Newsletter Vol 12 No 4 September 2008
Editorial
A new age has begun at Bayreuth, with a change in direction historically comparable only with events in 1930 and 1951. Some of the implications are outlined in an article below.
Forthcoming Events
Sunday 21st September at 7.30pm: Annual General Meeting And Bayreuth Report
Notice is given of the Twelfth Annual General Meeting of the Society. After the official business and refreshments, those who attended Bayreuth this year are invited to share their impressions with members. If you can't attend in person, a brief written report (or email!) would be most welcome.
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road. Admission free to members only (a donation will be invited to cover room costs).
Sunday 12th October at 7.30pm: A Lecture By Professor John Deathridge
This summer saw the publication of an important new book, Wagner Beyond Good and Evil by John Deathridge, King Edward Professor of Music at King's College London, and one of the world's foremost Wagner scholars. We are delighted to welcome him to open our autumn season. His book is the special offer with this Newsletter, and John can sign copies at the meeting.
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road (by Dean Bridge)
Admission £5.00 (members); £6.00 (guests)
Sunday 23rd November at 7.30pm: Die Walküre - A Psychotherapist's Perspective: A Lecture By Robin Hobbes
Robin Hobbes is Chairman of the Manchester Wagner Society and a psychotherapy teacher and practitioner. He will discuss Wagner's libretto for Die Walküre, and, drawing on his professional experience,will illuminate some of the psychological dimensions of this 'most psychological' of Wagner's music dramas. The conflict between power and love, the importance of confiding, and the awareness of mortality will be some of the themes he will address. The talk will be illustrated with DVD extracts from the Chereau/Boulez centenary Die Walküre Bayreuth production.
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road (by Dean Bridge)
Admission £5.00 (members); £6.00 (guests)
Saturday 13th December at 6.00pm: Christmas Party
Please find enclosed a booking form for this, our most important fund-raiser for the Society's Bayreuth Scholarship. This year a new venue, a new day, a new time, a new speaker, and a new format! The Scottish Arts Club is a splendid institution in the quiet oasis of Rutland Square, just off the busy west end of Princes Street. Drinks are available from 6.00pm upstairs where, in the Club's smoking room, we will welcome at 6.30pm our special guest, Donald Macleod, well-known as a Radio 3 presenter, particularly of Composer of the Week. Following a talk with Donald, and some music, we will take our seats at table in the ground floor double dining room for supper, served buffet-style. Members know that our Christmas event is one of the important ways of keeping the Scholarship going, especially in these times of rising ticket prices and the variable exchange rate with the Euro. Your ticket price includes a donation to the Scholarship, a rich cold buffet table with hot mince pies and live music. A full range of drinks may be purchased at the Club bar. Please note the start time, and that this is a Saturday event. Apply now, please, as tickets are limited!
The Scottish Arts Club, 24 Rutland Square, Edinburgh, EH1 2BW
Admission strictly by ticket only: please return the enclosed form.
Plans For 2009:
In January we will have a talk by Will Scott on the late great Scottish bass-baritone David Ward which he will illustrate with material from a private archive; Roderick Swanston, a distinguished Wagner authority, is our speaker for February. Confirmation of dates and other events from March onward, will appear later in our next Newsletter, the last for 2008. But we can confirm next year's Study Weekend on Der fliegende Holländer will take place at the University of Stirling, 10th -13th July (a brochure & booking form will be issued early next year).
Wagner Society Events In England
The Wagner Society in London reminds our members that they are most welcome at any meetings should they happen to be in London. Details of their programme can be found at www.wagnersociety.org/Events.htm
Forthcoming is An Evening with Christine Brewer at the Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road, Sunday 5th October. Tickets @ £20 can be had from: Mrs Pam Hudson, 3 Howard Gate, Letchworth Garden City, Herts, SG6 2BQ.
