Readers of this blog will know that the broad condemnations of Peter Gelb’s leadership at the Metropolitan Opera seem to me like warnings of falling asteroids — they simply don’t conform to my personal experience. And the just-closed run of Parsifal is in keeping with this record. It was impeccably cast, ravishingly played, movingly conducted, thrillingly […]
The gifted actress Katarina Dalayman took time off from her performing, teaching, coaching and all of her other responsibilities to join the “Singers Roundtable” at the Wagner Society’s seminar on Sunday. We were discussing Kundry when she made the following very interesting points (my summary, not hers): Here we have someone who, for her sin, is condemned […]
The Wagner Society of New York will offer its 33rd Annual Seminar from Noon to 5:15 p.m. on Sunday February 24, 2013. The Seminar, on Parsifal, will be held at the Dicapo Opera Theatre, 184 East 76th Street (between Lexington and 3rd Avenues). The level of erudition and of entertainment at these seminars is equally […]
A subscriber writes: Since its premiere in 1882, countless thousands of words have been written about the meaning of Wagner’s most challenging work, Parsifal. The text has been scrutinized and analyzed by devotees and detractors alike. These discussions are nearly always fascinating, often confusing, and occasionally ill-informed, and to their number I am certainly unequal […]
In his recent book, Sorcerer of Bayreuth, Wagner expert Barry Millington comes down hard on Wagner the anti-Semite. He rejects the “misapprehension that Wagner’s anti-Semitism is like a superfluous integument that can be peeled away from his oeuvre without leaving a trace, when in fact it is so intrinsic to his aesthetic that it is no […]
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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