Jazz Musician Wynton Marsalis Nov 13, 2009
Richard Wagner wrote for Germans, but his music was universal. The blues speaks to the experience of the Afro-American people but it's not excluding anybody by doing that. (Time.com)
A Muse of Fire Oct 31, 2009
Richard Wagner: The Last of the Titans, Joachim Khler, trans. by Stewart Spencer, Yale University Press, 705 pages. (The American Conservative)
Classical Music for the Halloween S... Sep 17, 2009
At the other end of the spectrum are the works of Richard Wagner, deep and emotionally cumbersome like The Flying Dutchman and The Ride of the Valkyries. Yet they also comprise elements associated with Halloween themes and are therefore included in concerts devoted to ghostly themes. (Suite101.com)
Flames along Kachemak Bay Sep 13, 2009
But even that most Apollonian and cerebral artist, German composer Richard Wagner, might concur with the temporary aesthetics. He considered a similar communal con 0000124C flagration for his four opera cycle, "The Ring of the Nibelung." He would build a giant wooden festival auditorium and perform the work three times and then, with performers and audience gathered around, ignite the opera house and toss the manuscript into the flames himself so that the experience could never be recreated. (Anchorage Daily News)
Masestro Barenboim Waves His Magic Baton over Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2009 on PBS' Great Performances on THIRTEEN Sep 4, 2009
Richard Wagner described the orchestra as being one of the most outstanding in the world, and Richard Strauss summed it all up by saying, All praise for the Vienna Philharmonic reveals itself as an understatement. . (Yahoo! Wire -- Entertainment News)
Tolkien’s ‘Legend’ lives on in poems Sep 4, 2009
The two poems that make up The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrn are Tolkien s version of the Old Norse Vlsung and Nibelung legends, an attempt to unify and organize the material dealing with Sigurd, Brynhild, Gunnar, and other characters, using the same source materials that Richard Wagner drew upon for his opera series The Ring. Tolkien s task was to fit modern English to the Old Norse meter: eight-line stanzas, each short line only four to six syllables and containing two to three stresses each. (Boston Globe)
Wagner piece to push Cincinnati Operas skill, strategy Aug 28, 2009
rnberg by German composer Richard Wagner. It s a $1. (Cincinnati Business Courier, OH)
Marschner Opera Der Vampyr Aug 6, 2009
Richard Wagner and Der Vampyr ... The Life of Richard Wagner. (Suite101.com)
No comments posted. Jul 26, 2009
The Ring Festival should continue as planned and already prepared for, with a focus on German composer Richard Wagner, warts and all ... A schedule distributed at the announcement of the festival noted that the participating groups include the American Jewish University, which will host a seminar titled Richard Wagner and the Jews: The Use of Wagner by the Nazis ... Ring Festival L.A. should go on as planned, complete with multiple examinations of the life and personal views of Richard... (Los Angeles Downtown News, CA)
Bayreuth opera festival opens under new directors Jul 26, 2009
The Richard Wagner festival 2009 was opened with the opera "Tristan und Isolde" on Saturday. (AP Photo/Christof Stache) ~ADVERTISEMENET~ Bayreuth opera festival opens under new directors By BRIGITTE CASPARY The annual Bayreuth opera festival opened under new management on Saturday, with composer Richard Wagner's great-granddaughters in charge for the first time after their father ran the show for more than 50 years. (Waterloo Courier, IO)
Composer Richard Wagner's 'Difficult' Reputation Unwarranted, Says Research Jul 7, 2009
ScienceDaily (July 6, 2009) The composer Richard Wagner is well-known, even notorious, for writing operas that can challenge both performers and listeners. A new study published in the Journal of the Acoustic Society of America reveals that Wagner set his text to music in a way that uses the acoustics of the soprano voice in a manner that helps both performers and listeners. (Science Daily)
Family to unravel Wagners' Nazi ties Jun 23, 2009
