Psychoanalysts Steven H. Goldberg, M.D., and Lee Rather, Ph.D., have edited an enjoyable collection of essays under the title “Opera on the Couch: Music, Emotional Life, and Unconscious Aspects of Mind” (Routledge 2022). Three of the essays address Wagner characters: Senta, Walther and Tristan. L. Eileen Keller, Ph.D., a psychoanalyst in private practice in California, authored...
Very high musical and production standards in a jaw-dropping theatre
Having completed the score of Lohengrin in April 1848, Wagner did one of the things he was best at – getting in his own way through hubris. In May 1849, he engaged in various revolutionary activities, and by no means benign ones. Not only does Wagner lose his post in Dresden but, having assisted in violence resulting in the deaths of several of its citizens, has to flee to avoid arrest...
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...
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...
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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