The Wagner Society of New York — the largest in North America — reserves its Anton Seidel Award for the rare artist whose achievements in Wagner’s music have reached historic status. Past honorees have included James Levine, Birgit Nilsson and Plácido Domingo.
This week the Society has announced a new honoree: The orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera. And well-deserved it is, too. Reports Society President Nathalie Wagner:
“The Award will be presented on May 17, 2013. The award, which recognizes the orchestra’s enormous contribution to the presentation of Wagner’s operas at the Met, is named in honor of Anton Seidl, who conducted the premieres of most Wagner operas at the Met and in Philadelphia and was New York’s leading symphonic conductor before his death here in 1898.”
The press release and further information are available at the Society’s web site, http://www.wagnersocietyny.org/. Also, there is a new video clip on the Society’s YouTube channel: Jonas Kaufmann: excerpts from the interview hosted by Ken Benson on Dec. 7, 2011. That can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/wsny1.
Finally, the Society will hold its annual Seminar on Sunday February 24, 2013. This year the Seminar will concentrate on Parsifal. Location, times, speakers and other information may be found at http://www.wagnersocietyny.org/Seminar%202013.pdf. I am particularly looking forward to the Seminar because the Society graciously allows me to act as Moderator, so I get to meet and interview many of the scholars, performers, and others whose work I so admire. I encourage anyone within a horn call’s distance of New York City to attend.
