Wagner Society of New Zealand Patron: Sir Donald McIntyre NEWSLETTER Vol. 14 No. 7 April 2020 A Tale of Three Cities: Dunedin, Alexandria, Paris

The Christmas Meeting of the Dunedin Wagner Society branch always likes to showcase a ‘seasonal goodie’, and the 2019 event featured American mezzo- soprano Tessa Romano, newly appointed lecturer in classical voice at the University of Otago in a virtuosic but rarely heard cantata by Berlioz. Terence Dennis reports:

his special performance was both in honour of the T 2019 Berlioz Year (2019 was the 150th anniversary of Berlioz’ death) and to recall the connection between Berlioz and the young Wagner. With pianist Terence Dennis, Tessa Romano presented Berlioz’ early dramatic cantata Cléopätre. Tessa Romano, mezzo-soprano Terence Dennis, pianist Written in 1829, it is an extra- Terence Dennis prefaced the Paris period. Wagner was wide-eared ordinary work, 25 minutes long, performance with a talk on the music, at Berlioz’s musico-dramatic set in Alexandria and portraying and on the relationship between innovations, but Berlioz’ responses to the Egyptian Queen’s farewell to Berlioz and Wagner during the latter’s Wagner were rather more distant. life and her greeting to death in striking musical terms . . . as one would expect even from the young days and encouraged organisers to also Berlioz. cancel or postpone events with over 250 Grandiose arias in the manner people up to 1 May 2020. This left Lyric of a modernised Gluck were Opera of Chicago with little choice but interspersed with an extended to cancel all performances of The Ring funeral scene within the pyramid plus associated events, and that was tomb, and with tactile musical announced today. evocations of the fatal bite of the ‘I know how much everyone was asp and Cleopatra’s death looking forward to this event and it agonies. saddens me that this has happened. However I am sure there will be many Lights Go Out opportunities to hear Wagner’s on the Chicago ‘Ring’ wonderful Ring in the future!’ n March 14th, Michael Sinclair had Stop-Press: WSNZ and COVID-19 Othe unhappy task of writing to In line with government requirements, everyone booked for the Chicago Ring all WSNZ meetings for the months of with the news that it had been April and May are being cancelled. cancelled. Here is part of his letter: It is hoped that the pre-arranged ‘I am very sorry to have to advise you programme can go ahead from 1 June. that Lyric Opera of Chicago have today Members will be kept informed. cancelled all performances of the Ring Committee Changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the forthcoming AGM, there will be BERLIOZ WAGNER ‘On Thursday 12 March, the Chicago some retirals from the committee. Department of Health banned all events Retiring members will be fully Image: François Lopinot / Wikimedia Commons with over 1000 people for the next 30 acknowledged in the newsletter following.

11 Dunkerron Avenue, Epsom, Auckland 1051 • Ph: 021 610 869 • Web site: www.wagnersociety.org.nz WSNZ 2020 Programme Wagner Society AGM NB: The information from June onwards is currently valid but may change with new developments 17 May 2020 Auckland Formal Notice

Venue: St Heliers Community Centre, 100 St. Heliers Bay Road The Society’s AGM is to be held on Sunday 17 May Sunday, 5 AprilCANCELLED at 2.30pm (note afternoon time) in St Heliers Community centre, A four-hour session. Heath Lees guides us through The Ring. 100 St Heliers Bay Road, Auckland, at 7 pm. Sunday, 17 May at 7.00pm Nominations so far received: The Wagner Society’s AGM, followed by a DVD treat: POSTPONED President ...... Terence Dennis The Making of the Chéreau Ring. Vice-President ...... Ken Tomkins Sunday, 12 July at 2.30pm Secretary...... Peter Rowe Return visit of Antony Ernst: . (Four hour session). Treasurer ...... Jeanette Miller PR/Liaison...... Jenny Lee Sunday, 20 September at 2.30pm Committee: Parsifal: Full screening of the opera and optional catered dinner. John Davidson, Ashley Day, Juliet Rowe, Adrian Simcock Sunday, 6 December at 7.00pm To make a nomination, phone Peter Rowe at 021 610 869, Christmas fare of Wagner items, plus cake and wine. or e-mail to: [email protected], to be sent a form. Nominations can also be made from the floor at the meeting. Wellington Renewal of Memberships Venue: St Andrew’s Hall, 30 The Terrace (except 10 May) embership renewals are now due and your Sunday, 10 May at 11.00am Mpersonalised renewal form is either enclosed with this Venue: Te Auaha: NZ Institute of Creativity, Dixon St. newsletter, or being sent separately by post. Joint meeting withCANCELLED the Opera Society for a screening of the Kiwibank has now dispensed with cheques in favour of 2002 Mariinsky Theatre production of Borodin’s Prince Igor. internet banking. If you cannot do internet banking, you will find information about other payment options at the foot of Sunday, 21 June at 4.00pm the renewal form. Documentary screening. Details to follow. Sunday, 5 July at 4.00pm Sir Donald McIntyre Memoirs

