Newsletter Vol 9 No 4 October 2005
- Editorial
- Forthcoming Events
- Further Events in 2006
- News in Brief
- Wagner Society Of Scotland Bayreuth Scholarship 2006
- With Our Next Newsletter
Editorial
The main content of this Newsletter is a listing of our programme through until next summer. Please note that while most of our events are "pay at the door", the last two dates for 2005 require us to know numbers in advance, and so, as seating is limited, kindly return the enclosed application form as soon as possible to book your tickets. These will then be posted to you. We're sometimes asked about the varying admission costs to different events. The guiding factors for our charges are to cover the costs of room hire, speakers' and artists' fees, and when appropriate, travel and accommodation. We are not a 'profit-making' organisation, and any surplus made at one event is generally used to offset more costly ones, or to inject funds into our Bayreuth Scholarship scheme. Your modest subscription charge covers the cost of producing and mailing the Newsletters, the Journal (which will be with your next mailing), maintaining our website, and upgrading our equipment. This autumn our expenses will be greater than usual, with the production costs of the Journal, and a plan to provide the latest computer projection equipment for events. As our treasurer remarked at the AGM, we are immensely grateful to all those of you who add a little extra to your subscriptions by way of donations, as these help our many activities in very valuable ways. Thank you all for your continued support.
Forthcoming Events
[Important Note: for those who travel by car to our events at the Edinburgh Society of Musicians, please note that there is now no entry to Belford Road from the Queensferry Street / Dean Bridge end. Access is only possible from the western end of Belford Road or via Palmerston Place and Douglas Gardens.]
Sunday 6th November at 7.30pm: 'The Voice Doctor', a lecture by Professor Arnolad Maran, FRCS
One of the world's leading medical experts on the voice, Edinburgh-based Professor Maran has been called on to deal with problems suffered by singers from rock stars to famous actors to opera divas. We have hosted talks on singing before, but have not yet heard from an authority on its physiological aspects. The apparatus that we as humans have to produce a voice is much the same as in lower animals such as dogs. We do, however, have bigger brains, and in order to communicate above the level of survival noises, then there would not be much point in having a brain. It isn't the larynx that produces our skilled communication, but the mouth and the nerve control of the vocal cord muscles, the tongue, etc. Singers must produce their own projection so that they may be heard over a 100-piece orchestra in a 3000-seater theatre. The lecture will explain this phenomenon; comparisons will be made with singers who are no use, or those who are good with pop and rock, and new developments in voice science and synthesised speech will be reviewed. Arnold Maran was born in Britain to parents of Italian descent. He graduated in medicine from Edinburgh University. Following a successful career in Britain and the USA, he was elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (1997-2000), the oldest surgical institution in the world. Primarily a head and neck cancer surgeon, he always had an interest in the voice. In the late 1980s, with his colleague Dr Colin Watson, he set up a laboratory for the study and treatment of singers. He has written six books on surgery and almost 200 scientific articles. A keen musician of both classical and jazz music, he now divides his time between Italy and Scotland.
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road (by Dean Bridge). Admission at the door: members £5; guests £6
Thursday 24th November at 7pm: Jane Eaglen in Conversation
Supremely at home in a broad range of repertoire - Italian bel canto, Puccini, Richard Strauss, Berg, Mozart, and of course Wagner - Jane Eaglen is one of the world's foremost dramatic sopranos, who returns to Scotland this autumn and has most kindly agreed to meet with our members. Regular devotees of Scottish Opera will always treasure her performances with the company in Mozart, Bellini, Puccini and Wagner. In conversation with Will Scott, Ms Eaglen will talk about her career, repertory, favourite recordings and future plans. There will also be the opportunity for questions from the audience.
Goethe Institut, 3 Park Circus, Glasgow. Tickets £8, including
a glass of wine. Admission is by ticket only: please
download this Word form (28Kb).
Note carefully the day, venue and start time!
Sunday 4th December at 7.30pm: A Wagnerian Christmas Wine Tasting with Michael Romer of Peter Green Wines, Edinburgh
Wagner & Wine is our different theme for this year's pre-Christmas event, which will be led by a true expert in the field. All proceeds from this evening will go to our Bayreuth Scholarship Fund. Richard Wagner's many changes of address, in Italy, Germany and France, found him in places much associated with fine wine. The ticket price will include a welcoming glass of Moët champagne (remembering Wagner's friendship with Paul Chandon), and the tasting of a selection of wines from different areas. Wagner's association with each will be explained by way of introduction. You will also have the opportunity to buy or to order bottles of the wines you enjoy, just in time for the festive season. Savouries will be provided. And your ticket number will be entered into a draw with several bottles of wine as prizes!
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road (by Dean Bridge).
Tickets £12.
Admission is by ticket only: please
download this Word form (28Kb)..
Sunday 8th January at 7.30pm: 'Wagner and Houston Stewart Chamberlain', a lecture by Dr Roger Allen
Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927) was the son of an English admiral
and a Scottish mother who became one of the most important figures in
the promotion of Bayreuth and the dissemination of Wagner's ideas in
the decades between the composer's death and the outbreak of the First
World War. He is remembered today principally as a racial theoriser and
precursor of Nazi ideology, yet his early Wagner criticism is often perceptive
and reveals a broad knowledge of the scores and associated writings.
