Newsletter Vol 7 No 3 July 2003

Editorial

Not unnaturally our events lately have been focussed mainly on the Ring. This autumn is no exception with two evening study sessions between and during the Glasgow cycles. These topics arose out of our Stirling study days on Götterdämmerung, when it was felt there was insufficient time to have looked adequately at aspects such as tonality in the Ring in its entirety, and at structural aspects of the whole cycle. These are Glasgow events. Our experience is these are poorly attended compared with Edinburgh ones. So please - west of Scotland members! - come along if you can! What follows below contains the rest of our programme for 2003. Next year we celebrate the twentieth anniversary of our formation and so we plan some very special occasions to mark 2004!

Festival Receptions

Wednesday 13th August 5pm-8pm
Friday 29th August 5pm-8pm
At the Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road

The Society wishes to welcome to Scotland the many visitors from international Wagner Societies who will be attending both Ring cycles during the Edinburgh Festival. Accordingly we are throwing two parties! There will be a bar, finger buffet, tea and coffee, music, a Ring-related bookstall. The Friends of Scottish Opera have also kindly agreed to provide a stall with operatic merchandise. Invitations have been issued to all Wagner Societies around the world.

We hope that our own members who are in or near Edinburgh at Festival-time will come along too! You can drop in for just as long as you feel like, and help to make our friends from abroad welcome. Such events mounted for our own members in places as far flung as California, Finland and Australia have always proved very enjoyable and a good way of making friends who love Wagner and opera from across the globe. Do please come along to either reception: we suggest a minimum donation of £5 from each person attending.

Forthcoming Events

Sunday 28th September at 7.30pm: Annual General Meeting & Bayreuth Report

Notice is given of the sixth Annual General Meeting of the Society. Any member wishing to serve on the Committee should advise the secretary as soon as possible. After the official business all those who attended Bayreuth in 2003 will be invited to share their impressions with members.

Edinburgh Society of Musicians (address as above). Admission free to members (donations will be invited to cover room costs).

Monday 6th October at 7.30: Tonality in the Ring

This study evening will explore how Wagner uses certain keys to definite psychological and dramatic ends. Now Scottish Opera are playing the entire Ring, Derek Watson will attempt to compare, contrast and connect the cycle's main tonal areas to see what this tells us about the dramatic structure & meaning of the tetralogy. There is no requirement to read music - copious musical examples will be played!
Goethe Institut, 3 Park Circus, Glasgow. Members £5/guests £6

Monday 3rd November at 7.30pm: Structural Parallels Between Das Rheingold & Götterdämmerung

This study evening will explore how Wagner uses certain parallel dramatic structures to unify the outer parts of his gigantic drama. Graeme Arnott will elaborate on an aspect which helps us understand the organic structure of the whole cycle.
Goethe Institut, 3 Park Circus, Glasgow. Members £5/guests £6

Saturday 6th December at 7.30pm: Christmas Party with guest-of-honour Pauline Tinsley

Our annual fund-raising Christmas Party (proceeds go to our Scholarship Fund) is a most popular event and the abundance of good food and wine from our excellent caterers of the last 2 years, our annual quiz, raffle & generous prizes, should ensure this year is no exception. We are proud to welcome, in celebration of her 75th birthday, one of Britain's most loved and admired operatic singers of the last half century. Pauline Tinsley, who has sung Elsa, Irene, Ortrud, Isolde and Brünnhilde, will be remembered for her memorable visit to our society in 1990 and for her unforgettable portrayal of the Kostelniçka for Scottish Opera. Please put the date in your diary!
St Columba's-by-the-Castle, Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh. Booking forms for tickets @ £20 will be enclosed in the next Newsletter. Tickets will also be on sale at the AGM.

Birth of a New Society

The committee were delighted to receive a communication in January of this year from Mr Christopher McQuaid of Rathcoole, Co. Dublin, telling us that he had formed the Wagner Society of Ireland, resulting upon the success of the 2002 Limerick Ring, under the baton of Dr Alexander Anissimov, excellent reviews of which many of you may have read. Dr Anissimov is elected president of the new society. Christopher McQuaid, whom we had the great pleasure of meeting at the Copenhagen Congress (see below) wrote: "so, at last, here in the land of George Bernard Shaw, that perfect Wagnerite, and Isolde, we have a Wagner Society with 40 members (paid). We hope to recruit up to 100 by year-end." We send warmest good wishes for the success of this new society and if you know of anyone in Ireland likely to be interested in joining, then they may write to Mr McQuaid at: Rathcoole Business Centre, Main Street, Rathcoole, Co. Dublin.

