MET 2012-13 Live in HD trailer & details - Including new Parsifal

 For anyone that might have miss it 

The Met: Live in HD's 2012-13 Season Features 12 Live Transmissions, Including Seven New Productions (Two of Which Are Met Premieres)

L'Elisir d'Amore -- Gaetano Donizetti -- October 13, 2012
Conductor: Maurizio Benini
Production: Bartlett Sher
Cast: Anna Netrebko (Adina), Matthew Polenzani (Nemorino), Mariusz Kwiecien (Belcore), Ambrogio Maestri (Doctor Dulcamara)

Otello -- Giuseppe Verdi -- October 27, 2012
Conductor: Semyon Bychkov
Production: Elijah Moshinsky
Cast: Renée Fleming (Desdemona), Johan Botha (Otello), Michael Fabiano (Cassio), Falk Struckmann (Iago)

The Tempest -- Thomas Adès -- November 10, 2012
Met Premiere
Conductor: Thomas Adès
Production: Robert Lepage
Cast: Audrey Luna (Ariel), Isabel Leonard (Miranda), Iestyn Davies (Trinculo), Alek Shrader (Ferdinand), Alan Oke (Caliban), William Burden (King of Naples), Toby Spence (Antonio), Simon Keenlyside (Prospero)

La Clemenza di Tito -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -- December 1, 2012
Conductor: Harry Bicket
Production: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Cast: Lucy Crowe (Servilia), Barbara Frittoli (Vitellia), Elīna Garanča (Sesto), Kate Lindsey (Annio), Giuseppe Filianoti (Tito)

Un Ballo in Maschera - Giuseppe Verdi -- December 8, 2012
Conductor: Fabio Luisi
Production: David Alden
Cast: Karita Mattila (Amelia), Kathleen Kim (Oscar), Stephanie Blythe (Ulrica), Marcelo Álvarez (Gustavo III), Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Anckarström)

Aida -- Giuseppe Verdi -- December 15, 2012
Conductor: Fabio Luisi
Production: Sonja Frisell
Cast: Liudmyla Monastyrska (Aida), Olga Borodina (Amneris), Roberto Alagna (Radamès), George Gagnidze (Amonasro), Štefan Kocán (Ramfis), Miklós Sebestyén (The King)

Les Troyens -- Hector Berlioz -- January 5, 2013
Conductor: Fabio Luisi
Production: Francesca Zambello
Cast: Deborah Voigt (Cassandra), Susan Graham (Dido), Marcello Giordani (Aeneas), Dwayne Croft (Coroebus), Kwangchul Youn (Narbal)

Maria Stuarda - Gaetano Donizetti -- January 19, 2013
Met Premiere
Conductor: Maurizio Benini
Production: David McVicar
Cast: Joyce DiDonato (Maria Stuarda), Elza van den Heever (Elisabetta), Francesco Meli (Leicester), Joshua Hopkins (Cecil), Matthew Rose (Talbot)

Rigoletto - Giuseppe Verdi -- February 16, 2013
Conductor: Michele Mariotti
Production: Michael Mayer
Cast: Diana Damrau (Gilda), Oksana Volkova (Maddalena), Piotr Beczala (Duke of Mantua), Željko Lučić (Rigoletto),Štefan Kocán (Sparafucile)

Parsifal - Richard Wagner -- March 2, 2013
Conductor: Daniele Gatti
Production: François Girard
Cast: Katarina Dalayman (Kundry), Jonas Kaufmann (Parsifal), Peter Mattei (Amfortas), Evgeny Nikitin (Klingsor), René Pape (Gurnemanz)

Francesca da Rimini -- Riccardo Zandonai -- March 16, 2013
Conductor: Marco Armiliato
Production: Piero Faggioni
Cast: Eva-Maria Westbroek (Francesca), Marcello Giordani (Paolo), Robert Brubaker (Malatestino), Mark Delavan (Gianciotto)

Giulio Cesare - George Frideric Handel -- April 27, 2013
Conductor: Harry Bicket
Production: David McVicar
Cast: Natalie Dessay (Cleopatra), Alice Coote (Sesto), Patricia Bardon (Cornelia), David Daniels (Giulio Cesare), Christophe Dumaux (Tolomeo), Guido Loconsolo (Achilla)

For more information
Website: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/liveinhd/liveinhd1213.aspx?icamp=HD121...

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Eva-Maria Westbroek video interview: Music is a Language

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Sturm und Drang : An audio discussion.

I think, as many will agree,  it is impossible to "understand" Wagner without an understanding of the German Romantic movement and its direct "predecessors". With that in mind, I recently came across the following and thought someone might find it useful.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 18th century 'Angry Young Men' movement in Germany, 'Sturm und Drang'. Translated into English as 'Storm and Stress', this short-lived movement was characterised by raw emotion, drama and rebellion. Melvyn is joined by Tim Blanning, Emeritus Professor of Modern European History at Cambridge University; Susanne Kord, Professor of German at University College, London; and Maike Oergel, Associate Professor of German at the University of Nottingham.

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New Wagner Book : Wagner and Venice Fictionalized: Variations on a Theme

Due to be published 15 August 2012. More as I get it. Looks interesting however. Details as provided by publisher below.

Wagner and Venice Fictionalized: Variations on a Theme (Eastman Studies in Music)
John W. Barker 

Hardcover: 366 pages
Publisher: University of Rochester Press (15 Aug 2012)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1580464106
ISBN-13: 978-1580464109

The vast literature about Richard Wagner and his works includes a surprising number of fictional works, including novels, plays, satires, and an opera. Many of these deal with his last years and his death in Venice in 1883-and even a fabricated eleventh-hour romance. These fictional treatments-many presented here in English for the first time-reveal a striking evolution in the way that Wagner's character and reputation have been viewed over more than a century. They offer insights into changing contexts in Western intellectual and cultural history. And they make clear how much Wagner's associations with Venice have become part of the accumulated mythology of "the floating city." John Barker's Wagner and Venice Fictionalized: Variations on a Theme will be of interest to all lovers of opera, Venice, and European culture generally. John W. Barker is emeritus professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in medieval (including Venetian) history. He is also a passionate music lover and record collector, and an active music critic and journalist.

