The Wagner Society of New York recently offered a pay-for-view Masterclass conducted by renowned American heldentenor Stephen Gould. Now that film is available for free on the Society’s channel on YouTube and it is unmissable. Perhaps his generation’s Siegfried, Gould works with three young artists (themselves of phenomenal talent and skill) to assist with the interpretation and...
Axel Englund, Professor of Literature at Stockholm University, suggests that the core of our fascination with opera is its deviance. In his book Deviant Opera: Sex, Power & Perversion on Stage (Univ. Cal. Press 2020), Englund posits that this form of theatre is distinguishable by its deviance from expected norms: Its characters are overblown, its costumes and setting are extravagant, its...
I’ve wasted enough time mourning the performances I had planned to attend but that dissolved in pandemic mist. The Chicago Ring in April; the Paris Ring in November/December; the Dresden Ring in January/February; the Met Tristan; the Vienna Parsifal. No more looking in the rear view mirror! I’ve had it with converting airplane reservations into flight certificates! I’ve...
On November 17, 2019, the National Symphony Orchestra offered a concert presentation of Tristan und Isolde Act II in a loud, enthusiastic and splendid performance at David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center. Conductor Gianandrea Noseda led a virtuoso sprawling group of fine musicians, but with his back to the soloists and creating a sound that was unmitigated by an orchestra pit. As a result the...
Some music-making of a very high caliber took place at New York’s Carnegie Hall on the evening of May 26, 2016, when James Levine closed out a three-concert series by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra with selections from the Ring Cycle. The Met Orchestra has, for years, been by far the best band in New York, […]
The Wagner Blog is a forum for discussion of contemporary themes arising from the works of Richard Wagner. Discussions relating to Wagner’s musical, literary, theatrical, philosophical, political and theoretic work are all appropriate for this forum.
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