The Wagnerian

Free Ebook. The Story Of The Greatest Wagnerian Soprano: Evelyn Innes by George Moore

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Thu, 23 May 2013 03:36:24 PDT

George Moore

"Wagner had been all his life dreaming of an opera with a subjective hero. Christ first and then Buddha had suggested themselves as likely subjects. He had gone so far as to make sketches for both heroes, but both subjects had been rejected as unpractical, and he had fallen back on a pretty medieval myth, and had shot into a pretty medieval myth all the material he had accumulated for the other dramas, whose heroes were veritable heroes, men who had accomplished great things, men who had preached great doctrines and whose lives were symbols of their doctrines. The result of pouring this old wine into the new bottle was to burst the bottle.In neither Christ nor Buddha did the question of sex arise, and that was the reason that Wagner eventually rejected both. He was as full of sex—mysterious, sub-conscious sex—as Rossetti himself. In Christ's life there is the Magdalen, but how naturally harmonious, how implicit in the idea, are their relations, how concentric; but how eccentric (using the word in its grammatical sense) are the relations of Parsifal to Kundry.... A redeemer is chaste, but he does not speak of his chastity nor does he think of it; he passes the question by. The figure of Christ is so noble, that whether God or man or both, it seems to us in harmony that the Magdalen should bathe his feet and wipe them with her hair, but the introduction of the same incident into "Parsifal" revolts. As Parsifal merely killed a swan and refused to be kissed—the other preached a doctrine in which beauty and wisdom touch"

"She might begin with "Margaret" and "Norma," if she liked, for in singing these popular operas she would acquire the whole of her voice, and also the great reputation which should precede and herald the final stage of her career. "Isolde," "Brunnhilde," "Kundry," Wagner's finest works, had remained unsung—they where merely howled. Evelyn should be the first to sing them. His eyes glowed with subdued passion as he thought of an afternoon, some three years hence, in the great theatre planned by the master himself, when he should see her rush in as the Witch Kundry"

"As she lay between sleeping and waking, she strove to grasp the haunting, fugitive idea, but shadows of sleep fell, and in her dream there appeared two Tristans, a fair and a dark. When the shadows were lifted and she thought with an awakening brain, she smiled at the absurdity, and, striving to get close to her idea, to grip it about its very loins, she asked herself how much of her own life she could express in the part, for she always acted one side of her character. Her pious girlhood found expression in the Elizabeth, and what she termed the other side of her character she was going to put on the stage in the character of Isolde. Again sleep thickened, and she found it impossible to follow her idea. It eluded her; she could not grasp it. It turned to a dream, a dream which she could not understand even while she dreamed it. But as she awaked, she uttered a cry. It happened to be the note she had to sing when the curtain goes up and Isolde lies on the couch yearning for Tristan, for assuagement of the fever which consumes her. All other actresses had striven to portray an Irish princess, or what they believed an Irish princess might be. But she cared nothing for the Irish princess, and a great deal for the physical and mental distress of a woman sick with love."

" In Brunnhilde and Elizabeth all the humanity she represented—and she thought she was a fairly human person—was on the stage. But Elsa? That was the one part she was dissatisfied with. There were people who liked her Elsa. Oh, her Elsa had been greatly praised. Perhaps she was mistaken, but at the bottom of her heart she could not but feel that her Elsa was a failure. The truth was that she had never understood the story. It began beautifully, the beginning was wonderful—the maiden whom everyone was persecuting, who would be put to death if some knight did not come to her aid. She could sing the dream—that she understood. Then the silver-clad knight who comes from afar, down the winding river, past thorpe and town, to release her from those who were plotting against her. But afterwards? This knight who wanted to marry her, and who would not tell his name. What did it mean? And the celebrated duet in the nuptial chamber—what did it mean? It was beautiful music—but what did it mean? Could anyone tell her? She had often asked, but no one had ever been able to tell her."

What, dear readers, will you make of the Irish, Victorian novelist George Moore's first Wagnerian novel Evelyn Innes - should you have never read it before. To tell you too much would simply spoil it surely? And also help predict and define any reaction you might have? Its often the way of things - if just unconsciously. No. Better you should find it as it is. But still, a brief overview:

Published in 1898, Evelyn Innes is Moore's first truly Wagnerian novel - and his move to symbolism. Innes, is not only a Wagnerian Soprano but the greatest that has ever lived,: "Wagner's finest works, had remained unsung—they where merely howled. Evelyn should be the first to sing them." The daughter of a Catholic organist - of importance later as you may discover -she sees her personality developing through roles of Elisabeth, Isolde, Brunnhilde and finally Kundry. But there is much more.

Something of a "scandal" on it's release. OK. Find a link to one review below. From the New York Post. At its time of publication in the US. It is a PDF. Click the title to read.
George Moore's "Evelyn Innes."; A Curious and Perhaps Deplorable Example of the Modern Psychological Novel. The New York Times. (Warning contains "spoilers")
By the way. There is a sequel to Evelyn Innes. If anyone is interested enough let us know and we will add.

To Download the Full Novel Free for Kindle click here: Evelyn Innes by George Moore

To Download the Full Novel Free in Epub click here: Evelyn Innes by George Moore

To Read the Full Novel In Your Browser click here: Evelyn Innes by George Moore

"Cor Blimey! Its Wagner On The Buses" - In Washington

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Thu, 23 May 2013 01:21:45 PDT

The German embassy in Washington has covered two of the cities local buses in portraits of Richard Wagner. Its all to promote German culture it seems. The buses, along with another covered with art from the current Albrecht Dürer exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, can be seen roaming around the city till the end of July.

But will it be driven and manged by this particular team?

Becoming In Endless Melody: Tristan, Isolde, Wagner and Swinburne

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:20:15 PDT

Algernon Charles Swinburne

From: Richard Wagner and the English: 'Wagner's Tristan und Isolde was completed in 1859, first performed in 1865, and first produced in London in 1882, a month before the appearance of Swinburne's poem Tristram of Lyonesse. Again, critics have remarked on the affinities, particularly stylistic, between the two. Samuel Chew thought the parallels too close to be merely coincidental: "I think Swinburne must have known Wagner's libretto." Cecil Y. Lang, editor of Swinburne's letters, has said that Wagner's music "stimulated" the composition of the poem. John R. Reed observed that there was no doubt that Swinburne "did employ, in Tristram of Lyonesse, the technique of a conscious and disciplined motif suggestive of musical composition," and thus Swinburne might have noted and sympathized with Wagner's device of the leitmotiv. Also, Swinburne's organized rhapsodies have been called "melodious verbiage," and their effect on listeners may be compared perhaps with Wagner's "endless melody." For example, Ferdinand Wagner once wrote to George Powell:

"I always feel happier and better when I have dived into the turbulent waves of Swinburne's gigantic mind. The masterly hand with which he holds the threads that seem to float unconnectedly—as if driven by the wind—and which he always succeeds in tying together when least expected seems to me exactly like Richard Wagner."

