Two Wagner Books You Must Buy This Month

It has been a few years since two books about Wagner and his work have been published in the same month, it has been even longer since both were published by authors of a certain pedigree. However, we are pleased that this month is different.  First...

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Join Us Sunday, 10 May To Watch and Chat: Die Walkure, Act One. 5 PM (British Summer Time)

Join us over at Twitch for video "watch party" of act one of Walkure. Meet some new friends, chat with some old ones and most importantly, watch act one of Die Walkure, (English subs). Preshow, mini-documentaries included. Click here to register,...

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Opera Australia launches free online streaming platform with Joan Sutherland in the starring role

Unable to perform live while the country is in COVID-19 lock-down, Opera Australia has created another way to share their performances with opera fans, today launching OA | TV: Opera Australia on Demand, a free online streaming service. OA |...

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Join Us Sunday, 3 May For A Free One Day "Live" Online Little Bayreuth

Bayreuth, as you know is cancelled, as are all other performances. The world is in a temporary turmoil. People are locked in or if they go to work are separated from those places where they may meet people to discuss their passions.  And yet,...

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£400 Of Free Hi-res FLAC Download Albums For Every Reader (Including Booklets) QOBUZ

We know that things are, to put it mildly, difficult for so many of you at the moment; for both those unable to leave home and those having to go out to work in what can be very dangerous conditions. Especially for those that love Wagner we are planning...

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Das Rheingold: Coronadämmerung

This is excellent! And should you enjoy it, and you can, please give to https://artistrelieftree.com/. The gods need you! Jamie Barton, Mezzo Soprano Ryan McKinny, Bass Baritone Kathleen Kelly, Pian...

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Bayreuth 2020 Cancelled And Disruption To Next Two Years Program

From the festival: In view of the effects of the Corona crisis on the operations of the Bayreuth Festival GmbH, the management and the shareholders of the Bayreuth Festival GmbH – the Federal Republic of Germany, the Free State of Bavaria, the City...

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The Bayreuth Festival Suspends Ticket Sales. Longborough Awaits Advice

Perhaps it should come as little surprise but Bayreuth continues to review this year's festival in light of COVID-19. With this in mind, the festival has suspended all online ticket sales - not that there was much to buy anyway - until the end of May....

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How To Get The Best Sound Quality Out Of Spotify: For Wagner Or Anyone

We are aware that a lot of our readers use Spotify (many other - even better - classical music services are available, but that is for another day). However, given how "vague" (perhaps occulted or esoteric would be better words?) Spotify is about how...

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Wagner The Ring: A Synopsis In Prose, Images And Music

Just wonderful. Comic Strip art by William Elliott. Originally published at the now long gone,  sinfinimusic.com - at least the comic strip was...

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A Happy, Melchiorian Christmas/Yuletide

Its that time of year again and we wanted to say we have, once again, enjoyed your company, whether as emails, twitter, facebook comments, etc. It's always nice. We hope, you all have a happy holiday and a wonderful new year...

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Heroic Voices. London July July 4 2020

Heroic Voices Wagner, Strauss and the rise of dramatic song Laure Meloy dramatic soprano Lee David Bowen heldentenor Kelvin Lim pianist Rising heldentenor Lee David Bowen and dramatic soprano Laure Meloy join Wagnerian...

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HEROIC VOICES Wagner, Strauss, and the rise of dramatic song. London July 2020

Rising heldentenor Lee David Bowen, and dramatic soprano Laure Meloy join Wagnerian specialist repetiteur Kelvin Lim in a programme exploring music for dramatic voice. Scenes from favourite Wagner, Strauss, Puccini, and Verdi operas (including Brünnhilde...

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How Wagner Influenced The "Club Scene"

Ok, it's only loosely connected to Wagner, but a fascinating article, about a fascinating exhibition, of a fascinating subject with wonderful images.  "Female performers made a significant contribution to the Cabaret Fledermaus, which opened...

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Wagner And Theology

A fascinating resource, audio lecture and article series by Professor Richard Bell. Richard is investigating Wagner's theological, ethical, and artistic interests. We think the video below provides an excellent introduction as to what you might expect. A...

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Death and the Master: Original obituaries and reports from Richard Wagner’s death in 1883

Not too sure who but we would be interested in this but we thought you might be too.  The description below is from the publisher. This exceptional collection features 22 contemporaneous, original obituaries, personal recollections and news reports...

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New Issue Of The Wagner Journal Published

Always exciting. Of particular attention, I feel, is the article ‘Knappertsbusch in Bayreuth’, which reveals the full story of the maestro’s machinations to ingratiate himself - unsuccessfully as it turned out - with the Nazi regime. I think that many...

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Alex Ross' Video of the day: F**k Wagner

Not safe to be played at work - most likely. This is going to upset people. And perhaps only in German popular culture would it have relevance.  Worth mentioning, not the title of Mr Ross' long waited for Wagner book - we hope. As an aside should...

