News

2013 Wagner Bicentenary Competition for Composers

IMPORTANT NEWS Item

Our subcommittee to mark the 2013 Wagner Bicentenary , led by Peter Bassett, has put forward a proposal for the celebrations.
An announcement will be made on February 12^th 2010.

Interactive Online Learning course:- Der Ring des Nibelungen
April/May 2010

From:- Evan Wildstein to:- Hal Davis
Dear Mr. Davis: I would like to take this opportunity to introduce OPERA America and a very special education program taking place this spring that may be of interest to you and your members.
OPERA America is the national service organization for opera. We lead and serve the entire opera community, supporting the creation, presentation and enjoyment of opera.
As part of our commitment to engaging and informing current and prospective opera audiences, OPERA America hosts in-depth, interactive Online Learning courses each year on different operas.
These courses offer an opportunity to explore the many dimensions of opera - literature, music, visual art - and learn about the artists who make a night at the opera truly unforgettable.
One of our courses this season will focus on Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. For eight weeks starting on April 6, 2010, instructor Thomas May, author of Decoding Wagner, will provide a comprehensive journey through Wagner's endlessly fascinating world where participants will learn about his musical methods, mythological sources and the history of Ring productions.
Our Online Learning courses are available for only $10 per person. I invite you to take our course and welcome the opportunity to share this information with your members.
Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have. I look forward to hearing from you and to the possibility of working with you on this exciting program.

Evan Wildstein
Manager of Education and Adult Learning Programs
OPERA America
330 Seventh Avenue, 16th Floor
New York, NY 10001
P. 212-796-8620 ext. 206
F. 212-796-8631
www.operaamerica.org
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

Events

7:30 PM

Wednesday 17^th
February 2010
IMMINENT!

Peter Bassett will present :-
"The operas Wagner almost wrote"
Peter Bassett will give a richly illustrated talk about the great composer as he is rarely seen:
The creator of such non-Wagnerian characters as the theatre prompter who can't stop sneezing, the young man who makes his living dressed as a bear, and the poet who addresses his audience from a hot air balloon.
Peter will also discuss the visionary composer who planned dramas dealing with the lives of Jesus and the Buddha, and relations between the west and Islam.
This talk will explore Wagner's many unfinished works and show how these anticipate dramatically and textually the great music dramas of his maturity.
Peter's preparations for this talk have formed part of his research for a forthcoming book on Wagner and Verdi, whose bicentenaries will be celebrated in 2013.

4MBS
384 Old Cleveland Rd
Coorparoo Brisbane Aust.

7:30 PM

Friday26^th
March 2010

Heath Lees will present :-
"Lifting the lid on Wagner's piano"
Heath's presentation "Lifting the Lid on Wagner's Piano", covers two main aspects of the subject.
The first, which might be sub-titled simply "Wagner and the Piano" shows how the young Wagner was frequently rude about the piano.
Sometimes he called it more of a musical laboratory than a musical instrument, and claimed that the expressive difference between the orchestra and the piano was so great that no real comparison could be made.
And yet, Wagner wrote a number of pieces for the piano, and as Heath will show, much of the music for his operas was clearly written in "sketch" form at the piano - it seems obvious in many places that the way the notes lay under his fingers helped him to find the music that he was after. He travelled everywhere with a sturdy Erard grand piano that he had almost tricked Erard's widow into donating, and in later life, he was often pictured seated at the piano. Thanks to the equal-tempered tuning of the piano, he was able to write his most chromatic music easily by hearing it first on the piano.
In sum, it seems clear that in his youth and early manhood, Wagner had a kind of love-hate relationship with the piano, but that he came to terms with it as life went on, and by the end, came to accept it as an important musical resource for composition, and expressive in its own right, for performance.
The second aspect of the talk might be sub-titled "Wagnerism and the Piano". In other words, it explores how Wagner's music was introduced to others and spread widely through the piano, which was used to teach, to demonstrate, and to win 'converts' in private gatherings and in amateur circles. Heath will offer a brief survey of the kinds of transcriptions that people have produced, from Wagner's day (Liszt, for example) to our own day (for example Stefan Mickisch in Bayreuth).
He will also relate how the wagneriste "showman-pianist" arose in many countries of Europe, where amateur pianists made a name for themselves by offering Wagner 'performances' at the piano, singing, describing, playing, and re-composing large passages of Wagner to increasingly devoted audiences. Some hilarious send-ups of Wagner by pianists young and old will be included as well, and there will be a few examples of the way composers/performers found ways of using the piano to help them break the stranglehold that Wagner's music exercised on later generations of composers. As usual, Heath will provide lots of examples and illustrations, with some (sometimes rare) video and audio excerpts. He will also give the impression of some live moments from the past through his frequent, dangerously impromptu piano-playing

4MBS
384 Old Cleveland Rd
Coorparoo Brisbane Aust.

Weekend
April 2010
TBA

Home screening

TBA

Saturday 22^nd
May 2010

Birthday Lunch

Le Relais Bressan Restaurant
344 Flaxton Rd
Flaxton

Saturday 5^th
June 2010

Behind the scenes
Guided tour of the
Production Departments

Opera Queensland
TBA

News

Events

Wagner Worldwide