Alex Ross "Black Wagner: The Question of Race Revisited." Full Wagner Video Lecture:

The Keynote address from Wagner World Wide 2013 - University of South Carolina.   

Alex Ross discuses a side of Wagner and his work (and indeed opera and the arts) sadly less investigated.

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K Wagner: New Bayreuth Director Will Have Limited Impact. Wants Less Interference

Festspielhaus. 1895

Katharina Wagner has said that the Bayreuth Festival's new third director (who starts on Monday), Heinz-Dieter Sense, will have limited powers in the running of the festival. "He will help us, especially in administrative formalities," said Wagner. Both she and her sister will continue to have full control of the Festival, its budget and artistic direction she continued.

If this might perhaps make the new "director" feel a little "unwanted" at the festival one cannot help but ponder what he might think as she went on, ""Previously, our father, Wolfgang Wagner was the sole director and shareholder of the Bayreuth Festival. Under him there were, for example, far less binding rules from collective agreements." This  also had advantages for productions. "If after the allotted rehearsal time, a director said "Let us repeat this scene again", it was much easier to accommodate this request." Indeed, she regrets that the festival has become less of a "family affair". This is in contrast to comments from both Nike and Gottfried Wagner.

She also went on to note that both she and Eva Wagner-Pasquier, had not confirmed that they would be staying on at the festival after their contracts expire in 2015. Whether this is the case will depend on the outcome of ongoing negotiations. One important part to this seems to be that both Wagner's are requesting much more funding for the festival to compensate for a growing wage bill. One also assumes it may depend on whether  they are successful in their re-applications for the job.

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"Me And My Shadow" Richard Wagner In Germany

A five part article from SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Wagner's Dark Shadow: Can We Separate the Man from His Works?

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.

ANZEIGEThat 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 CreationJournalist 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.

Continue Reading

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Wagner Journal: New Issue Published

Sorry, a little late mentioning this. If you have not already, you can obtain a trial copy by visiting the Journals website. See below.

The March 2013 issue (vol.7, no.1), now available, contains the following feature articles:

• 'Heroic Gestures and Family Values in Wagner's Ring' by Arnold Whittall

• 'The Kiss of the Dragon-slayer' by Barry Emslie

• 'Wieland Wagner's Intellectual Path' by Ingrid Kapsamer

plus reviews of:

Keith Warner's Ring at Covent Garden

DVD recordings of Lohengrin by Wolfgang Weber in Vienna and Hans Neuenfels at Bayreuth

Marek Janowski's new recording of Tristan und Isolde and his earlier Ring, plus Ring highlights and Liszt Wagner paraphrases from Asher Fisch

Gary Kahn's The Power of the Ring reviewed by David Trippett, David Conway's Jewry in Music reviewed by Jonas Karlsson, Joseph Horowitz's Moral Fire: Music Portraits from America's Fin de Siècle reviewed by Alexander H. Shapiro and Eva Rieger's biography of Friedelind Wagner reviewed by Tim Blanning

Visit: The Wagner Journal

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Boston: Ring Cycle Highlights Plus Q&A with Greer Grimsley

 Bicentennial concert and Q&A with

bass-baritone Greer Grimsley

Featuring soprano Joanna Porackova,

contralto Marion Dry, heldentenor Alan Schneider,

French hornist Kevin Owen and pianist Jeffrey Brody

Saturday, May 11, 2013, 2:00 p.m.

Old South Church, 645 Boylston St., Boston

 

Full Details And Tickets: Boston Wagner Society

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Remember Alberich: Robert Presley (6th May 1957 - 10th April 2013)

REMEMBER ALBERICH?

Fulham Opera’s Alberich, Robert Presley died suddenly on 10th April 2013 aged 55

A tribute by Ian Wilson-Pope

I first met Robert Presley whilst working as Stage Manager for New Sussex Opera’s production of Falstaff in April 2004. Robert was playing Ford. He had very recently moved to the UK from the USA, having been a member of the chorus at San Francisco Opera for some years. I remember his vibrancy and charisma both on and off stage. He immediately became someone I would never forget.

He could seem, until you got to know him better, somewhat prickly, but he was soft-hearted and very warm underneath. A mutual colleague described him as being “like a Ferrero Rocher”: hard and brittle on the outside, but soft and chewy underneath. He just didn’t want you to know this.

Born on 6th May 1957 in the Gulf Coast of Alabama, he studied at the University of Southern Mississippi and Kent State University of Ohio. His first taste of the operatic life was as Betto di Signa in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi for Mississippi Opera at the age of nineteen.

He appeared with several companies in the USA in many roles including title role Rigoletto, Germont La Traviata, Conte di Luna Il Trovatore, Miller Luisa Miller, Iago Otello, Figaro and Bartolo The Barber of Seville, Magnifico La Cenerentola, Enrico Lucia di Lammermoor, Ko-ko The Mikado, Ezio Attila, Silvio Pagliacci, the title role in John Phillip Sousa’s El Capitan, and he created the role of the Grandfather in American composer Carla Lucero’s opera Wuarnos. He worked with San Francisco Opera’s education/outreach programme and initiated a similar programme with the Nevada Opera in Reno.

He performed in concerts in England, Italy, Lebanon, the USA, and the Larnaca International Music Festival in Cyprus. He covered the role of Rigoletto for Castleward Opera of Belfast in 2004, and that year made his acclaimed UK opera debut as Ford Falstaff with New Sussex Opera.

He then toured England and Wales with Garden Opera in 2005 as Magnifico La Cenerentola, and sang with that company on its third annual tour to Kenya in March 2006. He then made his debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony that same year, and sang the role of Ashmodeus in New Sussex Opera’s production of Jonathan Dove’s Tobias and the Angel. Robert returned to Castleward Opera in June 2007 for several operatic concerts, one of which was recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio Ulster. In 2008 he sang the Voice of Neptune Idomeneo for New Sussex Opera, Germont La Traviata for Longborough Festival Opera, Sharpless Madama Butterfly for Opera Brava, and Ford Falstaff for Opera Project.