Jeremy D. Rowe extends a special welcome to our members for a weekend course led by Roderick Swanston, Wagner in Time and Place, at Portland Place School 8th- 9th November. A few places are left, and leaflets (including hotel information) can be had at our AGM. Further info from Jeremy Rowe, e-mail: lyceumschool@aol.com
Also from the London committee, Andrea Buchanan writes to tell members that she can provide at very reasonable cost CD recordings of past London Wagner Society events; for details of contents: Andrea.Buchan@lonmin.com or write to her for information at 7 Avenue Mansions, Finchley Road, London, NW3 7AU
Wagner Society Manchester has frequent meetings on Mondays at 7.00pm. Members from Scotland are warmly welcomed. Coming up soon: a lecture by Dave Burnham on Tristan: the real story (13 October); Andrew Shore on singing Alberich at Bayreuth (27 Oct.); Derek Blyth on DVDs of Die Meistersinger (10Nov.): www.wagnersocietymanchester.co.uk
Special Book & CD Offers
Wagner Beyond Good and Evil: by John Deathridge
University of California Press. Hardback. ISBN 9780520254534
Pre-ordered copies of this important book will be available at the meeting on 12 Oct.
RRP £23.95. Our price to members: £18.95 [saving £5!]
If you would like to reserve a copy, please order through Derek Watson (address below) enclosing a cheque made payable to Linton Books for £18.95. Your signed book can be collected on 12 October or at any future meeting. If you wish the book to be posted please add £2.50 to your cheque.
Wagner: The Mastersingers of Nuremberg. Reginald Goodall. Sadler's Wells Opera. CHANDOS: 4 CDs : CHAN3148(4). BBC recording in English, 1968.
Forty years on, still a most impressive cast: Norman Bailey, Derek Hammond-Stroud, AlbertoRemedios, Gregory Dempsey, Margaret Curphey.
RRP £29.99 Our price to members: £23.99 post free [saving £6!]
Order as above, with a cheque made payable to Linton Books for £23.99, or add this to your total.
Bayreuth: Present Imperfect, Future Indicative
Foremost among the excitements and innovations at the 2008 Festival was the new Parsifal, produced by Norwegian Stefan Herheim. It achieved a degree of focused theatrical inventiveness and intelligence that, for many observers, redeemed Bayreuth from the muddled mayhem of Schlingensief's version of the work, and the iconoclastic chaos of Katharina Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Add to the boldness, musicality and brilliance of stage direction the magisterial conducting of Daniele Gatti and vocal performances of the highest excellence, and this was Bayreuth at its all-round best.
The Festival found new audiences in unprecedented ways by hooking up to the trend for internet and big screen relays. Thus, for €49, anyone with a computer could peer at the mess Ms Wagner made of her great-grandfather's masterpiece, and crowds bearing coca cola cans could clamber through the deckchairs of the similarly curious to gaze at it on the giant cinema in the park. Innovation was apparent on the Green Hill too with corporate entertaining in the theatre, with a garish 'Gold Lounge' and a tinselly 'Silver' one. Here, no doubt, you could rub shoulders with better sorts than the mere lifelong devoted members of the Gesellschaft der Freunde von Bayreuth (Society of Friends) – should you be allowed in. Sadly you won't be (unless you're richer than most people I know). Consolation could be found by buying one of the souvenirs available to all: an acrylic Wagner-chair (only €395), or if that's too steep, then you might make do with a key-ring or a paperweight. I do not remember that Richard Wagner held pampering the super-rich among the ideals of his Festival; would he have approved over-priced internet access and fancy goods? If such accessories bring in funds, there is of course a case for them, but there was already a different atmosphere around the Festspielhaus this year, perhaps betokening further radical change when the new regime creates its own flavour once in full swing.