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In readiness for Leipzig 2013: Rienzi - Overture - Knappertsbusch (1962)

What was that about early Wagner being inferior work?

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Leipzig Wagner Festival 2013: Full program listing

I have been meaning to provide this for sometime, so apologies for the delay. Clicking on any of the events will provide full details

The House of the Red and White Lions, Leipzig:
the birthplace of Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner Festival 2013: Festival to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner

Programme (as at 02/02/2012)

• 16/05/2013 - Exhibition opening: "The Life of Richard Wagner in the Caricatures of Matthias Ose"
• 16/05/2013 - Exhibition opening: „Musical instruments for Richard Wagner“
• 16/05/2013 - Grand Concert to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner
• 17/05/2013 - "Auf in den Ring" – a programme of satire and cabaret with Marlene Jaschke
• 17/05/2013 - Opening Wave Gotik Treffen – Parsifal
• 17/05/2013 - Motets performed by St Thomas Boys' Choir
• 17/05/2013 - Grand Concert to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner
• 18/05/2013 - Motets performed by St Thomas Boys' Choir
• 18/05/2013 - Das Rheingold
• 19/05/2013 - „Richard Wagner und Franz Liszt auf der Orgel“
• 19/05/2013 - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
• 20/05/2013 - Parsifal
• 21/05/2013 - Exhibition opening: "The Young Richard Wagner, 1813-1834"
• 21/05/2013 - The Ring for Children
• 22/05/2013 - Ceremony to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner
• 22/05/2013 - Die Götterdämmerung
• 23/05/2013 - Richard Wagner ballet evening
• 24/05/2013 - Motets performed by St Thomas Boys' Choir
• 24/05/2013 - Ring 2013 – Ein musikalisches Theater (Music Theatre)
• 24/05/2013 - Die Feen
• 24/05/2013 - Das Liebesverbot
• 25/05/2013 - Motets performed by St Thomas Boys' Choir
• 25/05/2013 - Rienzi
• 25/05/2013 - Ring 2013 – Ein musikalisches Theater (Music Theatre)
• 26/05/2013 - Der fliegende Holländer
• 26/05/2013 - Closing ceremony of the "Richard Wagner – Between Leipzig and Bayreuth" exhibition
• 26/05/2013 - Chamber music



Old St. Nicholas School, Leipzig. Wagner's old school

• 26/05/2013 - Das Liebesverbot

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CBSO: 2013 A Flying Dutchman with: Nelsons, Wilson, Rutherford,

As already mentioned, the CBSO have just announced their 2012-2013 season. Amongst some very interesting performances, we find a concert performance of the Dutchman on Saturday 16th March - Andris Nelsons to conduct.

Confirmed so far are the rather fine couple:


Jennifer Wilson  Senta

James Rutherford  Dutchman (For a sample for Rutherford's Dutchman click here - you may need to allow pop-ups as this will  launch a media player)



More details here: 

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CBSO announces 2012-2013 Season. Includes: Flying Dutchman and Beethoven Symph Cycle from Nelsons plus....

Press release below as received. More information on the Dutchman shortly

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra 2012-13 season

• The CBSO with Andris Nelsons to perform the complete Beethoven symphonies in Birmingham
• Inspirational guest appearances by Mitsuko Uchida, Ian Bostridge, Lars Vogt and Simon Trpčeski, as well as debuts by Diego Matheuz and Nicholas Collon
• Celebrating 100 years since the birth of Benjamin Britten with the War Requiem and A Spring Symphony
• Andris Nelsons continues his passionate exploration into Wagner’s music with the romantic opera The Flying Dutchman

·         CBSO 20:20. The countdown goes on to the Orchestra’s centenary, experience music from 1912 and 1913

The 2012-13 season of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra will once again give audiences the chance to experience a host of world-class musicians, performers and new talent celebrating and developing great music in Birmingham. From Beethoven to Lutoslawski, Burt Bacharach to a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, there are performances to suit all tastes and, rest assured, whatever the programme, music sounds better in Birmingham. 

A fresh look at Beethoven 

One of the highlights of the 2012-13 season is undoubtedly music director Andris Nelsons’ complete cycle of Beethoven Symphonies – the first time in 15 years that the CBSO has performed a full cycle. With each concert focused solely on Beethoven’s music, and Andris’ reputation for fresh performances that provide new experiences for the listener, the Birmingham Beethoven Cycle is set to be a remarkable musical journey into the works of this great composer. Following on from the success of the Mahler Cycle in 2010/11, audiences will not only be able to enjoy all of Beethoven’s symphonies but also all of his concertos, performed throughout the season by world-class musicians including visiting artists in the Birmingham International Concert Series.

The CBSO family

At the heart of the CBSO is a family of outstanding musicians, conductors and choral leaders. Their passionate performances draw audiences from far and wide and, this year, Andris sets the tone for another spectacular season with the opening concert, Mahler’s epic Resurrection Symphony. He’ll also return to the music of Wagner, for which he’s drawn much acclaim, with the romantic opera The Flying Dutchman, a fitting tribute in the year of the composer’s bicentenary.

Principal guest conductor Edward Gardner’s second season includes music by composers that he loves: Bartók, Dvořák, Brahms, Elgar, Lutoslawski and Sibelius. Associate Conductor Michael Seal’s performance of Elgar’s Enigma Variations (as part of the Tuned In Concerts) is also not one to be missed. Other family members including orchestra leader Laurence Jackson, principal oboe, Rainer Gibbons and principal trumpet, Alan Thomas will be in the spotlight as soloists this season. Watch out too for the CBSO’s highly successful Centre Stage concerts, an intimate lunchtime chamber music experience created and performed by the players themselves, which will extend from the CBSO Centre to other venues this year.

