In a perceptive (if wordy and miserably edited) article in the program for this summer’s Bayreuth Tännhauser, Edward A. Bortnichak and Paula M. Bortnichak explain the intellectual basis of Sebastian Baumgarten’s production. It has to do with “bioethics,” or how technological progress may have an adverse influence on traditional (i.e., romantic) notions of human...
In his informative lecture on Tristan this morning, Juilliard Professor John Muller reminded us of Berlioz’ reaction to the famous Prelude to that work: “I have listened to it with the profoundest attention and a lively desire to discover the sense of it; I have to admit that I still haven’t the slightest idea what […]
There is a great deal of excitement in Der fliegende Holländer. The overture is one source. If you ever doubted Franz Lachner’s remark that “the wind blows out at you wherever you open the score,” the truth will be confirmed in the first minute of Christian Thielemann’s vivid conducting. Fresh sound soars out of the invisible pit, […]
Before her appointment to co-direct the Bayreuth Festival, Katharina Wagner was quoted as speculating that her great-grandfather’s juvenalia, Rienzi, might claim a place in the repertory of the house. Soon after her appointment, her production of Rienzi in Bremen was greeted with skepticism and dismissal. Yet a recent production of the work directed in Berlin […]
In the supplemental material to the Opus Arte DVD of Katharina Wagner’s recent Bayreuth production of Die Meistersinger, she relates: When my father asked if I were interested in directing it here, I asked myself as I would with any work anywhere: “Does it have a story I’m interested in telling?” It would appear that […]
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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