No: 213 April 2014 Wagner news Number 213 April 2014 CONTENTS 4 Reports of Committee meetings Andrea Buchanan 5 Wagner Society 2014 Bayreuth Ballot Winners Andrea Buchanan 6 Announcement of Wagner Society 2014 AGM Andrea Buchanan 8 Monte Carlo Rheingold Katie Barnes 13 Chéreau Ring : A contrary view Robert Mitchell 14 Melbourne Ring Ian Rickword 17 Covent Garden Parsifal Katie Barnes 22 Parsifa l: Beauty is in the eye and the ear of the beholder Hilary Reid Evans 23 Regeneration in Parsifal Charles Ellis 24 Masterclasses with Richard Berkeley-Steele Katie Barnes 28 Bromley Symphony Orchestra Die Walküre Act I (photo-essay) Richard Carter 29 Parsifal : Staging an enigma David Edwards 30 Storms at Sea: Three Anniversary Year Reflections John Crowther 32 Illustrated Recital: Wagner and the Dream King Roger Lee 34 News of Young Artists: Our Young Singers: A Progress Report Andrea Buchanan 36 News of Young Artists: Amanda Echalaz Malcolm Rivers 37 Rehearsal Orchestra / Mastersingers: Scenes from Tristan und Isolde, 19 th Oct 2014 38 Après le déluge : Mastersingers / MCL Weekend in Aldeburgh, 12 th –14 th Sept 2014 40 Book review: Walter Widdop: The Great Yorkshire Tenor Richard Hyland 41 Book review: Richard Wagner: The Lighter Side Roger Lee 42 Venues for Wagner Society Events Peter Leppard 43 Wagner Society Contacts 44 Wagner Society Forthcoming Events Peter Leppard

Cover photo by Clive Barda for the Covent Garden production of Parsifal reviewed on pages 17 to 23 Printed by Rap Spiderweb – www.rapspiderweb.com 0161 947 3700 EDITOR’S NOTE

How do you solve a problem like Parsifal ? Why is it that many of us would prefer to attend a concert performance of what may be regarded as the most sublime of Wagner’s music than to watch a staged performance of the work described by David Edwards on page 29 as having the ability “to set us at loggerheads from virtually the first bar”? He asks whether it is possible to get even close to realising on stage a work that is so densely layered, nuanced and mystically suggestive in its musical atmosphere. Few writers are as Wagner experienced and as open minded as Katie Barnes. In her report of the Covent Garden production of Parsifal on pages 17 to 21 she tells us how she found the Act I finale to be upsetting and disturbing: “I emerged from Act I shaking with horror and anger.” Probably the majority of us agree with the necessity for directorial innovation. In the chapter: “Creativity or Desecration?” of his book Richard Wagner: The Lighter Side reviewed on page 41 Terry Quinn agrees that new ideas and interpretations are the lifeblood of opera at the same time as being a source of anger and bitter argument among audiences and practitioners alike. As shown abundantly in the previous issue of Wagner News , many eminent Wagnerians believe that Patrice Chéreau set the scene for superimposing a director’s thinking to Wagner’s concepts in what has become known as Regietheater (“Director’s Theatre”). Author of Gentle Regrets Roger Scruton writes: “Wagner productions are invariably travesties – not productions in fact but ‘interpretations’ with the ego of the producer placed squarely between the work and the audience, so turning every seat in the opera house into one with an obstructed view.” Terry Quinn coins the term “irrelevant creativity” for what he regards as the worst examples of Regie opera. He points to an antidote suggested by Philip Kennicott in the April 2012 issue of Opera News for counteracting productions which “strive for shock value, unnecessarily alienating large swathes of the audience” – that of simply dispensing with the director and leaving the job to the singers. Let us then return to the thoughts of director David Edwards who writes in this issue of Wagner News: “Directors do not undertake their task lightly. The best ones seek to reveal the piece, to let it speak, to facilitate its expression of its own self. In other words, they aim to show the work for what it is, not tell us what it means.”

–3– FROM THE COMMITTEE Andrea Buchanan, Secretary

10 th December 2013 Apologies for absence were received from Roger Lee and Charlie Furness Smith. Both the incoming Treasurer (Neil King) and the outgoing Treasurer (Mike Morgan) were in attendance. Neil was formally co-opted to the Committee and was appointed as an Officer of the Wagner Society by unanimous vote. The Secretary reported on the recent Singing Competition, which was generally judged to have been a success and written feedback from attendees on the day had endorsed this view. There followed a debate on the best way forward. No decision would be taken until a proper budget for 2014 had been agreed and accepted. It was agreed that this event was important to the Wagner Society, both in terms of the charitable remit and of its popularity with members. Ed Hewitt reported on progress with the Constitution sub-Committee, led by Ray Godson. The Committee were pleased to note that an amicable and constructive meeting had been held with the President and that the sub-Committee were making good progress. Plans were on track for a final proposed revised Constitution to be in place for members to vote on its adoption at the forthcoming AGM on 12 th May. Neil King had prepared an indicative budget for 2014. Various comments and clarifications were offered by Committee members and a refined version would be submitted at the next meeting, scheduled for early February. Additional items discussed included formalising the grants application process and clarifying the relationship with Mastersingers by means of a Memorandum of Understanding. Work would be undertaken to create the necessary documentation for agreement and adoption of these proposals by the Committee. The Secretary reported on Verband matters (a new Praesidium would be elected in May) and on the forthcoming Kongress in Graz in May, which it was hoped more members would attend. 4th February 2014 This was largely a meeting to discuss the annual budget, prepared and presented by Neil King, who had taken over from Mike Morgan as Treasurer on 1 st January. The Committee debated various areas of income and expenditure in order to decide what might be affordable for 2014. The aim was to create a break-even scenario for the year. Edward Hewitt reported on progress with the new draft constitution. This draft, once agreed, would be circulated to all members with the papers for consideration at the AGM. Other agenda items included reports on progress with the Bayreuth ticket ballot, an update on the Richard Wagner Verband International, the MoU recently signed with Mastersingers and consideration of grant requests that had been received. It was agreed to award the following: £500 to Free London Theatre for their free staging of The Ring as a play this summer in London, £339 to soprano Lee Bissett for German lessons and £305 to soprano Cara McHardy for coaching in the role of Isolde. Fulham Opera’s request for funding in support of their Ring cycle was turned down, as they had previously received support from the Society.

–4– 10 th March 2014 Apologies for absence were received from Peter Leppard, Roger Lee, Charlie Furness Smith, Ed Hewitt and Emmanuelle Waters. All applications for membership of the Society were approved by the Committee. The Treasurer then gave a brief update on the budget for 2014, noting that the previously projected deficit for 2014 had been considerably reduced by refining the forecast, although the Committee would need to exercise caution and prudence with all spend this year and the aim was to break even. Ed Hewitt had circulated all the feedback from Committee members on the proposed new Constitution. There followed a discussion on several items. The Committee proposed a few minor amendments to the draft, which would be submitted to the membership in advance of the AGM. The document was however broadly acceptable to the Committee. The Secretary ran through the proposed papers for the AGM and a schedule for submission and distribution of the papers to members was agreed. The Committee then noted the excellent events programme that had been prepared by Peter Leppard over the coming months. A discussion took place on the 2014 Singing Competition, which was deemed affordable and the format would be similar to last year. Advertising rates for Wagner News for 2014 were discussed and decided. In general, the Committee would welcome additional income from suitable advertisers. There followed a couple of AOB items regarding future dates for Committee meetings and the desirability of more artistic input on the Committee.

BAYREUTH BALLOT 2014 Andrea Buchanan, Secretary We received an allocation of 6 tickets this year from our Society membership of the Gesellschaft der Freunde. 31 people applied for the ballot. Of these, the majority were for the tickets to Lohengrin and the fewest were for Holländer . All the winners were informed immediately after the ballot draw, which took place on 7 th March. At the time of going to press only two winners had confirmed that they would take up the tickets: Joan Clinch and Katie Bradford, both of whom are delighted to be attending Holländer . We wonder why so few of you took part and we would be most interested to have your feedback. Is it because of the availability of online tickets, or because some of you are becoming disenchanted with productions in Bayreuth, or because the tickets are becoming unaffordable? We should like to continue with this activity in principle and, as our membership of the Gesellschaft is inexpensive, we feel that it represents good value for money. However, if the appetite for tickets is so diminished, should we carry on? Your thoughts please. Do drop me a line to [email protected].

