Newsletter Vol 11 No 1 February 2007

Editorial

This year will witness the first Bayreuth production by a member of the third generation of the composer's descendents - Katharina Wagner. We are pleased that the 20 successful entrants from our ballot will witness her Meistersinger for themselves, as well as our Bayreuth Scholar and a number of members additionally attending the festival this year. The Wagnerian flame has been tended by powerful female votaries before: Cosima of course, and subsequently her daughter-in-law Winifred, of whom more below...

Forthcoming Events

Sunday 25th February at 7.00pm: Winifred Wagner & the History of Haus Wahnfried 1914-1975: a showing of a film by Hans-Jürgen Syberberg with English subtitles. Part One

Last year's DVD release of this 5-hour-long monochrome marathon with English subtitles will be shown in two parts. Siegfried Wagner's widow, who ran the Bayreuth Festival from 1930-44, remembers Cosima, Siegfried, Eva Chamberlain, Daniela von Bülow, Furtwängler, Strauss, Tietjen and Toscanini. Her friend Hitler's impact on the Festival is described with great candour. Each half of this film will be briefly introduced by Derek Watson and there will be an interval for drinks & nibbles, ending by c.10pm.
Please note the earlier starting time of 7.00pm!!
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road (by Dean Bridge). Admission: members £5; guests £6

Sunday 4th March at 7.00pm: Winifred Wagner & the History of Haus Wahnfried 1914-1975: a showing of a film by Hans-Jürgen Syberberg with English subtitles. Part Two

In the second part of her extraordinary interview, which has more pictures of pre-war Wahnfried and the Siegfried-Haus, Winifred Wagner is pressed to speak further of her memories of the Third Reich, of her de-nazification process, of her children and her opinion of post-war Bayreuth.
Please note the starting time: 7.00pm!!
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road (by Dean Bridge). Admission: members £5; guests £6

Sunday 15th April at 7.30pm: Wagner and Weimar, a talk by Derek Watson

In anticipation of May's Congress of the International Wagner Societies in the city so associated with Bach, Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, Herder, and later Liszt, Berlioz and Wagner, this presentation will focus on Wagner's association with Weimar - his visits there and important performances.
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road (by Dean Bridge). Admission: members £5; guests £6

The Wagner Society of Scotland Scholarship 2007:
Report of the Panel
Seven applications were received for the 2007 Wagner Society of Scotland Bayreuth Scholarship. There were one male and two female singers, one conductor, two repetiteurs and one instrumentalist. This was an immensely talented group of applicants and it proved to be no simple task for the panel to find a winner. Consideration was given to age, experience, aspirations etc., and careful note was also taken of comments made by their referees. The main criterion for the Scholarship award is which candidate would currently benefit most from a visit to Bayreuth. Following intense debate our 2007 Scholarship winner is 20-year-old Cara Bleiman from Edinburgh, currently studying for a BA in music at St Catherine's College Oxford. She is an alto singer and a clarinettist, and has had some experience already with opera direction and stage management. The Society also contributes to the expenses of sending a Scholar from the former Soviet bloc to Bayreuth. Applications for the 2008 Bayreuth Scholarship will be invited in the autumn. It is hoped we may audition singers, and that the successful candidate will enter the preliminary round (to be held in Bayreuth, 2008) of the 6th International Singing Competition for Wagner Voices.

Rienzi Summer School: Recordings & Suggested Reading

We are grateful to member Sandy Matheson for researching the 5 available recordings of Rienzi for those wishing to acquaint themselves with the work in advance of Carberry in June. What follows is based on his information, and these recordings can be ordered from McAlister Matheson Music, 1 Grindlay Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9AT. Tel 0131 228 3287; fax 0131 228 4780; email sales@mmmusic.co.uk

The only complete version (4 CDs) is on the Ponto label @ £28.50. Edward Downes conducts the BBC Northern with a cast including John Mitchison, Lorna Haywood, Michael Langdon, Raimund Herinx and David Ward. This will be the version used at Carberry for the main part, but please note that there is no libretto with the CD set.

Next most complete is Heinrich Hollreiser, EMI 567131-2 @ £39.95 (3 CDs with a German/English text) with René Kollo, Janis Martin and Theo Adam among the cast. Kollo also takes the title role in a live version (featuring a young Cheryl Studer as Irene) conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch at the Bavarian State Opera in 1983: Orfeo C346953D @ £26.95 (no text). On that recording, which has more cuts than Hollreiser, Adriano is cast as a baritone (John Janssen) instead of Wagner's specified soprano. The other versions are heavily cut: Zillig (Membran 223064 @ £20.50) with Treptow, Eipperle and Schlüter; and a historical 1937 version under Weber on the Walhall label (@ £9.99) with Seider, Klose and Dobay. There are no DVD versions currently available.