Swinburne once was deprecated as a poet of sound obscuring sense, just as Wagner was criticized by Max Nordau and others for lack of coherence and form'. (From: Richard Wagner and the English.
Anne D. Sessa)

From: Tristram of Lyonesse. Algernon Charles Swinburne

Tranced once, nor watched along the fiery bay
The shine of summer darkness palpitate and play.
She had nor sight nor voice; her swooning eyes
Knew not if night or light were in the skies;
Across her beauty sheer the moondawn shed
Its light as on a thing as white and dead;
Only with stress of soft fierce hands she prest
Between the throbbing blossoms of her breast
His ardent face, and through his hair her breath
Went quivering as when life is hard on death;
And with strong trembling fingers she strained fast
His head into her bosom; till at last
Satiate with sweetness of that burning bed,
His eyes afire with tears, he raised his head
And laughed into her lips; and all his heart
Filled hers; then face from face fell, and apart
Each hung on each with panting lips, and felt
Sense into sense and spirit in spirit melt.
"Hast thou no sword? I would not live till day,
O love, this night and we must pass away,
It must die soon, and let not us die late."
"Take then my sword and slay me; nay, but wait
Till day be risen; what, wouldst thou think to die
Before the light take hold upon the sky?"
"Yea, love; for how shall we have twice, being twain,
This very night of love's most rapturous reign?
Live thou and have thy day, and year by year
Be great, but what shall I be? Slay me here;
Let me die not when love lies dead, but now
Strike through my heart: nay, sweet, what heart hast thou?
Is it so much I ask thee, and spend my breath
In asking? nay, thou knowest it is but death.
Hadst thou true heart to love me, thou wouldst give
This: but for hate's sake thou swilt let me live."
Here he caught up her lips with his, and made
The wild prayer silent in her heart that prayed,
And strained her to him till all her faint breath sank
And her bright light limbs palpitated and shrank
And rose and fluctuated as flowers in rain
That bends them and they tremble and rise again
And heave and straighten and quiver all through with bliss
And turn afresh their mouths up for a kiss,
Amorous, athirst of that sweet influent love;
So, hungering towards his hovering lips above,
Her red-rose mouth yearned silent, and her eyes
Closed, and flashed after, as through June's darkest skies
The divine heartbeats of the deep live light
Make open and shut the gates of the outer night.
Long lay they still, subdued with love, nor knew
If could or light changed colour as it grew,
If star or moon beheld them; if above
The heaven of night waxed fiery with their love,
Or earth beneath were moved at heart and root
To burn as they, to burn and bright forth fruit
Unseasonable for love's sake; if tall trees
Bowed, and close flowers yearned open, and the breeze
Failed and fell silent as a flame that fails:
And all that hour unheard the nightingales
Clamoured, and all the woodland soul was stirred,
And depth and height were one great song unheard,
As though the world caught music and took fire
From the instant heart alone of their desire.
So sped their night of nights between them: so,
For all fears past and shadows, shine and snow,
That one pure hour all-golden where they lay
Made their life perfect and their darkness day.
And warmer waved its harvest yet to reap,
Till in the lovely fight of love and sleep
At length had sleep the mastery; and the dark
Was lit with soft live gleams they might not mark,
Fleet butterflies, each like a dead flower's ghost,
White, blue, and sere leaf-coloured; but the most
White as the sparkle of snow-flowers in the sun
Ere with his breath they lie at noon undone.
Whose kiss devours their tender beauty, and leaves
But raindrops on the grass and sere thin leaves
That were engraven with traceries of the snow
Flowerwise ere any flower of earth's would blow;
So swift they sprang and sank, so sweet and light
They swam the deep dim breathless air of night.
Now on her rose-white amorous breast half bare,
Now on her slumberous love-dishevelled hair,
The white wings lit and vanished, and afresh
Lit soft as snow lights on her snow-soft flesh,
On hand or throat or shoulder; and she stirred
Sleeping, and spake some tremulous bright word,
And laughed upon some dream too sweet for truth,
Yet not so sweet as very love and youth
That there had charmed her eyes to sleep at last.
Nor woke they till the perfect night was past,
And the soft sea thrilled with blind hope of light.
But ere the dusk had well the sun in sight
He turned and kissed her eyes awake and said,
Seeing earth and water neither quick nor dead
And twilight hungering toward the day to be,
"As the dawn loves the sunlight I love thee."
And even as rays with cloudlets in the skies
Confused in brief love's bright contentious wise,
Sleep strove with sense rekindling in her eyes;
And as the flush of birth scarce overcame
The pale pure pearl of unborn light with flame
Soft as may touch the rose's heart with shame
To break not all reluctant out of bud,
Stole up her sleeping cheek her waking blood;
And with the lovely laugh of love that takes
The whole soul prisoner ere the whole sense wakes,
Her lips for love's sake bade love's will be done.
And all the sea lay subject to the sun.

Update: Happy Birthday RW: The Wagner Scrapbook - 2nd Edition

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:53:31 PDT

Update:

When we started this project we had a lot more material which we did not have the time to include (indeed, we still do). This was in-part because it needed "cleaning-up" or digitizing or for similar reasons. We thought that we would not be able to get this additional material ready in-time for this week and most importantly today. However, we have now found ourselves being able to add a lot more of this material. And so, we present a "second, revised edition". A much we feel might be of interest is now included. Amongst this, is a review of the first Rienzi at Dresden, both of the opera and the cast - including of course, Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient. This adds to lot more about Wagner's early work. Of especial interest is what maybe the first newspaper "feature" written about Wagner longer before is future "fame". Written in 1845, this provides a clear insight into the conditions under which he worked at this time.

You will find reviews of Wagner as a conductor of other peoples work - from his time in London. Also: the formation of London's first Wagner Society, a fascinating item about Johanna Wagner written during her early years, a review of the "Art Work Of The Future, just after it was written, and much else scattered throughout.

We hope you find the additional material worth your time

We spent a surprising amount of time trying to think what we could do for this week. It seemed that every idea that came to us had already been developed or done in a similar way. But then by chance, we went back to the origins of the Wagnerian. How, we thought, would we have produced something like this during Wagner's first centenary? Without electronic media it seemed impossible. But then, an idea came to us. A very, very basic way of reproducing some of the media here could, at a stretch, be done with a very old fashioned scrapbook. And so The Wagnerian Scrapbook: The First 100 Years came into being.

A note: every article here is from a real, and at the time predominant newspaper or journal. No matter how bizarre the story, it was, at the time it was published, read as "truth" by those that may have known no better.

In here you will not only find real and very interesting "truths" but also things you might not believe that anyone would have believed. Most of the articles can be read, although one or two have been included purely for their "atmospheric qualities.

We hope, that at least someone enjoys this as much as we did putting it together - whoever you might be.

Fake Bayreuth Tickets In Circulation.

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:43:31 PDT

Not the first time you might say but these are a little different, because they are being given away free to local residents in Bayreuth. It seems that a number of Bayreuth residents have awoken to find the tickets in their mailboxes, along with a fictitious letter from the festival management.

However, the tickets are easily spotted: although they resemble official tickets closely, they are printed on very cheap paper and contain the addition of an QR Code which when scanned includes, among other things, the following message:

"This ticket is counterfeit. Sorry. However, Richard Wagner's anti-Semitism is real"

How very droll.

Want to get Seattle Ring Tickets before they go on general sale? Become their friend.

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:19:12 PDT

If you want to make sure of buying the tickets of your choice for Seattle Opera's "Green Ring" before they go on general sale tomorrow, then all you have to do is like "like" them on Facebook and you will receive a code and advanced login details to do so.

Click either of the following links below:

Like Seattle Opera on Facebook

OR

Buy Tickets Wednesday at 9:30

Wagner 200: 'Ring of the Nibelungen' an animated scenic progression

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:08:58 PDT

Blair Parkinson, is an artist well known to us over on facebook and on his website. He has produced the following video to commemorate Wagner 200. As you can read from Blair's description below, this is just a small part of his 'Nibelungenlied' project. For full details and to view the work done so far, please visit Blair's blog: Living Horus. He also reviews the odd Wagner recording and video. Recommended.

A personal tribute to Richard Wagner to mark the bicentennial of his birth. This is the culmination of around eight months work and the completion of the first stage of my 'Nibelungenlied' project.

It's an animated progression of each scene from the depths of the Rhine to the final apocalypse of the Immolation Scene.

There are few characters here, those in there are at the moment purely present to judge the scale. Characters and costumes are the next stage of the project. From there I'll combine the two to encompass the entire story.

Daniel Barenboim In Conversation: Wagner & Ideology

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Sat, 18 May 2013 14:00:58 PDT

We could not recommend this enough - if for nothing else than for Barenboim's discussion

about conducting Wagner.

The following is an edited conversation about Wagner that took place between Edward Saïd, and Daniel Barenboim at Columbia University, where Mr. Saïd is Professor of Comparative Literature and English. The conversation appeared in full in the Spring 1998 issue of Raritan, a quarterly publication of Rutgers University and at Barenboim's website here.