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The Day Berlioz Shared A Pineapple With Wagner

Image: François Lopinot / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA From The Boston Musical Intelligizer. Written by Ralph Locke In 1860, Richard Wagner was in Paris, trying to arrange for the Opéra to give the world premiere of the revised version of Tannhäuser....

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Umberto Eco On The Parsifal Legend

The following is the complete chapter about Parsifal, and more specifically its imaginary landscapes, from his book "The Book of Legendary Lands". This is the fourth book he has published with Rizzoli Ex Libris. It's not, we think, the strongest...

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Watch The Bayreuth Premiere Of Tannhauser - Live

Thanks to BR-Klassik - and Bayreuth of course - you can watch the premiere of Tobias Kratzer's production of Tannhauser. Click here to watch on Thursday the 25 July 1445 GMT (to be on the safe side). However, this will only be available to watch...

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Where & When To Listen To Bayreuth 2019

It's that time of year again. All will start around 1345 GMT July 25 TANNHÄUSER - CLICK HERE TO LISTEN  July 26 LOHENGRIN  - CLICK HERE TO LISTEN July 27 DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG - CLICK HERE TO LISTEN August...

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Sponsor Your Own Meistersinger?

We reported previously, that the fantastic Fulham Opera will be staging its first Meistersinger in August this year. As you may know, FO has a long, and celebrated, history of Wagner productions, including a Ring cycle. But this will be the first time...

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Johanna Rosine Wagner: Mother Of Richard

We have noted over the years how few images of Wagner's mother, the elusive and somewhat enigmatic, Johanna Rosine Wagner, ever appear in Wagner biographies. And so, we present, Wagner's "Stepfathers" portrait, of unknown date. One that Wagner described...

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The Awakening: Wagner and Rumi

The Awakening is a short film by Ivan Maria Friedman, taking the poem of Sufi mystic Rumi and setting it to the Vorspiel of Das Rheingold.   The juxtaposition of a Sufi mystic and Wagner might at first seem a strange one, but in truth, it was ...

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Das ist kein Mann!

If there is one line in the whole of the Ring that can produce unintended laughter, muffled or not, it is Siegfried's "Das ist kein Mann!" [Ed: for the uninitiated: "This is no man!" The rather innocent Siegfrieds first words upon removing the sleeping...

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Das Rheingold -150th Anniversary Performance. Birmingham UK

It would seem a terrible shame to miss this one. 2019 is the 150th anniversary of the first performance of Richard Wagner’s opera, Das Rheingold (22nd September 1869) – the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing the opera on 13th...

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Email And Apologies

As a number of you are aware, the website was down for 5 days at the beginning of this month. This was due to an error by our previous domain host renewing the domain {Ed: Not helped by the fact that its technical team and customer services would make...

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A New Meistersinger Production In London. August 2019

FULHAM OPERA DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG 9 - 17 August 2019 Greenwood Theatre, London Fulham Opera, is to stage its most ambitious project to date in central London this August: four performances of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg....

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Book Recommendation: Richard Wagner And The English

I have found myself, once again, reading Anne Dzamba Sessa's excellent, 1978  book  "Richard Wagner And The English". This is a book that charts the influence of Wagner, on the intellectual, artistic and social life of Victorian England,...

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A Lecture Series On Die Walkure

A nine hour, or so, lecture series on Die Walkure. Recorded in 2012 Includes:  The Opera in Its Time (Simon Williams) The Growth and Evolution of Love (Jeffrey Swann) Contrasts with Das Rheingold (Simon Williams) Wotan's Spear and Its...

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Stefan Herheim, "Opera for me is not about entertaining people or giving them a good time"

In an interview with the Telegraph, Stefan Herheim told Rupert Christiansen "Opera for me is not about entertaining people or giving them a good time" [Ed: We know Stefan. We know. But despite the best efforts of many, some of us still do]. Then what...

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Deutsche Oper Berlin And A New Ring From Stefan Herheim

Deutsche Oper Berlin has announced that the first part of the new Stefan Herheim, will premiere, logically enough, with Rheingold one Friday, 12.06.2020. Donald Runnicles will be holding the baton. Full cast details below.So, what can we expect from...

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Wagner And “Game of Thrones”: Where they Intersect?

Alex Ross is always worth reading, especially about Wagner. By Alex Ross.  When Arthur Schopenhauer read the libretto of “Die Walküre,” the second instalment of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle, he found himself discomfited by the goings on in Act I, in...

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Animated Rheingold. Operavox

While these have held up well to the passing of time, sadly, they are very difficult to buy now. Surely time for them to be rereleased? ...

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Parsing Parsifal: Wagner's Erotic Kunstreligion

Edition of Parsifal illustrated by Willy Pogany, 1912 From "The Sidney Undergraduate Journal Of  Musicology. An intriguing read, that does see Parsifal as concluding Wagner's work by pulling together "...multiple threads he spent his whole life...

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