Other engagements included the role of Beckmesser in a concert performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, (Act III), for The Wagner Society; the Beethoven 9th Symphony for Liverpool’s Cornerstone Music Festival; and Germont La Traviata for Riverside Opera, a role he repeated for Opéra de Baugé in July/August 2009. Later he sang the title role in Macbeth for English Opera Singers, and Don Alfonso Così fan tutte for English Chamber Opera. In the summer of 2010 he returned to Baugé for the title role in Rigoletto, where he met Ben Woodward, Fulham Opera’s Artistic and Musical Director. Robert then went on to sing Amonasro Aida for Riverside Opera in March 2011, and Tonio Pagliacci and Germont La Traviata for Garden Opera.

Later that year he sang his first Alberich in Das Rheingold with the newly-formed Fulham Opera, which is where I caught up with him again. He then returned to New Sussex Opera for Ramon in Gounod’s rarity Mireille at London’s Cadogan Hall. Last year he sang the title role in Gianni Schicchi and Scarpia Tosca for Fulham Opera, as well as co-directing Fulham Opera’s Die Walküre, and Bartolo in Barber of Seville with The Opera Project. Robert was to have sung Alberich throughout Fulham Opera’s on-going Der Ring des Nibelungen during 2013/14, and he was due to cover the Siegfried Alberich at Longborough this summer, as well as appearing with me as a Vassal in Götterdämmerung. His last performances for Fulham Opera were as Alberich in Siegfried which were critically acclaimed in the April 2013 issue of Wagner News. Ben Woodward (Artistic Director at Fulham Opera) always said that the initial idea to do Das Rheingold was Robert’s. I rather feel it was both of them! Whose idea it was doesn’t matter; I for one am very grateful that they both cast me to be their Wotan.

A few days before his death we had a board meeting to discuss the way forward for Fulham Opera. He was full of life, and he wanted to organise a concert to celebrate the other operatic bicentennial this year, for Verdi .He had produced a similar concert in the USA called “Verdiana”, and with witty narration a là Anna Russell between items, wanted Fulham Opera to “go completely to pieces” in September in celebration. Indeed we shall, as a special tribute to him.

I shall be forever grateful for his support and encouragement of me as Wotan at Fulham Opera. We always had fun during rehearsals, and his love and knowledge of Wagner, Verdi and of course Anna Russell brightened our days immensely. I know that everyone who met and worked with Robert will miss him tremendously, but I think that he will be smiling, looking down on us as we “all go completely to pieces” at his sudden and untimely passing. I, for one, will always remember Alberich!

A shorter version of this tribute will appear in the July edition of “Wagner News"

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Nike Wagner May Not Have Bayreuth But She Does Have Bonn

Nike Wagner, is to take over the Beethovenfest in Bonn beginning in 2014.  Although it is still not officially confirmed it does seem likely considering she is the only candidate for the job - as chosen by the selection committee. She will be leaving the Weimar Arts Festival this year.

More here (in German)

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Deutsche Oper am Rhein Cancel "Nazi" Tannhauser - for "Medical Reasons"

Deutsche Oper am Rhein have decided to cancel Burkhard C. Kosminski's "controversial" production of Tannhauser. Instead, remaining dates will be filled with concert performances of Wagner's story of redemption.

According to  Deutsche Oper am Rhein, although they knew that the production would be "controversial" they did not expect the extreme reactions that it apparently induced. This included people seeking medical treatment for "psychological and physical stress".

Before cancelling, they asked  Kosminski if he would allow alterations to the production so that it would be, we assume,  "toned down" and made "less offensive".  However, Kosminski refused on artistic grounds.

We believe this may be the first time this has happened since the introduction of Nazi themes into Wagner's work became popular with a number of  opera directors.

Strangely, and we would suspect completely unknown to most opera directors including Kosminski , this was a trend that was started by the Nazis themselves as part of a program of  appropriating the greatest artists of the "western world" to give intellectual credibility and respectability to the ideology that underpinned the Third Reich. This included not only Wagner and his work, but Mozart, Beethoven, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Shakespeare. Popular examples of this could be found in  the daily "newspaper" dedicated to this cause , the Völkischer Beobachter.  For example, it published a series of articles using quotations from Henry IV Part One, Love’s Labour’s Lost and Two Gentlemen of Verona to provide "evidence"of  the playwright’s antisemitic ideology and maintained this implied support of their own twisted agenda.

In the the case of Tannhauser, things become even more complicated as it was the favourite opera  of Theodor Herzl - father of modern political Zionism and in effect the foundation of the State of Israel.

Readers interested in the manner that the Nazi propaganda machine worked in this regard might wish to check out  the very well written: Inhumanities: Nazi Interpretations of Western Culture by David B. Dennis. To pursue the links between Tannhauser and Herzl you might want to read: A Knight at the Opera: Heine, Wagner, Herzl, Peretz and the Legacy of Der Tannhäuser by Leah Garrett 

 

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Professor Richard Gombrich discusses the Pali Translation for Wagner Dream

Unlike previous productions of Jonathan Harvey’s Wagner Dream,  WNO's production this year will feature Wagner, Cosima, and other members of his circle singing in German rather than English while the many Buddhist characters, including the Buddha, will sing in Pali.

A 2,000 year old language that the Buddha would have spoken will feature in Welsh National Opera’s British staged première of Jonathan Harvey’s Wagner Dream this summer. The ancient Indian language of Pali is the best surviving clue as to how people spoke in the Buddha’s day and the oldest source for his words but few in the modern world are able to speak it.

