs September 15-27, 2013 in the Opera House. The opera is widely regarded as containing some of the most sublime, romantic music ever composed. The starry international cast is led by American soprano Deborah Voigt, one of the most important Wagnerian singers of her generation, as Isolde and Ian Storey as the dashing knight Tristan. The production, new to Washington, is directed by acclaimed Australian theater director Neil Armfield and is conducted by WNO Music Director Philippe Auguin.

Verdi's The Force of Destiny returns to the Opera House for the first time in nearly 25 years in a bold new production by WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, October 12-26, 2013. This rarely performed epic drama features a young international cast full of fresh talent. The rising young American sopranos Adina Aaron and Amber Wagner make their WNO debuts sharing the role of Leonora, one of the most difficult roles in the repertory. Chilean tenor Giancarlo Monsalve and Puerto Rican tenor Rafael Davila share the role of Don Alvaro. Italian baritone Luca Salsi and Spanish baritone Àngel Òdena share the role of Don Carlo. The cast also features Georgian mezzo-soprano Ketevan Kemoklidze as Preziosilla, Colombian tenor Valeriano Lanchas as Fra Melitone, and Italian bass Enrico Iori as Padre Guardiano. The WNO Orchestra is led by Chinese American conductor Xian Zhang, who recently completed her tenure as Assistant Conductor at the New York Philharmonic, in her WNO opera debut.

Richard Wagner's
Tristan and Isolde
Libretto by the composer
Production from Opera Australia

Tristan: Ian Storey
Isolde: Deborah Voigt
Brangäne: Elizabeth Bishop
Kurwenal: James Rutherford
King Marke: Wilhelm Schwinghammer

Conductor: Philippe Auguin
Director: Neil Armfield
Set Designer: Brian Thomson
Costume Designer: Jennie Tate
Lighting Designer: Toby Sewell

Performed in German with English supertitles. Supertitles may not be visible from the rear of the orchestra.

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Wagner says farewell to Romantic love?

A review of the MET Parsifal from the perspective of a second time audience member - and relative newcomer to opera: the Telegraph's Sameer Rahim.

Many of Wagner’s operas are driven by rebellious sexual passion. In his first mature work, Der fliegende Holländer (1843), Senta’s ballad to the wandering ghost pulses with obsession. In Tristan and Isolde (1859), the title characters defy moral and musical conventions in pursuit of erotic nirvana. Some of the most ravishing music in the Ring Cycle comes inDie Walküre (1870), when brother and sister Siegmund and Sieglinde fall in love. I’ve also noticed, though, that Wagner has sympathy for characters who reject dangerous passion: the cuckolded King Marke inTristan; Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger; in the Ring, the betrayed Fricka and even Alberich only renounces love after he's piqued by the Rhinemaidens.

Wagner's enrapturing romantic music runs the risk of being stifling – even narcissistic. So I find it fascinating that in his final opera, Wagner turns his obsession on its head: in Parsifal (1880) sexual passion must be confronted and surpassed – and thus transfigured into a universal compassionate love.

On Saturday I saw Parsifal for the second time at a live cinema screening from New York’s Metropolitan Opera House. The first time I saw it, at ENO two years ago, I came away moved by the music but puzzled by what it all meant. Now, with a bit more Wagner under my belt, it became (at least in part) a bit clearer.

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Listen Now on demand: MET Parsifal March 2013

Update. Alas, we forgot that not all international readers can receive BBC Radio 3's on demand service. If that is you, this performance is presently available in good quality audio sources on demand by a number of radio stations for a short time. Might we recommend Latvian Classical Radio 3? Given the links with Wagner, and this being 2013, we thought it most appropriate. You can also chose to listen using either Real Media Player or WMP via this source. Simply click either link below to use your preferred media-player or visit their archive section to play directly from their site - alas, written in Latvian only

Should you have missed yesterdays live relay of the MET's new production of Parsifal you can catch it for the next 6 days on BBC Radio . Click the link below to listen.

Cast:

Presented by Margaret Juntwait and Ira Siff.