–5– THE 60 TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE WAGNER SOCIETY To be held on Monday 12 th May 2014 at 7pm

St Botolph’s Church Hall, Bishopsgate, London EC2M 3TL Nearest underground: Liverpool Street

The agenda, the annual accounts, the proposed new Constitution and biographical information about Committee members standing for re-election will be mailed to members in April 2014. We hope as many of you as possible will attend. A decision regarding adoption of the proposed new Constitution will be taken at the meeting and your vote and your opinions are important. If there are any items that members wish to raise at the AGM, or if anyone would like to stand for the Committee please submit nominations in writing in advance to the Secretary, preferably by email to: [email protected] or by post to: The Secretary 7 Avenue Mansions Finchley Road London NW3 7AU These must be received no later than 21 days before the date of the AGM, ie by 21 st April. Members are cordially invited to attend the Annual General Meeting and to join the Committee for drinks afterwards. We look forward to seeing you on 12 th May Richard Miles (Chair) Andrea Buchanan (Secretary) Neil King (Treasurer) Peter Leppard Roger Lee Margaret Murphy Geoffrey Griffiths Emmanuelle Waters Charlie Furness Smith Edward Hewitt

–6–

DAS RHEINGOLD IN MONTE CARLO Opéra Monte Carlo, Grimaldi Forum, 22 nd + 24 th November 2013 Katie Barnes Photography: Opéra Monte Carlo Gianluigi Gelmetti, artistic and musical director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, conducted. He should not have. In all my years of Wagner-going I have never heard a performance so consistently undermined by its maestro. Although there were some lovely effects for individual instruments (beautiful, sensuous violins for Flosshilde's seduction of Alberich), he had the greatest difficulty in maintaining synchronisation between pit and stage. The singers were constantly wrong-footed, and when anything went awry he seemed to make no attempt to decide whether to make the pit follow the singers or bring the singers into line with the pit. I lost count of the number of times the singers had to drop words or syllables, or hurry through a phrase, to try to keep with the players. On numerous occasions they simply had to face the front, even if that meant abandoning the production, to watch for Gelmetti's beat. Anyone not familiar with the score may not have appreciated how it should sound, but to anyone who knew their Rheingold , it all too frequently descended into aural confusion Jean-Louis Grinda's production contains many good ideas which cry out to be extended and developed in the course of a cycle. Rudy Sabounghi's set was a massive scaffolding structure startlingly similar to that recently seen in Calixto Bieito's Fidelio at ENO, which, like the Fidelio set, stood upright to form a background to Scenes 2 and 4, and pivoted to lie flat in Scene 3. Yet despite all the importance attached to this leviathan, I felt that it added little to the production and that other, more flexible scenic components and Jorge Jara's beautiful costumes had far greater effect.

The first scene, one of the hardest in all Wagner's works to stage convincingly, was ravishingly done. The curtain rose on a darkened stage fronted by a gauze, and as the first chord sounded a tiny, wavy bar of white light appeared at the top centre. As the music expanded, so did the light, creating a network of watery ripples in the darkness. Then the black drop behind the gauze rose to reveal a semicircular cross-section through the river, outlined by a blue laser light cupping the river bed, which was covered in rocks and green weed, the deeper waters moving gently above them, while the network of lights at the top of the stage were the surface ripples. –8– The piles of weed moved and the Rhinedaughters emerged from them, clad in low-cut green silk bodices of eighteenth century cut, their golden hair piled high in Pompadour style. All three were on wires which enabled them to float and sink through the waters, and the “weeds” were their skirts, lengths of ruffled green gauze as high as the stage which drifted and billowed as they moved. Alberich, a figure from a Hogarth print, shaggy-haired, in dull-coloured eighteenth century coat, waistcoat, knee breeches and boots, appeared at the side of the semicircle with Loge, who encouraged him to court the Rhinedaughters before disappearing. They rose through the waters to elude his grasp, leaving him to blunder through endless masses of weed, and when he tried to capture all three by seizing their skirts in his fists, two slipped free while he lunged for the third. The light of the gold began to shine some time before its musical cue, when it changed to a warm yellow glow which shone up through the waters and made the surface ripples sparkle. Loge reappeared, this time in front of the gauze, to encourage Alberich to seize the gold which he was able to do because the Rhinedaughters, wild with laughter, had risen to the surface and were too far away to prevent him. The transformation to Scene 2 was stunning. During the interlude, the entire Scene 1 set slowly descended on a stage bridge to reveal the set for Scene 2. The framing semicircle of blue light also descended and was gradually replaced by the upper half of the semicircle, framing our first view of Valhalla, seen in shadow on the backcloth, a square, turreted structure not unlike a French chateau, fronted by the mighty scaffolding This was the world above the Rhine, and its waters (real water) sparkled, fiercely blue, at the front of the stage. Behind it was the acting area, and the zone between the acting area and the scaffolding was intermittently filled with the river's mists and vapours. A pile of trunks and packing cases stood awaiting the gods' move into Valhalla. The gods were Victorian power dressers from the era when the opera was composed (shades of Chéreau?) with Wotan resplendent in a floor-length scarlet velvet coat with silver-grey waistcoat and trousers, Fricka utterly gorgeous in a deep yellow silk elliptical crinoline with black silk jacket embroidered in gold, Freia a pre-Raphaelite maiden in green and pink with flowers in her golden hair, Donner a smart man-about- town in blue overcoat, frockcoat, waistcoat and trousers, carrying an oversized croquet mallet, and Froh a country gentlemen in cream tweeds and knickerbockers.

–9– Loge, in brown jacket, red-buttoned check waistcoat and fawn trousers, with lavish red curly hair and mutton-chop whiskers, looked like a well-to-do tradesman, the kind of poor relation that a noble family would disown if they did not rely on his superior wits. The giants were a pair of Isambard Kingdom Brunels in floor-length black overcoats with exaggerated stovepipe hats, both leaning on long black canes which later became the staves used to measure the gold. Relations within this ill-assorted group were volatile. Donner and Froh entered early in the scene and it was made clearer than usual that they were party to Wotan's agreement with the giants: at durch Vertrag zähmt’ ich they ceremonially laid their right hands on the shaft of his spear, and when Freia called to them for help they guiltily turned away from her, although Froh allowed her to hide behind him. Fricka was as emotionally fragile as her sister, so desperate for Wotan's affection that a single word or look could make her putty in his hands (her removal of her jacket at Um des Gatten Treue besorgt was a deeply sexy moment), while he was so eager to escape her needy, possessive love that her suggestion that they acquire the gold was very nearly enough to turn him off the idea. Later, she was equally open to Loge's blandishments. Freia, at first frankly terrified at the prospect of being dragged off by the giants, listened spellbound, to Fasolt's Ein Weib zu gewinne and crept closer, gazing up at him in wonder as she began to appreciate the loving heart beneath his grim exterior. Fricka indignantly pulled her away and all the gods glared at her, and she tried to pretend that it was nothing, but they were all aware of the change in her. The lighting effects in this scene were brilliantly done. Clouds pursued one another across the sky, with the sun, visible behind them as a glowing disc, slowly rising in the heavens. The firmament shone fiercely red at Loge's entrance and turned a desolate grey as the gods aged. The giants had shadow-doubles who loomed as tall as Valhalla behind them. This last effect was not entirely successful, as the doubles simply stood there, without any movement to reflect the actions of the singers onstage, and when they were later shown dragging a shadow-Freia away, she, too, was as tall as Valhalla! (Later still, the shadow-Fasolt did not fall when the singer was struck down onstage). The geography of this scene was also suspect in that the giants apparently did not know the way to Riesenheim (when they first attempted to take Freia away they went to the right, but later took her away to the left) and that although Wotan asked Loge not to take him down to Nibelheim through the Rhine, they glided away on a small moving platform along the zone between the acting area and the scaffolding. As it was full of dry ice, the impression given was that they were sailing down the river. They disappeared to one side and almost immediately acrobat doubles were seen climbing up the scaffolding and bracing themselves as the scaffolding slowly tilted forward during the interlude until it lay flat on the stage. The movement looked very impressive, but sadly the only part of the structure which could be used in the Nibelheim scene was a single passage at the front, along which boy-Nibelungs, dressed as miners with lamps on their helmets, rolled wagons piled high with gold, and in which Alberich could hide during his transformations. Mime and the boys crouched on top of the structure to watch the scene between Wotan, Loge and Alberich and see how the visitors kept their promise to free the enslaved Nibelungs. The boys' helmet lamps pierced the darkness with shafts of light, like huge, brilliant eyes. Mime, who seemed to constitute himself as protector of the younger Nibelungs, saw that the dialogue below was becoming dangerous and hustled them away, so that only he witnessed Alberich's transformations. The Wurm was a triumph of 3D animation, a mighty, red dragon with huge, beating wings and flaming eyes who hovered over the stage, its jaws snapping at the onlookers – 10 – until it suddenly dived to the ground and vanished as Alberich emerged from the scaffolding tunnel. I have never seen this scene so well or so convincingly done. The toad was a glittering stuffed toy which leapt straight into Mime's arms, he threw it down to the gods, and Wotan put his foot on its head until Loge could bundle it into a sack, which they dragged away in triumph. I especially liked the idea of Mime being complicit in Alberich's capture and the freeing of the Nibelungs.