The Buddha lived in North East India in the 5th century BC. The religion and culture around him were dominated by brahmins, a hereditary class of male priests. The language of their texts and rituals was Sanskrit, which means ‘elaborated language’. The language of daily life and of common people was derived from Sanskrit, but it was much simpler. No-one wrote anything down in these days and so there is no exact record of that language, but it is known that Pali was very close to it. In order to be widely understood the Buddha refused to use Sanskrit and subsequently the ‘Pali Canon’, which contains the earliest records of his sermons and sayings, has been preserved in Pali for over two thousand years.

WNO’s Head of Music, Russell Moreton has worked closely with Professor Richard Gombrich, Founder-President of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, to translate the opera from the original English libretto into Pali.

However, this wasn’t always a straightforward task as Professor Gombrich explains:

“Translating the English libretto into Pali brought some amusing challenges. First, there are few short words in Pali, so in some places we had to split the musical notes in order for them to fit. Then, the English text contains howlers: guns in ancient India, for example, and pubs, and tea – none of which existed there then. So we had to make changes. I also felt obliged to insert, very briefly, some real Buddhist doctrine when the Buddha himself is speaking.”

In the opera, Wagner and his circle will speak and sing in German while the Buddhist characters will sing in Pali. David Pountney says this was something the composer was keen to see happen:

“In discussing this with Jonathan Harvey before his death, we identified our aim as seeking to enhance and clarify the cultural dialogue which is the centrepiece of this opera. This brings together a giant of the Western musical tradition, Richard Wagner, with ideas and narrative elements from the Buddhist tradition. We felt that the impact of this cultural dialogue would be enhanced by letting each of these two worlds speak in its own language rather than being confused by both being rendered in a third language, English.”

Professor Gombrich says the study of the language is in crisis worldwide:

“It is what our government labels a ‘minority subject’, so when the cuts come, as they constantly do, it is first for the chop. Neither Oxford nor Cambridge now has a post in Pali, and no British university offers a degree devoted to the subject. The situation in other Western countries is as bad or even worse, as all governments agree that they should not subsidise the study of a subject which brings no direct economic benefit.

“Those Buddhists, in Sri Lanka and parts of South East Asia, who use Pali as their scriptural language often know some Pali texts by heart, but hardly ever understand the language thoroughly. I teach it in classes all over the world, but how much can one person do? At the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies we are trying to raise funds to create a permanent lectureship in Pali, so that there will still be a few people in the world who can read the Buddha’s message in the original. Please go to our website www.ocbs.org and contribute anything you can to keep this great tradition alive.”

The first performance of Wagner Dream is on Thursday 6 June at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff with further performances in Cardiff and Birmingham.

For More about WNO's Wagner Dream or their new production of Lohengrin please visit: WNO


As an aside, for anyone interested in reading modern translations of the so called Pali Cannon from the Theravada Buddhist, tradition, the finest we have ever found comes from the publisher Wisdom Publications. These appear not only to be "faithful" but remove many of the "repetitions" in the original that make many translations somewhat boring to read . (The originals contain so many repetitions because they were told or "chanted" and not written down. Repetition of important "texts" is common where there is no written language as they aid clear memorization).  You could start with any of the volumes but perhaps the best introduction would be  "In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Cannon" Other volumes below. Note, this will take you to Amazon, it goes without saying we recommended should you be interested to "shop around". We are sure your local independent book shop could order them in for you if you so wished.

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Ivan Hewett, talks with Daniel Barenboim about Proms 2013

Talking about Wagner with Daniel Barenboim is fascinating, but you have to be quick on your feet. His thoughts come so fast it’s hard to get a word in edgeways. “The thing about Wagner is we’re always wrong about him, because he always embraces opposites,” he says, àpropos nothing in particular – the thought just pops into his head. “There are things in his operas which viewed one way are naturalistic, and viewed another way are symbolic, but the problem is you can’t represent both views on stage at once.”

I’m with Barenboim in the director’s office at the Schiller Theatre in Berlin, the temporary home of the opera company Barenboim has led for the past 21 years, the Berlin Staatsoper. It’s the morning after a performance of Götterdämmerung, the final part of the company’s new production of the four-part epic that makes up Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung. This summer, Wagner fans in Britain can savour the production when Barenboim brings his company to the Proms, for the first complete Ring cycle in a single season.

If Barenboim is tired after conducting that five-hour marathon, he’s not showing it. Wagner fires him up in a special way, as if between these two short, forceful men there’s a special affinity. Barenboim’s involvement with Wagner goes back more than 30 years, to a production of Tristan and Isolde on the other side of town, at the Deutsche Oper. “I prepared for that like a military campaign,” he laughs. “I immersed myself in Liszt and then Berlioz and then Bruckner, so I could encircle Wagner from every angle.”

After that Barenboim became a favourite at Wagner’s own theatre in Bayreuth, where, among other productions, Barenboim worked on a now-legendary Ring with Harry Kupfer. He’s conducted five productions of Tristan and Isolde, and recorded all Wagner’s major works with stellar casts. Wagner has become a kind of crusade for him, even to the extent of causing a scandal back in 2001. That was the year he conducted the Tristan prelude in Israel, where Wagner’s music is informally banned.

Barenboim is keen to put the record straight about that. “I and the Staatsoper were invited by the Israel Festival to perform the first act of the Valkyrie [the second part of the Ring]. Then at the last minute the Israeli Ministry of Education found out and threatened to withdraw the festival’s entire subsidy. I didn’t want to cancel, so we went and played a different programme of Schumann and Stravinsky. Then I thought, let’s at least try to play something of Wagner as an encore, if the audience agrees, which they did. But then there was a scandal…” He sighs at the memory.