Return visit of Antony Ernst: Parsifal. The Only Way . . . September/October . . . Is Up Date and programme to be confirmed later. November/December A lifetime in opera by Kiwi legend Sir End of year party. Date TBA. Donald McIntyre. The Wagner Society’s 25th-birthday celebratory Christchurch publication in 2019. Packed with Venue: The Music Centre, St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Manchester St. fascinating insights and great photos. Friday, 15 May at 7.30pm To buy a copy please contact Liz Lees Michael Sinclair looks at cities, large and small, that have (ph:022 163 0069) or email: gone the extra mileCANCELLED to perform Wagner’s operas. [email protected]. Friday, 10 July at 7.30pm New Members Antony Ernst returns with a lecture on The Ring. A fortissimo Wagnerian welcome to: October Afternoon Meeting, time TBA Paul Bushnell...... Auckland : DVD screening, with a meal between the acts. John Miranda...... Wellington Sunday, December: Details TBA Christmas Function Leb’ wohl Helen Kirkman Dunedin 15/2/59 — 24/2/20 All venues will be publicised locally elen was the wife and part- Sunday, 3 May at 2.00pm Hner-in-harness of WSNZ John Drummond discusses Wagner’s revision of Gluck’s Vice-President Ken Tomkins. Iphigénie en Aulide for the German stage. She died on 24 February after a CANCELLED long struggle with cancer. Sunday, 14 June, time TBA A wonderful person, she Venue: Te Rangi Hiroa Viewing Room, 192 Castle Street authored many works of romantic Das Liebesverbot on film. Wagner’s second opera. A lively, fiction, some of them based on the colourful production from Madrid’s Teatro Real. Nibelungenlied. Her commit- ment and contribution to local Sunday,13 September at 2.00pm and overseas Wagner Society Wagner on Wagner: A guided tour with Terence Dennis of events was every bit as strong as Wagner’s Opera and Drama, with film and sound examples. Ken’s, and she will be much Sunday, 4 October, time TBA missed by all. Götterdämmerung, Act 2 The complete act from The Met, introduced by Terence Dennis. Wallace Ryan, 11/7/37 — 11/2/20 t is sad to announce the sudden death of Wallace Ryan who Sunday, 29 November, 12 noon Ijoined the WSNZ as a foundation member in May 1994. He Venue: Carrington College, 57 Heriot Row was a quiet, sensitive man who travelled on most of our trips to Our Christmas lunch date followed by goodies à la Wagner. Wagner events and almost never missed an Auckland meeting. Wagner in Brisbane 2020

Well-known Australian Wagnerite Peter Bassett will be Down here, we contributing a very high profile to the ambitious musical season remember him as the conductor in Brisbane towards the end of this year. of Opera Aus- In this article, abridged from the newsletter of the Richard tralia’s Ring in Wagner Society of Victoria, he sketches out the many Wagnerian in delights that will be on offer. 2013 and 2016. The demanding agner’s each of the operas, starting with Das role of Tristan Wand Tristan und Isolde, as well as Rheingold, which represents Spring, will be sung by Verdi’s will be performed in and ending with the Winter of New Zealand Peter Bassett Brisbane this year between late October discontent in Götterdämmerung. But tenor Simon and mid- December by , he says he’ll be careful not to impose too O’Neill, who has performed in the Opera Queensland and the Queensland much visual baggage on the music, as world’s most famous opera houses and Symphony Orchestra. Wagner should be allowed to speak for festivals with today’s top-line It is a rare treat in any country to have himself. ‘When I listen to Wagner’s conductors . . . Barenboim, Rattle, professional productions of five of music, I respond in my mind. I hope Gergiev, Thielemann . . . Wagner’s mature works in such close people will have a similar kind of American soprano Meagan Miller will sing Isolde, a role she has performed for Opera Leipzig. German mezzo Anna Werle will sing Brangäne in Italy before appearing in Brisbane. James Roser (Kurwenal) was recently heard as a splendid Amfortas in Victorian Opera’s Parsifal, and Paul Whelan (King Marke) has performed this role inter alia, in the

UK under Vasily Petrenko.