The scaffolding rose to 45 degrees during the interlude, leaving it tilted dangerously over the singers' heads. Wotan and Loge reappeared, the latter still dragging the sack which of course now contained Alberich, his wrists bound with red cord. During this scene, Loge dragged him about the stage like a dog, and the sense of his humiliation was intense. For the delivery of the gold, two trapdoors sank in the forestage, one of which brought up a truck piled high with gold while the Nibelungs emerged from the other, each carrying a lump of gold, which they piled up under Mime's direction. They crowded around Alberich, rejoicing at his discomfiture, and seemed about to turn on him when he cowed them all into submission with the Ring and they fled – not underground, I noted, but into the wings, which would explain why Mime would later turn up in the forest near Neidhöhle. Loge's complicity in the theft of the Ring was more overt than usual: when Alberich held out a despairing hand in supplication to his kinsman, he turned away, his face dark and bitter. This theft was not done in his name but he knew his culpability in failing to prevent it. Wotan produced a long, wicked-looking dagger and advanced upon Alberich. He bent over his victim, concealing his crime from the audience's eyes, but Alberich's scream told us all that we needed to know, and when he could be seen again his hand was smeared with blood, although it was never made clear whether his finger had actually been cut off. Wotan remained serenely indifferent as Alberich intoned his curse, until, at its climax, Alberich seized the spear and drove its point into his own eye, making himself more than ever Wotan's Schwartzalbe , and fled, howling with pain, his face a mask of blood. The scaffolding was raised to vertical again as the gods returned and once again Valhalla was seen in silhouette on the backcloth, with the sun now declining towards evening. Froh delivered his solo squarely facing the front, just like a Victorian tenor, while Loge watched him and silently commended his delivery. I could not be sure whether this was part of the production or the singer's response to the difficulty of following Gelmetti's beat. The giants dragged Freia in with her arms encased in long sleeves, crossed across her front, as though she were in a straitjacket. She looked exhausted, her hair hanging limply about her face and her flowers gone. One could only surmise what had happened to her during her hours of captivity. The piling of the gold seemed designed not to succeed: the wagon was placed in front of her, with the giants' long walking canes slotted into either end, and the loose lumps of gold were very carefully stacked on top. This arrangement seemed unfair, as Fasolt could have seen her feet in any case, and the loose lumps were so unstable that I constantly feared that the whole lot would collapse. – 11 – Erda's appearance, walking slowly from one side of the stage to the other as she sang, was the one element of the production where I could not begin to guess the producer's intentions. She wore an elaborate red eighteenth century gown, divided front and back to reveal masses of russet-coloured ruffled gauze. Perhaps this effect was intended to suggest that nature was bursting out of her “civilised” carapace. Her white hair was caught up in a high plume and she wore a white gauze bandage over the upper part of her face, blindfolded like Justice. Wotan yielded and the giants released the traumatised Freia, who backed in terror from all attempts to comfort her until Fricka shook her by the shoulders in an attempt to calm her down. Unusually, Loge's advice Den Hort lass ihn raffen; halte du nur auf den Ring was not delivered to Fasolt but to Fafner, who had previously overlooked the Ring while concentrating on the heaped gold. Even more unusually, Loge palmed Wotan's dagger to Fafner to enable him to stab his brother from behind, so that the weapon which was used to take the Ring from Alberich, instigating the curse, also claimed its first victim. Fasolt crashed to the ground like a falling tree. Freia tried desperately to reach him but was held back by Froh until she pulled free, ran to the stricken giant and knelt beside him, gently folding his hands over his breast and holding them, gazing sorrowfully into his face. The finale was the most spectacular I have ever seen for this opera. As Donner conjured the storm, the sky grew dark with massed clouds and the sun disappeared, then the clouds cleared as, in time with the music, a rainbow slowly spread across the backcloth from the ground on the left, disappearing into Valhalla on the right. While Wotan sang Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge , a wrought-iron bridge was lowered from the flies, and as it descended, a glowing rainbow was projected onto it. The gods, except for Loge, slowly ascended it, Froh hauling Freia to her feet and more or less forcing her up the stairs while she continued to gaze back at her dead lover. Dry ice billowed into the area behind, amid which the singing Rhinedaughters glided into view, kneeling on the small raft which Wotan and Loge had used for their descent to Nibelheim. As the final, triumphant music rang out, a rainbow-hued laser shone out from under the bridge. Filtered by the dry ice, it bathed the auditorium in seven-coloured light, while bands of light in rainbow colours were projected onto the ceiling. It was breathtaking. As a final touch, Loge set light to Wotan's contract with the Giants, and it burst into a brilliant jet of flame before he dropped it into the river on the final chord. Egils Silins was a reticent Wotan in the Paris Ring last summer, but here he came into his own. Perhaps he found this production more congenial, or maybe his experience in Paris had increased his confidence in the role. Golden-haired, vocally resplendent, he possessed the stage and sailed with ease past all the musical difficulties thrown in his way.

– 12 – Natascha Petrinsky's Fricka was vocally luscious and unbelievably beautiful, but she showed all too clearly how Wotan's infidelities had taken their toll on the goddess' emotional stability. I take off my hat to Andreas Conrad, a habitual Mime who was making his debut as Loge in extremely difficult circumstances which would have fazed many a more experienced practitioner of the role, as his intricate music was one of the main casualties of Gelmetti's inability to keep control. Despite everything he kept his head and forged through, with every word crystal clear. His voice is rather hard, but that suited this very harsh characterisation of the fire-god. There was none of the usual light mockery: this was the angriest Loge I have ever seen, filled with bitter resentment. As befits an experienced Salomé, Nicola Beller Carbone sang Freia with a power which belied her childlike, naive appearance. William Joyner sang Froh with Italianate grace and helden strength, and Trevor Scheunemann was an exciting Donner. Elzbieta Ardan (Erda)'s voice was fine, but her German was sadly unclear. As so often happens, the Nibelungs stole a goodly part of the show. As ever, Peter Sidhom's Alberich was a tower of strength and his intensely involving portrayal of the ill- used dwarf gave the opera its emotional centre, but in this production his response to the anger in Conrad's Loge gave the character a hardness and deep-seated rage which has not been there when I have seen him play the role before. Rodolphe Briand's roly-poly Mime was a joy to watch and hear, side-splittingly funny, especially in his wild dances of short- lived triumph. If only he could play the Siegfried Mime now. Frode Olsen, well remembered from his appearances at Glyndebourne in the 1990s, made a gruffly sympathetic Fasolt but was in poor voice, and was frequently disconcerted by the confusion in the pit. I was more impressed by Steven Humes' bespectacled Fafner, a smooth but ruthless operator who was the brains behind the duo and who already sounded as powerful as a dragon. Eleonore Marguerre, Linda Sommerhage and Stine Marie Fischer sang enchantingly as the Rhinedaughters as they soared above the stage. Opéra Monte Carlo is so well financed that it can afford never to revive its productions and, sadly, they appear to have no plans to develop a Ring cycle. What a pity. Productions as good as this should not be discarded so lightly. THE CHÉREAU RING : A CONTRARY VIEW Robert Mitchell With Bayreuth Festival ticket demand regularly at least seven times in excess of supply, I suspect that the majority of the 1980 audience were simply different from that of 1976. It wasn't a matter of gradual acceptance, more one of not returning. Having seen only Act II of Götterdämmerung with the ludicrous costumes and ugly scenery in 1976 I certainly fell into the latter category. Seeing this again on film didn't change my impression. There were richer and more interesting pickings in the other German opera houses, now sadly relegated to Regietheater approximations. But the legend lives on. Rather like truly international musical standards coming to Covent Garden with the advent of Solti. I think the (increasingly available) recordings from prior to his arrival tell a different story. Riveting acting on the Wagnerian stage did not originate with Chéreau. The Chéreau Ring had its last outing in 1980. It seemed almost as a sop to would- be attendees that 1981 brought wonderful new productions of Tristan und Isolde and Meistersinger , followed by the magnificent Ring production of 1983. After that, I, for one, returned. – 13 – DER RING IN MELBOURNE 6th -13 th December 2013 Ian Rickword Photography: Jeff Busby Only in Australia could the banks of the Rhine be moved to a beach, the rippling river represented by bronzed sunbathers languidly turning over to replenish their tans. This was the first of several dazzling coups de théâtre in a spectacular new production by director Neil Armfield with bright, imaginative sets and extensive use of a revolving stage. All of Australian life was here, from the huge cherrypickers in which the giants burst onto the set, through the simple barbecue on which Siegfried forged the sword, to Gunther and Gutrune working out on treadmills in a gym. A powerless silent chorus appeared from time to time, watching the inevitable corruption of the pristine world that the gods had been lucky enough to inherit, as though they were watching a seaside music hall show. After a troubled build up with a late change of conductor owing to “artistic differences” and an even later cast change when the scheduled Alberich fell sick, everything came right in the end. The orchestra, incredibly, was put together from scratch. Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen led it at a measured pace, keeping the volume well under control so as to allow the voices to come through, which was just as well as the singers would otherwise have been stretched in the very large Arts Centre hall. The Australian press and audience reaction, especially to the orchestra, was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, but for someone spoilt by having heard Barenboim at the Proms and Negus at Longborough the playing sometimes seemed to lack dynamism and subtlety. The city of Melbourne made quite a fuss over the cycle with several side events. Particularly enjoyable was a series of excellent talks by Heath Lees, engagingly covering the material on his DVD that was reviewed in a recent Wagner News. Most notable among a cast with a generally high standard of acting and singing were Stuart Skelton as Siegmund, a role that seems naturally to belong to him, and Warwick Fife as

– 14 – Alberich, convincingly played as unpleasant rather than evil, who stole the show in Das Rheingold . Brünnhilde and Siegfried were the Covent Garden team of Susan Bullock and Stefan Vinke, both very powerfully acted with Vinke in particular in finer voice than we remembered from 2012. Terje Stensvold was an authoritative Wotan, Richard Berkley- Steele’s silver-suited Loge was, well, fiery and Mime was sung by Graeme Macfarlane in a refreshingly straight voice without the customary whining caricature. Strong also were Jacqueline Dark as Fricka and Deborah Humble as both Waltraute and Erda.