On the last day of the Festival, Wolfgang Wagner officially retired as Director, and after Parsifal on 28 August, special tribute to him was paid by the Bavarian Minister-President Dr Günther Beckstein, and State-Minister Dr Thomas Goppel. On 1 September the Richard Wagner Foundation elected as new Festival Directors Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Katharina Wagner. The vote was 22-0, two members of the 24-strong Board, Verena Lafferenz-Wagner and the representative of Wieland Wagner's family, abstaining. The Society of Friends of Bayreuth has declared its belief that 'the new Directorship does not plan to produce the early works of Richard Wagner in the Festspielhaus'. Katharina Wagner told Die Welt last week, 'I'm keeping open the option of the Festspielhaus for Rienzi', but that Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot would not be staged there, but 'elsewhere in Bayreuth'. The programme for 2009 remains the same as in 2008. In the same interview Katharina said that she and Eva, who will be responsible for casting, had agreed on some of the main singers for the next new production (by German director Hans Neuenfels), Lohengrin in 2010: Annette Dasch is to be Elsa, and Evelyn Herlitzius will sing Ortrud. Andris Nelsons from Latvia will conduct. In 2011 the new production will be Tannhäuser, directed by Germany's Sebastian Baumgarten. In 2012 the new production will be Der fliegende Holländer with Adrienne Pieczonka as Senta and Christian Thielemann in the pit. About details of the bicentenary Ring planned for 2013, Ms. Wagner remained tight-lipped, but she has declared her intention of directing the new Tristan und Isolde in 2015.
News in Brief
- A few places are left for Derek Watson's 8-week Introducing Operaterm at the Edinburgh Society of Musicians, from Wednesday 1 October. Book now to avoid disappointment! Information from DW (contact details below).
- The Friends of Bayreuth [Gesellschaft der Freunde] has established a membership category for young people up to the age of 35. This is a welcome and generous reduction: annual membership for €100, and no entry fee. Further information from DW (contact details below).
- Edinburgh Players' Opera Group are playing Das Rheingold over the last weekend of September. The final performance on 28 September, with professional singers including our Bayreuth scholar Fiona Scott as Freia, is open to members. The venue is Portobello Town Hall near Edinburgh, and a voluntary contribution of £15 is suggested for those attending. The evening will begin with an introduction to the Ring by Derek Watson at 5.30pm. More information from Philip Taylor on 01386 850235.
- The Wagner Society of Koblenz celebrate their 75th birthday with a weekend of events, 19-21 June 2009. Information from DW (contact details below).
- The Royal Opera, Covent Garden present Der fliegende Holländerin a new production by Tim Albery, with Bryn Terfel in the title role, in February and March. There is also a revival of Elijah Moshinsky's Lohengrinin April and May, with Anne Schwanewilms, Pertra Lang and Kwangchul Youn in the cast.
- Theatre Bremen mount Rienzi in a new production by Katharina Wagner from 12 October. The excellent Leipzig Opera production of Rienzi is revived on 28 Oct., 2 & 22 November.
- An augmented Oxford Chamber Orchestra, and a cast including Sir Donald McIntyre, perform extracts from Siegfried early in November.
- The Wagner Society of Kassel celebrate their centenary with a weekend of events, 27-29 March 2009. Information from DW (contact details below).
- There will be a concert performance of Der fliegende Holländerat the Barbican in London, conducted by Lionel Friend, on Thursday 27 November.
- The Bayreuth Festival Orchestra under Christian Thielemann will make its first visit to the Middle East next month, inaugurating the concert series Abu Dhabi Classics in the capital of the United Arab Emirates with extracts from the Ring. Special travel rates are available to members: information from DW.
- Brochures for the RWVI Congress in Dresden next May, are available from the secretary or the chairman.
- Washington National Opera will present 3 cycles of the Ring in November 2009. Details at www.americanring.org
- The Cambridge Companion to Wagner, edited by Thomas S. Grey, has just been published. More about this in our pre-Christmas Newsletter when it will feature as our special discounted book offer!
We are sad to record the passing this summer of two friends who were a great support to our fledgling Society, and who will be always fondly remembered:
Dr Jean Cuthbert
Mrs Betty Sutton
With our next Newsletter...
Our next Newsletter will contain further details of our programme for 2009, more book and CD offers, and news of the Society's 2009 Bayreuth ballot.
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