ES: Wagner is a composer who, unlike almost any other composer, lends himself to conferences and discussions. And, of course, associated with the name of Wagner are a series of adjectives -there's Wagnerism, there's Wagnerian, there's a Wagnerite. What is it that causes this extraordinary interest and devotion to Wagner?

DB: I think that the reasons are manifold. They stem from Wagner’s musical personality; they stem from his personality outside music; they stern from the fact that he not only wrote music and the librettos to his own operas, but tried to revolutionize opera and to create the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk. We can't really talk about Beethoven and the consequences; we can only speak about Debussy and the consequences in a very limited sense. But when we discuss Wagner and the consequences, we have to ask, did he have any influence -and if so, what kind of influence - on the way people viewed the music that preceded him? Did he have any effect on the history of the development of interpretation of the great classics, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.? And what influence, if any, did he have on the music that came after him? On the purely musical side of the twentieth century?

I think that if you examine these questions carefully, and you examine his writings about music (especially his book on conducting, which I have found not only interesting, but very useful), you will find a number of influences on music and performance. First of all, Wagner had a great understanding of, or intuition for (or perhaps a combination of the two), acoustics. He was the first person to have that, I think, except perhaps Berlioz, and in a certain way Liszt, although Liszt was more limited to the piano. By acoustics I mean the presence of sound in a room, the concept of time and space. Wagner really developed that concept musically. Which means that a lot of his criticism of performances of his own time, conducted by Mendelssohn and other people, was directed at what he considered a very superficial kind of interpretation, namely, an interpretation that took no risks, that didn't go to the abyss, that tried, in other words, to find a golden path without having the extremes. Of course, this is an impossibility and can inevitably lead to superficiality. This also had an influence on the speed at which the music was performed, because if the content was poor, the speed had to be greater. Therefore Wagner complains bitterly about Mendelssohn's tempi.

How did he propose to fight that superficiality? In two ways. One, - with his developing the idea of a certain necessary flexibility of tempo, of certain imperceptible changes within the classical movements. (I'm talking now about his ideas about Beethoven, not about his own music - I'll come to that later.) In other words, every sequence - every paragraph if you want to speak in literary terms - had its own melos and therefore required an imperceptible change of speed in order to be able to express the inherent content of that paragraph. All of these, of course, are concepts that are still being debated today. That these changes have to be imperceptible is evident, otherwise the form would break. But what Wagner really maintains is that unless you have the ability to guide the music in this way, you are not able to express all that is in it, and therefore you remain on the surface.

He was diametrically opposed to a metronomic way of interpreting music. He had this idea of zeit und raum, time and space. Obviously tempo is not an independent factor: in order to sustain a slower tempo, which Wagner considered necessary for certain movements (not everything had to be slow, only certain movements and certain passages), for instance, he considered it an absolute necessity to imperceptibly slow down the second subject in a classical symphony where the first subject was dramatic - masculine, or whatever you want to call it - and the second was a contrast to that. But in order to make the slightly slower speed not only workable, but to allow it to express the content of the paragraph and to keep it within the context of the movement, of course there has to be some tonal compensation. This is how he came to the concept of the continuity of sound: that sound tends to go to silence, unless it is sustained. From this came the whole concept not only of the color of sound - which is what so many people talk about today and which has led to (to my mind) superficial ideas about the "international sound of orchestras" - but of the weight of sound. And Wagner was more interested in the weight of the sound.

Of course, it was easier for him to deal with that concept then, because the minute you talk about weight you also talk about harmony. And since this was all pre-atonal music, the harmonic fundamental was much stronger than it is now. And therefore, tied to the gravity of the harmony, he was able to create more and more tension through the continuity of sound, and this imperceptible slowing down of the tempo went practically unnoticed. Then somehow at the end, in an unnoticeable way, you came back. These two words, imperceptible and unnoticeable, are very important because this is the art of transition. What I'm trying to say by this is that, through these two concepts, Wagner influenced the way the whole world, without exception, looked at the music that had come before him, the classics, mostly German or middle or central European music - Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, etc. - without mentioning that of his contemporaries.

Therefore, until the Second World War, you couldn't ignore Wagner's ideas, whether you knew that they came from Wagner or not. They just became tradition. And whether the conductors were Furtwängler, Weingartner, Bruno Walter, or even, in a way, Toscanini, who obviously went absolutely against all these ideas, they could not refrain from occupying themselves with these principles. The same goes for the instrumentalists, not only for orchestras, but for people like Bülow and D'Albert. And this we know not from hearsay, nor even from the relative perfection or precision of recordings, but from the editions they made of the Beethoven sonatas, for instance. I've studied them very carefully, both the Bülow edition and the D'Albert edition, and you see all these principles of the slight modification of tempo, on through Schnabel, Edwin Fischer, Backhaus, etc. All this would have been unthinkable without Wagner's ideas. So, in this way, he influenced a whole history of interpretation of music. To the point that the reaction that came in this century - the sort of new objectivity, the "die neue Sachlichkeit" it was called in Germany, was an attempt to fight this. What we are experiencing now, in the last whatever number of years, with the revival of historical practices and playing of period instruments, is also, in fact - whether knowingly or not - a reaction against this Wagnerian concept of the continuity of sound. The principle of these instruments and this way of making music is precisely to articulate more and to be able to cut the sound and to cut the harmonic pressure of the music.

When he came to write his own music, he developed all these principles to the extreme. In fact, Wagner, to my mind, developed each expressive element, in sound production and musical expression, and to its extreme -like an elastic that is stretched to its extreme. He created a form in the operas that did away with the separation of musical numbers, arias, etc. and with continuity. In other words, he continually worked with continuity. He developed harmony in a very, very personal way, and in many directions. One always talks in general about Wagnerian harmonies, but Tristan und Isolde is one world, Die Meistersinger is a completely different world, and to my mind Parsifal is yet another world.

ES: But even though Wagner's concepts of sound and transition - which are the essence of the music - had this extraordinary widespread influence, there are nevertheless quite different-sounding schools of Wagner conducting, Wagner interpretation.…

DB: The development of the interpretation of his own music - and this is pure intuition and feeling, I have no proof of this - I find is tied much more to the spirit of the time, to the zeitgeist and to the nonmusical ideas that preoccupied people. And you find, in a lot of the performances from the 1920s until after the Second World War, something which I find has much in common with Nazi monumentality, which is also evident in architecture and in the other arts. There is something bombastic, loud, uncouth, not very refined or subtle, in the colors and in the balance.

In fact, the first conscious preoccupation with the balance and with the strict adherence to the dynamics of the works came from people like Rudolf Kempf, who was to my mind a very underrated German conductor who had a great feeling for sound and for balance, and then, of course, Pierre Boulez in his by now famous Ring with Chéreau in 1976. I think that this is what demystified the musical aspect - I'm not talking now about the world of ideas. And, as in all other music, I find Furtwängler's interpretation of Wagner not only in a class of its own - this is a matter of taste - but on a path of its own, where even in the most obvious, open moments, like in the Die Meistersinger overture, there is an uncanny and unlimited strength in the search for understanding.

ES: Do you think there is a tendency in Wagner's work - let's say in Tristan and even, to a degree, in Parsifal - to move towards not just the notion of flow and transition and becoming, but also a kind of indeterminacy which, in a certain sense, prepares one for atonality?

DB: I don't think so. I think that Wagner knew exactly what he wanted, and what effect what he wrote would produce, and I don't mean effect in the superficial, banal way, but in the deepest sense. Maybe part of his mistake is that he tried, in a slightly over-Teutonic way, to systemize something that has to do more with the realm of feeling in music: that absolutely necessary relationship between manipulation and yielding, which to me is the basis of all music-making, in fact, of human existence. So when he leads us into a blurred, indefinite area, I think then he is manipulating. I think he knows perfectly well what he is doing...