The Rhinemaidens were flighty cabaret hostesses, a theme taken up to gasps from the audience when flamboyant rainbow-coloured fan dancers provided a guard of honour for the gods’ entry to Valhalla. The giants wore spivvy suits and shades, the descent to Niebelheim made clever use of the revolving stage and mirrors and the Tarnhelm scene took place in a magician’s beach hut. In Die Walküre Hunding lived in a simple garden shed. Act II was set on a revolving spiral ramp, an oversized corkscrew reminiscent of Keith Warner’s helix at Covent Garden and was the route taken by the gods to and from Valhalla. In Act III the Valkyries dropped down on trapezes into the silent chorus, here resembling a group of down-and-outs, perhaps refugees, from which dead souls were clipped to the trapezes to send back up to Valhalla. Nailbiting stuff!

– 15 – Siegfried was set under a multi-purpose arch which served as Mime’s home, a scruffy bed- sit, then the dragon’s lair, and finally a spectacular fire round Brünnhilde’s rock.

Götterdämmerung was performed in the frame of a building which acquired canvas sides to become a wedding marquee for the Gibichung hall. The hunters refreshed themselves from tinnies wheeled in on a supermarket trolley. The frame then became the basic structure of Valhalla for the immolation scene which the chorus watched from tiered open- air theatre seats.

The sets were invariably clever, sometimes witty, just occasionally distracting. The destruction of Valhalla was an anticlimax when we were reminded that it was all just a seaside show. A few of the effects misfired, such as the stuffed animals dropping down presumably to represent the ravaging of the natural world, and a pantomime storyboard illustrated with two ravens that appeared each time those birds were mentioned. It was all bright and brash, the other side of the world from brooding nordic myths and dark symbolism. Some might say it was a travesty but it was always entertaining, never dull and a dramatically coherent way of posing questions about life today in Australia. – 16 – THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX Parsifal , Royal Opera House, 18 th December 2013 Katie Barnes Photography: Clive Barda, Royal Opera House Stephen Langridge's new production, the Royal Opera's contribution to the bicentenary celebrations, has aroused considerable controversy. It has the virtue of making the audience think, but goes further in that parts of it seem specifically designed to make viewers feel uneasy. When the audience enter the auditorium, they are greeted by a red curtain, illuminated from behind and dappled with a pattern which suggests a forest with sunlight striking through the leaves, a lovely effect, although the red also suggests Amfortas' blood. During the Prelude a film of a woman's smiling mouth is projected onto the curtain and it rises to reveal a stage surrounded on three sides by silver-grey tree trunks. The main performing area is a white square with a border which, in later scenes, will be illuminated by a white strip light. In its centre stands a white curtained cube containing a hospital room in which Amfortas lies on his bed of pain. Chairs stand at its corners in which the squires, in white costumes which suggest either hotel pageboys or hospital orderlies, sit asleep. Behind, those in the upper parts of the theatre can glimpse a second, smaller square which contains the lake. Unfortunately a large part of the audience cannot see anything behind the white box, which blocks their view and takes a large chunk out of the acting area with the result that, in an opera which depends heavily upon its chorus, there isn't much space for the singers to stand, except on either side of the box. With a large cast to find space for and one of the largest stages in the country at their disposal, why do producers so often feel the urge to cut off large parts of it from regular use?

– 17 – As Amfortas awakens and writhes in agony, eight drably dressed women creep in from among the trees and approach the box, watching him with concern until men in suits enter and frighten them off. As we will later learn, the women are the principal flowermaidens. They may not have Kundry's status as a servant of the Grail, but like her, they appear to feel remorse at the harm they have wrought. The men are the knights of the Grail, reduced, like the priests in Simon McBurney’s production of The Magic Flute at ENO which premiered in the same month, to a load of self-satisfied, smartly-suited, misogynistic businessmen. In both productions the loss of dignity and mystique is incalculable. Through the gauze we see Amfortas tended by doctors (the two solo knights) who haul him out of bed to take him for bathing while Gurnemanz, a fine, upstanding man in a silver-grey suit, awakens and admonishes the Squires. At Kundry’s approach, the action within the cube is concealed and a film of a woman’s laughing mouth is projected onto the backcloth while the flowermaidens emerge from among the trees to watch. Kundry is a gaunt, pale wraith in a shabby white dress and overcoat, completely bald yet indescribably, agelessly beautiful, with centuries of suffering in her huge, tragic eyes. It is abundantly suggested that she genuinely loves Amfortas: at the moment when his name is first mentioned in her presence she flinches as though from a wound as deep as his, and when he addresses her she shies away like a frightened fawn, hiding her face from him. Her guilt at having betrayed her lover weighs her down like a second curse. Gurnemanz's narrative is illustrated by tableaux within the box showing Kundry's seduction of Amfortas (with them lying on the hospital bed which is now his bed of pain), Klingsor's wounding of Amfortas, his theft of the spear and his self-castration. Later, when Kundry describes the deaths of Parsifal’s parents, the box depicts tableaux of Gamuret's departure from the pregnant, red-haired Herzeleide and his death in battle. The animatronic swan looks remarkably lifelike, moving its head and wings as it struggles against the pain of Parsifal’s arrow, just as Amfortas struggles against the pain of his wound. Parsifal’s “bow” is part of a broken steering wheel with a piece of string, which looks hopelessly inefficient. He is a cheery lump in jeans, tee-shirt and zip-up jacket, the antithesis of the smart, buttoned-up “knights”. In a further parallel to The Magic Flute , he is a combined Tamino/Papageno figure who does not understand the sacred rituals and is blindfolded to be taken to the Grail, although in this modern dress production the impression is of him being taken to a Mafia headquarters. I found the Act I finale upsetting and disturbing. In direct contrast to the glory of the music, the rituals are horribly brutal. Four soldiers (the only people wearing combat gear) practise self-mutilation. When the front curtain of the white cube is raised, it reveals a

– 18 – little boy who is the Grail of this community. The ancient, wheelchair-bound Titurel is hideously eager for the ritual to proceed and rises to heights of ecstasy as the reluctant Amfortas cuts the child's naked flank (in the very place where he himself was stabbed by the Spear) and collects the innocent blood, the opposite of the blood from his own sinful wound, in a bowl from which the others drink. The soldiers arm up in a way that implies that they are terrorists setting out on a mission to wreak God knows what havoc on innocent lives. The hapless boy is wrapped in a blanket and sits on the steps of the box, shivering with reaction, completely unregarded by anyone else. Like Amfortas, he has served his purpose and can be cast aside until he is next required to replenish the strength of the Brotherhood. I emerged from Act I shaking with horror and anger. I found the vileness of this scene deeply offensive, not least because the child actor was exposed, night after night, to enactments of abuse. Moreover its brutality appeared terribly at odds with the transcendent beauty of the music. Yet, on reflection, we already know that although the Grail Order was founded with the best intentions, Wagner shows its members as having fallen far from Titurel's original ideals: they ignore Amfortas' agony in their demands for the Grail and mistreat their messenger Kundry. (As Linda Esther Gray once noted, Kundry, who Titurel found in the forest when he built Monsalvat, is Heaven's third gift to him along with the Grail and Spear, but he misuses her by treating her as a servant). But although the production may be correct in bringing out the imperfections of the Order, I consider that it goes too far in showing them sinking to such depravity. As Blaise Pascal observed, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

The same set is used for Act II, with the addition of gaudy floral borders which are a rare splash of colour in a production otherwise founded on more than fifty shades of grey. Amfortas lies asleep in his hospital bed in the white box while Klingsor, a forbidding figure in a black leather coat and holding the Spear, broods over his revenge and conjures up Kundry. Parsifal is glimpsed within the box, armed and bloodstained as he triumphs over Klingsor’s forces, before appearing in grey pyjamas, the innocent ripe for seduction. Unfortunately, just as Monsalvat is robbed of its mystique by being turned into a bland business operation, so the flowermaidens lose their glamour and allure by being turned – 19 – into a troop of nightclub hostesses in short, heavily sequinned dresses in blue and mauve. It has always been difficult to make this scene visually convincing, but these outfits scarcely suit any of the ladies and are downright unflattering to many. The lack of space for the chorus means that they can only stand around or shuffle from one available area to another. Klingsor returns to watch, and one senses the flowermaidens’ fear of the master who plucks them. He remains as Kundry appears in the box, sitting on the bed where she once seduced Amfortas. She wears a simple white nightgown and silk robe, and has a flood of red hair like Herzeleide’s. I was reminded of Siegfried mistaking the newly awakened Brünnhilde for Sieglinde. But for all her fragile beauty, this Kundry is vicious in defeat: as she curses Parsifal to wander, she gouges his eyes out. As he cannot see Klingsor, their struggle over the Spear is very feebly staged, and as there is so little of Klingsor’s realm to destroy, the ending of Act II is visually weak even though it is musically overwhelming. In Act III Monsalvat is in decay. The ground is littered with fallen tree trunks, beside one of which the now grey-haired Gurnemanz finds Kundry unconscious, dressed as she was in Act I. Parsifal stumbles in, exhausted and agonised, heavily bearded, a bloodstained bandage covering his missing eyes, and he still carries the broken remains of his “bow” from Act I, which enables Gurnemanz to identify him even though his face is concealed. No wonder it has taken this blind man so many years to find the way back, yet at first his return seems to bring little comfort until Kundry gently removes the bandage and we find that Good Friday’s magic has restored his sight. The formerly immaculate Knights are a now dishevelled, desperate band, and Amfortas, haggard in mourning black, has to use a Zimmer frame to drag himself over the obstacles littering the stage. As he refuses the Knights’ demands to fulfil his office, the curtain at the front of the box is briefly raised to reveal a young man, a clever touch to indicate how much time has passed since Act 1. But when Parsifal calls for the Grail to be revealed, the curtain is lifted and the box is empty.