Continue Reading at: The Telegraph

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Salzburg Parsifal to get DVD release, followed by Thielemann Ring Cycle

This year Christian Thielemann and the Dresden Staatskapelle saved the day at the Salzburg Easter Festival after Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic decided another location was more to their taste. And so it was that Thielemann and the Dresden Staatskapelle took over musical duties for a production of Parsifal, originally designed with another conductor and orchestra in mind. And all to fine reviews - at least for the music.

However, should you have not been able to make it to Salzburg this year you will still able to see and hear it in your living room. It seems the production was captured on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon and will see a release at the end of May.

But wait. This is not the only Thielemann Wagner that you can buy this year, as his reading of Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle at the Wiener Staatsoper in 2011 is  being released in June as a box set containing 14 CDs  plus 2 DVDs featuring four introductory films to each opera. 


Das Rheingold:

Albert Dohmen (Wotan), Markus Eiche (Donner), Herbert Lippert (Froh), Adrian Eröd (Loge), Janina Baechle (Fricka), Alexandra Reinprecht (Freia), Anna Larsson (Erda), Tomasz Konieczny (Alberich), Wolfgang Schmidt (Mime)

Die Walküre:

Christopher Ventris (Siegmund), Eric Halfvarson (Hunding), Albert Dohmen (Wotan), Waltraud Meier (Sieglinde), Katarina Dalayman (Brünnhilde), Janina Baechle (Fricka)

Siegfried:

Stephen Gould (Siegfried), Linda Watson (Brünnhilde), Albert Dohmen (Der Wanderer), Tomasz Konieczny (Alberich), Anna Larsson (Erda), Wolfgang Schmidt (Mime), Ain Anger (Fafner) und Chen Reiss (Stimme des Waldvogels)

Götterdämmerung:

Stephen Gould (Siegfried), Markus Eiche (Gunther), Eric Halfvarson (Hagen), Linda Watson (Brünnhilde) Caroline Wenborne (Gutrune), Janina Baechle (Waltraute)


The 4 documentary films were directed by Eric Schulz, complementing the audio recordings, providing an introduction, commentary and analysis by experts, including conductor Christian Thielemann. They will also be broadcast by the German/Austrian TV channel 3Sat in April – one feature per week starting on 4th April.

Booklet contains synopses in German, English and French and libretti in German and English.

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Gottfried Wagner Calls For A New Gotterdammerung

Gottfried Wagner calls for a different kind of Gotterdammerung

After the premiere of Bayreuth's new Tannhauser, Nike Wagner suggested that the end of the Wagner family's time as directors at the festival was near. Now, nearly two years later, Gottfried Wagner, great-grandson of Richard Wagner, brother of the festival head Eva Wagner-Pasquier and half brother of Katharina Wagner has said the same-thing in an interview with Focus.

Never shy about being critical of Bayreuth or indeed his great-grandfather, Gottfried believes that someone else rather than a Wagner - an experienced opera director he suggests - should take over. This one person would then be assisted by an advisory committee.

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MET/Lepage Ring: Revival Cancelled As "The Planks" Are Retired?

Even the Gods can be made "to walk the plank"

The normally accurate, as far as MET rumors are concerned, La Cieca has published that the MET/Lepage Ring will not be revived for three cycles in 2016/17 as originally thought. Indeed, according to "MET insiders" the Lepage Ring is unlikely to see the light of day anytime in the future.No obvious reason is being given as yet. However, given the sudden slash in ticket prices to this season's cycle, the reason may be closely related to simple economics. Especially as much of the arts is struggling in the present financial climate. Perhaps not even the MET is immune.

This of course begs the question as to what will replace it. Another, new Ring production? According to La Cieca this is not the case - and given the timescales this should probably come as little surprise. Instead, the now empty slots in the 2016/17 season will be filled with "the company’s current production of Der Fliegende Holländer (which) will return for five performances, featuring Michael Volle, Christine Goerke and Jay Hunter Morris". The rest of the Rings slot will be filled with a new production of Rusalka.

All of which means, if this is true,  that if you live in or near New York it may be a long time before you see another Ring Cycle locally.

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Kosminski's "Nazi" Tannhauser leads to audience walkouts and protests from Jewish Community

Burkhard C. Kosminski's new production of Tannhauser for the Deutsche Oper am Rhein has lead to booing, audience members walking out (some loudly slamming theatre doors as they left) and complaints from the local Jewish community.

The protest's came as it was found that Kosminski's first opera production is set during the Third Reich and is filled with Nazi and Holocaust imagery. This includes: Third Reich uniforms, Swastikas and what appears to be a gas chamber. For example, Venus is found dressed as an SS Officer with Tannhauser as one of her SS thugs - forced to murder a family

However, protests were not only from opera goers, as local Jewish community leader Michael Szentei-Heise was equally disturbed by the production calling it "tasteless". "Wagner had indeed been a fervent anti-Semite" he noted but went on to say, that Wagner's antisemitism was not to be found in the music or libretto and thus the production did the composer a disservice. "Wagner had nothing to do with the Holocaust" he told Die Zeit. He also noted that as head of the Jewish community in Dusseldorf  "It strikes me as odd to have to defend Wagner".

Images from the production can be found below.

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"Der Ring des Nibelungen - Explorations". 4 CD Set Exploring The Ring Cycle

To mark the worldwide bicentenary celebrations of Wagner’s birth, a set of four CDs has been recorded for the Decca label by Australian Wagner scholar, author and lecturer Peter Bassett, as an introduction to and commentary on Richard Wagner’s great cycle of four music dramas: Der Ring des Nibelungen. The recording uses extensive musical excerpts from the famous Decca recording featuring the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Sir Georg Solti – a recording voted recently by BBC Music magazine as the greatest classical recording ever made. The set is distinguished from the fine introduction to the system of leitmotifs recorded by Deryck Cooke in 1967 by addressing Wagner’s magnum opus more broadly through its narrative, intellectual and aesthetic qualities. Its tone is engaging and directed at the general but discerning listener. Each CD in the set is devoted to each of the four operas that forms this tetralogy.