Parsifal.....Jonas Kaufmann (tenor)
Kundry.....Katarina Dalayman (soprano)
Amfortas.....Peter Mattei (baritone)
Klingsor.....Evgeny Nikitin (bass-baritone)
Gurnemanz.....Rene Pape (bass)
Titurel.....Rúni Brattaberg (bass)
First Esquire.....Jennifer Forni (soprano)
Second Esquire.....Lauren McNeese (mezzo-soprano)
Third Esquire.....Andrew Stenson (tenor)
Fourth Esquire.....Mario Chang (tenor)
First Knight.....Mark Schowalter (tenor)
Second Knight.....Ryan Speedo Green (bass)
Flower Maidens.....Kiera Duffy, Lei Xu, Irene Roberts,
Haeran Hong, Katherine Whyte & Heather Johnson
Chorus and Orchestra of The Metroplitan Opera, New York
Daniele Gatti, conductor.

LISTEN VIA BBC RADIO 3 NOW BY CLICKING HERE 

LISTEN INTERNATIONALLY USING REAL MEDIA PLAYER BY CLICKING HERE

LISTEN INTERNATIONALLY USING WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER BY CLICKING HERE

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Met announce 2013/14. No live Wagner but 25 cd box-set

The MET has announced its 2013/2014 season and, we are pleased to say, the return of Levine. Alas however not one bit of Wagner is to be found. But then, this should hardly come as any surprise given that the details were leaked a week ago by parterre.com.

However, tucked away in the announcement is confirmation that the MET will be releasing a 25 cd set entitled: Wagner at the Met. Details below.

The Met will commemorate the bicentennial Wagner with an exclusive box set of historic Met performances, released by Sony Classical. Each set will feature legendary performances from the Met’s archives, most never before officially released and all newly restored and mastered from the original sources. Wagner at the Met, a 25-CD set, will be released March 11 2013 and feature Götterdämmerung starring Lauritz Melchior and Marjorie Lawrence (1936); Melchior and Kirsten Flagstad in Die Walküre (1940), Siegfried (1937), andTristan und Isolde (1938); Lohengrin with Melchior and Astrid Varnay (1943); Der Fliegende Holländer with Hans Hotter and Varnay (1950); Das Rheingold with Hotter (1951); Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with Paul Schöffler and Victoria de los Angeles (1953); andTannhäuser with Ramón Vinay, Margaret Harshaw, Varnay, George London, and Jerome Hines (1954). Conductors featured in the set include Artur Bodanzky, Erich Leinsdorf, Fritz Reiner, Fritz Stiedry, and George Szell.

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Django Unchained: Nietzsche's Siegfried Not Wagner's?

"Who can attain to anything great if he does not feel in himself the force and will to inflict great pain? The ability to suffer is a small matter: in that line, weak women and even slaves often attain masterliness. But not to perish from internal distress and doubt when one inflicts great suffering and hears the cry of it — that is great, that belongs to greatness." Nietzsche: The Gay Science

"Moreover, Africans faced punishments designed not to only correct but also to degrade and humiliate. William Byrd, Virginia planter and a sophisticated colonial gentleman, noted, without embarrassment, in his diary how he forced a slave bed-wetter to drink a “pint of piss”The Routledge History Of Slavery


It is nearly impossible to discuss Django Unchained without discussing Richard Wagner's Ring cycle of dramas and Siegfried in particular. How could it not be when both Tarantino and Christoph Waltz have discussed the influence of Wagner's work on Tarantino's newest movie - especially so in the German media. Add to this  that Django is searching for his wife Broomhilde (Brunnhilde) and the clear links between certain characters and those found in Wagner's dramas. However, like everything that Tarintino "steals" from, he manipulates them for his own purposes - while often doing little more than nodding at the original. And I don't just mean the written narrative here but all of the narrative structures at a film makers disposable: sound, music, dialogue, mise-en-scene, titles,  costumes, framing,  etc. Indeed, one feels sometimes that perhaps this alteration of the original source allows him to add a further narrative message - even if one needs to be familiar with the source to see how he does this and perhaps what he he might be trying to say. This would be no different in the manner that he adapts Wagner's work then he does that of  the other two main pieces of source material  Sergio Corbucci's original Django and Pietro Francisci's Hercules Unchained. However, I think that Tarantino's distortion of Wagner's Siegfried (Django) is so important in this movie that it needs far more attention than has been provided by those perhaps less familiar with the source. But don't worry, we will keep things simple. Don't I always?

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Wolfgang Sawallisch, (1923-2013) Dies at 89

Obituary from the Guardian below.

