Wagner Society of New Zealand Patron: Sir Donald McIntyre NEWSLETTER Vol. 14 No. 5 September 2019 LOVE WAGNER — WILL TRAVEL t’s been said before that Wagner’s productions has been phenomenal, and 1876 Bayreuth Festival began the the frequency of travel to Wagner Iage of cultural tourism for the culture-spots has shot up. musical world. Certainly, throughout Look at the way next year is shaping. the following century the Travel-for- Michael Sinclair is already well into

Wagner urge grew relentlessly, and organising two WSNZ trips to widely today we are seeing a veritable scattered Rings next year: Chicago in Electrifying explosion of activity. More and more April, and Brisbane in November. people are going to more and more Some incurable Wagner travellers are Ernst Rings the world over, and everywhere even adding the Paris Ring to their bout 60 Auckland members turned you look there’s a Meistersinger, a Brisbane experience. Iceland has just up for Antony Ernst’s presentation Tannhäuser, or perhaps a Rienzi or a announced a semi-staged Walküre in on Lohengrin on 14 July. They were Das Liebesverbot — early operas that May. Earlier in the same month, A the brave ones who would not be put off Melbourne will offer even the mature by the fact that this session was billed to Wagner wouldn’t four Australian last for a very Wagnerian four hours, risk staging. Opera performances which meant that everyone’s Sunday Down here in of Lohengrin, and then in August, afternoon would be completely filled up Australasia the with one person talking, a few visuals, and pattern has been Melbourne Opera will semi-stage Das some bursts of recorded music. Not a the same. Last Rheingold (the riveting prospect, you might think. month, the Wagner 150th birthday of the Society’s twenty- In the event, the four hours rushed past Meagan Miller is to be Queensland Opera’s first performance in like a train. Ernst brought with him three fifth birthday was a Isolde with Simon O’Neill as Tristan Munich). good excuse for priceless commodities that all speakers looking back, and we were reminded And that’s not all. In October, New yearn for: a spellbinding delivery, a that New Zealand’s first official Wagner Zealand is exporting its world-renowned voluminous knowledge, and an arresting Society trip was when twenty members Wagner tenor Simon O’Neill to bouquet of original insights. went to Bayreuth in 1996. A memorable Queensland Opera’s Tristan in October, To start with, he shot down the usual start. But look what happened — only with many NZ supporters already way of tracing Wagner’s growth out of the two years later, more than a hundred planning to be in the audience. How operatic diet of France and Italy, plus the eager Kiwis descended upon Adelaide things have changed! Dresden composer Weber. Not so, said for the very first fully-staged cycle of Could Wagner, tucked away in his Ernst, as we blinked and blinked again. The Ring in this part of the world. little Bavarian town, have foreseen Weber yes, but French and Italian opera, such an embarrassment of global he went on, is a form of art that was born Since then, the growth in home- activity? Probably not, but one thing’s based and home-grown Wagner out of the Catholic traditions of these two clear — no-one is complaining. countries, whose art was first and foremost a display art just as their Church was about power and display, and not the folk-based soil that produced Richard Wagner. Ernst pointed to the Church-influenced opera stories that were circulating during Wagner’s youth. All these, he said, revolved around sin, guilt, and a search for the kind of atonement that issued only from Rome. Tannhäuser showed the anguish of those who strayed outside of the conventional contract with the Church. But Lohengrin ushered in a new theology that was neither French nor Italian but German, presaging the age of Luther and the Reformation. And in musical terms, Wagner looked to a musical predecessor who had instinctively understood the personal relationship Photo credit Todd Rosenberg/ between God and Man — a composer Lyric Opera of Chicago who was the schoolboy Wagner’s musical Siegfried (Burkhard Fritz) in Chicago. Some two dozen WSNZ members will be there next April meat and drink in Leipzig: J. S. Bach,