As to a vocal score: please bring along an ‘old' one should you or your local library have one. Or if you are keen to have a complete vocal score then the Schott edition [ED 7028] ed. Klindworth, in a new edition (1982) by Egon Voss is the one - but at a price (DW paid £38.50 some time ago). As to the text, we recommend for study purposes that those attending should pre-order the text offered with the Carberry brochure @ £9.

Background reading. The obvious suggestion for the truly enthusiastic is the novel Rienzi, The Last of the Tribunes by Henry Bulwer Lytton. This would be a dedicated read, and is by no means necessary. There is a facsimile reprint available in soft covers @ £14, and second-hand copies are not rare. For either option please do contact Derek Watson. On the historical ‘Cola di Rienzo', students will find books devoted to him, or references to him in medieval histories, and none better than in the latter sections of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Download the Study Weekend brochure in Word or Acrobat format.

Or download the Booking Form here in Word or Acrobat format.

DVD Special Offer
Die Meistersinger von NürnbergWith each Newsletter we now feature a special offer to members of a book, CD or DVD. This time a new release from ArtHaus Musik of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in a historic studio production from the Hamburg State Opera recorded in 1970 (one of the first opera films in colour!). Leopold Ludwig conducts a cast including Giorgio Tozzi, Richard Cassilly, Ernst Wiemann, Arlene Saunders, Toni Blankenheim and Willy Hartmann. 2 DVDs - only £25.99, including postage. Please send a cheque payable to 'Linton Books' to Derek Watson (address on back page).

News in Brief

  • Wagner enthusiasts in St Fillans, Perthshire, continue their tradition of showing Met productions on the big screen. Tannhäuser will be given on Saturday 31 March at Sandison Hall, 2pm for 2.30. Details of tickets & catering arrangements from John Southorn on 01764 670135.
  • We hear with pleasure that the Wagner Society of Manchester has again a regular programme of interesting events at which our members would be most welcome. Visit www.wagnersocietymanchester.co.uk
  • Barry Millington tells us that The Wagner Journal will be launched on 1st March. We strongly recommend subscribing to this exciting new venture if you have not already done so. £39 per annum for 3 issues (UK). Contact The Wagner Journal, PO Box 57714, London, NW11 1DL or visit www.thewagnerjournal.co.uk
  • Talking of Journals - Volume Three of our own Wagner Society of Scotland Journal will be sent free to members this autumn
  • Theater Erfurt mount Tannhäuser as part of the Elizabeth-of-Thuringia-Year 2007: March 10, 14, 25, 30, April 22, 28, May 19, June 24. Contact Mrs Silvia Gründl, tel. 0049 361 2233 151, or email: gruendl@theater-erfurt.de
  • The State Opera of South Australia's Ring Cycle is being released on the Melba label in multi-channel SACD surround sound format. A 10% discount applies for a limited period to Wagner Society members. Order forms can be had from Derek Watson.
  • In January your chairman and secretary were delighted to be given a personal tour by Professor Alessandra Pugliese from the Associazione Richard Wagner de Venezia of the rooms in the Palazzo Vendramin Calergi occupied by the Wagner family in 1882-3, and where the Master died.
  • The Richard Wagner Festival at Wels, Austria presents Der fliegendeHolländer: 17, 20, 22 May. www.wagner-festival-wels.netwww.wagner-festival-wels.net
  • Glimmerglass Opera has announced that it will present the first fully-staged production in North America of Das Liebesverbot as part of its 2008 season.
  • Longborough Festival Opera's 2007 season opens with a new production of Das Rheingold, the start of a projected full Ring cycle. Tel 01451 830292 or www.longboroughopera.comwww.longboroughopera.com

In our next newsletter...

...details of more summer and autumn events for you here in Scotland.

Chairman and Newsletter editor: Derek Watson, Deanfoot House, West Linton, Peeblesshire EH46 7EA Tel 01968 660339 Fax 01968 661701; e-mail derek@lintonbooks.plus.com

Secretary: W S Scott, 83 East Claremont Street, Edinburgh EH7 4HU; Tel 0131-556 2617; Fax 0870 0568159; e-mail will@elgar1.plus.com

Treasurer: John Holcombe, 4 Galleon Court, Lamer Street, Dunbar, East Lothian, EH42 1GX; e-mail john@holc.wanadoo.co.uk

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