Newsletter Vol 8 No 2 February 2004
- Editorial
- Forthcoming Events
- Book Offers
- The Ring at Longborough Festival Opera
- News In Brief
- In Our Next Newsletter
Editorial
A bookish issue: we have three important recent publications on offer to members. On writing my biography of Wagner in the 1970s, the composer's daughter-in-law Winifred Wagner said to me, "Oh no - not another one!" Later she kindly admitted reading it with interest and pleasure, concluding that it added value to the canon of books on Wagner. That's surely the criterion, even if not all books add much to the picture. The wide parameters, literary, historical, musical and mythical, of Wagner studies, will no doubt ever ensure a flow of books. Few can be as timely, rewarding and well-produced as the trio offered below. Happy reading!
A Plea!
'Jetzt komm', es muss sein!' Meistersinger II/i
Sending out a brochure in January for an event in June no doubt explains why we've had a slow response to our Study Days at Stirling on The Young Wagner. However this event is now less than 4 months away and we must confirm our booking with Stirling University. So, please!, those of you who wish to attend - let us know as soon as possible, either by returning the booking form enclosed with the last Newsletter (you can download it from our website) or by getting in touch directly with John Holcombe (address etc. below). We've limited the deposit to £50, with no further payment until the course, in order to encourage you! If there aren't sufficient applications in the next week or two the course will, sadly, be cancelled.
Another Plea!
'Die Frist ist um.' Holländer i
This will be the final Newsletter sent to those few of you who have not paid the subscription for 2004.
Forthcoming Events
Sunday 29th February at 7.30pm: 'Wagner, Schoenberg & the Dissolution of Tonality', a lecture by Dr Ian Robertson
From the chromaticism of Wagner's mature operas, notably Tristan
und Isolde, to the conscious abandonment of the tonal system by
Arnold Schoenberg is a path traced by many music historians. Ian Robertson
guides us on that journey to reach his own conclusions, with the help
of copious music examples.
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road (by Dean Bridge).
Admission; members £5, guests £6.
Sunday 14th March at 7.30pm: 'What Tristan Means To Us'
- a lecture by Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton will explore the themes of his recent important book on Tristan (see
below) and discuss their relevance in an age of sexual disenchantment.
Until 1990 professor of Aesthetics at Birkbeck College, London, and subsequently
Professor of Philosophy & University Professor at Boston University,
Massachusetts, Roger Scruton currently holds an honorary professorship
in Philosophy at Buckingham University. He has published over 30 books
including works of philosophy, literature and fiction, and his writings
have been translated into most major languages. He now lives with his
wife and two small children in rural Wiltshire, where he and his wife
run a small post-modern farm and public affairs consultancy. He is well
known as a broadcaster and journalist. His publications include The
Aesthetics of Music, OUP, 1997, The West and the Rest, Continuum,
2002, and The Need for Nations, Civitas, 2004.
Edinburgh Society of Musicians: address & admission prices
as above
Sunday 25th April at 7.30pm: 'Scottish Opera: Past, Present & Future'
No-one can be unaware that Scottish Opera has been facing its greatest
challenge for many years. No-one in our Society can be other than sympathetic
to the company's plight. We welcome some speakers to discuss the truth
of the company's present position - so often misrepresented in the press,
to show solidarity, and to air some ideas for a better future. The 'past'
element of the evening's title will be a remarkable treat: Act III of Siegfried in
a recording made in the year Scottish Opera brought its first Ring cycle
to completion, 1971: David Ward as the Wanderer, Helga Dernesch as Brünnhilde,
Alexander Gibson conducting - and all in great form! So please take the
chance to enjoy this genuine rarity, to celebrate 40 years of Scottish
Opera's highest international standards and to express optimism and ideas
for the next 40 years!
Edinburgh Society of Musicians: address & admission prices
as above
Saturday 19th to Tuesday 22nd June: 'The Young Wagner: Study Days on Die Feen & Das Liebesverbot' at Stirling University, with tutor Derek Watson
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. Please indicate your interest now, by returning the booking form enclosed with the last Newsletter (you can download it from our website) or by getting in touch directly with John Holcombe (address below).
Other events
There will be a lecture in May, a garden party in July and at least one other summer event. Autumn highlights will include a lecture in late October by John Wallace, principal of the RSAMD, on 'Wagner & the Industrial Revolution', and a recital (November 22nd) by mezzo-soprano Phillida Bannister (see below under Longborough Festival Opera).
Book Offers
The Society is pleased to offer members discounts on Wagner-related books from time to time. Here are three. Please send cheques, made payable to Derek Watson, to him at address below, with your order. Books can be collected at a future meeting but if you would like them sent to you (e.g. the Scruton book before 14th March) please indicate this clearly with your order & add postage as stated per copy for each book.
Death-Devoted
Heart: Sex and the Sacred in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde by Roger
Scruton, Oxford University Press, 2004; hardback, 238pp.
This is, arguably, the most important single study of Tristan to have
appeared in English. With many musical examples it is an excellent compact
musical analysis of the work, and also combines philosophy, and literary
and cultural criticism in terms relevant to us today. Essential reading
before our meeting on March 14th!