11 Dunkerron Avenue, Epsom, Auckland 1051 • Ph: 021 610 869 • Web site: www.wagnersociety.org.nz cantor at the city’s St Thomas’ Church, the very church where Wagner was baptised. EVENTS NOTES Wagner’s ‘operatic’ background, Ernst insisted, came from Bach’s highly dramatic Christchurch Changeover approach to the Christian gospel, his ability to Venue: The Music Centre s we announced earlier, the fuse words with music, and his uniquely St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Manchester St. ANewsletter changeover from print personal possession of church music. Friday, 13 September at 7.30pm to digital will happen next year, after From that point, Ernst led us magically, step Magic Fire the September 2020 issue. by step for the next two hours, through the Alan Badel stars as Wagner in this If you’re happy to change now to the whole opera. There was the ‘miracle’ of 1955 film, with music ingeniously e-mail version, do please request Lohengrin’s swan-drawn arrival and there were adapted by Korngold. this from the Secretary, Peter Rowe Lohengrin’s Christ-like attributes, musically Sunday, 13 October ([email protected]) symbolised by the soft halo of strings that Afternoon Time and Venue TBA or phone him on: 021 610 869). opens the overture and stretches back to the Tristan und Isolde Largesse early cantatas of Schütz, Bach and others. Complete with a meal between acts. ociety Treasurer Jeanette Miller We moved to Act Two and felt the crushing, Sunday, 1 December, Time and has been taking an overview of tribal shame that hit Telramund when he was Venue TBA S the financial ins and outs of the exposed by the newcomer, and the black- Christmas BBQ/Pot-Luck magic skill of Ortrud in bringing him back to Wagner Foundation, which is the emotional life. For once, King Henry the Auckland charitable ‘arm’ of the WSNZ. Fowler became a real person as Antony Venue: St Heliers Community Centre, Since the Foundation’s inception explained how he was reacting to actual 100 St. Heliers Bay Road in 2003, gifts from individual mem- historical cases of invasion from the East. By Sunday, 22 September, 3.00pm (NB time) bers, donations from the Society, Act Three, even the vexing subject of the Lohengrin and the substantial Roa Morissey Forbidden Question gained clarity as a symbol of Full screening of the opera starring bequest have totalled nearly $30ok, the Protestant reliance on Faith as opposed to Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala. including interest earned. the Catholic view of ‘earning’ one’s forgiveness “One of the finest Lohengrin releases Grants and sponsorships made over through confession and good works. in years” says Operawire. Optional the same period have come to $163.8k By the end, Ernst had reminded us that catered dinner; further details will and money on hand totals $130.5k. follow by e-mail or post. although we rightly think of the opera as a work of music, the context and story are massively Sunday, 8 December at 7.00pm Cheque-Free Kiwis important. The thin, often overlooked ‘libretto’ A festive mix of Wagner items, and — he Wagner Society’s bank, Ki- of Lohengrin was transformed from an operatic at last — the cake and wine. Twibank, has informed us that it tale into a world encyclopaedia. will no longer be dealing with Antony Ernst is a master dramaturg — that Wellington cheques as from 28 February, 2020, vital member of an opera team who is its Venue: St Andrew’s Hall, 30 The Terrace i.e., in about 6 months’ time. literary and historical consultant, explaining Sunday, 13 October at 4.00pm In an explanatory leaflet and clarifying through a study of authors, Documentary film. Details to follow. (Kiwibank is Going Cheque-Free, composers, scripts, libretti, texts and Sunday, 1 December available at any branch), the options programmes. The art of a great dramaturg End of year party. Details to follow. suggested are internet, mobile, or demands genius-level knowledge, a visionary phone banking. appreciation of art, and a story-telling gift that Many of our members are already set entrances and communicates. Ernst has all Dunedin up for one or more of these facilities, Venue: Black-Sale House Lecture Room this in spades and we were sorry when the cnr. St. David and Leith Streets but if you normally pay your sub by four-hour session ended. cheque, you will, from 28 February, Sunday, 20 October at 2.00pm Ernst went on to Christchurch where reports have to switch to one of these pay- Don Juan in Hell ment methods. tell us that he was equally fascinating on the Mozart, Ibsen, Wagner, and Shaw subject of Tristan, which he saw as Wagner’s Should you not have a home con- Chris Ackerley joins this quartet radical attempt to describe in words and music nection to the internet and/or find through two operatic imitations by phone banking difficult, please con- the internal