Meanwhile Kundry has timidly approached the dazed Amfortas, and their weary faces illuminate with sublime joy as he recognises his long-lost love and seizes her hands. Parsifal has absolved them both, and they are free to leave and begin again, together. They depart hand in hand, crossing the front of the stage and disappearing into the wood, while Parsifal walks away at the back and disappears, and Gurnemanz kneels beside Titurel’s corpse, upon which Parsifal has placed the Spear.

– 20 – The repentant flowermaidens enter and join the Knights. They are left worshipping nothing, perhaps because the Grail is no longer needed, perhaps because their misuse of it means that they no longer deserve it. It makes an ending which is satisfying in some ways but not in others: like the rest of this production, in answering questions it raises more. The twin jewels of the cast were Angela Denoke’s wondrous Kundry and René Pape’s noble Gurnemanz. Denoke was mesmerising, her voice and body the epitome of sensuality, racked with pain and despairing hope, burdened by the memories of two thousand years’ wandering in search of a redeemer. Those huge eyes haunted me for weeks. Pape was wonderfully articulate, making every word count, his glorious voice caressing and enhancing them while it poured forth in a ceaseless flood of beautiful sound. His voice is pure velvet. His dramatic impact was somewhat limited by the production’s apparent depiction of Gurnemanz as the vice-chairman of Monsalvat plc, and in Act III he indicated the character’s advanced age by doddering as only a fit, healthy young man can dodder. After waiting eagerly to hear him sing the Good Friday aria, it was disappointing that he momentarily lost his way. He may have been nervous due to the live relay that night. Simon O’Neill likewise suffered from being obliged to portray the Act I Parsifal as a slob, and was hampered by his blindfold in Act III (how could he see the conductor?), but I was impressed by his development of the character into the wise, suffering redeemer, and I have never heard him sing so well or with such intelligence. In advance I thought that Gerald Finley would be taking a risk in singing Amfortas here. Admittedly I did not hear his acclaimed Sachs at Glyndebourne, but singing Wagner there is a very different proposition to the vast open spaces of Covent Garden. I need not have worried. His singing was consistently lyrical and beautiful, conveying the character’s agony and repentance through the music and words without ever needing to push his voice. The intensity of his acting was riveting, and his joy at the final reunion with Kundry brought tears to my eyes. Willard White’s voice may have lost some of its plushiness of sound, but his commanding, eerie Klingsor proved that he is still a formidable force to be reckoned with. The same cannot be said for his fellow veteran Robert Lloyd whose Titurel was a vivid and horrific stage presence, but whose singing has become uncomfortably wavery. There was excellent work in all the lesser roles, and the vastly augmented chorus surpassed itself, especially in the finales to Acts I and III. Antonio Pappano created long arcs of sound which let the music breathe, with subtle changes of dynamic which maintained a sense of aural tension all night long. This may be his finest Wagnerian work yet for the Royal Opera, and the orchestra played their hearts out for him. Musically, this was an outstanding company achievement, but I felt that the production was hollow at its heart.

– 21 – PARSIFAL : BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE AND EAR OF THE BEHOLDER Royal Opera House Covent Garden, 18 th December 2013 Hilary Reid Evans This production of Parsifal has been lauded as ‘shimmering,’ ‘epic’ and ‘visually eloquent’. Despite the stellar cast this listener was left unmoved, even angry at an opportunity lost, the fine orchestral playing masked by a conductor (Pappano) – and here I agree with the blogger Boulezian – who seems to treat Wagner as a teutonic version of Verdi. Stephen Langridge’s production featured a centre-stage cube containing a hospital bed. Having seen Langridge’s The Grange production of I Puritani , also featuring a hospital bed, one wonders about the veracity of his symbolism and the originality of his concept. The cube (how many times have we seen this device before?) served both as Amfortas’ bier of suffering and a flashback mechanism for those of us too stupid to have any knowledge of the opera or even to have read the programme notes. Klingsor’s ‘in the cube’ self-castration was designed to shock and successfully distracted from the action. The characterisation of the Grail – a young boy in a loin cloth, the piercing of whose side produced the holy blood – brought with it overtones of child abuse, while the Knights, in their identical grey suits, appeared devoid of any passion, their choreographed hand movements indicating a cult but with nothing in their singing or demeanour to convey conviction. Klingsor’s magic garden – a few artificial flowers stage left – passed almost un-noticed. The flower maidens’ costumes and choreography reminded me strongly of the television advertisement whose catch line was ‘bring on the girls’. Tawdry, lacking in sexual tension, one is unsurprised by Parsifal’s retention of his chastity. What of the principals? Simon O’Neill’s Parsifal had shades of the rough sleeper about his demeanour, but despite some patchy singing managed to retain a dignity throughout. Personally I would like to have seen his growth and transition throughout the opera more clearly marked, yet it was there, in his vocal line and demeanour, if one worked at the interpretation. Parsifal’s temporary blinding was yet again designed to shock and failed to advance our understanding of his spiritual journey. René Pape’s Gurnemanz was warm and melodic of voice, aristocratic in bearing, yet somehow the production rendered him invisible in most key scenes. Gurnemanz’s final scene with Parsifal failed to bring out the symmetry of the opera, the turning of the tables, the sense of renewal, regeneration and forgiveness. Gerald Finley, usually delectably subtle of voice and capable of great acting, seemed almost wooden in his interpretation of Amfortas. Again one suspects the dead hand of the director. Finley’s rich tones sadly conveyed little of the agony of the character. Perhaps it was the time of year, but Willard White’s interpretation of Klingsor had a whiff of the pantomime villain about it. Was it perhaps the well-worn black leather coat, seen on White in so many other Opera House productions? Clearly his voice is past its best, but he still managed to dominate his scenes. Finally, Angela Denoke’s Kundry. The symbolism of her shaven-headed sinner and red-haired siren appearances was clear, her voice however patchy, at times sharp and never voluptuous, sadly looking too like Sinéad O’Connor to be credible. Yet despite this her acting conveyed real pathos. There will be a Jungian study day in Oxford on May 10 th which will explore aspects of Parsifal , including a session with veteran Wagnerian conductor Anthony Negus. May I suggest that Langridge and Pappano should attend before approaching another Wagner opera? – 22 – REGENERATION IN PARSIFAL Charles Ellis A loathsome racist theory and a Christianity-based compassion have this in common: they both have been seen as the main theme of Parsifal . For the first interpretation, we can cite Robert Gutman’s celebrated (or preposterous, according to taste) 1968 view as set down in Richard Wagner, The Man, His Mind and His Music . For the second we can refer to the most recently published analysis in Paul Dawson-Bowling’s The Wagner Experience and its meaning to us . Both see a form of regeneration in the concluding scene. Gutman saw Wagner as: “a proto-Nazi with a programme for racial regeneration” whilst Dawson-Bowling sees the work as a fable on the power of compassion: “a representation of a circle completed, brokenness made whole”. The sense of regeneration, of new life, can only come through the music. At the ROH performance on 18 th December (which was also televised live) the sound of the orchestra under Pappano in Act III was ineffable: strong but also exquisite beyond description, and finer in balance and nuance than that heard at Bayreuth in 2011. The singing and stage presence of Simon O’Neill (Parsifal), Gerald Finley (Amfortas) and René Pape (Gurnemanz) were worthy of the orchestral pillow upon which their voices rested. So, what did the staging suggest? There was decay and collapse. In Act I the rite of communion clearly related to the Catholic practice where a priest takes communion on behalf of the congregation. The Grail was clearly intended as a symbol of purity. We see four knights arm themselves and leave for battle against Klingsor. The overall effect is of control and order. We can always expect that Act III has none of this, things having gone so badly, but this staging went further. Not only were the knights seemingly prepared to rough Amfortas up if he did not oblige but this time, when the doors opened to disclose the Grail, we saw an older, perhaps dissolute youth. This disclosure was premature however: the doors were closed and when they reopened there was nothing to be seen at all. The closing minutes thereafter start with the orchestra which is then joined by the on stage and off stage choruses. The knights seem visibly moved by what has happened and the regenerative music echoes this. Nevertheless, however magical the sound from pit and stage may be, the soloists go their own way and avoid all part in it. Parsifal walks into the central cube, walks through and out the back and disappears up centre. Amfortas and Kundry finally turn toward each other for the first time, acknowledge by gesture their separate but similar redemptions and, ignoring the actions of knights entirely, hold hands and move off stage right. Parsifal has left the Spear behind; Gurnemanz places it with deliberation along the top of Titurel’s corpse and, in replacing the winding cloth which had been torn away by Amfortas in his frenzy, he wraps not only the body but the spear within its folds. Both are to be buried. The notion of the Spear and the Grail coming together as a symbol of completion and wholeness (as described by Dawson-Bowling) is quite absent. As the curtain falls there is no Grail, no Spear, no leader of the Grail community – indeed no leadership at all. The community is on its own but is undeniably uplifted as stage action and music combine. It must strive anew without past certainties if it is to survive. If this is found to be moving and clear, is it because it may reflect the times in which we live? Worldwide there is big disillusion at the impotence of government and of governance in general. Organised religion, evident in Act 1, has lost legitimacy along with almost all other institutions. Hope may have to lie in the individual. Wagner’s art also wants to give us hope. – 23 – RICHARD BERKELEY-STEELE MASTERCLASSES St Olave's Church, Hart Street, London: 18 th January 2013 Katie Barnes Photography by Richard Carter A disappointingly small audience gathered in the almost deserted City of London on a bright Saturday afternoon to see Richard Berkeley-Steele, fondly remembered as ENO's gloriously stroppy-teenager Siegfried, impart his knowledge to two aspiring heldentenors who concentrated on arias from his two greatest roles. The little church, only a few minutes walk from the Tower, spared by the Great Fire and repaired following the Blitz, best known as the resting place of Samuel Pepys, nestles almost unseen amid the City's office blocks. From where I sat its acoustic was clear and resonant, without the echoing quality which can so often disfigure the sound in churches. Richard Rowe, encouraged by Berkeley-Steele to place Loge’s Immer ist Undank into context, pointed out that the character has two sides: he is the god of mischief and unpredictable, yet he can be trusted. He sang the aria beautifully, with lovely, full, unforced tone, but as a concert piece with only a couple of nods towards characterisation.