ES: You're a conductor who lives in Wagner, in a sense; you play him, you think about him; where do you feel the limits of your freedom are with Wagner? In other words, do you feel that you can, as Toscanini did, double parts that are not written that way, or add and subtract from what is given? Or do you feel that you are guided by a literal approach to the text, where perhaps the thing is the balance between what you think of as the spirit of the work versus the literal manifestation of the work on a piece of paper, which is the score, after all. The third element, of course, is tradition. Tradition could just be the last bad performance that was done, but it also means that you've obviously benefited from what you've listened to, and you are in a line with a number of conductors, which is an element, too, in the interpretation.

DB: I think that when one speaks about a literal understanding of a work of music, one has to be very specific about it, because nowadays when one talks about music performance, one talks mostly about tempo. Is he free? In other words, does he take liberties with the tempo or does he play like a metronome? I'm oversimplifying it, obviously, for the sake of the clarity of the argument. But I think that, in a way, so many concepts have become superficial through overuse. They are blurred. Literal to me means that you do what is written, but you do all of what is written, not only the part that is easy to judge. In other words, if there is a phrase that is very difficult, almost impossible, to play legato, that has no break in it, that is seamless and has a tremendous intensity, and you do not play it that way, that for me is not literal. In other words, literal has to be adjusted from the line of least resistance to the line of most resistance. In music-making, the only line that is valuable is the line of most resistance. Therefore, when you talk about literalness, you have to talk about changing text orchestration; you have to talk about tempo; you have to talk about dynamics; you have to talk about balance; and you have to talk about the length of the notes. The only work of Wagner where we know that he wanted to make alterations in the orchestration is The Ring for the simple reason that The Ring, although it was first performed in complete form in Bayreuth, was not written for the house in Bayreuth. The only work of Wagner that was written for that house was Parsifal. And Wagner himself, who was present at all the rehearsals of Parsifal, learned from the accoustical experience and had in mind to make slight changes in the orchestration of the Ring.

ES: For Bayreuth.

DB: Yes. I think other than that Wagner's mastery of instrumentation - and of the varying levels of volume and density of sound that are created by the different instruments of the orchestra - is so masterly that there is no need to even think about changing it. There is always something that has to be done to the sound so that it does produce the necessary effect as it is written.

ES: That's true principally of the works performed in Bayreuth. If you were to perform, let's say, The Ring in Bayreuth, as you have, or Tristan, or Parsifal, then a different set of practices obtains.

DB: I have conducted Tristan for many, many years in Bayreuth. I have also conducted Tristan with an open pit. I have conducted the second act of Tristan, often in concert form. I've conducted Parsifal and Walküre and Siegfried, also in an open pit at the State Opera in Berlin. So I have had the opportunity to compare the two. I think the main difference, of course, is the balance between orchestra and stage: in Bayreuth, you can really play the loud passages full out, which you cannot do in an open pit.

ES: Can you describe what it's like to play in Bayreuth as opposed to somewhere else?

DB: As you know, the pit in Bayreuth is mostly covered, and it goes down in steps, so that you do not get, as you do in an open pit, the sound directly from the pit to the audience. And therefore you, as a listener, do not have to mix it with the sound that you get from the singers on the stage. You get it already mixed, and this is why it is often so mellow, so round, and so creamy. The pit itself, acoustically speaking, is very resonant; it has a tendency to be too loud, and therefore the reaction when you first start playing there is to try and play too softly, because you think it's too loud, and it takes some time to get used to it. I would compare the pit at Bayreuth to deep-sea diving. When you are underwater and you have a problem with your equipment, you can really use only your brain and some movements to get out of the difficulty and to climb to the surface. You don't get anywhere with aggression, with elbow-pushing, because the water is much too strong. And, in a way, the Bayreuth pit is like this, too. The moment there is slight difficulty with the precision, there is no point in trying to beat angularly in the hope that everybody will count to that, because it doesn't happen. It's a question of giving an idea of when the next important moment is coming, and then everybody assembles. In other words, it is a question of not going to the musician or the section in question and beating angularly in his eyes, but rather of bringing him to you. And all kinds of round movements can help you do that.

DB: Yes. And in fact the conductors who have had difficulties acoustically in the pit at Bayreuth have been conductors who have a very angular way of conducting. Wagner had a preoccupation with everything that was round, and I think this is part of his whole personality: he hated anything that was angular or clearly defined.

The main difference between conducting in the pit at Bayreuth and at the State Opera pit in Berlin is that, at the State Opera, you have to start all the crescendos a little later than you would in an open pit, because otherwise you get too loud too soon; and you must come down with the diminuendos obviously a little quicker, and you cannot sustain loud chords in the brass as long as you can in Bayreuth. At first sight, this might seem like a thinning out of the musical material, but it doesn't necessarily have to be like that. Because, on the other hand, you get an orchestral presence; you get an active participation from the orchestra in an open pit, which you cannot get in Bayreuth. In a work like Parsifal, it makes no difference. On the contrary: I think that anybody who conducts Parsifal and has not conducted it in Bayreuth has not conducted Parsifal. It was written for that acoustic, for that place, and it needs to be done there. But even in The Ring, I think that you have to be very open and see that there are advantages and disadvantages in both.

ES: Bayreuth is obviously a place you like to conduct in.

DB: Oh, for these works it is absolutely a necessity. It is another level.

Continue Reading

Wagner Bicentenary - One-Man Opera. Rhodes University SA

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Sat, 18 May 2013 13:22:55 PDT

Readers will we are sure, recall Dr Jamie McGregor's Wagner/Tolkien paper "Two Rings To Rule Them All" which we reprinted here some time ago. Dr McGregor, who really is an impassioned wagnerite, is now presenting a very unusual and special event on the 22 May: a one man presentation of the Dutchman - just as Wagner himself famously once did for his friends. Should you be in Grahamstown on the 22nd, we think it would be plainly silly to miss this unique event.

Event: Wagner Bicentenary - One-Man Opera

Venue: Beethoven Room, Rhodes Department of Music & Musicology

Date: Wednesday 22 May 2013

Time: 16h00

Entrance: Free

22 May 2013 marks the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner. To celebrate the occasion, English lecturer and notorious Wagnerite Jamie McGregor will "perform" his favourite composer's celebrated Gothic opera The Flying Dutchman in a wholly original way: by impersonating Wagner himself and recreating his dramatic public reading of the libretto. To bring
the work more fully to life, the reading will be complemented by an audio-visual presentation featuring recorded music from the opera and a slideshow of appropriate images (including stills from both recent and historical productions, set designs and artists' impressions of the work).

The total performance time will be four hours (16h00-20h00), including two intervals.

Wagner In New York

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Thu, 16 May 2013 23:47:15 PDT

At "The New Yorker", Alex Ross imagines "what if" Wagner had acted on his thoughts of moving to the USA. Highly recommended.

A WALKING TOUR OF WAGNER’S NEW YORK
BY ALEX ROSS

The first in a short series of posts commemorating Wagner’s two-hundredth birthday, which falls on May 22nd. Above is the title page of Wagner’s “Grosser Festmarsch,” also known as the “American Centennial March,” commissioned for the celebrations of 1876.

In his last years, Richard Wagner often spoke of immigrating to America. The composer had enthusiastically greeted the founding of the German Empire in 1871, but in the following decade, as Bismarck and the Kaiser failed to provide funds for his nascent festival at Bayreuth, his chauvinism waned, and he entertained the idea of escaping to the New World. Cosima Wagner, his second wife, wrote in her diary in 1880: “Again and again he keeps coming back to America, says it is the only place on the whole map which he can gaze upon with any pleasure: ‘What the Greeks were among the peoples of this earth, this continent is among its countries.’” In consultation with Newell Jenkins, an American dentist who had become a family friend, Wagner drew up a plan whereby American supporters would raise a million dollars to resettle the composer and his family in a “favorable climate”; in return, America would receive proceeds from “Parsifal,” his opera-in-progress, and all other future work. “Thus would America have bought me from Europe for all time,” Wagner wrote. The pleasant climate he had in mind was, surprisingly, Minnesota.