Peter Bassett has been speaking and writing about Wagner’s works for more than four decades, and is well known to audiences of the Ring cycles performed in Adelaide in 1998 and 2004 when, on each occasion, he gave extended pre-performance talks attracting some 6,000 people. Peter still receives requests to record those talks. His frequent speaking engagements in Australia and New Zealand as well as in Europe and the United States have brought him to the attention of wider audiences. Since 2001 he has led 25 opera tours on five continents. He has published five books on Wagner’s works, the most recent being a large format, full-colour volume to commemorate the bicentenary in 2013 of the births of both Wagner and Verdi.

The celebrated Solti recording of the Ring is key to this project, one especially chosen by Peter to reflect his talks on the Ring: 'I can truthfully say that in forty years of “Ring”-going, no performance has made a greater impression on me than Solti’s famous studio recording for Decca. I count it amongst the most powerful artistic influences of my life.'

Scheduled for release on 17 June 2013

Der Ring des Nibelungen
Festival stage play for three days and a preliminary evening ∙ Libretto by the composer
EXPLORATIONS
Devised, presented and produced by Peter Bassett
CD 1 Das Rheingold
CD 2 Die Walküre
CD 3 Siegfried
CD 4 Götterdämmerung
Peter Bassett, speaker
with musical illustrations from ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’
Wiener Philharmoniker
Sir Georg Solti

Click Here To Visit Peter's Website

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Stephen Moss in discussion with Nina Stemme

Nina Stemme is one of those artists who, if you are having difficulty submitting yourself to the multiple absurdities of opera, makes you believe in the artform afresh. I am jetlagged when I see the Swedish soprano in Tristan und Isolde at the Houston Grand Opera, but she is riveting, that concluding Liebestod thrilling and transcendent. In July she will sing Brünnhilde in the first-ever complete Ring cycle at the Proms, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Kill for a ticket.

We meet the morning after her performance, in the plush, gated apartment block that is her temporary home. She is the least diva-ish diva imaginable – fetches me a coffee, talks for two hours when we had agreed one, seems to forgive me when I keep getting facts about her career wrong. As the outstanding Isolde and now Brünnhilde of her generation – she has already conquered the US in the latter role and this month sings her first complete European Ring in Vienna – she could swagger and drip with jewellery. In fact, she is friendly, approachable and wearing a sensible linen dress.

"One of my daughters calls me a diva at home sometimes," she says, "and I can be one on stage if I have to be. That's enough for me. Divas have a reputation for being quite complicated, and we can't really afford that in our operatic world. I want this artform to develop."

Stemme tells me she is exhausted but still full of adrenalin after the previous day's performance. She makes the epic role of Isolde look straightforward, but don't be deceived. "It has taken 10 years to get there," she says. "My aim is to make it seem effortless. You learn how to tackle these parts. At the moment it feels, knock on wood, almost easy. Almost. Though you still wonder what you bring across the pit to the audience. I am never sure, never secure. I am always questioning myself – could it be better? Yes, it could. All it can get is better for each performance, even if it's a tiny detail."

She is 50 this month and at her peak as a dramatic soprano. Before 2000 she had performed mainly lyric roles, but she then sang Senta in The Flying Dutchman at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and was surprised by the results. "I thought Senta was on the limits of what I could sing, but with that production my voice developed and it has kept on developing."

Three years later she triumphed as Isolde at Glyndebourne, giving a performance the Guardian's Tim Ashley described as "ravishing". "An Isolde can be sung by a lyric dramatic soprano," she says, "and that's exactly what I was at that time," adding that Glyndebourne was perfect because it was a relatively small house with a very good orchestra. Bad orchestras, she explains, tend to overcompensate by playing too loud, and you have to fight against them. "I didn't have a typical big dramatic voice then, but my voice grew a couple of years after that."

Continue Reading at: The Guardian

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Opera Related Movies You May Have Missed No 1: Diva (1981)

Our editor takes leave of Wagner for a moment to introduce, to those that may have missed it, the 1981 French classic "Diva"

I am often surprised how many people with an interest in opera have not seen Jean-Jacques Beineix's frankly stunning 1981 French film "Diva". One of the first movies to depart from the French "New Realism" school of film making, and like "Bladerunner" around the same time, going on to redefine the look of cinema - which it still does to some degree.

Not that it did not have some success outside of France, grossing as it did over $2.5 million in the USA alone. And on a budget of $1.6 million. Nevertheless, it remains a to little seen piece of cinema history and has found itself confined to "cult status". Although, I have always suspected it may have contributed to the "renaissance" of opera in the popular imagination that took place in the 80's

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Stephen Fry to Play a Lumberjack. Honest. Benjamin Britten’s Paul Bunyan,

Welsh National Youth Opera’s new production of Benjamin Britten’s Paul Bunyan, featuring the voice of Stephen Fry, will open at Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff this August. Stephen Fry pre-recorded the off stage spoken role of the larger than life character Paul Bunyan, who is the boss of a group of lumberjacks and has a vision of what America could be. He orders them to clear the forests to make way for modern America.

Stephen Fry, an opera lover and a lifelong Richard Wagner fan has previously played the Major-Domo in a recording of Ariadne auf  Naxos for Chandos Records and he provided the translation for Kenneth Branagh’s film The Magic Flute which celebrated Mozart’s 250th anniversary. He also appeared in the BBC film ‘Wagner & Me’ which followed preparations for the 2009 Bayreuth Festival.

This year’s WNO Youth Opera production involves 40 singers, 35 orchestral players, 8 technical students, 13 costume makers and 10 wigs & make-up students, all aged between 16 & 25 years. Also featuring in the opera will be over 100 members of Only Boys Aloud, who are previous Britain’s Got Talent finalists. Following the release of their Sony album in November 2012 they got to number one position on the iTunes classical singles chart. Those involved are not only from the length and breadth of England and Wales but also from Italy and Poland.