– 24 – Describing his singing as “absolutely fantastic”, especially as Rowe has not yet performed the role onstage, Berkeley-Steele observed that the problem of playing Loge is that the singer is absent for the first forty minutes of the opera and then is its master of ceremonies until the end. “He is probably the most intelligent person in the whole Ring . You have to play on people and take them in the whole time. How you begin is important. Be more downtrodden.” He encouraged Rowe to bring out more sweetness in his tone and to create a lovely subito piano at Erde : “Look at Freia at that moment. She’s beautiful. You probably hate her, but you have to make them think that you love her. Then pause. They’re all waiting!” He spent much of the session working with Rowe to improve his use of the words, encouraging him to speak through the text in English to enable him to make the most of the German. “Make the link between Wasser, Erd’ und Luft , all forms of life. See how it improves when you play with the words more. Play more with the consonants, make them your friends. Use them for colour; when you hear a consonant, go for it.” He pointed out how Wagner uses consonants for internal rhymes and alliteration: “ Weibes Wonne und Werth is a long phrase – he’s probably looking at one of the women onstage as he sings this. See how long you can make Weibes .” It was notable how Rowe not only attacked the consonants more, greatly improving the bite and colour in the vocal line, but also how his increased use of the text enabled him to produce a beautiful, melting tone at Weibes Wonne und Werth .

Richard Rowe with James Black Berkeley-Steele also encouraged him to make the aria more conversational. “Whenever Loge has a Doch , everyone wakes up! This is a beautiful bit of operetta, try to play with it more. Grow into verlacht , you can almost hear the laugh, make Lieb’ much,

– 25 – much warmer… You want them to think that Lieb’ und Weib is the end of the story, that there’s no hope. Then the more you underplay Nur einen , (only one) the more fun it is. Really use the words!” The fact that Alberich has given up the love of women for gold is shocking, but “you underplay it, laid back. You have to work harder when the gods aren’t interested, but when you have them in the palm of your hand you can relax.” It is very important that the audience hear Nacht-Alberich , (the reverse side of Wotan), but then it’s easy for them to lose the next word buhlte (wooed), which must be made into “something special. It is important to hear the orchestral rhythms. Make the most of the R’s – Rheingold, raubte, rächend . It’s so effective if you play das teuerste Gut, hehrer als Weibes Huld direct to Fricka. With gleissenden Tand , make people see the gold shining in the river.” Loge is totally in harmony with nature and the world, which is why he has a strong affinity with the Rhinedaughters and brings their complaint to Wotan. “Set it up to an dich, Wotan . Look at him and he’ll go: “Who, me?” Sing Wotan softly and bring him in to you. The consonants punctuate the music and give it sparkle. Loge must sparkle; he’s a wordsmith. He’s a strange creature. He’s not particularly moral but he has a very strong sense of where things should be, which you must sell to Wotan. Be the best advertisement for the gold being in the water, make ewig es bliebe the climax, then be conversational and underplay the end. He’s getting the cigarettes out! You want to see how Wotan will respond, and it won’t be well.” Throughout, the voice must be well supported. “Sing right through the phrase; join up the notes… I’m just helping you to colour it more.” When Rowe sang through the aria again at the end, the improvement was astonishing, especially in his use of the words, and the way he used them to enhance the text, which had improved dramatically, and he was much more into the character. Berkeley-Steele’s verdict: “Remarkable. I was so bitty, but he put together an amazing amount of the things I offered him.” Edward Hughes, shortly to understudy the young Siegfried for Fulham Opera, was likewise encouraged to put Nothung! Into context and to speak through a literal English translation of the text, which, Berkeley- Steele explained, would make them think about what he was singing. Hughes’ initial rendition of this murderous aria was vocally strong but pushed the voice very hard. With great tact, Berkeley-Steele shaped his advice to help this young singer perform the aria in a way which would suit his voice, and in doing so he gave us insights into the role which I for one had not previously considered.

– 26 – “The first scene is a killer, you can throw very few notes away. The role is full of red-light districts! You’ve sung a lot by this aria; you come on, all guns blazing, and everyone’s waiting for it. It’s about the bellows, not you! Wagner wants heroic youthfulness but also sensitivity. By extraordinarily hard work you have ground the metal of the sword down. This is the only connection you have with your father. As you hold the crucible, it is a holy moment. Wagner called this scene “a great lament”. All through the act, this boy is desperately trying to discover himself and is discovering his masculinity. There is lots of Neid , envy. You envy this sword. “Why was this sword broken?” It’s such a sad moment, if it hadn’t broken, his father might be here. The voice needs more gravitas. Get it more laid-back, sit it in the saddle. If you try to sing Siegfried against the orchestra, you’ll lose! Use the words a lot more, make the consonants your friends. They make us prick up our ears.” When Hughes tried this passage again, there was a huge improvement. He used the words to support the voice, with the result that he did not need to push it so much and his singing had far more light and shade. Berkeley-Steele advised him to start Hoho! with a staccato which “helps the voice to attack to the back of the theatre” while taking account of the different note values, and to “tell the story, be a bit more lyrical while keeping a strong line through. I was taught a trick with these big moments: paint them on the wall!” This scene is pure ritual, with fire melting and purifying. Sensibly, they did not spend too long on this taxing scene, and Hughes spent the rest of his session working on the Preislied from Die Meistersinger , with which he sounded much more at ease. Berkeley-Steele praised the “lovely ring” in his voice but advised him to “again sit in the saddle a little more and, if you dare, start a little bit quieter.” He observed that this is a frightening moment for Walther: everyone is waiting for this song, and he is thinking so much about Eva that he forgets all the words and has to begin afresh. “It’s very literary, full of rhymes and inner rhymes, it has to have a feeling of absolute improvisation. Be more intimate at the start, then in the later verses you get excited, breaking all the Meistersingers’ rules. Don’t do less than you’re comfortable with. You’re a poet, not a musician, so really, really play with the words. Enjoy them.” He noted that Wagner wrote “in ecstasy” above dort unter einem Wunderbaum – “You’ve seen something wonderful in the tree.” With that advice in mind, Hughes repeated it and produced a phrase of such loveliness that the audience held their breath. I wanted to take that sound away and bottle it. Berkeley-Steele commended him for “really, really capturing the ecstasy” and urged him: “never mind the music, play with the images, excite everyone with the poetry… give us more of the rhymes. Walther is enraptured with his own artistry; he knows it’s good. Don’t make us hate him, but let us know that.” Loge aside, tenors are not generally regarded as the cleverest of Wagner’s characters, but Berkeley-Steele has proved himself to be a tenor of great wisdom. His advice was most carefully pitched to enable these two young singers to perform Wagner’s music in a way which would not be unduly taxing and to use his words to support their voices. It is to be hoped that he may return at a later date to teach more young Wagnerians the way they ought to go.