What might have happened if, against all odds, Wagner had realized his American scheme? The outcome is almost impossible to imagine, although some historical novelist should give it a try. Somehow, one pictures Wagner winding up in California. In the event, of course, he stayed put. “Parsifal” had its première at Bayreuth, in 1882, and the composer died the following year, his name and work destined to be woven into the fate of the German nation.

During his tempestuous life, Wagner lived in many cities across the Continent, leaving an indelible imprint on all of them. In Leipzig, Dresden, Paris, Zurich, Lucerne, Vienna, Munich, and Venice, among other places, you can go on Wagner walking tours, seeing the houses where he lived, the halls where he conducted, and the meeting-places where he held forth. In recent weeks, as a kind of thought-experiment, I have been following ghost tracks of Wagner in New York, a city that he never saw and probably would have hated. A case of authorial obsession is to blame for this peculiar undertaking: I am working on a book called “Wagnerism: Art in the Shadow of Music,” an account of Wagner’s cultural impact. To be candid, the itinerary is often pretty dull, but it picks up interest toward the end, as traces emerge of hidden links between the Rockefellers and the Holy Grail.

Continue Reading: The New Yorker.

Richard Wagner’s Impact on His World and Ours, 30 May – 2 June 2013. Leeds

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:55:26 PDT

There really are a few of these we must get to. Highly recommended

In association with the Royal Musical Association, Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, the Leeds University Centre for Opera Studies, and Opera North, the School of Music, University of Leeds, will host the international conference ‘Richard Wagner’s Impact on His World and Ours’ on 30 May–2 June 2013 To mark the 200th anniversary in May 2013 of Wagner’s birth.
Few aspects of late nineteenth-century and subsequent cultural developments remain untouched by Wagner’s influence. The conference seeks to place this influence in context, embracing the multitude of
artistic and non-artistic disciplines that have felt the composer’s impact. The full programme is under construction and will be announced soon.
Keynote lectures will be delivered by:

Barry Millington, entitled ’200 Not Out: Wagner the Ultimate All-rounder’
Michael Ewans, entitled ‘Two Landmarks in Wagner Production: Patrice Chéreau’s Centenary Ring (1976) and Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s Parsifal (2004)’
Heath Lees, entitled ‘Transformation at Tribschen: how a French literary trio became a Wagnerian musical trio’
Tony Palmer, the director of the feature film ‘The Wagner Family’, will screen his highly controversial film accompanied by a discussion session.

Round-table sessions will focus as follows:

An international panel (convened by Dr Malcolm Miller) of guest speakers – scholars, practitioners and journalists (including German conductor Roberto Paternostro, former conductor of the Israel Chamber Orchestra) – will consider the controversial issue of performances of Wagner in Israel and by Israeli musicians, particularly the recent appearance of the Israel Chamber Orchestra at Bayreuth in August 2011.
A panel comprising scholars and practitioners from the University of Leeds and Opera North, considering Opera North’s current Ring project.

Program Highlights:

Thursday 30 May 2013

BARRY MILLINGTON: “200 Not Out: Wagner the Ultimate All-rounder”

14:00-15:30: PARALLEL SESSION 1a

Katherine Syer (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA): The Art of Narration: Sieglinde’s Nightmare and the End of a Curse
Solomon Guhl-Miller (Rutgers University, USA): The Impact of Byron and Goethe on the Character of Wotan in the Drafts and Sketches of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre
Daniel Paul (Psychoanalysis, Clinical Psychology, USA): Wagner and Incest

14:00-15:30: PARALLEL SESSION 1b

David Trippett (University of Cambridge, UK): Wagner’s Italianism, Bellini’s Norma, and Sinnlichkeit
Malcolm Miller (Institute of Musical Research, Open University London, UK): Spinning the Yarn: Intertextuality in Wagner’s use and re-use of his songs in his operas
Cathal Mullan (NUI Maynooth, Ireland): Wagner as Song Composer: A New Perspective for the 21st century

16:00-17:00 WORKSHOP 1

Christopher Newell (University of Hull, UK), Wagner for the Uninitiated: A Director’s Perspective
With soprano Rosamund Cole and pianist Martin Pickard

Friday 31 May 2013

10:00-11:00 Keynote

MICHAEL EWANS: Two Landmarks in Wagner Production: Patrice Chéreau’s Centenary Ring (1976) and Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s Parsifal (2004)

11:30-13:00: PARALLEL SESSION 2a

Gwen D’Amico (City University of New York, USA): Opera and Politics: Die Meistersinger at the Intersection of New York City and World War II
Jane Angell (Royal Holloway University of London, UK): ‘Our Wagner’: the reception of Richard Wagner’s music in England during the First World War
Aleksandar Molnar (University of Belgrade, Serbia) ‘Went up in smoke The Holy Roman Reich/All the same for us would stay the holy German art.’ Political implications of Hans Sachs’ final monologue in Wagner’s Meistersinger in Germany from 1867 to 1945

11:30-13:00: PARALLEL SESSION 2b

Matthias Wurz (Music University, Vienna): Exploring 20th Century Vocal Tradition in Wagner’s Opera: Conductor Berislav Klobucar and Soprano Birgit Nilsson
Peter Kupfer (Meadows School of Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, USA): Wagner Productions in the GDR: A Statistical Approach
Lydia Mayne (Stanford University, USA): Was ist Deutsch? Wagner’s use of dialect and rhyme in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg

14:00-15:30 ROUNDTABLE: Wagner and Israel – panel members

Chair: Dr Malcolm Miller (Institute of Musical Research)
Dr Margaret Brearley (author of Hitler and Wagner: The Leader, the Master and the Jews, and formerly Archbishop of Canterbury’s Adviser on the Holocaust)
Noam Ben-Ze’ev (music critic, journalist, Haaretz)
Roberto Paternostro (conductor, former director of Israel Chamber Orchestra)
Prof Na’ama Sheffi (Professor of History, School of Communication, Sapir College, Sderot, Israel; author of The Ring of Myths: The Israelis, Wagner and the Nazis)

Saturday 1 June 2013

9:30-12.00: PARALLEL SESSION 4a

Jane Ennis (William Morris Society, UK): William Morris’s Sigurd the Volsung and Wagner’s Ring
Michael Allis (University of Leeds, UK): The Diva and the Beast: Susan Strong and the Wagnerism of Aleister Crowley
Michael Papadopoulos (University of Leeds, UK): Varg í véum: Wagnerian Werewolves and Messiahs in Tolkien

9:30-12.00: PARALLEL SESSION 4b

Joseph E. Morgan (Boston, Massachusetts, USA): Wagner’s Re-conception of Weber’s German Nationalism
Golan Gur (Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany): Richard Wagner and the Discourse of National Identity in Musicology around 1900
Irad Atir (University of Bar-Ilan, Israel): Judaism and Germanism in Richard Wagner’s Art

14:00-15:30: PARALLEL SESSION 5a

Marina Raku (State Institute of Arts Studies, Moscow, Russia): Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago As An Experience Of ‘Russian Wagnerism’ In The Soviet Era
Anna Predolyak (Krasnodar State University of Arts and Culture, Russia): Wagner and Russian Musical Culture of XX – XXI Centuries: Problems of Influence And Perspectives for Development
Vladimir Marchenkov (Ohio University, USA): Gesamtkunstwerk: Life-Transforming Art

14:00-15:30: PARALLEL SESSION 5b

Matt Lawson ( Edge Hill University, UK): Wagner in American Cartoon
Anna Ponomareva (Imperial College London, UK): Inspiration or Translation: Belyi’s Novels of the Moscow Circle
Radosław Okulicz-Kozaryn (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan): ‘Where the King Spirit Becomes Manifest…’: Stanisław Wyspiański in search of the Polish Bayreuth

16:00-17:00 WORKSHOP 3

Kristina Selen (Opera Studio Oxford, UK): ‘Deeds of Music Brought to Sight’: Anna Bahr-Mildenburg as Isolde