The CBSO’s exceptional choruses will be busy performing throughout the season, both in Birmingham and internationally, under the leadership of renowned chorus director Simon Halsey. Meanwhile, some of the CBSO’s most talented young musicians, the Youth Orchestra and Children’s Chorus are combining for a special performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, with former music director of the Bolshoi, Alexander Vedernikov, conducting.

World-class musicians in Birmingham

The CBSO continues to attract the very best musicians to Birmingham, both those with global reputations and others that are fast catching them up. Pianist Francesco Piemontesi will appear in October and Kazushi Ono is joined by Young Musician of the Year winner (2004) Nicola Benedetti in November. Pianist sensation Simon Trpčeski will join the Orchestra in January and, in February, the Labèque sisters will perform. The outstanding tenor Ian Bostridge will join the Orchestra in March and, in May, incomparable pianist Mitsuko Uchida makes her long-awaited return to the CBSO. Andrés Orozco-Estrada was a real hit with musicians and audiences alike when he made his UK orchestral debut with the CBSO in 2012 and he will be back in February in a programme of Mozart and Mahler. Another firm CBSO and audience favourite is the talented John Wilson who returns in February and April for three concerts.

Birmingham debuts this season include Nicholas Collon, the inspiration behind the award-winning Aurora Orchestra, and pianist Daniil Trifonov, winner of last year’s Tchaikovsky competition. Diego Matheuz, one of El Sistema’s most brilliant graduates, is set to enthral audiences and so too are the Australian conductor Simone Young and violinist Yossif Ivanov. Also making their debuts are Valery Sokolov, violin, as well as the stunning voices of Allan Clayton, Anna Leese, Klara Ek and Jennifer Wilson.

Celebrating Britten – A Boy Was Born

The whole CBSO family will be helping to celebrate a centenary since the birth of Benjamin Britten in A Boy Was Born, a Birmingham wide celebration of his music in conjunction with Town Hall Symphony Hall and Ex Cathedra. The programme of music will, in January, include a rare performance of A Spring Symphony, conducted by Edward Gardner and featuring an all-star cast and massed CBSO chorus. In March, Michael Seal will conduct Britten’s sensuous, glittering song-cycle, Les Illuminations, featuring Ian Bostridge and, in May, Andris Nelsons is joined by a stellar cast of singers plus choruses for a performance of War Requiem. IIan Volkov will also join the CBSO in February with Steven Osborne for Britten’s Piano Concerto.

A universe of sound

The CBSO offers an unrivalled diversity of programme. The world premiere of John Oswald’s B9 part 1 is a remix of the first five of Beethoven’s symphonies and the European premiere of an astonishing new showpiece by the Mexican composer Enrico Chapela features electric cello. The CBSO’s 20:20 centenary countdown includes ground-breaking works by Schoenberg, Debussy, Sibelius, Prokofiev, Elgar and Webern, all artists who had a major influence on the music of their time but still sound as exciting and revolutionary today. 

The Orchestra will also perform works by two major European figures of the 20^th Century who celebrate anniversaries this season; Poulenc (50 years since his death) and Lutoslawski (100 years since his birth).

And finally the season also features artists who have shaped popular music including Andrew Lloyd Webber and Burt Bacharach, along with one of the masters of silent cinema - Harold Lloyd. For younger audiences, the CBSO’s concerts of families and pre-school children bring to life the stories and characters we know and love, like the Mad Hatter and The Incredibles, inspiring a whole new generation of music lovers. Alan Titchmarsh will once again be part of the traditional Christmas Concerts and, throughout the season, the CBSO will entertain with glorious tunes and ever-popular works such as Dvorak’s New World Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Grieg’s Piano Concerto.

Booking Information

To experience the CBSO’s season in full go to www.cbso.co.uk. Member’s priority booking begins on 16 April. Public booking begins 8 May. Tickets are available from Symphony Hall or Town Hall box offices in person, by phone: 0121 780 3333, or online: www.cbso.co.uk/concerts. (Please note a £2.50 transaction fee is charged by THSH Box Office on all bookings except those made in person) 

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Marie d’Origny in discussion with Jonas Kaufmann

"I think making music is an art form like all the other art forms where, as you say, spontaneity and passion are very important ingredients of success. If you lose the passion, everybody can hear and see it immediately, and that’s a great danger."

"The beginning of Lohengrin’s “In fernem Land” is a key moment indeed. [Having been forced to betray his vow of secrecy, Lohengrin reveals to his wife Elsa who he is and where he comes from, and why he therefore must leave her.] I’m always looking forward to it and I’m very happy when I feel the contact with the audience, when I sense people listening very carefully. I try to build up the tension of this scene as carefully as I can. This is the moment. This is the test case where a singer can show that Wagner often isn’t loud and bombastic, but very sensitive, magic, subtle, even economical "

The following conversation with the tenor Jonas Kaufmann took place in Munich in January, when he was singing the title role in Verdi’s Don Carlo at the Bavarian State Opera. The production used the opera’s full five-act version, which Kaufmann told me he prefers. Some directors cut the first act, in which Don Carlo, the son of Philip II of Spain, secretly meets Elisabetta de Valois, daughter of Henri II of France, whom he is to marry as part of a peace treaty between the two countries. Alone in the forest of Fontainebleau the two young people fall in love, only to have their hopes crushed when Philip decides to marry Elisabetta himself. The shorter, four-act version of the opera begins in Spain with Don Carlo explaining to his boyhood friend the Marquis of Posa his despair at being in love with his stepmother.

—Marie d’Origny

Marie d’Origny: The Don Carlo that you portrayed seems fragile, on the edge of a precipice. It’s clear from the beginning that there’s no solution to his problem.