Once described as "a sphinx in a tailcoat", the German conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch, who has died aged 89, conducted supremely idiomatic performances of Richard Strauss. His personality always melded seamlessly with the music he conducted. Though he enjoyed great veneration, the suave and personable Sawallisch did not cultivate it. "He never made a star of himself," said the soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. "He wants to make music … untrammelled." She added: "It's a wonderful sensation. It's as if you're in private."

Sawallisch's restrained physicality, contradicted by the occasional, discreet leap at the end of The Firebird, later gave way to a particularly intense passion. In middle age he had a certain emotional aloofness, yet his readings of Shostakovich and Brahms symphonies in his 70s were described as "suffocating" in their extremity. His Beethoven Pastoral symphony left hardened recording engineers in tears. While his early 1970s recordings of the Schumann symphonies with the Dresden Staatskapelle had long been considered classics, Sawallisch eclipsed even his own standard with the Philadelphia Orchestra's 2003 live recording of the Symphony No 2 – despite such ill health that some feared he would collapse mid-performance.

The spur of this Indian summer was a personal sadness. Sawallisch's change in temperament – which showed itself only in certain repertoire – dated from the death of his wife of 46 years, Mechthild, in 1998. In the months following, the maestro was known to break down during rehearsals of Austro-Germanic repertoire, but he refused to discuss his inner life, aside from saying: "I've never felt such a close relationship with music."

Born in Munich, Sawallisch studied at the city's Wittelsbacher-Gymnasium and the Hochschule für Musik. His training as a pianist was interrupted by the second world war, during which he was a radio operator in the German army stationed in Italy. He was captured and spent time in both American and British PoW camps. After the war, he started as an opera house répétiteur in Augsburg, Bavaria, then graduated to conducting there. He furthered his operatic activities as general music director in Aachen (1953-58), Wiesbaden (1958-60) and Cologne (1960-63).

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The Wagnerian Review of the Gergiev Walkure:

Wagner: Die Walküre

Nina Stemme (Brünnhilde), René Pape (Wotan), Jonas Kaufmann (Siegmund), Anja Kampe (Sieglinde), Mikhail Petrenko (Hunding), Zhanna Dombrovskaya (Gerhilde), Irina Vasilieva (Ortlinde), Natalia Evstafieva (Waltraute), Lyudmila Kanunnikova (Schwertleite), Tatiana Kravtsova (Helmwige), Ekaterina Sergeeva (Siegrune), Anna Kiknadze (Grimgerde), Elena Vitman (Rossweisse)

Mariinsky Orchestra, Valery Gergiev
SACD - 4 discs

The Gergiev Walkure: "Parsifal is Parsifal, Walkure is Walkure."

From the moment it was announced, I have waited enthusiastically upon this release. While I would be the first to admit that Gergiev's Ring cycle, as heard at the ROH, was far from perfect, I have been a dedicated admirer of his Parsifal - also released on the Mariinsky label a few years ago. While that may never replace a number of other recordings that I hold and listen to repeatedly, it was certainly a Parsifal that I had happily added to them -  for a number of reasons. One of these being that in Parsifal, Gergiev brings forth something new both from the score and text.

With this in mind, and a cast that included many of the leading performers of Wagner today - Kaufmann, Pape, Stemme, etc - it seemed that this Walkure would be one of the digital recordings of both this and even the last century.  However, I am sad to report that it is not the recording either for which I hoped or indeed it could have been.

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Review: Fulham Opera Siegfried

Reviewed by Paul Kilbey at Bachtrack

You have to sit in a small Fulham church, on a pretty uncomfortable chair, for at least four hours. And listen to a load of opera singers warbling about dwarves and gold and stuff. From certain perspectives, Fulham Opera’s production of Wagner’s Siegfried doesn’t sound like much fun at all. But somehow – and I’m still not entirely sure why – it’s a completely brilliant evening’s entertainment, which absolutely does Wagner proud.

It’s helped, of course, by some monumental vocal performances – Philip Modinos is a really blisteringly full-on Siegfried, Ian Wilson-Pope a calm, intense Wanderer – but there’s more to it than just that. There is a seriousness of intent to this production which absolutely transcends its humble surroundings, and despite plenty of minor qualms with the production, I found myself simply blown away by the whole project.

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You can also read our interview with Fulham's Artistic Director here

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