Sunday 2 June 2013

9:30-11:00 PARALLEL SESSION 6a

Chantal Frankenbach (California State University, Sacramento, USA): ‘The Apotheosis of the Dance’: Gestures of National Transcendence in Wagner’s Artwork of the Future
Jonathan Waxman (New York University, USA): Richard Wagner’s Prose and its Impact on the Development of the Symphonic Program Note in the Twentieth Century

9:30-11:00 PARALLEL SESSION 6b

Dragana Jeremić Molnar (University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia): Richard Wagner’s Construction of Reality: ‘Finite Province of Meaning’, ‘Subuniverse of Meaning’ or ‘Deviant Symbolic Universe’?
Lauma Mellena (University of Latvia): Richard Wagner productions in 21st century Latvia
Plamen Kartaloff (Sophia Opera and Ballet, Bulgaria): The Universe Called Wagner, and Us. Der Ring des Nibelungen, Director’s Perspectives

11:00-11:30 Tea/Coffee

11.30-13.00 WORKSHOP 4

Daniel Somerville (University of Wolverhampton): Dancing Wagner: What Can Embodiment of Wagner’s Music Reveal

FULL DETAILS OF ALL ACTIVITIES CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING HERE

SYMPOSIUM “WAGNER AND US”: MELBOURNE 5–8 DECEMBER 2013

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:37:10 PDT

UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE 5–8 DECEMBER 2013

Scheduled to coincide with the performances of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in Melbourne, 18 November–13 December 2013, the symposium “Wagner and Us” will explore and critique Richard Wagner’s continuing cultural, political, and historical importance to contemporary society. The symposium, convened by Professor Kerry Murphy, is jointly hosted by The University of Melbourne and The Richard Wagner Society in Melbourne.

Topics to be covered include Wagner in Australia, Wagner and Anti-Semitism, Wagner in the Theatre, and the ‘Wagner Industry’, and others.

Invited Keynote Speakers include Patrick Carnegy (UK), Eva Rieger (Germany) and John Deathridge (UK).

It is anticipated that a Conference Proceedings will be published.

Full Details Click Here

Starting Saturday On BBC Radio 3 - "Wagner Week". Highlights Listed

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:03:20 PDT

From Saturday May 18, BBC Radio 3 will begin "Wagner Week", a series of programs specially commissioned to celebrate Wagner 200.

Highlights include:

Wagner and His World

Donald Macleod explores the connections and relationships that helped establish Wagner as the most revolutionary musical thinker of the 19th century. Includes:

Beethoven
1/5 Donald Macleod explores how Beethoven's music heavily influenced Wagner.
First broadcast: 20 May 2013

Weber and Bellini
2/5 Donald Macleod explores Wagner's early love for the operas of Weber and Bellini.
First broadcast: 21 May 2013

Meyerbeer and Palestrina
3/5 Donald Macleod explores how Wagner first cherished, then rejected, Meyerbeer's influence.
First broadcast: 22 May 2013

Liszt.
4/5 Donald Macleod explores the relationship between Wagner and Liszt.
First broadcast: 23 May 2013

One Winter's Afternoon

Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes First broadcast: Sunday 19 May 2013

As part of BBC Radio 3's Wagner 200, One Winter's Afternoon tells the story of the great operatic rivalry between Guiseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner in the year marking the bicentenary of their births. In real life, the two great composers never met.

Taking as its starting point the death of Wagner, the play travels between two time frames as it explores key moments in their lives, and in imaginary conversations between them about the struggles of creativity.

After the triumphant reception of his masterpiece Aida, Verdi has been coaxed out of retirement to write one more work, Otello, but he is struggling with it. As a voice inside Verdi's head, Wagner continues to taunt him, making him fear that Wagner will be remembered as the greater composer. The complex love lives of both composers illustrate how Wagner's ebullient and insensitive nature contrasted with Verdi's angst and more introverted temperament. The recollection of jealous passion does in the end serve to unblock Verdi in his creative despair.

The play explores - not without comedy - ageing and creativity, artistic loves and differences, the approach of death and the struggle against it bringing alive the texture of 19th-century Europe, its cultural and political influences.

Wagner ... Kenneth Cranham
Verdi ... Paul Rhys
Giuseppina ... Kate Buffery
Ricordi ... Clive Merrison
Boito ... Nicholas Boulton
Cosima ... Lydia Leonard
Stolz ... Zalie Burrow
Liszt ... Scott Handy
Minna ... Emily Bruni
Mathilde ... Clare Corbett
Mariani ... Sean Baker
Ludwig ... Mark Straker
Waiter ... Christopher York

Pianist: Will Bartlett
Sound Design: David Chilton and Lucinda Mason Brown
Writer: Guy Meredith
Director: Cherry Cookson

A Goldhawk Essential production for BBC Radio 3

Wagner In Zurich
Duration: 45 minutes. First broadcast:Saturday 18 May 2013

Wagner 200 with .Tom travels to Zurich, where Richard Wagner the revolutionary lived in exile for nine years, and finds a city which played a crucial role in the development of the composer's thinking and provided fertile ground for his Ring Cycle, and which is marking the 200th anniversary with a festival including a new musical theatre piece by the director Hans Neuenfels. Tom visits the home of the Wesendonck family, where Wagner was inspired to write Tristan und Isolde and his Wesendonck Lieder, and also the idyllic Tribschen district of Lucerne, where Wagner later lived and composed his Siegfried Idyll as a birthday gift to his second wife, Cosima. It was from Germany's 1848 revolutions that Wagner had fled to Switzerland, and from Leipzig, Wagner's birthplace and a city which is central to this year's anniversary celebrations, the BBC's Berlin correspondent Stephen Evans reports on the composer's controversial place in German culture today.

Saturday Classics

Duration: 2 hours. First broadcast:Saturday 18 May 2013

The great English operatic bass Robert Lloyd joins Radio 3's celebration of the 200th anniversary of Wagner's birth with selections from his favourite Wagner operas.

Mastersingers of Nuremberg

Duration: 58 minutes. First broadcast:Sunday 19 May 2013

Immortalised by Wagner in his famous opera, Lucie Skeaping looks back on the life and music of the real Hans Sachs and his fellow Mastersingers in 17th Century Germany.

Transformations and Transfigurations

Duration: 1 hour, 15 minutes. First broadcast:Sunday 19 May 2013

The much loved actors Juliet Stevenson and Michael Pennington present a selection of prose and poetry combined with music, evoking the spirit and art of Richard Wagner.

As part of BBC Radio 3's bicentennial celebrations of the birth of Richard Wagner, this edition of Words and Music does homage to one of the most outstanding of all Romantic composers - the man, it is claimed, who stands alongside Jesus Christ and Napoleon Bonaparte as having inspired more printed words than anyone else.

Transformations and transfigurations; music , memory and myth emerge through the poetry and prose of the "Nibelungenlied"; the works of Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire, Stephane Mallarmé, and Gabriele D'Annunzio; the programme finds the "Wagnerian" in the writings of TS Eliot, DH Lawrence and Oscar Wilde; and gathers homages, portraits and reposts to the "Master" in the words of those who knew him, including Wagner's "Parsifal muse", Judith Gautier; the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche; and Wagner's wife, Cosima. Each verbal leitmotif is sheathed in the Wagnerian glories that are Tristan, Parsifal, Lohengrin, The Mastersingers and The Ring

Wagner 200

Duration: 2 hours, 57 minutes First broadcast:Sunday 19 May 2013

James Jolly makes his own selection of music by Wagner in the week of the composer's bicentenary. He also marks Whit Sunday with a cantata attributed to Bach, but actually composed by Telemann, Gott der Hoffnung erfülle euch, in a performance by Alsfelder Vokalensemble / Stento Baroque Bremen, with soloists Johanna Koslowski, Kai Wessel, Harry Gerearts, and Philip Langshaw.