Jonas Kaufmann: Well, the more I do the five-act version, beginning with the meeting of Don Carlo and Elisabetta in the forest of Fontainebleau, the more I realize that this longer version is much better and more interesting: it helps so much to develop the character of Don Carlo, to establish him as somehow human and not simply crazy. To have these happy moments, to see that he’s a young man who falls in love, and everything seems to be so happy, and then suddenly destiny strikes him. If you don’t have that, the curtain opens and you’re suffering from the fact that you’re in love with your mother. And this goes on for the entire opera. So after a while the audience must be saying, “Oh, give me a break. We’ve got it already. You’re in love with your mother, so what?” It’s much more difficult to get the audience’s sympathy.

With the Fontainebleau scene included, it’s completely clear that this is what broke him. And even when they talk about Elisabetta [gasps], he can’t breathe anymore.

MO: How do you combine not being able to breathe with singing?

JK: That’s tough, because as you well know breathing is pretty essential for singing. And it’s not only the technical fact that you have to pretend to not breathe while actually breathing. It’s also that, unlike the original historical figure and also the one in the Schiller drama, in Verdi, musically, Don Carlo isn’t a weak character. He’s insecure and he doesn’t know what to do, but vocally the singing is strong most of the time. It sounds very heroic.

It’s a problem similar to the beginning of Florestan’s aria in Fidelio, when he’s in prison, physically weak. Only bread and water, about to die from starvation, and still [Kaufmann sings a very loud note]. I mean, that doesn’t make sense. You have to find a way to establish his situation. In Fidelio it’s easy because if you do that, in the very first phrases, then everybody understands that he’s really exhausted and he’s losing his mind. Then you can get away with it by creating the idea that the whole thing is in his head.

He’s not singing for real, he’s not shouting out loud. It’s his thoughts we hear. Then it’s convincing. But Don Carlo is way too long to make that happen. And obviously, you don’t want to sound weak all the time because many phrases are too beautiful; it’s the vocal flexibility that is very important. You have both: you have those up-breaks of the voice, and then at the next moment it just falls down to something very tender and fragile.

MO: How do you prepare for a role?

JK: We always have to keep in mind that it’s not like in theater where you actually start from scratch. We have already an interpretation from the composer. So the composer has given us a timeline; he tells us where we stretch the words and where we squeeze them. He tells us where we have to be loud because the orchestra is loud, where we can be soft, which doesn’t mean that it has to be soft, but at least it’s very important to know [what the score calls for]. And the general mood is also in the orchestra so it’s not easy to turn that upside down. I think if you tried, even if maybe you succeeded, then the piece wouldn’t be as beautiful anymore; it wouldn’t have the same impact on the audience in combination with the music. Because the music is written for a certain effect.

I love to jump in, I love to appear at the last moment and just be surprised. In opera the problem is often that there’s no surprise. You know exactly what’s going to happen and you have to pretend that you don’t know. Cavaradossi or Don Carlo believes that there is a chance to get together with Tosca or Elisabetta. We all know it won’t happen. So if I don’t get this naiveté into that character, it’s difficult. And the less I know about everything happening around me, the easier it is for me to be really surprised by what’s going on. If the door suddenly opens behind you and someone comes in and you say, “Oh, I didn’t know that the mezzo is supposed to appear from here,” it’s a better surprise than “Okay, three, two, one, now she’s going to come. Oh, hi.” If you are free and well prepared then the spontaneous acting interaction is the one that has the biggest impact.

MO: But how do you keep that fresh?

JK: Well, by always trying to create it from the beginning again. I always live from scene to scene. It’s really that I go there and I think, “Okay, let’s see what happens tonight.” And I’m also trying to do things slightly differently to surprise the others, to keep it fresh and not always say, “This is the moment when we hug, this is the moment when we turn around.” That’s what the director wants. Sometimes they even come during the run and say [whispers], “But didn’t you forget you were supposed to stand the other way around?” “So?” I forgot my coat last night and the director came and said, “Where’s the coat? You forgot the coat!” In the last scene. Of course, I have a coat, I always have a coat. I just forgot it.

MO: You seem confident that your sense of the character will come across through the music, regardless of the staging.

JK: I believe that part of why I’m successful and why people hire me is not only the voice, it’s also the ability to act. And if you come and you’re reduced to an instrument that delivers the sound, then it’s not my world. I don’t need to be there. I can send a recording or come the day before the opening. It’s true it is sometimes very difficult to keep the essence of a character in a production. We have the music that fits perfectly to one situation and it just doesn’t fit to the other. As long as you’ve done a traditional production, then you can do whatever you want, because you have that in your head. No matter what goes on around you, you just create this moment for yourself. Whenever I say, “Listen, the story is different, what I’m singing is different, what the music tells us is different. Why are we doing that?” The answer is always, “Don’t be so literal.” I don’t think I am. I believe that when all arrows are pointing in the same direction, then this is a reason why you probably should go there.

There’s always this discussion. You see, the conductor believes that the audience is only coming to hear the orchestra and is not interested in the story, the sets, the singers, or anything. The director believes it’s an all-visual thing. So there is this constant fight over what each person believes is the most important part. I’ve seen semistaged or concert performances of operas that were more thrilling than staged ones. Why? Because it’s better to have nothing than to have something so disturbing that it distracts you from enjoying the music and that doesn’t allow the music to create its magic.

MO: I first saw you on stage in 1998 at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan when you were singing in Giorgio Strehler’s production of Così fan tutte. How did that shape your understanding of the stage? You were a young singer. [Strehler, one of the most talented theater and opera directors of the last century, died on Christmas night, 1997, between the rehearsals and the opening of Così.]

