Newsletter Vol 7 No 4 September 2003

Editorial

As we approach the 20th season of our Society in Scotland, it's gratifying that a permanent legacy to encourage young artists is in place, thanks to your generosity as members. Our Bayreuth Scholarship was awarded for the first time this summer to Donna Nicholson Arnott, whose report on her visit will be available at the AGM. Applications for 2004 will be issued next month. Furthermore, our funds are sufficiently healthy to allow us to subsidise another student from Eastern Europe to attend the Bayreuth Festival.

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. After the official business all those who attended Bayreuth in 2003 will be invited to share their impressions with members.
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road (by Dean Bridge). Admission free to members (donations will be invited to cover room costs).

Monday 6th October at 7.30pm: 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 Kostelnicka for Scottish Opera. Please note tickets must be purchased in advance and are available now!
St Columba's-by-the-Castle, Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh. A booking form for tickets @ £20 is enclosed. Tickets will also be on sale at the AGM.

Sunday 25th January 2004 at 7.30pm: Schopenhauer and Wagner. A lecture by Kenneth Hutton

It is well known that one of the greatest influences on Wagner's life and works was the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer and that this influence directly affected the composition of Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal and Götterdämmerung. Schopenhauer's philosophy also influenced Wagner's young friend Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, Freud and Wittgenstein. This talk will explain the main tenets of his philosophy. Our member Kenneth Hutton's main areas of philosophical interest are Greek, German and Buddhist philosophy. He currently teaches philosophy part-time at Glasgow University whilst researching a PhD on Schopenhauer and Buddhism.
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, address as above; members £5, guests £6.

Die Feen & Das Liebesverbot: A Study Weekend at the University of Stirling, June 2004

Following six years of detailed study courses on the later Wagner - the Ring, Tristan and Parsifal - our aim next is to look at his earliest dramas. Although immature in various obvious ways, his first two operas are full of musically rewarding passages. In dramatic terms they are profoundly interesting and point to many things he explored in work after work thereafter. The weekend will also consider musical and literary influences on the young Wagner which shaped the musical dramatist he became. Full details and application forms will be published nearer the time. Please note the dates in your new diary! 18th - 22nd June 2004.

Our Scholarship Fund

It is proposed to offer £700 in travel and subsistence to the chosen scholar in 2004. The successful applicant will also receive tickets for performances at Bayreuth of Parsifal, Tannhäuser and Der fliegende Holländer in early August, together with a programme of lectures and tours. Details of the Scholarship will be posted on our website by the end of October, and sent to all Scottish institutes of higher education with students of music, drama or art. It is expected that a winner will be announced by late January.

At the Copenhagen International Richard Wagner Congress in May it was explained by Herr Paul Götz of the Scholarship Foundation that funds would be gratefully received from Societies to help assist young artists from eastern and middle Europe. To summarise his words:

The 'Eastern Europe Pool' was formed in 1996 when Wolfgang Wagner increased numbers of scholarships to 250, dependent on a proportion of the extra places being for the benefit of young artists from eastern and middle Europe. Twenty-four German Societies and two foreign ones spontaneously adopted this good cause, and committed so much by way of contribution that the Festival has been able to offer on average each year 23 such Scholarships. Unfortunately, payments have fallen back in the last two years. In order to continue, we need around 18,000 Euros. In 2003 only 12,550 Euros were contributed. I am therefore asking those Societies which already contribute regularly to consider whether they can increase their contribution, and those Societies which do not yet contribute to consider whether they could join the club. A full contribution in the Pool costs 500 Euros, half costs 250 Euros, and a quarter costs 125 Euros.

Accordingly our Treasurer has offered a contribution of 250 Euros from Scotland towards this excellent scheme.

The Journal 2003

By now all members should have received a copy of our handsomely-produced first Journal. We are pleased to have received flattering comments about it from Societies all over Europe and as far away as Japan, New Zealand and Uruguay. Some members have asked for extra copies to send to friends. There are some available at £10. Please write to Derek Watson if you would like one or more copies.