WNO Youth Opera offers a professional experience to all participants as they produce the show on Wales Millennium Centre’s main stage, having been mentored by Welsh National Opera staff and industry professionals. This year’s director is Martin Constantine who is director of ENO Opera Works and recently directed the world premiere of the opera The Owl and the Pussycat for the Royal Opera House. Alice Farnham who has previously been guest conductor with Singapore Lyric Opera, Danish Royal Ballet and The Royal Ballet Covent Garden will conduct Paul Bunyan.

Stephen Fry who has pre-recorded his role, which will be incorporated into the production via voice-over and visual projection says: “As a lifelong opera lover I’m thrilled to be part of Welsh National Youth Opera’s new production of Paul Bunyan. Harnessing the energy and passion of this young company is an extremely appropriate way to celebrate Benjamin Britten’s centenary year, and I hope that the young singers, musicians and technical students will spread their enthusiasm for this fantastic art-form to their friends and families.”

It has been WNO’s commitment to nurture, develop and support young talent via WNO Youth Opera for more than 10 years. Participants are provided with invaluable practical experience to progress and become professionals in the industry while also giving an opportunity to those who have never been involved in theatre before.

More At: WNO

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Die Feen: The English Libretto

It is notoriously difficult to find a freely available English libretto for this work. With that in mind an individual has kindly prepared an English translation and made it available under an Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License .   

The original source can be found under the first two links below - PDF and Web formats. However, in an attempt to make this as easy to use as possible, we have used the original source and reproduced the translation in Kindle and Epub format so that, should you wish, read it on an ebook reader.

Should you also want to listen to the opera while reading, and you can access Spotify, we include the full work below.

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Singing Richard Wagner Stamps?

Well, not quite, but scanning the QR code on these Wagner bicentenary stamps will take you to the Hungarian State Opera's website where you can hear audio samples.

Magyar Posta is releasing “audible” postage stamps to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi.

The release is unusual because this is the first time that a QR code has appeared on Hungarian postage stamps. With a smart phone and the Internet information about the bicentenary on the HungarianState Opera House’s web site can be heard and read. Portraits of the composers are at the centre of the stamp designs, while graphic compositions referring to works by them (Das Rheingold and Aida) are in the background. Fifty thousand copies of the miniature sheets designed by the Kossuth Prize-winning graphic artist István Orosz were printed by the ANY Security Printing Company.

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Fredric Jameson: Allegory In Wagner's Ring - with video examples

Lets be honest, few people are actually able to provide interesting lectures on or about Wagner and his work. Most are far better read than seen. However, this is not always the case with Fredric Jameson.


Professor Fredric Jameson
Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, Duke University

Allegory and Dramaturgy in Wagner’s Ring

Abstract:

Aside from its musical genius, Wagner’s Ring cycle remains one of the most staggering achievements of the 19th-century stage, and has continued to stimulate innovative dramaturgy amidst the present Wagner revival. This lecture will focus on two interrelated topics: the relationship between the figure of Wotan and political fields of force; and the role of Siegfried as a way into Wagnerian theatrical psychology—the composer/dramatist’s specific ‘system’ of thinking psychological motivation.

Biography:

Fredric R. Jameson is Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of the Institute for Critical Theory at Duke University. One of the leading cultural critics of our time, he is the author of Postmodernism, The Political Unconscious, The Modernist Papers, and Valences of the Dialectic, among others, and was the recipient of the Holberg Prize in 2008 and the MLA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.

This lecture was introduced by Professor Julian Murphet from the Center for Modernism Studies in Australia, UNSW

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Audio Documentary: Richard Wagner

An episode of "Composer Of The Week" from 2011. Still available to listen to from the BBC Radio 4 website - click link below. Running time 51 minutes.

Donald Macleod introduces Richard Wagner, a composer whose name instantly ignites controversy like no other - a composer whose life was every bit as much of a titanic saga as the epic music dramas he invented. Wagner was a young firebrand of twenty-two when he made his debut as an opera composer with Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love), and the premiere was a fiasco with fights on stage even before the curtain rose. His opera Rienzi was much more successful, catching the revolutionary spirit of the time and putting Wagner's name on the map.

As his opera Rienzi is removed from the opera programme in Dresden, Richard Wagner takes to the streets and political storm clouds gather. Wagner shared the revolutionary spirit of 1830s Germany with its political, social, artistic and moral changes. Plus the almost nuclear force of the revolution Wagner detonated on the entire history of tonal music with his astonishing Tristan chord.

Wagner's exile in Switzerland included a period of intense creativity that coincided with the entrance into his life of his second wife, Cosima. Wagner was incredibly happy in their rented villa near Lucerne, accompanied by his young family, a pair of peacocks and two dogs called Wotan and Fricka.

The composer, a left-wing revolutionary who had fought on the streets in Dresden, now brought about a revolution in music with the help of a ridiculously spoiled and pampered monarch, King Ludwig of Bavaria, who happened to be Wagner's number one fan and gave the ever-ambitious composer seemingly limitless financial backing.

Donald Macleod discovers why Richard Wagner took a twelve year break from his work on the Ring Cycle and explores those epic music dramas, from the thunderous music of Siegfried to the monumental funeral music from Gotterdammerung (Twilight of the Gods). Plus a look at Wagner's controversial legacy and his final work, Parsifal, described by one writer as 'opera halfway between Mass and orgy'.
Click Here To Listen

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How much Schopenhauer is really in Wagner's work?

Schopenhauer

How much Schopenhauer is there really in Wagner?