JK: As a student I always liked to act, but I was never that serious. Strehler had this fire and incredible energy. When you saw his eyes he was always burning and full of emotions and passion. He wanted to see real people in flesh and blood who react spontaneously, and just do things without thinking of singing, without thinking of anything. And I remember my audition for him was very odd. The first thing I noticed was, unlike in any other theater that I’ve seen for auditions, everybody was called at the same time and they all had to sit in the audience and watch the others sing, which is odd because usually everybody is trying to hide somewhere in the dressing room. And so I sat there and I heard five other tenors singing the exact same two arias. They sang the second Don Ottavio aria [from Don Giovanni] with the recitative, and then “Un’aura amorosa” [from Così], and it was goddamned boring, I’m sorry. I mean, much as I love and adore Mozart, to hear the same aria over and over again!

I was last. They said, “Go ahead.” And I said, “Wait, wait, wait, do I really have to sing the same things?” “Of course, why? We can see in your bio that you prepared it and that you’ve sung Ottavio.” “Yes, but isn’t that boring?” And they were all saying, “Now, no, no, that isn’t possible.” And there was this one guy, Strehler, who said, “What would you like to sing?” I said, “Well, something else. Maybe Lucia.” “Oh, yeah? Sing Lucia!”

So I sang Lucia, the Edgardo aria, and Strehler said, “That’s interesting, that’s nice. Where have you done it?” When was that audition? In 1996, 1997? I must have been twenty-six, twenty-seven years old. I said, “Wait a minute. Of course I haven’t done it!” “Oh, well, we really should do that. We really, really should do that, but you see, for Ferrando you’re too old.” “What?”

Continue Reading

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A new Wagner/Verdi book: 1813 - Wagner & Verdi

I am attempting to buy a copy of this at the moment. The author, Peter Bassett, has presented some very interesting essays and papers on Wagner's work (many of which are free to read on his website here). Below, is the publishers description - illustrations are from the book.

This beautiful book has been published to mark the bicentenary of the births of Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi whose operas continue to enrich the lives of opera lovers everywhere. They were born at a time when Europe was convulsed by the Napoleonic wars, and when the nation states of Germany and Italy did not yet exist. Each became a master of musical-dramatic forms and transformed the way music was composed for the theatre. Their influence extended well beyond the stage.

Peter Bassett’s new study of these two great figures of the nineteenth century is richly illustrated in full colour with art works drawn from opera houses, museums and private collections. It features insightful commentaries and magnificent photographs of locations associated with the composers and their works. It is printed on high quality art paper and runs to 232 pages in large format.

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The Flying Dutchman: the Ipod/Android app

To promote its new production of The Dutchman, ENO have released a free App to introduce those new to Wagner to Jonathan Kent's new production. Consisting of a "dramatized" video introduction to the work, a video discussion with Edward Gardner and a tool that allows you to "Wagnerise" a photo, this may be of especial interest should you have children that you are taking along to the Dutchman for the first time.

To download go here: Wagner ENO App.

To view the app and use its full functionality online go here: Wagner App Online

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‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’: The Remake, to premiere May 17, 2012

Kaj Aune

Don't ever say that I don't try and bring you Wagner news that other sources, rightly I am sure, wouldn't dare.

Least you missed its premiere at the Borealis Festival in March and following on from his 2008 "remake" of Der Fliegende Holländer with Wolfgang Ganter in Berlin,   Kaj Aune will perform his, one man, remake of ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’ at this years Spor Festival on May 17.  Kaj Aune will single-handedly replace an entire opera house and its machinery. The fact that this is doomed to failure is, he says, central to the performance.

The video below is a promo from Borealis  this year.

EDIT: Date corrected to May 17 2012

BOREALIS 2012: Kaj Aune remaking Wagner from Borealis Festival on Vimeo.

                                                 

Der Fliegende Holländer performance by Kaj Aune and Wolfgang Ganter

To read more about Kaj Aune: kajaune.net

For Booking information:  sporfestival.dk

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Furtwängler, 1936 (Live) Lohengrin (excerpts) Völker / Müller

Act III: excerpts

Lohengrin...........Franz Völker
Elsa...................Maria Müller
König Heinrich....Josef Von Manowarda


Chor und orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele
Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor
19 July 1936.

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Classic FM to present program exploring Tristan und Isolde. Presented by Joan Bakewell

I must admit I am far from a regular listener to "Classic FM" but no doubt my usual weakness for Tristan und Isolde will have me tuning in. This should also be available internationally via the Classic FM website. Press release published below as received - ok, with a little of the self ingratiating stuff removed.

Classic FM has announced that Joan Bakewell will present a brand new series of three Sunday night programmes, starting on Sunday 15th April at 9pm.

Joan Bakewell’s Lovers will explore some of the passionate, intriguing and often bizarre love lives of classical music’s great composers and performers. In her first programme, Joan begins with one of the greatest love stories of them all - Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, before looking at the musical marriages of composers Robert Schumann and his wife Clara, along with Jacqueline du Pre and Daniel Barenboim, as well as asking why unrequited love led Mozart to compose some of his finest music.
Click to go to the website

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New Wagner Book: Great Wagner Conductors A listener's companion

Looks intriguing. Alas, it has sold out on Amazon in the UK and I am thus unable to comment on it at the moment. Below is the press release

This book is a pioneering study of the great historical Wagner conductors. It opens with a chapter on Wagner, tracing his record as a conductor of his own works, and setting out what he expected of orchestras and their music directors. Thousands of reviews of performances from many countries – Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, France, England, Argentina, and the United States – have been distilled to bring us as close as we can to knowing what the conductors were really like. We learn what they had to say about Wagner, how they learnt their craft, and how they conducted his operas. Above all, it is left to those who were there to tell the stories.
Twenty-three conductors are dealt with in detail. Many others are mentioned in passing. There are over two hundred illustrations.There is a comprehensive discography for each conductor, including Wagner. Rare recordings are documented: shellac and vinyl that have never made it to compact disc, "pirate" and commercial recordings, and inauthentic recordings designed to fool the public. There is comment on or excerpts from reviews of all the major recordings, and on many of the more obscure. A section on timings of actual and recorded performances, from Wagner onwards, reveals how widely practice has varied.
The book is an essential source for opera lovers, Wagner enthusiasts, students of historical performance, conductors and their pupils, cultural historians, and buyers and collectors of recordings.