News in Brief

  • Parsifal in Silviu Purcarete's memorable and imaginative staging, last seen with Scottish opera in 2000, is revived this autumn by Welsh National Opera, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. All performances are on Saturdays at 4.30pm. The venues, dates and box office numbers are:
    Cardiff New Theatre 27 Sept., 4 & 11 Oct 029 2087 8889
    Oxford Apollo 25 Oct 0870 606 3500
    Llandudno North Wales Theatre 1 Nov 01492 872 000
    Birmingham Hippodrome 8 Nov 0870 730 1234
    Swansea Grand Theatre 15 Nov 01782 475 715
    Liverpool Empire Theatre 6 Dec 0870 606 3536
    Bristol Hippodrome 13 Dec 0870 607 7500
  • Siegfried will be rehearsed by the Edinburgh Players Opera Group, leader Philip Taylor, conductor Mike Thorne, at Portobello Town Hall, over the weekend of 3-5 October, following the success of their weekends on the first 2 operas of the Ring. Apart from a Wagner-size orchestra, they have marshalled an excellent group of singers. Wagner Society members are cordially invited to the final 'play-through' on Sunday 5th October at 11am. A donation of £10 to help defray expenses is suggested. Please ring Philip Taylor for further information on 01368 850 235.
  • Wagner in Aberdeen. On 30 January at 7.30 in the Music Hall, Act I of Die Walküre will be performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conductor Martyn Brabbins. Jane Irwin is Sieglinde, Jeffrey Lawton is Siegmund, with Clive Bayley as Hunding. The programme includes the Symphony No.7 of Sibelius. Box office: 01224 641122
  • The Ring and the Christian faith. An evening examining this topic has been organised by the Rev. Paul King [0131 667 1465] and will take place at Nicolson Square Methodist Church, on Sunday 17th August at 6.30pm. The church is just round the corner from the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.
  • Otto Edelmann, the Austrian bass-baritone renowned for his portrayals of Amfortas, Wotan, and perhaps above all Baron Ochs and Hans Sachs, died on May 14th, aged 86.
  • Der Ring des Nibelungen in Derek Watson's re-telling of the story for children of all ages has been published in a German translation by Professor Gesine Menardi of Innsbruck. [ISBN 3-00-011553-6]
  • Our website has been relaunched! Find us at www.wagnerscotland.net

International Richard Wagner Congress 2003 - Copenhagen

Blue skies and the glorious warm sunshine of early summer greeted your chairman, secretary, treasurer and the handful of members attending this year's congress in wonderful, historic Copenhagen, 28 May - 1 June. The Royal Theatre was the setting for four operas. On the preliminary evening, Die Walküre conducted by Michael Schønwandt, was made memorable by the Siegmund of Poul Elming and the Brünnhilde of Tina Kiberg. This production is the first of a Ring cycle which the Royal Danish Opera will present complete at the city's new opera house which we saw under construction on its waterfront site across from the Amelienborg Palace. Bold contrasts of the old and the radically new must strike every visitor to Copenhagen.

Die Walküre was attended by H.M. Queen Margrethe, H.R.H. Prince Henrik (the Prince Consort, and patron of the Wagner Congress), Herr Wolfgang and Frau Gudrun Wagner, Frau Verena Lafferentz-Wagner and Kammersängerin Birgit Nilsson. Also, of course, Herr Josef Lienhart, president of the RWVI, who on the next evening (Thursday 29 May) at the New Theatre, presented a birthday tribute to Madame Nilsson during the official opening event of the congress. This took the shape of a sequence of live musical items linking Wagner and Denmark, which had an able and witty compere in the person of Poul Elming. Dinner was then served to the 800 delegates, although a few dispensed with that in order to hurry back to the Royal Theatre where a magnificently sung and staged Arabella was given under the expert baton of Peter Schneider.

As is usual during these international gatherings several tours were organised both of the city itself and more widely of the ancient sites of Denmark. Josef Lienhart chaired the 13th annual meeting of international delegates in the Royal Danish Music Conservatory on the morning of Friday 30th, at which several new chairpersons were introduced including Christopher McQuaid of the Irish Society (among other new societies created are Wroclaw and Sofia). That evening Strauss reigned again at the opera: Salome, with a truly outstanding Herod from Ole Hedegaard. Danish singers were to the fore throughout, not least in the last evening's Tristan und Isolde with Stig Fogh Andersen and Tina Kiberg in the title parts (she making her debut as Isolde). The gloriously involved singing of this pair might be said to have redeemed an inept and ugly production (by D.Pountney).