A l e s s a n d r o  P i n z a n i

Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina – UFSC – Florianópolis

ABSTRACT 

The paper aims at analyzing some Wagnerian figures in order to show that the influence of Schopenhauer’s philosophy on Wagner is not as strong as commonly held – at least not in his operas. The figures that shall be considered are: Wotan and Brünnhilde, Tristan and Isolde, and finally Parsifal, who appears to be the only Schopenhauerian character of all.

It is not my intention in this paper to speak generically of the influence of Schopenhauer’s philosophy on Wagner. I shall rather try to analyze five Wagnerian figures in order to show that the current opinion on Schopenhauer’s influence on his works should be at least partially revised. While Schopenhauer’s thought undoubtedly impressed Wagner very much, this influence should be sought rather in some theoretical aspects, that is, with regard to the role Wagner assigns to art in general and to music in particular, and maybe in some musical aspects. This influence seems to be weaker precisely with regard to the dramaturgical aspect, to the librettos, in which we would expect to find it at its strongest, but in which on the contrary we are confronted with figures andsituations that are rather at odds with Schopenhauer’s thought.

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Another Wagner Boxset: Toscanini Conducts Wagner. Sony

If you are still not  exhausted by Wagner Box-sets, the following maybe of interest. It may also be one of the better ones. Should you have access to Spotify you can also listen to all 5 cds first before deciding.

Toscanini,Arturo
Release Date: 04/30/2013

Composer: Richard Wagner
Performer: Lauritz Melchior, Helen Traubel
Conductor: Arturo Toscanini
Orchestra/Ensemble: NBC Symphony Orchestra
Number of Discs: 5

More than fifty years after his death, ARTURO TOSCANINI (1867-1957) still remains one of the world’s most legendary conductors. Wagner always held a special place in the Italian maestro’s long and illustrious career, from his first appearance at La Scala in 1898 conducting Die Meistersinger, to his final appearance in 1954 performing an all-Wagner program. Toscanini Conducts Wagner gathers together on 5 CDs the best of Toscanini’s Wagner performances with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The set features soprano Helen Traubel and tenor Lauritz Melchior and includes new liner notes by noted Toscanini biographer Harvey Sachs.

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New Wagner Boxset: Richard Wagner: Great Recordings - Sony

Sony have now joined EMI and DG with a Wagner Bicentenary Box-set: Richard Wagner: Great Recordings. A set which includes all of Wagner's mature works but with the very odd exception of Tristan! Full details below.

Der fliegende Holländer
studio recording, 1994

James Morris (Der Holländer), Deborah Voigt (Senta), Jan-Hendrik Rootering (Daland), Ben Heppner (Erik), Birgitta Svendén (Mary), Paul Groves (Steuermann)
Orchestra and Chorus of the Metropolitan Opera, James Levine

Der Ring des Nibelungen 
studio recording, 1980

Das Rheingold Theo Adam (Wotan), Yvonne Minton (Fricka), Siegmund Nimsgern (Alberich), Peter Schreier (Loge), Marita Napier (Freia), Christian Vogel (Mime), Matti Salminen (Fafner), Roland Bracht (Fasolt), Eberhard Büchner (Froh), Karl-Heinz Stryczek (Donner), Ortrun Wenkel (Erda), Lucia Popp (Woglinde), Uta Priew (Wellgunde), Hanna Schwarz (Flosshilde) Die Walküre Siegfried Jerusalem (Siegmund), Jessye Norman (Sieglinde), Kurt Moll (Hunding), Jeannine Altmeyer (Brünnhilde), Theo Adam (Wotan), Yvonne Minton (Fricka), Eva-Maria Bundschuh (Gerhilde), Ruth Falcon (Helmwige), Cheryl Studer (Ortlinde), Ortrun Wenkel (Waltraute), Christel Borchers (Siegrune), Kathleen Kuhlmann (Grimgerde), Uta Priew (Roßweiße), Anne Gjevang (Schwertleite) Siegfried René Kollo (Siegfried), Peter Schreier (Mime), Theo Adam (Wanderer), Jeannine Altmeyer (Brünnhilde), Siegmund Nimsgern (Alberich), Ortrun Wenkel (Erda), Matti Salminen (Fafner), Norma Sharp (Waldvogel) Götterdämmerung Jeannine Altmeyer (Brünnhilde), René Kollo (Siegfried), Matti Salminen (Hagen), Siegmund Nimsgern (Alberich), Hans Günter Nöcker (Gunther), Norma Sharp (Gutrune), Ortrun Wenkel (Waltraute), Lucia Popp (Woglinde), Uta Priew (Wellgunde), Hanna Schwarz (Flosshilde), Anne Gjevang (Erste Norn), Daphne Evangelatos (Zweite Norn), Ruth Falcon (Dritte Norn)
Dresdner Staatskapelle, Staatsopernchor Dresden, Marek Janowski

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
live concert recording, 1963

Otto Wiener (Hans Sachs), Jess Thomas (Walther von Stolzing), Benno Kusche (Beckmesser), Claire Watson (Eva), Friedrich Lenz (David), Lilian Benningsen (Magdalene), Hans Hotter (Pogner), Hans Bruno Ernst (Nachtwächter), Josef Metternich (Kothner)
Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Bayerische Staatsopernchor, Joseph Keilberth

Lohengrin
studio recording, 1965

Sándor Kónya (Lohengrin), Lucine Amara (Elsa), Rita Gorr (Ortrud), William Dooley (Friedrich von Telramund), Jerome Hines (König Heinrich), Calvin Marsh (Der Heerrufer des Königs)
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf

Parsifal
live recording, 1961

Eberhard Wächter (Amfortas), Fritz Uhl (Parsifal), Christa Ludwig (Kundry), Hans Hotter (Gurnemanz), Tugomir Franc (Titurel), Walter Berry (Klingsor), Hilde Rössl-Majdan (Alto Stimme)
Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Staatsopernchor, Herbert von Karajan