world of the self and its loving GBS. See next page. relationship with another human being. tact WSNZ Secretary Peter Rowe The newness of the message, he said, is Sunday, 24 November at 12 noon (Ph: 021 610 869) who will make it reflected in the music, which Wagner wrested Note Venue Change: Carrington College, possible for you to pay your sub by out of its comfortable diatonic construction into 57 Heriot Row (Turn right off Pitt St.) cash at one of the Wagner Society strange new chromatic shapes that come Christmas lunch, to be followed by meetings. It is not recommended together yet are unresolvable because they Wagnerian goodies. that you send cash through the mail. are different and separate — a musical parallel to the reality of human love Brisbane New Members relationships. “Ho-jo-to-ho!” say all of us in welcoming: Two days later it was Wellington’s turn — a ichael Sinclair is organising Alison Grimshaw...... Christchurch tickets and travel to Opera two-hour version of the Lohengrin talk and a M Brigid O’Meeghan...... Wellington Australia's new production of The tour de force of compression. John Davidson Barbara Peddie...... Christchurch Ring in Brisbane in November, 2020. adds that Ernst saw the Act III duet between Jonathan Perratt ...... Auckland Lohengrin and Elsa as a theological dialogue A large group of WSNZ members is Cheryl Scott ...... Wellington between God and the soul, and heard the already booked but a few tickets are timpani at the crisis moment pointing forward still available (Premium, A and B Editorial Reserve) These are for the second to Die Walküre. cycle (19 to 26 November 2020). The Newsletter Team consists of: Heath Lees (Auckland), Editor Overall, Ernst’s talks provided an original If you are interested in these tickets and Centre Co-ordinators: take on Tristan and a refreshingly new (members receive a 10% discount) or approach to Lohengrin as a significant bridge would like further information, Lesley Kendall ...... Dunedin between 'early' and 'mature' Wagner. please contact Michael by email at Gloria Streat ...... Christchurch Utterly absorbing! [email protected]. John Davidson...... Wellington The Not much here on the rudiments of support was vindicated as the vocal technique, of which, as he states, production slowly gained audience Only Way little can be learned from a book. But favour, culminating in an hour-and-a- McIntyre is strong on posture, bearing, Is Up half’s thunderous ovation with the final resonance, lifting the voice, the phrase, curtain. (More measured sources put it the placement (up, up, up) and he at 45 minutes but, that’s Don — think The Memoirs of throws in a plethora of bon mots that ‘up’.) Sir Donald McIntyre singing teachers might well pin to their I enjoyed the Who’s Who of leading reviewed by studio walls: prepare well, eat a healthy conductors, stage directors and singers. Richard Green diet, exercise, practise self-discipline, Helpfully, they are listed in the chapter ask lots of questions, and SHOW UP. index. Legendary characters abound, he Only Way Is Up struck me as an Support yes, but no mention of that including conductor Reggie Goodall – Todd title from a man who had stayed much-misunderstood diaphragm – his he of the super-expansive tempi. for so many decades at the top of his support comes from the perineum or, as (Singers’ in-joke: Goodall dreamed he game. How much higher could he go Pavarotti advised, the balls (close was conducting Die Meistersinger and after all? Now, to wind up his career, Sir enough, but not much help to divas). woke up to find that he was.) Donald McIntyre hands on his memoirs There is little light thrown on the I’d hoped for a word on the Flying in this beautifully presented volume, challenges and sacrifices that face an Dutchman that Don did with conductor solidly bound in glossy hardcover, and international singer who is also a family John Matheson for Auckland Opera in packed with illustrations, information man raising three children. Shots of him 1992. It should have been a triumphal and insights. running, swimming and playing tennis homecoming but he was wrestling with At the time, New Zealand knew little of give a glimpse of his expansive estate in vocal and personal problems at the time his overseas triumphs, but now we have Kent, yet more insight into the juggling and, sadly, the season didn’t go well for it all. WSNZ founder Heath Lees writes of career and home life would have been him. Not a word in the book. All singers the foreword and with co-author David of interest. Wife Jill and daughters