Wagner: Making a National Hero
Duration: 45 minutesFirst broadcast:Sunday 19 May 2013

Wagner 200
Stephen Johnson explores the worlds of Wagner's heroes and how his Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Siegfried and Parsifal were created from a particularly Wagnerian concoction of ancient Norse legends, medieval German myths and current political thinking at the dawn of Bismark's Germany. He finds out how Wagner himself became a different sort of national hero through the efforts of Cosima, his zealously loyal widow, and then through misinterpretations of his writings about nationalism by the Third Reich.Stephen talks to conductor Donald Runnicles, Wagner experts Barry Millington and Barbara Eichner, writer and opera director Adrian Mourby, Ring expert Edward Haymes, and Cosima's biographer Oliver Hilmes

Wagner's Philosophers (1 of 5. Click for details)
Duration: 15 minutesFirst broadcast:Monday 20 May 2013

Wagner and German Idealism

Professor Roger Scruton explores the philosophical background that influenced the young Richard Wagner. The German universities of his youth were in a state of intellectual ferment in the aftermath of the greatest philosopher of modern times, Immanuel kant. Out of this came a school of philosophy known as German Idealism. Wagner was particular influenced by the most famous of these philosophers, Hegel. And, even though Wagner was later to radically revise his philosophical views, the ideas of Hegel can still be traced in his great cycle of music dramas, The Ring: the notion that nothing human is permanent, and all must perish in the spirit's ongoing search for self-knowledge. And the essence of this spirit, Hegel argued, is freedom. Wagner took this idea one step further. Freedom, for Wagner, was not only a political phenomenon, it was also a profound spiritual reality, revealed in the moment of sacrifice.

Radio 3 In Concert

Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutesFirst broadcast:Wednesday 22 May 2013

Live from the Royal Festival Hall in London
Presented by Martin Handley.

Sir Andrew Davis conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in a concert commemorating the exact 200th anniversary of Wagner's birth.

Wagner Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
Susan Bullock (soprano), Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

c. 8.00pm
Interval Music

c. 8.20pm
The Walküre (or Valkyries) are an army of maidens who ride through the air on horseback. The twin brother and sister, Siegmund and Sieglinde, have fallen in love, thereby committing both adultery and incest. Siegmund is killed by the leader of the gods, Wotan, although Brünnhilde (Wotan's favourite Valkyrie daughter) saves Sieglinde in the nick of time. After this, the Third Act begins with the famous Ride of the Valkyries and reaches a blazing climax when Brünnhilde is punished by Wotan. Wotan bids farewell to Brünnhilde and surrounds her with a ring of fire that can only be crossed by a fearless hero; that hero is destined to be none other than Sieglinde's eventual son, Siegfried.

Wagner Die Walküre, Act 3

Sieglinde.... Giselle Allen (soprano),
Wotan..... James Rutherford (bass),
The Valkyries:
Brünnhilde.... Susan Bullock (soprano),
Gerhilde..... Mariya Krywaniuk (soprano),
Waltraute..... Jennifer Johnston (mezzo soprano),
Schwertleite..... Miriam Sharrad (contralto),
Helmwige..... Katherine Broderick (soprano),
Siegrune..... Magdalen Ashman (mezzo soprano),
Grimgerde..... Antonia Sotgiu (mezzo soprano),
Rossweisse..... Maria Jones (mezzo soprano),
Ortlinde..... Elaine McKrill (soprano)Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

Night Waves
Duration: 45 minutesFirst broadcast:Thursday 23 May 2013

As part of Wagner 200 week Anne McElvoy assesses the composer's relationship with his Jewish collaborators and the extent to which Wagner's music is clouded anti-Semitism.

WAGNER 200 - DER FLIEGENDE HOLLANDER

THU 23rd MAY AT 2.00PM -

Bryn Terfel, Anja Kampe, Hans-Peter Konig, Torsten Kerl,
John Tessier and Claire Shearer
Chorus and Orchestra of The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Marc Albrecht conduct.

WAGNER 200 - LOHENGRIN
SUN 26th MAY AT 2.45PM -
LIVE from WNO

Peter Wedd, Emma Bell, Susan Bickley, John Lundgren,
Simon Thorpe and Matthew Best
Chorus and Orchestra of Welsh National Opera
Lothar Koenigs conducts

Note: Details above are correct at time of print. However, please click the link below for full details and times. Additional Wagner related programs can also be found at this link

DETAILS AND TIMES OF ALL PROGRAMS CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING HERE

Donizetti: "La Favorite" Arranged for Two Violins by Richard Wagner

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:54:38 PDT

Imagine, if you will, that you are a young 26 year old artist living in Paris in 1840. And not any old artist mind, but a composer of long, sprawling operas. You have just completed one such opera that will soon make your name and provide you with some economic stability - but which you will eventually, at least publicly, reject - called Rienzi .

At the same time, you have just written the first prose draft of an unusually concise work called The Flying Dutchman - a work completely unlike anything that you have conceived so far and which may well set you on a path to "revolutionize opera". You also have the loyal support of one of the most famous opera composers in Europe - Meyerbeer.

However, despite all of this, you and your young wife are right now, this very day, living in poverty - and once again you are heavily in debt and hiding out from debtors. How then might you earn a little money so that you do not end up like a character in an opera not yet written by another future composer: in Paris, forced to burn your manuscripts to stay warm and no doubt singing about tiny little frozen hands"?

If you were Richard Wagner you might turn, among other things, to earn a very meager living by correcting proofs of other peoples operas. Indeed, if you were Richard Wagner you might end up doing so on Donizetti's La favorita. But what if you were Richard Wagner, living in such conditions, and given the opportunity to earn, using your far from meager talents, the princely sum of 500 francs to prepare a piano vocal score and arrangements for various instrumental combinations, of said opera. Would you do it? Of course you would.

And so we are left today with the recording below of La Favorite Arranged for Two Violins by Richard Wagner. Alas, on this recording the producers added a spoken narrative, written by opera director Michael Dißmeier, and read in German by Daniel Morgenroth to fit between the 19 excerpts. It "breaks the flow" somewhat, but if it starts to irritate, you could always just play Wagner's' arrangement and ignore the rest completely. Available below on Spotify complete, you can also listen to some excerpts on youtube here, here and here.

But before doing so, we thought you might find the "article" below from the San Francisco Call's (now The San Francisco Examiner) opera article "Through The Opera Glass" (published 27 July 1890) to be of some amusement.

British Library to Hold "Wagner Weekend" 8-9 June 2013

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:15:40 PDT

This looks rather interesting, with some names very familiar to regular readers. Far too many speakers to mention here (full details at the British Library's website) but they include: Sir John Tomlinson, Mark Berry, David Trippett, Emma Warner, Hilda Brown, Roger Allen and a company of young actors from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Saturday 8 June
Study Day: Wagner the Writer
British Library Conference Centre, 10.30-17.00
£20 / £15 concessions

Wagner's writings range widely over subjects as various as race, climate, vegetarianism, aesthetics and modern science. Above all he was formulating ideas that would take dramatic shape in his operas. Distinguished musicologists, literary historians, and translators speak about Wagner's immense literary output with opportunities for discussion and debate. The day will include sessions on Wagner as Librettist, Wagner's Paris writings (1840-42), the Later Aesthetic Essays, and a roundtable discussion on translating Wagner. Speakers include Roger Allen, Hilda Brown, Bojan Bujic, Katharine Ellis, Tash Siddiqui, David Trippett, and Emma Warner. The study day is presented in association with The Wagner Journal and the Wagner 200 Festival, and coincides with the digitisation of the Library's Wagner holdings.

Tickets and further details: http://www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event145295.html

Sunday 9 June
Wagner's Ring cycle: a complete reading
British Library Conference Centre, 11.00-18.00
£20 / £15 concessions

A reading of the entire Ring cycle, in English, featuring Sir John Tomlinson and a company of young actors from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, directed by William Relton. This event provides a rare opportunity both to experience the richness and subtlety of Wagner's writing and to thrill to the drama of the text as poetry. The reading will be illustrated with scenes from the Ring, by artists including Arthur Rackham (1867-1939), projected on the big screen. Presented in association with the Wagner 200 Festival.