Wesendonck-Lieder (5)
Siegfried Idyll
Berliner Philharmoniker, Lorin Maazel

Die Walküre: Act 1

Hofmann (Siegmund), Marton (Sieglinde), Talvela (Hunding)

New York Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta

Selected arias

Eileen Farrell, Kirsten Flagstad, Helen Traubel, Waltraud Meier (sopranos), Gosta Winbergh, Lauritz Melchior, Peter Hofmann (tenors)

Selected orchestral music

Cleveland Orchestra, Symphony of the Air, Berliner Philharmoniker, Leopold Stokowski, George Szell, Lorin Maazel

Tannhäuser Without Words

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Lorin Maazel

Der fliegende Holländer: Overture

transcribed for piano duo

Tal & Groethuysen Duo

Götterdämmerung: Siegfried's Death

transcribed for piano duo

Tal & Groethuysen Duo

Tannhäuser: Venusberg Music (bacchanale)

transcribed for piano duo

Tal & Groethuysen Duo

Tristan und Isolde: Prelude & Liebestod

transcribed for piano duo

Tal & Groethuysen Duo

Starke Scheite schichtet mir dort 'Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene' (from Götterdämmerung)

transcribed for piano duo

Tal & Groethuysen Duo

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What Little Hans Knew: Opera's Invisible Man. Herbert Graf,

Performance presentation by Gerald Davidson. The Freud Museum, London

To mark the Wagner bi-centenary Gerald Davidson revives his performance about Freud's "Little Hans", first presented in 2009 to mark the centenary of the publication of "Analysis of a Phobia in a five-year-old boy".

Little Hans grew up to be Herbert Graf, an opera director at the Met, Salzburg and also for a time at Covent Garden, where he produced productions of Parsifal, Samson et Dalila, and Boris Godunov. Herbert Graf was the son of Max Graf, one of Freud's early circle and a famous music critic of the time. He wrote extensively, including psychoanalytic interpretations of music and opera (e.g. The Flying Dutchman) and he organised the celebrations in Vienna for the 50th anniversary of Wagner's death. Herbert also wrote about his craft in a number of books, including reflections on significant productions of Tristan, Mastersingers and Parsifal; and he introduced the first TV recordings of opera at the Met., a legacy that continues to this day. Both Max, the father, and Herbert, 'Little Hans', were interviewed in later life by the psychoanalyst and Freud archivist Kurt Eissler. Using these interviews, their respective books, Freud's case history, reviews, notices, and theatre programmes, the actor and researcher Gerald Davidson has created a stunning performance presentation of this fascinating story.

Gerald gave the first performance of this piece at the Freud Museum, where he placed greater emphasis on the Freudian case history than other aspects of the story. For the Wagner bi-centenary he has rewritten it to give space for Herbert's reflections on Appia and Heine for the Philadelphia "Tristan", a section on Toscanini's "Mastersingers" at Salzburg in 1936, Herbert's reflections on the technical shortcomings of the 1959 Covent Garden "Parsifal", the subsequent Appia "Parsifal" at Geneva, and more. All this will be enfolded into structure of the piece as it was first delivered at the Freud Museum.
May 21 2013.
7:00PM
£10/£7 Concessions/Members of the Museum
Book online here
Advance booking highly recommended

More information to be had at:  The Freud Museum London

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Video Lecture: How Richard Wagner Influnced Film Music

Matthew Bribitzer-Stull (Univ. of Minnesota): Wagner's Legacy in the Leitmotivic Film Score

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Video Lecture: Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle as Eco-Parable" by Thomas S. Grey

Thomas Grey is a preeminent scholar of the music of Wagner and nineteenth century music and culture. He is the author of Wagner’s Musical Prose: Texts and Contexts (1995) and the editor and coauthor of Richard Wagner: The Flying Dutchman (2000), among other works.
The lecture interrogates the conceptual foundations of this reading of the Ring cycle in the work’s text and music, and in the reception history especially since George Bernard Shaw’s The Perfect Wagnerite (1898).

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Back Injury Causes Barenboim To Pull From Ring Cycle Performances

A back injury, following a fall last year,  means Daniel Bar­en­boim must withdraw from Bar­bara Frittoli’s recital and at least three performances of Göt­ter­däm­mer­ung at La Scala. Instead he will be receiving "intensive" medical treatment in Berlin. Karl-Heinz Steffens will stand in for Barenboim on the three performances on 18, 22, 26 May. Steffen's made his debut at La Scala  12 months ago with Don Giovanni. It is believed that Barenboim will return to conduct Göt­ter­däm­mer­ung for its performance on the 30th May.
 
Press Release reads:

"A fall on his back last Octo­ber has caused Maes­tro Daniel Bar­en­boim some dif­fi­culty in his move­ments which has, with time, caused him severe pain in his right hip and leg. Since Octo­ber Il Maes­tro has been able to ful­fil all his com­mit­ments. How­ever, the con­tinu­ing prob­lem requires that Maes­tro Bar­en­boim receives intens­ive med­ical treat­ment in Ber­lin. There­fore he will be unable to per­form in Bar­bara Frittoli’s recital, and will miss the first three per­form­ances of Göt­ter­däm­mer­ung, but he is con­fid­ent that he will be able to resume work at the end of May."

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Mahler 4 & 5 Complete. Plus full rehearsal videos. RLPO & Vasily Petrenko

These videos provide a fascinating insight, as Vasily Petrenko takes the RLPO though rehearsal for all of Mahler's 5th. The first 5 videos consist of this rehearsal process - movement by movement. We then conclude with two full performances of Mahler's Fourth and Fifth. Directed by the late Ken Russell.

"HiBROW's production teams, which included the legendary British film director Ken Russell, captured the entire rehearsal process and performances by the RLPO of arguably Mahler's two greatest symphonies - the Fourth and the Fifth."

Provided by HiBROW

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