make have their off nights and the ever Rees can take credit for an outstanding cameo appearances, then abruptly we upbeat Don doesn’t dwell on that part of job of ‘ghost-writing’, editing and proof- encounter colour shots of the startlingly his memory. Then, suddenly, stepping reading. It’s stylishly bound, robust, nice beautiful Bettina, to whom he is now in for Bryn Terfel in a Covent Garden to hold, all credit going to Christchurch married. Not our business I guess. Rheingold (not having sung it in three publisher Quentin Wilson. Plaudits too The book is richly illustrated. Who years) he tells us he sang below to the NZ Wagner Foundation and the could forget McIntyre’s tormented, standard and ‘felt very guilty indeed’ — Sir Donald McIntyre Trust whose patch-eyed Wotan grasping that colossal a startlingly honest acceptance of financial heft made the project happen. pendulum in the Chéreau Walküre? personal blame. ‘Sir Don’ always knew he was good, but Peerless. With whitening hair and beard Preparing the book must have been there are many amusing and frank he gracefully matured to become the stimulating therapy in Sir Don’s present admissions of failure. An under- quintessential Meistersänger Hans retirement in Munich. Informative and performer academically he was ‘not the Sachs and we get a shot of the brilliant entertaining, it closes with good advice least bit interested in book learning’, got Wellington production in 1990 that the for next-generation singers. Lift the stood down from his school rugby team late Chris Doig realised (me seated voice – keep it up – UP! For aspiring for shirking a match, and was ‘kicked out behind Sachs, at rear, obscured. Damn.) career singers it’s the only way. of Guildhall’ one of London’s world- It was without doubt his best-ever Richard Green, bass, some- ranked conservatoires. Hardly a failure performance on home turf. times shared opera stages with Sir there though, since his burgeoning Sir Don devotes an entire chapter to Don, notably in the 1990 NZ Mastersingers. A long-time career was making regular attendance the notorious Chéreau centennial Ring member of the WSNZ (Auckland), impossible. Through it all he clung on to cycle which he and Gwyneth Jones he sang as Hunding in the 2004 the lessons learned, asked questions (Brünnhilde) probably saved from being Adelaide Ring. endlessly, and sought out mentors he scrapped when cast and audience alike The book will be on sale ($35 for members) at your next could trust. reacted with shock-horror. Their lonely WSNZ meeting. Cash or cheque please. Don Juan in Hell: Mozart, Ibsen, Wagner and Shaw High Note Emeritus Professor of English Chris Ackerley previews his talk to the he recently Dunedin Centre on 20 October Treleased recall, from a university lecture long Perfect Wagnerite (1898), a commentary ‘Distant ago: “George Bernard Shaw didn’t really on Wagner’s Ring, which he approached Beloved’ CD by Ibelieve in God … there simply wasn’t as a dramatist to combine valuable musi- Simon O’Neill room in the universe for both of them.” cal insights and a genuine appreciation of and Terence What Shaw did believe in, after his Wagner’s genius with a curious Marxist Dennis hit the apprentice years as a theatre and music allegory of the collapse of capitalism Top Spot in critic, a would-be boxer and a failed novel- through its internal contradictions. Bayreuth’s Disc ist, was what he called the Life Force: an id- Opera entered directly into two of of the Week iosyncratic synthesis of Lamarckian Shaw’s own dramas: his first staged play, during the Festival last month. Bravo! evolution, Nietzsche’s theory of the Über- Widowers’ Houses (1892), an ambitious Sad Note mensch, and Bergson’s élan vital — avant- attempt to translate Das Rheingold into ryan Magee, philosopher, former garde theories that were in their day the idiom of Ibsen; and Don Juan in Hell, controversial, and in time discredited. BTV presenter and perpetual Wag- an independent interlude that forms Act nerian, died in an Oxford nursing This philosophy informed Shaw’s advo- III of Man and Superman (1903), a home on 26 July. His Wagner and cacy of Ibsen and Wagner, whom he often Shavian afterword to Mozart’s Don Schopenhauer-centred books were full mentioned together, notably in The Giovanni. Neither constitutes Shaw’s best of clear and stimulating insights. Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891), which did writing, but each is drawn from the pot- He also had a significant New much to advance Ibsen as a formative force pourri of ideas that inform his more Zealand connection, being a regular in Modernist drama; and in The celebrated (and opinionated) works. visitor to Otago University. Roger Wilson Winds up the Tale of the 1990 Meistersinger