Tickets and further details: http://www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event145303.html

Tannhauser: Pilgrims Chorus & Finale

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:37:13 PDT

Two productions: Bayreuth and the MET. Not picked specifically because they were "traditional" stagings but because they were the only relevant clips on Youtube.

With joy, my home, I now behold thee,
and gladly greet thy smiling meadows;
now I lay down my pilgrim's staff,
for, submissive to God, I have made my pilgrimage.
By atonement and repentance I have made my peace
with the Lord, to whom my heart bows down,
who has crowned my remorse with blessing,
the Lord to whom I raise my song.
The grace of salvation is granted to the penitent,
who shall enter into the peace of heaven!
Hell and death cannot affright him,
therefore will I praise God all the days of my life.
Halleluja for evermore!

With joy, my home, I now behold thee,
and gladly greet thy smiling meadows;
now I lay down my pilgrim's staff …

WOLFRAM
An angel prayed for you on earth,
soon she will send her blessing down to you.

VENUS
Come to me!

WOLFRAM
Elisabeth!

TANNHÄUSER
Elisabeth!

MINSTRELS AND MALE CHORUS
Hail to the soul that now has flown
from the body of this virtuous sufferer!

WOLFRAM
Your angel pleads for you at God's throne,
and her prayer is heard! Heinrich, you are saved!

VENUS
Alas! Lost to me!

From the Wartburg a funeral procession bears an open coffin

MINSTRELS AND MALE CHORUS
Hers be the angels' blessed reward,
the rich crown of heavenly joys.

WOLFRAM
Do you hear the chant?

TANNHÄUSER
I hear it!

MINSTRELS AND MALE CHORUS
Blessed be the pure one, who now stands
among the heaveniv host before the Eternal!
Blessed be the sinner for whom she wept,
for whom she implored heaven's mercy!

Wolfram leads Tannhäuser to the coffin, on which he sinks

TANNHÄUSER
Holy Elisabeth, pray for me!

He dies.

PILGRIMS
carrying in their midst a priest's staff covered in fresh, green leaves
Hail! Hail! Hail to this miracle of grace!
Salvation to the world is given.
In this holy hour of night the Lord
hath manifested himself through a miracle.
The barren staff in the priest's hand
he has decked with fresh green:
so to the sinner in Hell's flames
shall redemption bloom anew!
Proclaim it through every land
that through this miracle he found grace!
God reigns high above the whole world,
and his compassion is never sought in vain!
Halleluja! Halleluja
Halleluja!

LANDGRAVE, MINSTRELs, KNIGHTS AND PILGRIMS
The grace of God is granted to the penitent;
now he enters into the bliss of heaven!

Audio Discussion: The Düsseldorf Tannhauser.

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:52 PDT

Recorded earlier today as part of WQXR's "Conducting Business" series. Chaired by Naomi Lewin, a panel consisting of: ENO's John Berry, Parterre Box's James Jorden, and the Washington Post's Anne Midgette discuss Deutsche Oper am Rhein's "controversial" Tannhauser and a certain form of Regietheater in general.

For clarification, the term "Eurotrash" is being used extensively in some debates (although oddly, few seem to be debating the impact any of this might have on the living members, and their ancestors, of those many groups that suffered the sort of death and torture that was described in the production. Apart that is, however briefly, one of those groups itself). For europeans, and especially those in the UK confused by the term, it appears commentators are not using it to refer to the TV program presented by Antoine de Caunes and Jean-Paul Gaultier. Instead, it seems to be loosely applied in three different ways. For those supportive, of the Regietheater movement it appears to be used when the production in someway "goes wrong" (this is how WQXR's editorial seems to use it). However, for those highly critical of Regietheater, "Eurotrash" seems to be interchangeable with the term "Regie" and is used in a derogatory manner - as indeed is the abbreviated "Regie". Finally, there seems to be an another group that use the term to describe, oddly enough, productions that have a certain visual and narrative aesthetic as defined in the movies of Andy Warhol and Russ Myer.

Note: unless there is some discussion from any group (especially Jewish groups) directly impacted by Nazi atrocities, we intend to carry no more on this story. Please do not ask.

New BBC TV Documentary: "Pappano’s Essential Ring Cycle"

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:47:29 PDT

"Honest! The fish I caught in the Rhein was this big"

Lets hope it is a little less "one-sided" and "idiosyncratic" than the last BBC Radio 3 Wagner documentary. But given that we hear Pappano is something of a Wagner "fan", and that he certainly has the background to have a clear understanding of Wagner and his work, we have much hope.

Celebrating the bicentenary of Richard Wagner’s birth, Sir Antonio Pappano presents a 60-minute documentary which seeks to unravel the genius of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, one of the towering achievements of opera and a work which has challenged producers, conductors and performers alike, since its inception.

Filmed in London, Bayreuth, Bavaria and Switzerland, Pappano presents a unique insight into the story of this masterpiece from the people who perform it. In particular, he shares his insights into the extraordinary theatre at Bayreuth, exploring what it shows us about the theatrical world Wagner wanted to create. With expert comment from artists who appeared in the recent Royal Opera House production of The Ring, including Bryn Terfel, Susan Bullock and Sir John Tomlinson, the programme includes rehearsal footage from each of the four operas and performance from the 2005-7 production staged by Keith Warner.

Friday 17 May
7.30-9.00pm
BBC FOUR

WNO To Revive Die Meistersinger. Bryn Terfel To Return.

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:21:24 PDT

Given that Richard Jones’ production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for WNO received, rightly, unanimous praise it should probably come as little surprise that WNO would revive it at some time in the future. Well, it seems that future date is 2016. Bryn Terfel will return with the production

WNO's Artistic Director Discuses: Lohengrin, Fascism and Wagner

noreply@blogger.com (The Wagnerian) — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:05:07 PDT

In his typically erudite manner, Welsh National Opera's David Pountney discusses the process that went into the creation their new production of Lohengrin, Wagner, fascism and the recent events in Dusseldorf.

I am very excited by the prospects for our new Lohengrin, firstly because Lothar Koenigs, our excellent Music Director, is passionate about the music of this symphony for a German revolution, and secondly because, if all remains on course as we devoutly pray, it has a superb cast with a strong element, as there should be for a company like WNO, of the home grown. That is quite an advantage given that its proximity to Wagner’s actual birthday on May 22 (Lohengrin opens on May 23) means that it is in competition with an avalanche of celebratory Wagner going on all over the world.
One performance with which Lohengrin will not be in competition now is the production of Tannhäuser in Düsseldorf which has just been cancelled after protests that the Nazi/Holocaust interpretation and its execution caused some members of the audience to be physically ill. There have been some very surprising statements by the theatre management, almost seeming to apologise for the fact that their production has had a visceral effect on the audience, which up to a point you might think was the idea of a theatrical event. Perhaps a certain line has been crossed.

The story will no doubt feed the anxiety of some members of many audiences about what might await them on stage in the plethora of productions marking Wagner’s anniversary. Wagner was himself in all senses an extremist – musically, dramatically and personally – and his art invites extreme responses from fanatical adoration to hatred. He was also undoubtedly anti-Semitic, and a revolutionary nationalist, and with historical hindsight this combination obviously takes on an unsavoury whiff of Fascism, particularly as the Fascists subsequently exploited this connection. However, throughout the 19th century, nationalism meant not national aggrandisation, in the Hitler sense of “Lebensraum”, but national liberation. This left-liberal brand of nationalism seems strange to us now, but essentially the decision by Wagner to go back to German mythology for his subject matter was made with the same intent that the German speaking Smetana chose to set Czech subjects, or the Russian “Mighty Handful” were steered by their “dramaturg” Stassov to go back to Russian history and mythology. As every Welshman will understand, the assertion of identity through language and mythology is one of the essential building blocks of national consciousness, and the aim of the 1840’s revolutions, in which Wagner enthusiastically took part, was to create national unity under the banner of democracy and free speech, and wrest power away from the repressive cluster of princes, bishops and kings who ruled the many small principalities that made up 19th century Germany.

Continue reading at his blog at WNO. Recommended