Jonathan Brown studied history, philosophy and law at the Australian National University and the University of Cambridge. He is the author of two critical discographies: Parsifal on Record (Greenwood, 1992), and Tristan und Isolde on Record (Greenwood, 2000). The latter won an Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research in 2001 for Best Research in Recorded Classical Music. He is a former Australian diplomat and international lawyer, and lives in Canberra.

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Listen to conductor Edward Gardner discuss ENO's new production of The Flying Dutchman

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All change at ENO's new Flying Dutchman: Stuart Skelton. replaces Julian Gavin.

April brings many things but not that often a new production of The Dutchman at ENO - directed by Johnathen Kent. But this year it also brings about a change in cast as  Julian Gavin has been forced to  withdraw from the role of Erik for health reasons and is replaced by ENO, and others,  favoured Parsifal: Stuart Skelton. Of course he is far from a newcomer to the role having already performed as Erik at: Deutsche Oper Berlin, The Staatsoper Unter den Linden (under Daniel Barenboim), Vienna State Opera, Hamburg, Strasbourg (Julia Jones), Frankfurt, Colorado and Adelaide. This is becoming an ever more intriguing Dutchman by the day.And don't forget the ever wonderful Clive Bayley remains as Daland - his Wagner remains something one must simply hear.

Stuart Skelton: Peter Grimes

Details:

New Production
Conductor Edward Gardner
Director Jonathan Kent
Designer Paul Brown
Lighting Designer Mark Henderson
Choreographer Denni Sayers
Video Designer Nina Dunn

Cast includes

Daland Clive Bayley
Senta Orla Boylan
Erik Stuart Skelton
Daland’s Steerman Robert Murray
The Dutchman James Creswell
Mary Susanna Tudor-Thomas

Sat 28 Apr 2012	19:30
Tue 01 May 2012	19:30
Sat 05 May 2012	18:30
Sat 12 May 2012	19:30
Wed 16 May 2012	19:30
Fri 18 May 2012	19:30
Wed 23 May 2012	19:30

Click Here For More Details

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Video Lecture: Bill Viola on "The Tristan Project" Media, Metaphor, and the Productive Unknown

Every August, right before the semester begins, Otis College of Art and Design hosts a day of Convocation, where new and returning faculty attend presentations by visiting artists and educators. Convocation 2009 Presenter Bill Viola showed a piece called Fire Woman from a longer project called Tristan and Isolde and spoke about Media, Metaphor, and the Productive Unknown.


Bill Viola  has been instrumental in the establishment of video as a vital form of contemporary art, and in so doing has helped to greatly expand its scope in terms of technology, content, and historical reach. For over 35 years he has created videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances, flat panel video pieces, and works for television broadcast. Violas video installations—total environments that envelop the viewer in image and sound—employ state-of-the-art technologies and are distinguished by their precision and direct simplicity. His works focus on universal human experiences—birth, death, the unfolding of consciousness—and have roots in both Eastern and Western art as well as spiritual traditions, including Zen Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and Christian mysticism.

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Anthony Tommasini interviews Peter Gelb on the MET's Ring Cycle: “...complaining bitterly, he said, about the persistent clankiness of the so-called machine"

 “Over all for me, on balance, I think it’s a remarkable experience,” he said. Yet even he is a little worried: “I reserve final assessment until I see how it all works out technically, when presented complete in the space of a week.”

Peter Gelb has both raised expectations and invited criticism by calling Robert Lepage’s $16 million production of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle for the Metropolitan Opera revolutionary. He used the word again in a recent interview at his office, as he spoke of the “trials and tribulations” of executing Mr. Lepage’s “superhuman,” technically daunting concept in a repertory theater “against amazing odds.”

This backstage drama should not matter to the public, he added. But Mr. Gelb, the Met’s general manager since 2006, has been living it, attending every stage rehearsal and “complaining bitterly,” he said, about the persistent clankiness of the so-called machine, the 45-ton set of movable planks that dominate the production.

Now the real test has arrived. On Saturday night the Met begins the first of three complete “Ring” cycles. On Wednesday night there will be a preliminary presentation of “Das Rheingold,” the first of the cycle’s four component operas. But it is the glitch-prone machine that probably needs this warm-up “Rheingold” more than the cast and the orchestra.

Despite the technical problems and the stinging barbs the production has received from many critics, Mr. Gelb sees the Lepage “Ring” as emblematic of his mission to bring the latest theatrical thinking and technology to the Met.

“Over all for me, on balance, I think it’s a remarkable experience,” he said. Yet even he is a little worried: “I reserve final assessment until I see how it all works out technically, when presented complete in the space of a week.”

It was at Mr. Gelb’s invitation that I met him last month for an interview. In part he wanted to expound on his vision and offer a “bird’s-eye view of what we have planned for future seasons,” he said. Some of those plans look exciting, like a new production of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde,” scheduled for the fall of 2016, directed by Willy Decker, starring the soprano Nina Stemme and the tenor Gary Lehman, and conducted by Simon Rattle, who had atriumphant Met debut in Debussy’s “Pelléas et Mélisande” last season.

During the interview Mr. Gelb also rebutted backlash over some of the productions on his watch. Shortly before, Alex Ross had written of the “Ring” in The New Yorker: “Pound for pound, ton for ton, it is the most witless and wasteful production in modern operatic history.”

In principle it is hard to argue with what Mr. Gelb espouses. He believes in “taking risks,” he emphasized. And he said that with an average of seven new productions a season during his tenure, there is more happening than in “any period since World War II.”

More output does not mean that everything has been good, he acknowledged. But “it is absolutely essential,” he added, “to take pieces that are clearly dated, in terms of their production, and attempt to give them new life.”