A farewell concert and lunch were given in the Tivoli Gardens. One can only echo the words of Frau Ingrid Budde, chair of the Verband's International Commission, that these events are wonderful opportunities for meeting new musical friends and Wagner enthusiasts from around the globe.

International Richard Wagner Congress 2004 : Augsburg

From 20th to 23rd May next year Wagner Society members from around the world will convene in the attractive and ancient city of Augsburg in Bavarian Swabia, which has many centuries of musical and theatre tradition. Brochures and booking forms may be had now from Derek Watson.

At this year's Copenhagen congress it was announced that future host cities will be: 2005 Leipzig; 2006 Tallin; 2007 Weimar; 2008 Geneva; 2009 Dresden; 2010 London.

Bayreuth 2004

If you do not already automatically receive each year an application form for tickets for the Bayreuth Festival, then you should apply for one now, mentioning that you are a member of the Wagner Society of Scotland. The address to write to is: Kartenbüro, Bayreuther Festspiele, Postfach 100262, D-95402 Bayreuth, Germany. On receipt you should return the form without delay.

Back Issues of 'WAGNER'

A run of back issues of Wagner, the scholarly journal of the London Wagner Society is available to anyone interested, through the generosity of our founder-member Pat Ransley. This was the heyday of the editorship of Stewart Spencer and these issues contain much unique and valuable material. The set comprises the complete series from January 1985 (Vol 6 No 1) to May 1996 (Vol 17 No 2) - thus 41 magazines in total (+ 4 separate earlier & 4 later issues). Anyone interested in these as a valuable set should call Mrs Pat Ransley on 0131 334 3034. A donation to the Scholarship Fund would be appreciated.

This month's special offers

Something old:
The Ring of the Niblung: A Trilogy with a Prelude by Richard Wagner. The Rhinegold and the Valkyrie together with Siegfried and The Twilight of the Gods. Translated into English by Margaret Armour. With illustrations by Arthur Rackham.

2 volumes, William Heinemann, London, 1910, 1911. Quarto. Illustrated with 64 full-page coloured plates & 23 drawings in black & white. Publisher's brown buckram, elaborate pictorial gilt, pictorial endpapers. Boards/spines slightly stained & sunned.

This Rackham first edition has recently fetched around £600 in sale catalogues. The present vendor has authorised the Society to sell it to the highest bidder and will donate £50 to the Scholarship fund. Bids, which must be not less than £300, should be sent in writing to Derek Watson, not later than 30 August. Please give a contact phone number.

Der fliegende Holländer Something new:
There was considerable interest in the Naxos historical reissues featured in our last Newsletter. Here are some more! The first was an omission from the last listing, the others are recent releases from this seemingly inexhaustible goldmine.

Der fliegende Holländer [8.110189-90] 2 CDs. Hotter, Varnay, Glaz, Svanholm. New York Met./ Reiner, Dec. 1950. RRP £9.99 Our price £8.50!
Tristan und Isolde [8.110200-02] 3 CDs. Graarud, Larsen-Todsen, Helm, Bockelmann. Bayreuth/ Elmendorff, 1928. RRP £14.99 Our price £12.50!
Tristan und IsoldeDie Walküre [8.110250-51] 2 CDs. Lehmann, Melchior, List, Fuchs, Hotter, Klose. Vienna Philharmonic 1935/ Berlin Staatskapelle 1938/ Seidler-Winkler. RRP £9.99 Our price £8.50!

To order any of the above please write to Derek Watson enclosing a cheque, payable to "D.Watson", indicating whether you'll collect your CDs at the AGM or a future meeting, or if you prefer to have them posted. (Postage will be invoiced separately.)

Wagner Performances Worldwide

For reasons of space & practicality our periodic database of Wagner performances is being discontinued. In this internet age anyone can access this information: a recommended site is www.operabase.com

However we promise to bring to your notice UK Wagner performances, and will do our best to mention new productions coming up overseas. Among the latter:

Paris Theatre du Chatelet: Tannhäuser 9-28 April 2004. www.chatelet-theatre.com
Liège Opéra Royal de Wallonie: Der Ring des Nibelungen. The cycle began this summer, continues with Siegfried May 2004, Götterdämmerung Sep-Oct 2004, & 2 complete cycles Sep-Oct 2005.www.orw.be
Pittsburgh: Der fliegende Holländer Nov 2003 www.pittsburghopera.org
Stuttgart: Tristan und Isolde July 2004. www.staatstheater.stuttgart.de
Esbjerg: Das Rheingold Aug-Sep 2003. tel 00 45 761 109 010
Strassburg: Parsifal Oct-Nov 2003 www.opera-national-du-rhin.com
Washington Die Walküre Nov 2003 www.dc-opera.org

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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