I was privileged to nab a ticket to the third of four scheduled performances of Tristan und Isolde at the Longborough Festival Opera on June 18. It was delightful in every way. There is a way of going about this, and thanks to my English companion I was taught it as I went along. The […]
In December I had the chance to attend two performances and a dress rehearsal of the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Die Meistersinger, and felt (as I so often do) mystified to be blessed so plentifully. The last time I had attended Meistersinger was March 2007, when I saw this production. I had watched some DVD […]
The current issue of the Wagner Journal features a perceptive article by one of my heros, Simon Williams, titled Timely Timeless: Regietheater at Bayreuth in the 1970s. Prof. Williams, who teaches at the University of California at Santa Barbara (nice gig!), is the author of one of my “desert island” books, Richard Wagner and the […]
Evan Baker’s book From the Score to the Stage: An Illustrated History of Continental Opera Production and Staging (Univ. Chicago Press 2013) is the best study of its kind: scholarly, entertaining, and comprehensive in its grasp of this wonderful subject. Baker seems infused with enthusiasm for the topic, lingering deliciously on such topics as early […]
A subscriber writes: The good news is that the Budapest Ring was a staged performance over four consecutive days with (some) outstanding singers and a fine orchestra, performed in a modern, comfortable and acoustically fine venue, the Bela Bartok National Concert Hall. This format does not lend itself to any significant interpretative direction: no updating […]
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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