Editor’s note: Peter Bassett will be giving free pre-performance talks at 10:30 am in the Concert Hall on each Tristan performance day. During the three cycles of The Ring, he and Professor Stephen Emmerson will hold talks and panel discussions on 11, 20 and 30 November in the Recital Hall of the Queensland Conservatorium. All details and bookings are at www.qtix.com.au. Members of the WSNZ who are attending the afternoon sessions on 11, 20 or 30 November are warmly invited Picture: Britta Campion to join with Queensland members for Caught in brooding pose on an empty stage, Ring director-designer Chen Shi-Zheng drinks on the Conservatorium balcony, following the session attended. proximity, and all eyes will be on the journey, but I don’t want to dictate director and designer, Chinese- every second of what they think.’ Wagner Murmurs American Chen Shi-Zheng. The Brisbane Ring will be under the Chen was born in China in 1963 and lost baton of Philippe Auguin, who has eeping his ear to the ground, Michael both his parents during the Cultural conducted many Ring productions, Sinclair has heard about some Revolution. He developed a deep including the first-ever staging of the Kforthcoming Wagner events: knowledge of Chinese opera before complete cycle in China. Some may • Kent Nagano will conduct a semi- emigrating to the US in 1987. As well as remember that he conducted staged performance of The Ring in staging traditional Chinese works, he Tannhäuser for Opera Australia in 1998 Cologne from 2021, played on period has directed many Western operas in in the memorable production directed instruments. the US and Europe, including Orfeo, by Elke Neidhardt. The cast will be led • Christine Goerke will sing Isolde at Nixon in China, and The Flying by Vitalij Kowaljow as Wotan (recently the in October- Dutchman. seen in this role in the Salzburg Festival November 2020, her first assumption of Chen has been quoted as saying: conducted by Christian Thielemann), the role onstage. Stuart Skelton takes the ‘Nowadays, Wagner productions are Allison Oakes is Brünnhilde, and Stefan role of Tristan. always trying to relate the story of The Vinke is Siegfried. • Covent Garden is planning a new Ring to current Western society. But It all begins with Tristan und Isolde, Ring cycle to be directed by Barrie this story is fantasy, a myth. So, I want semi-staged, on 28 and 31 October in Kosky. to take the myth as a platform to dive the Concert Hall of the Queensland • Christine Goerke will no longer make into, and re-imagine it in the 21st Performing Arts Centre. On the podium her Bayreuth debut this year having century, in Australia, in this very will be Pietari Inkinen, making his first cancelled her performances as landscape.’ stop in Brisbane immediately after Brünnhilde in Götterdämmerung. She will Chen has assigned a different ‘season’ to conducting the new Ring at Bayreuth. be replaced by Iréne Theorin. WAGNER anD BEETHOVEN