– 27 – BROMLEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA DIE WALKÜRE ACT I Langley Park Centre for the Performing Arts, 25 th January 2014 Photography by Richard Carter

Conductor: Adrian Brown

Siegmund: John Upperton Sieglinde: Janice Watson Hunding: Oliver Gibbs

– 28 – STAGING AN ENIGMA David Edwards questions our responses to a masterpiece The elderly Leader of a men-only religious sect demands that its Initiates repeatedly perform rituals of spiritual purification. Their Brotherhood is a fractured society that is gradually losing its strength; those who seek to join must endure lengthy trials to prove their worth. In particular, they must resist the temptations of the flesh: women. What story is this? It’s a précis of Die Zauberflöte , familiar to all German audiences in the 19th Century and of course to Wagner who conducted it during his time as music director in Riga. But it might also serve as a thumbnail sketch for Parsifal . Mozart’s mysterious yet human, triumphant work is as elusive and multi-dimensional as Wagner’s. Parsifal laments that no repentance or atonement can wrench him free from his ignorant state of (metaphorical) blindness. Tamino, in the depths of endless night, cries out in despair Wann wird das Licht mein Auge finden? The polarities of male and female, good and evil, compassion and revenge and the importance of ritual are some of the many themes common to both. But common to both what ? Neither is an opera. Mozart’s Singspiel was about as far removed from the contemporary idea of opera in the 18 th Century as Wagner’s Bühnenweihfestspiel was in the 19 th . How do we approach a work that is clearly not intended by its author to be an opera or even, in his own more frequent description, a music drama, but is instead a Stage Consecration Festival Play ? What is that? Is it possible to get even close to realising on stage a work that is so densely layered, nuanced and mystically suggestive in its musical atmosphere? After all, Parsifal offers no Papageno equivalent to direct us ordinary mortals through the labyrinths of the Temple of Wisdom. So we surrender ourselves to the stagings of others: Hands, Bryden, Gruber and now Langridge at Covent Garden, Friedrich, Herz, Bieto, Schlingensief, Loy and Herheim et al elsewhere. Each director offers his (and I struggle to think of any female directors since Ruth Berghaus to tackle this piece) personal, idiosyncratic and subjective view of Parsifal . Each is guaranteed to annoy, enrage, frustrate and even bore some members of its audience, each of whom have, inevitably and quite rightly, their own personal, idiosyncratic and subjective views which they would prefer to see on the stage. Some satisfactory compromise between stage and public is usually possible in presentations of Die Zauberflöte . With Parsifal , it appears, it is not. Directors do not undertake their task lightly. The best ones seek to reveal the piece, to let it speak, to facilitate its expression of its own self. In other words, they aim to show the work for what it is, not tell us what it means. This isn’t easy – far more difficult, in fact, than merely decorating the stage with the naturalistic illustrations indicated in the stage directions. Even those lovely stage directions are not real – they too are part of the author’s imagination, which we may share in but will always visualise differently inside our own heads. No two visual conceptions of a “forest clearing in the northern mountains of Gothic Spain” could ever be alike. But if Parsifal is only about characters in a forest, garden and temple, then the spectator must choose his “production to view” with care. Better then that we ponder the form of the work, listen to the music and reflect on the Stage, Consecration, Festival and Play elements than bicker over the way the content is presented to us. We ought to confront the misogyny, racism and barbarity in Die Zauberflöte , but rarely do. Parsifal on the other hand has the ability to set us at loggerheads from virtually the first bar of music. Parsifal may even be beyond staging, until we re-examine what Wagner has composed and perhaps reconsider what we ourselves want from experiencing the work. – 29 – STORMS AT SEA…...AND IN THE CHORUS Anniversary Year Reflections on Der fliegende Holländer, Otello and Peter Grimes Bayreuth (25/7/2013) Teatro La Fenice (4/4/2013*) ENO (23/2/2014) John Crowther