This lecture will focus principally on Chamberlain's reception of the Nibelungenring,
and will include discussion of a previously unpublished essay written
shortly after his first experience of the cycle in performance in Munich
in 1878. Roger Allen is Fellow and Tutor in Music at
St Peter's College and Lecturer in Music at St Edmund 
Hall
in the University of Oxford. His doctoral thesis was a study of the writings
of Wilhelm Furtwängler and further research interests include analytical
and aesthetic issues in the works of Wagner and Bruckner. His most recent
publication is a study of Chamberlain and the early reception of Parsifal in
the Companion to Wagner's Parsifal edited by William Kinderman
and Katherine Syer.
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road (by Dean Bridge). Admission at the door: members £5; guests £6
Sunday 19th February at 7.30pm: An Evening With Jane Irwin
Those who enjoyed the Wagner concert of the 2005 Edinburgh Festival, will never forget the impassioned Tristan (Christian Franz), the thrilling Isolde (Christine Brewer, who sang again magnificently at the Usher Hall a few weeks later in the title role of Fidelio), nor the splendid Brangaene of Jane Irwin. We are delighted that the last-named, who has distinguished many an Edinburgh Festival in concert and recital, and is a greatly cherished teacher at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, will join us for an evening of conversation about her career and her musical ideals. As well as her many concert performances with orchestras throughout Europe and the USA, members may recall her with Scottish Opera as Suzuki (Butterfly), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Waltraute, Thea (The Knot Garden) and Fatima in the 2004 EIF Oberon. She has also sung Brangaene for ENO and the San Francisco Opera. Ms Irwin will discuss her career, including her Bayreuth experiences, her teaching, and her favourite music.
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road (by Dean Bridge). Admission at the door: members £5; guests £6
Friday
24th March at 7.30pm: Lecture by Professor Simon Williams, University
of California, Santa Barbara.
Provisional title: Nietzsche's ideas
of history & the 'Ring'. Further details in our next
Newsletter. Simon Williams is the author of a recent book, Wagner & the
Romantic Hero, Cambridge University Press.
Please note that this is a FRIDAY event! Edinburgh
Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road (by Dean Bridge). Admission at the
door: members £5; guests £6
Sunday 2nd April at 7.30pm: Lecture by Michael Kennedy
Provisional title: Richard Strauss & Wagner. Further
details in our next Newsletter.
Edinburgh Society of Musicians, 3 Belford Road (by Dean Bridge).
Admission at the door: members £5; guests £6
Further Events in 2006
- May: Wagner and Venice, a lecture by Derek Watson
- June: A recital! Details to be announced!
- 7th - 10th July: next year's study weekend will be on Lohengrin, and will be held at Carberry Tower, Musselburgh, near Edinburgh.
News in Brief
Welsh National Opera stage a new production of Der fliegende Holländer, conductor Carlo Rizzi, director David Pountney, with Bryn Terfel in the title role (Cardiff, Birmingham & London) sharing with Robert Hayward (all other venues). Cardiff Millennium Centre 17 February-3 March; London Coliseum 7, 9 March; Birmingham Hippodrome 24 March; Milton Keynes Theatre 30 March, 1 April; Liverpool Empire 4 April; Swansea Grand 15 April
The Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau premiere Tristan und Isolde, 7 May to 1 July. www.anhaltisches-theater.de
At our AGM your committee was re-elected, with the office-bearers as listed below, and the continuing welcome support of members Donna Nicholson Arnott, Graeme Arnott, Christine Hamilton, Iain Millar, Lewis Morgan-Klein, Gillian Moulton and Ruth Stroud. The committee would like to express their gratitude to all those who participated in our Bayreuth Report, following the AGM. It is always good to hear how people enjoyed and appreciated the chance to visit the festival through our Ballot, and to everyone who attended or sent in written appreciations (and criticisms!), many thanks!
Our 2005 Bayreuth Scholarship winner, the bass Orlando Mason, has been given a place in the young artists scheme of Cologne Opera. Our congratulations - and we wish him a happy season there.
We are sad to record the death on 25th August of Mary Grimwade - one of our founder members, a lady of indomitable spirit and huge enthusiasms, and an eager advocate of Wagner and of our Society. We remember her many acts of support: her lively presence will be much missed, and we send our sympathy to Mary's children and grandchildren.
Wagner Society Of Scotland Bayreuth Scholarship 2006
The Scholarship enables a singer, musician or other artist with a professional interest in the theatre to attend performances at the Bayreuth Festival, supported by an allowance of expenses (£700 in 2005) and participation in special events hosted by the Richard Wagner Stipendiatstiftung in Bayreuth. Information about the 2006 Wagner Society of Scotland Scholarship, and how to apply for it, will be made available on our website during November. It will be open to anyone aged 35 or under in July 2006. Next year's Scholar will attend Der fliegende Holländer on 7th August, Tristan und Isolde on 9th August and Parsifal on the 10th.
With our next Newsletter...
...full details of our programme from October to next summer, a copy of our bi-annual Journal, and - a new feature - a Catalogue of Books, Scores & CDs of Wagner interest with special discounts for members.
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