After the very final curtain-call, some of the cast and players crowd around Wolfgang Wagner (centre, in jacket and tie). Roger Wilson is at the back, in line with WW’s head. Chris Doig is in front of Donald McIntyre, extreme right. he full dress rehearsal for Die attempt to sing the dress rehearsal but had engineered such a coup. ‘I rang Meistersinger took place two should save himself for the season the bugger up’ he replied. Tdays before the first night. Dress proper. So after the performance, there was rehearsals are often made open to Was there a Heldentenor in the the famous Wolfgang, almost like a school parties in the hope that the house? Well actually, yes, there was reincarnation of his grandfather. He young might get hooked on opera. one in the Festival Director’s office. declared himself most impressed with Young audiences are very honest and a Chris Doig ran over, still in his suit, our performance – well of course he bit like sports crowds. If they don’t like bounded into the orchestral pit, rolled did — but we took him at his word. you they’ll boo and hiss, but conversely up his sleeves, opened his score and What a thrill to have performed in such they’ll cheer loudly if they do like you. If let rip. He was preparing the rôle at the a work alongside such colleagues, and you get a good clap you know it’s been time and knew it well, in fact I think he then to press the flesh with the great well earned. The doubters who said sang quite a lot of it from memory. I’d Richard Wagner’s grandson! Even now, revisiting all the you couldn’t sell Wagner to New not heard Chris singing Wagner before photographs and glowing reviews, I can Zealanders were wrong, but even the and it was a revelation. Of course he still feel the enormous excitement of most patriotic were aghast at the was on a roll, as one is when saving that wonderful Meistersinger summer. thought of school pupils being bored the day, but never before, in my silly by hours of Meistersinger. A opinion, had he ever sung so brilliantly. compromise was reached: first act only. Poor Bill, miming on stage to the Doig oger Wilson In fact the kids were enthralled. voice from the orchestra; he could only Rstudied German at the Surtitles had been introduced into New rue his sick condition. University of Zealand only a couple of years before, Opening Night . . . Otago and the and for the first time these children Universität Zürich, could follow every word. They loved the When opening night arrived and we then music at the verbal exchanges and roared when lined up to go onstage to the thrilling Staatliche Walther’s first attempt at a Mastersong sound of the NZSO striking up the Musikhoch- was ruthlessly demolished by the famous prelude, I think even the most schulen in hidden, chalk-wielding Beckmesser. At seasoned of us felt a sense of history Detmold and the end of the first act they flatly in the making. My own entrance was Köln. He began refused to go home. almost a stagger thanks to an almighty his professional career in Europe in the thump on my back that nearly knocked 1970s and in recent years has performed A Last-Minute Stand-In me over. It was the massive McIntyre in the UK, the USA, Australia and The other feature of the dress paw delivering a message of good luck. Malaysia. rehearsal was that we had a stand-in We had a full house and the excitement Much of his career has been spent in for the young male lead role of Walther was intense. New Zealand where he is one of the country’s most experienced singers with von Stolzing. William Ingle, an One of Doig’s ideas was to have a an extensive opera, concert and recital American tenor had arrived full of Festival Guest Celebrity, who was to repertoire as well as being a recording enthusiasm but unaware of pernicious be the legendary American soprano artist and frequent broadcaster. jet-lag. He sang himself hoarse on his Beverly Sills. With a fortnight to go it first day, immediately fell ill and never was announced that Miss Sills had had rateful thanks are offered to the really recovered. Gamely he soldiered to cancel, and her replacement would GGoethe-Institut New Zealand on through the rehearsals, but it was be — Wolfgang Wagner! When I next German Cultural Centre for permission reluctantly decided that he shouldn’t saw Chris I asked him how on earth he to edit and serialise these four articles.