News in Brief

  • Honorary Member Richard Armstrong has renewed his contract as Music Director of Scottish Opera until July 2005.
  • Dr Matthias Rick, Director of the Goethe Institut Glasgow, and another of our honorary members, this month bids farewell to his post. We send all best wishes for his future.
  • Derek Watson resumes his Introducing Opera lecture series for 10 Wednesday evenings at 7pm commencing October 15th or alternatively on Thursday afternoons at 2pm from October 16th, at Riddle's Court, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh. To book, ring the Workers' Educational Association on 0131-225 7772.
  • One notable visitor to the Society's Edinburgh Festival receptions, Dr John DiGaetani of New York, has sent us his recent book Wagner and Suicide ISBN 0786414774. 204 pages. This investigation of the suicidal themes in Wagner's life and operas shows how manic-depressive illness, particularly the depressive part of it, affected Wagner's life and art. It also analyses the influence of Giambattista Vico's theories of cycles (and how these theories appeared in Wagner's work), suicide as a theatrical and operatic phenomenon, and the way in which the theme of suicide has appeared in other works of the literary and performing arts.
  • Dame Gwyneth Jones will make her debut as a director with Der fliegende Holländer in Weimar on 22nd November. www.nationaltheater-weimar.de
  • Katharina Wagner will direct Lohengrin for the first time with the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest. The premiere will be on 2nd May 2004 at the Erkel Theatre. www.opera.hu

Events of the Wagner Society in London

Sundays 12th and 19th October: Open Orchestral Rehearsals of Das Rheingold by the Rehearsal Orchestra, conductor Tony Legge. 2.30pm and 6.30pm at the Grey Coat Hospital School, St Michael's Sports Hall, 98 Regency Street, London SW1 (nearest tube Pimlico). Please bring your own refreshments. Donations of £10 suggested.

Sunday 26th October and Saturday 1st November: Study Days with Roderick Swanston on Götterdämmerung. Gray's Inn, South Street, WC1 (off Holborn, near Chancery Lane Underground). 10.30am - 5pm. Tickets £16 including coffee.

Sunday 7th December: Gala 50th Anniversary Celebrations with Dame Gwyneth Jones including a singing competition for female Wagner singers and a masterclass. 11am - 8pm at the Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road, NW1.
Tickets for London Wagner Society events from: Pam Hudson, 3 Howard Gate, Howard Drive, Letchworth, Herts SG6 2BQ (tel 01462 675638). Please enclose a SAE and make cheques payable to 'The Wagner Society'.

Where You There?

  • when Graham Sanders told us (19th May) about his path to becoming a Heldentenor, and sang to us most wonderfully in the many voices and variants of the tenor's art? Or when Elizabeth Byrne (22nd June) traced her journey to Brünnhilde's rock and shared her wisdom and that of her teachers with us; or when Peter Savidge (29th June) talked of his journey from chorister, via Hans Hotter to a wide range of repertoire and now to Gunther; or to hear the splendidly musical and intelligent singer of Mime, Alasdair Elliot (20th July), explain his conception of the role and reveal his ideals in vocal art.
  • and did you too meet friends from all round the world at our Festival receptions (13th and 29th August)? Thanks to all who found time to come along, and to Anne Higgins and Muriel and Ian Hogarth of Scottish Opera Friends for their stall.
  • when our Study Courses on the Ring came to a climax with Götterdämmerung at Stirling University over a few days in early July? Everyone expressed enjoyment of the course and the campus. However the change of venue and date (forced on us as another venue let us down) led to logistical problems. To keep costs the same, we were one day short of the ideal length to pursue Götterdämmerung, and the location of the lecture room and its proximity to dining facilities were far from ideal. Rest assured that for next year's Stirling weekend on the early Wagner operas (see above) all these points have been addressed: (1) we will have a quieter lecture room; (2) it will be nearer to restaurants and anyone with mobility problems will be transported; (3) there will be more 'free time' between lectures.

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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