RRP £16.99. Our price £14.99. Please
add £1.60 for postage.
Wolfgang
Wagner: An Appreciation ed. Laurence B. Lueck,
Hawaii Opera Publications Group, Wagner Society of Hawaii, 2003; hardback,
320pp. (The Wagner Society of Scotland is the sole UK distributor.)
At last a lavish & worthy tribute to this grand old man, who has
guided and directed the Bayreuth Festival since 1951, first together
with his older brother Wieland, and since 1966 entirely by himself. For
more than 50 years he has ensured that the artistic quality of Bayreuth
met the highest standards in the opera world, working closely with many
of the world's greatest conductors, directors & singers. At the same
time he has literally rebuilt the Festspielhaus and its surrounding buildings,
continually improving all its physical aspects. In 2001, the 50th anniversary
of the 'New Bayreuth' and the 125th anniversary of the first festival,
a group of people who admire what Wolfgang has accomplished decided to
honour him with a book of essays, each one written by someone who has
worked closely with him and can thus comment accurately on the nature
of those accomplishments. A generally hostile press, both German and
English, has succeeded in creating a far less than accurate assessment
of those accomplishments, and many falsities and distortions are offset
and corrected in these 20 essays, which are accompanied by 146 photographs,
many in full colour and many never printed before. The editor recently
published the excellent English-language version of Astrid Varnay's autobiography.
Contributors to this volume include Pierre Boulez, Graham Clark, Poul
Elming, Sir Donald McIntyre, Penelope Turing, John Tomlinson, Astrid
Varnay, Keith Warner and Linda Watson.
Our price £40. Please add £4.75 postage.
Drama
and the World of Richard Wagner by Dieter Borchmeyer,
Princeton University Press, 2003; hardback, 391pp. Translated by Daphne
Ellis.
Members who read Borchmeyer's first book to be translated into English, Richard
Wagner: Theory and Theatre (translated by Stewart Spencer, Oxford,
1991) will know what to expect here: more draughts from Professor Borchmeyer's
considerable fount of knowledge and wisdom on matters Wagnerian. For
more than 20 years he has annotated the programmes of the Bayreuth Festival.
Here we have an overall picture of Wagner's stage works from the literary
and theatrical point of view. After examining the historical context
of Wagner's libretti from Die Feen to Parsifal the
second half of the book examines the composer's relationship with political
figures such as Ludwig II and Bismarck, and critical reactions to Wagner
by Nietzsche and Thomas Mann. No musical commentary, but recommended
for the dramaturgical expertise.
RRP £26.95. Our price £22.95. Please add £3.30
postage.
The Ring at Longborough Festival Opera
The attractive combination of Wagner and a couple of weekends at a beautiful Cotswolds country house has secured Longborough's success over the last 5 years. This year's coup is the casting of Sir Donald McIntyre as Wotan. Playing opposite him as Erda will be Phillida Bannister (also singing Flosshilde & a Valkyrie in this acclaimed Graham Vick/Jonathan Dove 'reduced' version). Members will remember Phillida for her singing at our Ronald Stevenson Greyfriars birthday recital a year ago. And we look forward to her exclusive recital for the Society this November. The Longborough cast also includes Peter Bronder as Loge and Nicholas Folwell as Alberich. The two cycles there are on 18,19,25,26 June and 23,24,30 & 31 July. Information from tel. 01451 830292.
News in Brief
- Honorary member Richard Armstrong, music director of Scottish Opera, was awarded a knighthood in the New Year's Honours List for services to music. Hearty congratulations to him and to the company who won the South Bank Show Best Opera Award 2003 for their Ring.
- Ian Beresford Gleaves directs a course on Tristan und Isolde at Missenden Abbey, Buckinghamshire from 23-35 April. For booking information & fees please call 0845 045 4040.
- Our website is proving popular and has been praised for its attractive design (by the excellent Steve Douglas of Wired-Nomad). It's in the Top 10 Wagner sites world-wide. In December we had 322 site visitors and in January 390.
- Our patron, Donald Runnicles conducts a new production of Die tote Stadt at the Salzburg Festival in August.
- A reminder of a few significant new productions in April & May for those of you who cruise Europe: Parsifal in Graz & Geneva; Tristan und Isolde in Nancy; Tannhäuser at the Chatelet in Paris (the Paris version!), and at Bremen; a new Meistersinger in Bielefeld; and at last the complete Ring at Dresden - if a little spread-out! To find what's on where the best guide is www.operabase.com
Wagner Society Events in London
March 2: Paul Daniels in conversation with Paul Dawson-Bowling
April 1: Neil Howlett on 'What is a Heldentenor?'
April 29: Terry Edwards on 'The Role of the Chorus in Wagner's Operas'
All events are at the Swedenborg Hall. 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'.
In Our Next Newsletter
... more details of our programme for the rest of the year, including our special guest for this year's Christmas Party, further news about our trip to Manaus in Brazil, and other ideas for 2005!
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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