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven, a composer whose music and example had an enormous impact on . In the second article in a series of four, Heath Lees explores this impact further, and reflects on what was genuine hero-worship on the one hand, he previous and self-serving image-building on the other. newsletter’s Backpage article in our Wagner T attached to the all-conquering tradition of and Beethoven series told how, as a boy, Pilgrimage ‘is a public relations vehicle, Wagner first felt the overwhelming Beethoven, to say nothing of Mozart, produced, directed and starring Richard impact of Beethoven’s music, and then Haydn and Weber. Wagner, with a special guest appearance as a young man in Paris, went on to re- Nowadays, Wagnerians are having to by .’ discover Beethoven’s enormous musical ask: was this genuine devotion, or was it stature and influence. just the best way for Wagner to present Wagner the Conductor In fact, Wagner could hardly have himself? Are we talking about devotion avoided hearing Beethoven’s music in or promotion? Up until ten years ago, But hang on. In the face of such full the French capital. During the 1830s, no-one had dreamed of asking such a frontal scepticism, it needs to be the decade of Wagner’s arrival, the city question. In 2010 however, Nicholas remembered that Wagner embraced the was in the midst of an astonishing Vazsonyi, a formidable Wagner scholar, cause of Beethoven not just as a musical awakening. Public concerts published what is in fact the first-ever composer, nor even just as a writer, but were spreading like a virus, with book on the subject of Wagner’s virulent as a conductor as well. Indeed, everyone being touched in some way by self-promotion. Through his constant Wagner’s advancement of Beethoven’s la profonde musique. Researchers have image-building activity, says Vazsonyi, music was most effective from the collected records that show that in 1827 it became clear that Wagner didn’t want podium, especially when it came to the the number of concerts given in Paris just the mantle of Beethoven, he wanted symphonies. Chief among these was the was 78, but twenty years later, in 1846, the whole package: his fame, his mighty Ninth Symphony, and those who heard this had jumped to 383 — an increase of reputation, and above all, his spiritual him conduct it were united in their about 500%. Orchestras and force. praise of the new meaning and conductors were becoming extremely For this though, Wagner needed to emotional effect that Wagner could skilful, and Wagner himself admitted write his own publicity — spin-doctored evoke from his orchestra, not for his that orchestral playing in Paris was a of course to suit his own purposes own personal glory, but in service of the revelation. (Vazsonyi enjoyed mixing 19th-century music. For one particular performance And who was the composer who led sources with 21st-century marketing- in Dresden, Wagner even wrote out a the field? By more than a country mile, speak). So Wagner’s first act of publicity lengthy ‘programme’ for the symphony, it was Beethoven. His symphonies in Paris was an arresting tale called A an allegory of heroic victory over appeared on most public programmes, Pilgrimage to Beethoven, the fictional adversity that reinforced the foundation his piano works were heard in just about account of a visit by a of heroism that became the every salon in the city, and his chamber composer called ‘R’ (no prizes rock of the 19th-century music excited so much interest that a for guessing who the ‘R’ stood Beethoven myth, and remains special Society was founded for the for) to the old and crotchety so to this day. exclusive study of his late quartets. The Beethoven. The sly So in the face of today’s Parisians had begun to listen to implication is that ‘R’s hard-nosed, investigative Beethoven as though he were the Voice presence in the master’s scholarship, Wagnerians have rundown apartment was like of God. the task of striking a very clear a privileged pass into a charmed circle. balance. Yes, Wagner was an Wagner and Beethoven’s Mantle opportunist and yes, as a Wagner’s account goes on young man he blatantly Wagner was quick to see that one of to claim that, in the presence hitched his wagon to the best ways of getting ahead as a of ‘R’, Beethoven opened up German composer would be to identify and revealed secrets about his music, Beethoven’s star. himself with Beethoven. As a German especially the Ninth Symphony, which Nevertheless, his espousal of Beethoven’s outsider in a French city, he could easily had not then been performed, but whose cause was genuine and deeply-founded, take on Beethoven’s mantle. After all, secret aims and impact were now being and as his life continued, his devotion even Beethoven had begun his career as a made known to ‘R’and only to ‘R’. The increased. This is the clear message from Rhineland outsider in aristocratic underlying message of course was that his 1870 centenary essay Beethoven, as Vienna, and his deafness was to consign Wagner was uniquely privy to we’ll see in the next newsletter. him to further isolation. Wagner knew Beethoven’s secret thoughts and his own In 1872, when the foundation-stone there was special greatness about music was following Beeethoven’s was laid for the theatre of Bayreuth, the Beethoven’s music — the huge support original, trail-blazing path. Clearly, in Paris proved that — but might this Wagner’s Pilgrimage to Beethoven was celebration concert did not feature any greatness be proclaimed as a specially becoming less about Beethoven and of Wagner’s own music. The programme German quality? If so, then Wagner more about Wagner. In Vazsonyi’s no- consisted of one single work. It was by could present himself under the same holds-barred terms (borrowed, he Beethoven, and it was the Ninth banner, and have his music firmly admits, from Hollywood), Wagner’s Symphony. Surely that speaks volumes.