Defining “dated” is the question. For all the talk of theatrical innovation, many productions during the Gelb years have been found wanting, not because they are outrageously modern but because they are essentially traditional takes spiffed up with contemporary trappings: the surprisingly timid and unfocused production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” this season, for example, by the hot British director Michael Grandage, in his company debut.

The most popular recent productions have actually been those in which directors went all out with bold concepts, like Patrice Chéreau’s dark and wrenching staging of Janacek’s “From the House of the Dead,” and the artist William Kentridge’s dazzling production ofShostakovich’s bleak comedy “The Nose,” which ingeniously employs puppets and videos, and which made the Met, during the run, a hotbed of the contemporary-art scene in New York. On Friday night Mr. Decker’s sleekly modern, surreal production of Verdi’s “Traviata” will return after its smash premiere last season.

Mr. Gelb has recruited several acclaimed directors who have mostly worked outside the realm of opera. And some of the results, he admitted, did not turn out as he had hoped: among them, John Doyle’s cluttered staging of Britten’s “Peter Grimes” in 2008.

But other such risks have paid off, he said. Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch were both new to opera when, with the English National Opera, they created a transfixing production of Philip Glass’s “Satyagraha,” which was an audience favorite at its Met premiere in 2008 and equally successful on its return last fall.

The new “Ring” is both a point of pride and a sore point for Mr. Gelb. When pressed, he said that “revolutionary” was perhaps “not the right word” to describe it. For all its movable parts and often captivating videos, the production takes a straightforward, almost literal-minded approach to telling the story.

What is revolutionary about it, Mr. Gelb insisted, is that “Robert Lepage may be the first director to execute what Wagner actually wanted to see onstage.” Wagner’s libretto is filled with stage directions that were unrealistic for his day, including underwater episodes with the Rhinemaidens swirling about. But why do a bunch of undulating planks and female singers dangling from wires represent a closer execution of Wagner’s theatrical vision for this scene than more daring, playful or metaphorical realizations?

The Lepage “Ring,” Mr. Gelb asserted, is more popular than its critics allow, in part because of “this incredible feat that Robert pulled off, of offering a way to create a new character, which was the scenery.”

He could be right. But for many people, making the set a character is the problem. The machine imposes itself and distracts us from Wagner’s music drama.

By Mr. Gelb’s calculation, when his first decade as general manager ends in 2016 (“provided I’m not fired before then,” he added in what he later said was just gallows humor), the company will have presented 62 new productions and introduced 17 works to its repertory. This compares with 45 new productions and 12 Met premieres in the previous decade. Along with the increased productivity, clearly “a good thing,” he said, come “increased chances of success and disappointments.”

Continue reading at the NY Times

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Nick Shave interviews Jonas Kaufmann: "Tristan must wait"

"His admirers send him letters, he says. "They say things like: 'I was the girl in the fifth row with the glasses and you were only singing for me, and what are we going to do now?' It's amazing and sometimes frightening that you have the power and potential to, manipulate people in such a way."

With his matinee idol looks, unruly dark curls and come-to-bed eyes, he's won the hearts of legions of fans across the world. But now the 42-year-old opera star Jonas Kaufmann – who also happens to possess one of the finest tenor voices of our time – would like to set the record straight: he is not just a handsome face. "As much as you want to give every hair of yourself to this profession, there has to be a difference between you as a performer on stage and you as a private person, and very often now, it happens that those two things are combined, or misinterpreted," he says. "People are getting confused about what is reality and what is opera."

His admirers send him letters, he says. "They say things like: 'I was the girl in the fifth row with the glasses and you were only singing for me, and what are we going to do now?' It's amazing and sometimes frightening that you have the power and potential to, manipulate people in such a way." But doesn't he take these comments as a compliment? "Yes, but sometimes I wonder what do they think that I am: am I really this evil guy, this sex monster like the Duke in Rigoletto, or the stupid guy, or whatever my role is? Of course not, I'm just pretending because that's what my job is."

The Munich-born tenor has an extraordinary voice that can produce deep, burnished, baritonal tones in its lowest registers, and yet also control the high Cs of Faust and La Bohème. Kaufmann first came to worldwide attention in the late 90s in Giorgio Strehler's Così fan tutte at the Piccolo Teatro Milan, making his debut at Covent Garden alongsideAngela Gheorghiu in Puccini's La Rondine in 2004, and at the Metropolitan Opera, again with Gheorghiu, as La Traviata's Alfredo two years later, joining opera's coterie of young photogenic superstars.

In June, Kaufmann joins two of opera's other most photogenic stars for what promises to be a glamorous gala concert at the Royal Albert Hall. He, Erwin Schrott and Schrott's wife Anna Netrebko will sing arias by Verdi, Puccini and Mozart in an event that recalls the stadium concerts of the Three Tenors. "People are … desperate [to] keep this business and artform alive," he says. "In concerts, you have to give somehow your business card to audiences as an invitation to opera – an appetiser which creates the need for more." His Nessun Dorma – if he had to choose one – would be "Giulietta! Son io", in which Romeo vividly mourns the death of Giulietta in Zandonai's Giulietta e Romeo, but the challenge, he says, of concerts such as these, when the arias have been removed from their context, is to instantly get inside each role. "But I always say opera is a virus: you look for places and opportunities to spread it around, so that people get infected and come back and actually see the real thing in the opera house."

Signs of high demand for "the real thing" surround us in the ornate Tea Salon – all baroque gold and vast polished mirrors – at the Vienna State Opera where we meet. It's two days after Kaufmann's sellout opening performance in the title role of Gounod's Faust, and he's less concerned about ticket sales than about the production itself. Rumours of a Faustian curse have been circulating since the original production first opened in 2008, when its director, Nicholas Joël, was forced to take time out from rehearsals after suffering from a stroke. Sparsely staged, its revival is not attributed to any one director, but "after an idea" by Joël and Stéphane Roche. "How can I put it as positively as possible?" says Kaufmann. "For my personal taste, it's sometimes too reduced, since there's not really much going on onstage. In certain moments you feel the need to actually add something because it can't be we're just standing around for five minutes."