THE great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner, Adolf Hitler's favourite composer, has started a high-profile investigation into her family's ties with the Nazis in order to dispel the shadow hanging over the clan's Bayreuth opera festival, held in Bavaria, Germany. Katharina Wagner, 31, has invited independent historians to investigate whether Hitler was the secret lover of her grandmother, Winifred Wagner, along with other links between the Nazis and her great-grandfather, who shared Hitler's... (Sydney Morning Herald -- World)
* Wagners heir plans to probe familys Nazi links Jun 22, 2009
German Bayreuth Festival director and great granddaughter of Richard Wagner, Katharina Wagner, attends the presentation of the concept Future Bayreuth in Berlin, Germany, last Tuesday ... The great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner, Adolf Hitlers favorite composer, has vowed to investigate her familys links with the Nazis in a move that could be bitterly opposed by other members of the dynasty. (Taipei Times, Taiwan -- World)
Endless Mahler Jun 1, 2009
Barenboim, the music director of the Staatskapelle Berlin, is prone to such stuntlike feats; in 2002, he led the ten mature operas of Richard Wagner including the entire Ring in two weeks. In the first few concerts at Carnegie, the Staatskapelle exhibited symptoms of fatigue: murky ensemble in the strings, raw notes in the winds, dozens of flubs in the brass. (New Yorker)
La Crosse Concert Band series begins June 10 May 31, 2009
Steve Bina will conduct the June 17 concert with music that has been heard in Bugs Bunny cartoons, from The Rabbit of Seville and George Frideric Handel s Water Music Suite to Richard Wagner s Ride of the Valkyries and Bugs greatest hits medley, What s Up at the Symphony. For the third straight summer, the La Crosse Concert Band will move indoors to Viterbo s Fine Arts Center Main Theatre for a concert on June 24. (La Crosse Tribune, WI)
The two Richards May 23, 2009
It's called The Boston Wagner Society, so we hope Richard Wagner doesn't roll over when he finds out that tonight's music includes selections by another Richard. "Wagner and Strauss" is an evening of operatic excerpts, lieder, and piano transcriptions with soprano Julia Rolwing and pianist Lloyd Arriola. (Boston Globe)
Chorus to perform Messe Solennelle de Ste. Cecile May 15, 2009
Most recently, Register has been added to the prestigious roster of the Emerging Singers Program sponsored by the Wagner Society of Washington, D.C., who will sponsor him in learning and performing the works of Richard Wagner under the the personal tutelage of Evelyn Lear. He has appeared as Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor in his San Diego Opera debut under the baton of Richard Bonynge, Samson et Dalila, and will appear in their upcoming production of Puccini s Manon Lescaut. (Westerly Sun, RI)
Infotainment Mar 27, 2009
Dancers and singers performanceParis: Dancers and singers perform the opera Die Feen (The Fairies) by German composer Richard Wagner. afp. (Daily Times, Pakistan)
Boston Lyric Opera presents a full staging of Dvork's 'Rusalka' Mar 20, 2009
Among other composers who have included half-human, half-amphibian creatures in their works are Richard Wagner (the Rhine Maidens in "Das Rheingold"), Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (the opera "May Night") and Alexander von Zemlinsky (the symphonic fantasy "Die Seejungfrau"). When asked to explain the appeal of these mysterious water-dwelling maidens to creative artists and audiences, Simonson responded immediately, with a chuckle: "Because they are topless, of course!". (Boston Globe)
• Events calendar Feb 13, 2009
Features orchestral transcriptions for band and original band music from 19th, 20th and 21st century composers such as Richard Wagner, Alfred Reed, Dimitri Shostakovich, Howard Hansen and Eric Whitacre. Suggested donation of 5 at the door to the CSI Music Department scholarship fund. (Burley South Idaho Press, ID)
Great Composers, Lousy Reviews Feb 8, 2009
Critics got into full cry in the middle of the 19th century, with the advent of Richard Wagner. No composer before or since has inspired so many fanatics, pro and con. (Slate)
200 years later - and still a star Feb 8, 2009
The view that Mendelssohn was essentially Jewish can be traced back to Richard Wagner. When not creating vast soundscapes, Wagner occupied himself with anti-Semitic rants and in his 1850 essay Judaism and Music, he dismissed Mendelssohn as a clever but superficial composer. (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
