Wagner Society in NSW Inc

Germany to Renovate Wagner’s Bayreuth Villa
The ever vigilant Colin Baskerville has also drawn your Editor’s attention to the following good news.
Dave Itzkoff reports for the New York Times that ‘the German government has devised a stimulus plan for the final resting place of Richard Wagner, The Associated Press reported. On Thursday, the government there said that it had pledged about $700,000 to renovate the composer’s Wahnfried villa, where he and his wife, Cosima, are buried and his archives are stored. The money to renovate the house in Bayreuth, which has been turned into a museum, will come from an economic stimulus package for improving infrastructure. Sven Friedrich, the director of the Richard Wagner Museum, told The A.P. that the renovation would include new exhibitions on the composer’s life and the role of the Wagner family during the Nazi era.’  The report was at the website:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/wahnfried/?scp=1&sq=renovate%20Wahnfried%20&st=cse.       Editor

The Truth About Bayreuth's Links With Hitler
A number of media outlets reported Katharina Wagner asserting that ‘Adolf Hitler’s links to the Bayreuth Festival are to be fully investigated.’ She made her announcement at a press conference to launch Bayreuth’s 2009. According to one report ‘Bayreuth has struggled to shake off its Nazi associations: Hitler’s friendship with the Wagner family is well documented. He attended the festival every summer and it seems certain that Bayreuth’s ethos in the early 20th century played a part in shaping his personal political ideology. He had a close relationship with Katharina’s British-born grandmother Winifred (excellently recounted in Brigitte Hamann’s book, Winifred Wagner: A Life at the Heart of Hitler's Bayreuth), and the Nazi regime generously supported the Festival at a time when many other areas of Germany’s cultural life were being squeezed.’

However some commentators feel that there is little left to unearth about the Hitler’s links to the Wagner family and that Katharina's comments are another indication of her media-savvy approach to running the Festival. Ms Wagner’s gesture certainly has more than a ring of a publicity stunt about it, at a time when Bayreuth is actively seeking sponsors and is opening out its audience base for the first time. Meanwhile, Katharina’s has insisted that ‘every nook and cranny’ of the festival’s archives will have to be investigated so that Bayreuth can come to terms with a dark chapter in its history. ‘There's a shadow hanging over Bayreuth,’ she said, ‘and I feel a responsibility to try to get some clarity’.’

Hans Von Bulow: A Life And Times by Alan Walker

Colin Baskerville has drawn your Editor’s attention to this publication that might be of interest to members.
Alan Walker is Professor Emeritus of Music at McMaster University and author of several books, including a three volume biography of Franz Liszt. He is a former staff member of the Music Division of the BBC. ‘Hans von Bulow is a key figure in 19th century music whose career path was as broad as it was successful. Music history's first virtuoso orchestral conductor, Bulow created the model for the profession-both in musical brilliance and in domineering personality-which still holds forth today. He was an eminent and renowned concert pianist, a respected (and often feared) teacher and music critic, an influential editor of works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Beethoven, and a composer in a variety of musical genres. As a student and son-in-law of Franz Liszt, and estranged friend of Richard Wagner (for whom his wife Cosima famously left him), Bulow is intricately connected with the canonical greats of the period. Yet despite his critical and lasting importance for orchestral music, Bulow's life and significant achievements have yet to be heralded in biographical form.

‘In Hans von Bulow: A Life and Times, Alan Walker, the acclaimed author of numerous award-winning books on the era's iconic composers, provides the first full-length English biography of this remarkable musical figure. Walker traces Bulow's life in illuminating and engaging detail, from the first piano lessons of his boyhood days, to his first American tour, to his last days as conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Unearthing Bulow's extensive and previously unavailable correspondence and writings, Walker conveys amusing and informative anecdotes about this unique musical legend- from his sardonic and clever personality to his meticulous devotion to his work-and reveals enlightening insights on the still-contested sensibilities of musical-compositional style and ‘idea’ at play in the vibrant musical world of which Bulow was a part.’ $US39.95 from the Oxford University Press website:

http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Music/MusicHistoryWestern/NineteenthCentury/?view=usa&ci=9780195368680#Description.    Editor

Los Angeles - Richard Wagner Ten-Week Festival 15 April-30 June 2010

Los Angeles Opera and more than 50 Southern California arts and educational institutions will stage a 10-week festival in spring 2010 to support the company's production of The Ring cycle. The Ring Festival LA will include performances, symposiums, concerts, special exhibitions and film screenings.  The LA Opera’s General Director, Plácido Domingo, the LA Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, acknowledged the philanthropist, Eli Broad, whose $6 million foundation gift is underwriting the Ring.  In addition, according the Company’s website, ‘film festivals throughout the city will acknowledge the movie industry’s debt to Richard Wagner not only regarding the use of myth and archetypes in story-telling about universal emotions, but also in the use of musical motives in movie soundtracks. Los Angeles will celebrate Wagner as no other city in the world can.’ The Ring cycle will be conducted by James Conlon and designed and directed by Achim Freyer.  The Company’s website also contains some photos and videos to give you a taste of the production.

The cast will include: Wotan-Vitalij Kowaljow, Loge-Arnold Bezuyen, Alberich-Gordon Hawkins, Mime-Graham Clark, Fricka-Michelle Deyoung, Erda-Jill Grove, Siegmund-Plácido Domingo, Sieglinde-Martina Serafin, Brunnhilde-Linda Watson, Siegfried-John Treleaven, Gunther-Alan Held, and Hagen-Eric Halfvarson.

The Opera Company’s website already has much information about the festival, including the following attractions – many others will be added over the following months:

American Jewish University - Seminar on ‘Richard Wagner and the Jews: The Use of Wagner by the Nazis,’ moderated by Dr. Michael Berenbaum and featuring a dialogue with Gottfried Wagner, great-grandchild of Richard Wagner and son of Wolfgang Wagner.
Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum - ‘The Challenges of Singing Wagner,’ a conversation on the joys and difficulties of singing the composer's works and the unique technical equipment singers require.
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles - A screening of the documentary Wagner und die Frauen (in German with English subtitles) directed by Andreas Morell.
OPERA America - OPERA America will hold its annual Opera Conference in Los Angeles in 2010. The conference will include a variety of opera specific events, performances, speakers, workshops with a special emphasis on Wagner.
Southern California Wagner Society - ‘Digital Wagner,’ an online-offline chat room / reception for people to mix, mingle, and share their love of all things Wagner and stories of how they became besotted with the composer. Dr. Sherwin Sloan, Chairman of the Southern California Wagner Society will preside over the festivities.
University of California Los Angeles - ‘Wagner in LA: The Opera of the 21st Century.’
USC Thornton School of Music - A presentation of Das Liebesverbot.

Keep abreast of the developments at the Company’s website: http://laoperaring.com/festival/events.php, or better still, subscribe to their email newsletter.  However, be aware that the Company is charging a compulsory donation of approximately the price of the ticket as well, although the donation decreases with the cheaper tickets.  Tickets range from US$2,200 (US$1,100 tax deductible portion – if you happen to pay tax in the USA) to US$100 (handrail obstructed – US$20 tax deductible portion). More ticket information is on the company’s website at www.losangelesopera.com/ticketing/subscription/ringcycle/welcome.aspx.  If you can’t make it to LA, it appears that the full cycle will be performed in San Francisco in the summer of 2011.