Ironically, it was a disastrous early performance in which Kaufmann lost his voice on stage that prompted turning point. "I still had a few sentences to sing, it wasn't that much, but I couldn't talk, and I couldn't make any noise," he says. "The conductor watched, me like: 'Are you crazy? Can't you see me giving you the cue? Why don't you sing?'" Realising his technique was to blame, he took lessons with US voice-teacher Michael Rhodes and rebuilt his voice from scratch, laying the foundations for his subsequent journey from Mozartian lyric tenor tospinto roles – Don José, Cavaradossi, and Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur – and to Wagner: the Lohengrin with which he made his Bayreuth debut in 2010, Siegmund, and Parsifal which he sings at the Met next year. "Tristan has still to wait,"

Continue reading at the Guardian

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Met to broadcast a documentary on its new Ring Cycle: Watch the trailer and excerpts here:

 Wagner's Dream

As I am sure you are aware, the MET will be showing its new Ring Cycle at cinemas again this year (details over the MET's Ring site by clicking here). However, in addition they will also be broadcasting a new  2 hour or so, documentary by Susan Froemke about the "making" of this cycle. As the publicity material from the MET describes it:

A new documentary by Susan Froemke. The stakes could not be higher as visionary director Robert Lepage, the world's greatest singers, and the Metropolitan Opera tackle Wagner's Ring cycle. An intimate look at the enormous theatrical and musical challenges of staging opera's most monumental work, the film chronicles the quest to fulfill Wagner's dream of a perfect Ring.

 Trailer below:

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Its Easter and thus it must be: Toscanini, 1940 - Wagner, Parsifal (Orchestral Highlights)

Prelude act I, Good Friday music, act III
act II, Klingsor's garden

NBC Symphony Orchestra
Arturo Toscanini, Conductor
Recorded, 23 March 1940.

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Do not adjust your sets, normal service will return shortly

Sorry that updates have not been as frequent as many of you have come to expect. In my defense, I have, and am still, involved in a project which is taking much of my time. However, some resemblance of normality has begun to show its face and with that in mind updates while start to increase over the next few weeks until they hopefully should return to what you might expect within the next 6 weeks or so.But very shortly: A Guide To Performances Of Parsifal 2012

Just remember, as Schopenhauer, Wittgenstein, the odd Zen Buddhist and someone I am sure your familiar with might say:

"Zum Raum wird hier die Zeit"

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“Filarmonica della Scala to broadcast live to cinemas in the UK and Europe

A little off topic but I received the following and thought it might be of interest:

Italy Comes to local cinemas with LIVE Classical Concerts

To mark their 30^th anniversary, a new season of four classical concerts by the Filarmonica della Scala orchestra will be broadcast LIVE in high definition from Milan’s famous Teatro all Scala venue across Europe - including selected UK cinemas - during April and May. Cinema audiences will have a unique chance of experiencing the concerts as if they have been transported to ‘La Scala’ in Italy, considered to be one of the worldwide temples of classical music.

Starting on Sunday April 1^st , Christoph Eschenbach, one of the most influential maestros on the international music scene, conducts a programme including Mozart’s Jupiter symphony and Brahms Symphony No. 1. 

The performance on April 21^st showcases the considerable talents of classical conductor Riccardo Chailly and jazz pianist Stefano Bollani in a well-loved Gershwin programme, including An American in Paris, that promises to explore an extraordinary fusion of jazz and classical music.

The next event, on May 7^th, will see virtuoso Andrea Battiscoi conducting the Filarmonica in a spectacular programme headlined by a new piece by composer Matteo Franceschini, followed by a spellbinding series of pieces by Rachmaninoff.

Finally on May 21^st, Met Opera conductor Fabio Luisi conducts an exceptional and varied programme including Beethoven’s 4^th piano concerto with young Polish prodigy, Rafal Blechacz and three canzonas to mark the 400^th anniversary of Giovanni Gabriele, the godfather of Baroque music.

Josee  Dubois, International Sales Director at Nexo Digital said “Our association with XDC Entertainment for this series of exceptional concerts will raise the bar for LIVE classical events in cinemas and we are very excited about this unique once-in-a-lifetime programme.  Audiences are in for a treat.”

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Rienzi: Deutsche Oper Berlin April 2012 - the trailer, the production photos

Least you have been living in a cave the last few months, the dates have now changed to those originally announced.

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MSO: A Spectacular Return: Act 2 - Beethoven and Wagner. Meagan Miller. Stuart Skelton

Thursday 16 August 2012 at 8:00 PM
Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall
Saturday 18 August 2012 at 8:00 PM
Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

Repertoire

BEETHOVEN Symphony No.6 in F major, Op.68 (Pastoral)
WAGNER Die Walküre: Act 1
Featuring
Markus Stenz conductor
Meagan Miller soprano
Stuart Skelton tenor
Daniel Sumegi bass

In Beethoven’s cheerful Pastoral symphony, a storm brings refreshment to the idyllic countryside. In the First Act of Richard Wagner’s opera Die Walküre, a storm provides the backdrop for a furious, forbidden passion. The contrast brings a fascinating richness to this remarkable concert event, celebrating masterpieces by two towering geniuses of the German musical heritage. The soloists include the young American soprano Meagan Miller.

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Opera North Continues it's Ring Cycle With Walkure - June - July 2012 Documentary included

Continuing their what is, if last years excellent Rheingold is anything to go by, more of a semi-staged then the advertised concert performance , Opera North will premier their Walkure this year. You wouldn't believe how much I am looking forward to this one.  Details below.

Dates:	16, 23, 30 June, 14 July 2012
Singers:	Siegmund Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts Sieglinde Alwyn Mellor Hunding Clive Bayley Brünnhilde Annalena Persson Wotan Bela Perencz Fricka Katarina Karneus
Conductor:	Richard Farnes

More, including tickets, at Opera North

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