Painting by Willem van de Velde the Younger (ca. 1650-1707) Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Wagner wanted his audiences to leave the theatre in deep thought about the music drama they had just seen. That is indeed what happened to me after the HD transmission of Der fliegende Holländer which opened Bayreuth’s 2013 Festival. The opera was directed by Jan Philipp Gloger and was presented incongruously in modern dress. For example in Act I Daland and his steersman rowed ashore wearing immaculate business suits which had never seen the light of day let alone survived a raging storm in the North Sea. This elegant dress code belied Wagner’s primeval music in the overture. The score was brilliantly conducted by Christian Thielemann, who now has over 100 performances in the Festspielhaus to his credit. The overture was still ringing in my ears as I left the auditorium and it occurred to me then that the three composers with special anniversaries in 2013: Wagner, Verdi and Britten, had each written dramatic music to describe a ferocious storm at sea and that all their orchestrations are very different. Wagner’s storm in the overture of Der fliegende Holländer was famously inspired by a terrifying sea voyage which he made in 1839 from Riga to London en route to Paris where he hoped to make his fortune. After a week at sea the vessel ran into a fierce storm which raged for a whole day. Many years later he recounted that the wind in the rigging “sounded like the purest music”. – 30 – At the start of the transmission from Bayreuth the cameras revealed Christian Thielemann wearing old jeans and a sweatshirt. (These metamorphosed into white tie and tails for the curtain calls.) In the shadowy light of the orchestra pit he could be seen pulling a raging storm from his musicians: firstly tremolo violins and flutes mimicking the wind in the rigging, then the horns, timpani, trombones and basses together representing the deep troughs in the waves and the roar of the sea. The vividness of Wagner’s writing, the faithfulness of Thielemann’s conducting and the virtuosity of the Photo: Bayreuth Festival Bayreuth orchestra combined miraculously to demonstrate the sheer power of the sea. Verdi’s Otello has no overture and so it is unique not only in Verdi’s works, but also in the whole canon of nineteenth century opera. Like that in Der fliegende Holländer , the storm occurs at the start of the piece. Otello, a Moor in the service of Venice, has just defeated the Turkish fleet when his boat rides into a fierce storm as it approaches his home port on Cyprus. The crowds waiting to greet the victor cry out in anguish as his ship appears to founder on the rocks. Verdi portrays the storm not only in the orchestra but also in a fortissimo chorus of patriots. The colours in the orchestra are achieved by a wind- machine, horns, bassoons, timpani and Verdi’s tell-tale bass drum. The orchestration is dramatic for both chorus and instruments and parts of it are similar to the Dies Irae in his Requiem which of course describes a storm in the firmament rather than at sea. Where Verdi acquired his knowledge of a storm at sea is a mystery because he lived most of his life as a farmer on his estate at Sant’Agata, which is about 100km from the Italian coast. Britten lived by the North Sea for much of his life and although he was not a seafarer he observed the sea from the beach almost daily and could translate its changing moods into virtuosic music. In Peter Grimes he punctuates the three Acts (and some of the scenes) with “sea interludes” which are symphonic poems representing the mood of the sea as befits the drama on the stage. ENO’s production by David Alden was transmitted live in HD to cinemas within the UK. The orchestra was conducted by Edward Gardner – an artist who has been captivated by Britten’s music ever since he was a cathedral chorister. The cameras focussed on the pit during the Act I “storm interlude”. Gardner was seen extracting raw and visceral music from a full-blooded orchestra. The mighty swell of the sea in which the troughs of the waves were depicted by timpani, horns, trombones and a tuba, whilst the plumes of spray at the crest of the waves were depicted by high strings, trumpets and piccolos. At the height of the storm a bass tam-tam announced the gravity of the situation. The cinema audience was left in no doubt Photo: The Times that a storm was brewing for Peter Grimes. Of the three storms, Wagner’s is the most realistic because he alone had the experience of being terrified at sea; for him it was real and we can hear it in his music. The orchestral storms in Der fliegende Holländer and Peter Grimes are played in concert halls all over the world so bringing these creative, dramatic compositions to music lovers who may never visit an opera house. Long may this continue. *(BBC Radio 3 relay as part of the “Verdi 200” season) – 31 – WAGNER AND THE DREAM KING AN ILLUSTRATED RECITAL Written and presented by David Edwards. Performed by The Mastersingers Company St Botolph’s Church Hall, Bishopsgate, London: 11 th March 2014 Roger Lee Photography: Richard Carter “Art on its own seldom pays the bills.” How the truth of David Edwards’ opening words must have struck those artists present among us where, in yet another standing-room only Mastersingers sell-out, we were fortunate to hear an astonishingly good cast of singers (how do Mastersingers keep bringing forth all this wonderful new talent?) perform a programme which would surely have earned the approval of Lord Reith himself for its capacity to “educate, inform and entertain”. Never one to compromise on his artistic vision or on his lifestyle, Richard Wagner had apparently unrealisable ambitions as to what he wanted to put on stage. Works of colossal scope, length and demands of performers were unlikely to attract theatre managers looking for crowd-pleasing entertainment to fill their seats. In 1863 Wagner wrote in the preface to his Ring poem: “Only a German prince with a conception of his own duty to German art could raise the necessary funds to stage The Ring . Will this prince be found?” And so in music and pictures we were told how, in Berlioz’s term, “the talent to be lucky” came Wagner’s way when the prince for whom he longed emerged from the wings. David Edwards showed slides of Prince Ludwig of Bavaria’s famous castles: “…there are swans everywhere!” The fact that the 18 year old had started to identify himself with the “Swan Knight” Lohengrin provided the cue for tenor Stephen Rooke to perform Mein lieber Schwan! from Act III of Lohengrin . This opening piece was received with cries of “bravo!” Thus had the “recital” element of David Edwards’ concept been given the best possible start. Stephen said “I wondered whether my voice was up to the challenge of singing such a role but the more I sang it the more my voice seemed to want to rise to that challenge! I loved it. Thank you David and the Wagner Society for asking me to be part of a wonderful evening and for introducing me to another Wagner role to get my teeth into.” Among Wagner’s as yet unheard work was Tristan und Isolde due to the difficulty of performing it. Soprano Cara McHardy hit the ground running with Isolde’s cursing “Vengeance! Death!” address: O blinde Augen! whose hurricane force drew gasps from around the room. Cara clearly appreciated the encouragement of a responsive audience. She told Wagner News: “I have only recently started singing Wagner but already I feel comfortable and confident performing this wonderful repertoire. I would like to thank Ludmilla Andrew and The Wagner Society for their support which has allowed me to work recently with Anthony Negus on the role of Isolde.” – 32 – David Edwards made full use of the scope for comedy available in telling the story of Ludwig trying to find Wagner (who was, as so often, on the run) to tell him of his imminent reversal of fortunes. At this point Cara McHardy sang Isolde’s narration on her way to a rather less happy outcome than Wagner was to find from his journey to meet King Ludwig. Making her first venture into the Wagnerian Fach , mezzo Lise Christensen performed Brangäne’s Warning ( Einsam wachend ) from offstage with exquisite control of its unremittingly long phrasing. She then showed no lack of confidence with her very convincing delivery of Ortrud’s Entweihte Götter! – another Rache (vengeance) aria, hitting her top A ♯ with complete assurance, singing both items from memory. She said: “This was an amazing setting in which to perform Wagner for the first time: not too big a venue and a wonderfully appreciative and knowledgeable audience. Singing Wagner at this stage in my career feels like coming home after a long journey. Thank you, Wagner Society!” After their first meeting Ludwig wrote to Wagner: “I will banish from you for ever the petty cares of everyday life. I will procure for you the peace you have longed for so that you will be free to spread the mighty wings of your genius in the pure air of your rapturous art. You have been the sole source of my happiness since I was a mere boy.” Wagner had indeed found a friend. Cara McHardy returned to sing Eva’s O Sachs! Mein Freund! from Die Meistersinger Visual images suggesting that Ludwig saw himself as Lohengrin heralded Stephen Rooke’s return to sing In fernem Land from Act III, again to storming applause. So Ludwig was clearly a dreamer, a fantasist, but David Edwards doubted the competence and the integrity of those whose diagnosis of his insanity preceded the discovery of his body in Lake Starnberg following a still mysterious death (not, in fact by drowning) the day after he was deposed. With a final quotation from Ludwig: “I want to remain forever an enigma, to myself and to others” Cara closed a wonderfully devised and performed production with Isolde’s Mild und leise : “Sink down in, drown in dreamless rest, highest lust!” So much of this event’s success was due to the skill and thoroughness of approach of Musical Director Andrew Charity. His sensitive rapport with the singers and the encouragement he gave them in rehearsal provided a secure platform from which they were able to demonstrate their craft. The audience obviously enjoyed the chance to witness this latest Mastersingers offering. With such support as that provided by the Wagner Society the company consistently delivers high standard performances with young artists whose potential will one day come to be handsomely realised. The artistic love affair between king and composer could never have lasted with the intensity with which it began. Within only 18 months Wagner was packing his bags, accused by ministers of spending too much of Ludwig’s money and meddling in state affairs. Ludwig’s being forced to ask Wagner to leave Munich did not represent the end of their relationship but rather what might be called “the end of Part 1” as the King continued to play a huge role in Wagner’s life. David Edwards’ suggestion: “Let’s do The Dream King Part 2 another time...” must have had many people in the room thinking the same as me: “Just let me know when the tickets are available!” – 33 – NEWS OF YOUNG ARTISTS OUR YOUNG SINGERS: A PROGRESS REPORT Andrea Buchanan We have had some very exciting news over the past couple of months on the progress of several of the young singers whom we have supported in different ways. Winner of our 2011 Bayreuth Bursary Competition Helena Dix has not only reached the finals of the highly prestigious Wagner Competition for Young Singers in Seattle which will take place in July this year, but we have also just heard that she has been nominated for the Young Singer Award at the Opera Awards ceremony in London In April. Other finalists include Pretty Yende, who has already sung major roles at the Met in New York and Jamie Barton, who won last year’s Cardiff Singer of the World. Both of these latest achievements are outstanding and Helena seems assured of a wonderful career. We all wish her the greatest of success. Oh, and she’s getting married this summer, so congratulations are in order. Helena received considerable press acclaim for her role as Queen Cristina in the new Wexford Festival Opera staging of Foroni’s Cristina, Regina di Svezia last summer, (see photo) along with her Elettra in Idomeneo in Lübeck last Spring. Future performances include her return to Valladolid to sing Elisabeth in Don Carlo, Verdi’s Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall, Strauss Songs at St. John’s, Smith Square, Britten’s War Requiem and Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with Northampton Symphony and guest artist at the Wexford Opera Festival Gala nights, both at St. John’s, Smith Square, London and in Dublin. Helena has always been wonderful to work with, and she has generously acknowledged the support that the Wagner Society has given her over the past few years. She was kind enough to tweet on February 16 th “You never forget those who Photo: Clive Barda help and guide you. Many thanks, Wagner Society!” Runner up in the 2013 Wagner Society Singing Competition Jonathan Stoughton made his role debut as Siegfried in Götterdämmerung under Anthony Negus at Longborough Festival Opera in 2013 for which he received the inaugural annual Robert and Pat LeFever Prize. He was also a finalist in the inaugural Wagner Society Competition. He recently appeared as Adolar in Weber’s Euryanthe with Chelsea Opera Group, Alwa (Jimmy) American Lulu directed by John Fulljames in a co-production for Scottish Opera and The Opera Group at The Young Vic Theatre and at both the Bregenz and Edinburgh International Festivals. Photo: Matthew Williams-Ellis

– 34 – 2012 Bursary Winner Rhonda Browne writes that she performed Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica in February. In March she travelled to Germany for some coaching with Petra Lang and Adrian Baianu, along with coaching from the Munich Staatsoper. Over Easter she will perform several more Messiahs with Merry Opera. Rhonda (shown at the Mastersingers Gods and Heroes weekend with Sir John Tomlinson in May 2013) is also getting married this year, and again we extend our congratulations. Photo: Richard Carter Joint Winner of the 2013 Wagner Society Singing Competition Paul Carey Jones has just appeared in the title role of Macbeth for Northern Ireland Opera, his first major Verdi role, in a double cast opposite Rachel Nicholls and Miriam Murphy as Lady Macbeth. Critics praised the “nuance and intelligence” of his interpretation (Terry Blain, Culture Northern Ireland) and his “smooth, Italianate legato and perfect diction” (Hugh Canning, Sunday Times). Following this successful Verdi debut he goes on to create the roles of Dancing Williams, Sinbad Sailors, Mr Pritchard, Mr Pugh and Willy Nilly (amongst others) in the world premiere of John Metcalf's operatic adaptation of Under Milk Wood as part of the Photo: Northern Ireland Opera Dylan Thomas centenary celebrations. He met up with Sir John Tomlinson in Antwerp where Sir John was in rehearsals at Vlaamse Opera for Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District . There they discussed plans to meet in London over the summer for some intensive study on Wotan. Paul will sing the role of Kothner in Saffron Opera Group's concert performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg this September in Saffron Walden and discussions are well advanced for his first major staged Wagnerian role in the 2014-15 season. Shown here with spokesman of the Judges, Sir John Tomlinson, joint winner of the 2013 Wagner Society Singing Competition, Catrin Aur is currently learning the role of Cio-Cio San ( Madama Butterfly ) for Scottish Opera as cover and is looking forward to singing Lady Macbeth for Scottish Opera this coming autumn as well as Kate Pinkerton in the Spring and Summer. She is keen to take up the coaching which the Wagner Society will fund as her prize, and is in the process of setting Photo: Richard Miles this up. She is now learning German and will pursue her studies over the coming year.

– 35 – AMANDA ECHALAZ Malcolm Rivers Long-time supporters of Mastersingers will have been delighted once again to read of the success of Amanda Echalaz in her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in January. This elegant and engaging soprano was in New York to sing in Madama Butterfly , and also to find the time to get married to Robert Meya, Director of External Affairs for the Santa Fe Opera where Amanda sang Tosca in 2012. Congratulations to them both and Brava! Butterfly is a role with which Amanda also recently made her debut in Chicago, and the third of her notable Puccini heroines to date. Cio-Cio San and Manon Lescaut (in Brussels and Warsaw) will doubtless feature again regularly in her future calendar, but it is as Floria Tosca that she has captured the eye of casting directors around the world. “Unforgettable” is the recurring word used of her characterisation of the jealous, possessive and ultimately murderous opera singer in Puccini’s melodrama which she first presented under the baton of Phillip Thomas in a thrilling updated production by Stephen Photo: Ken Howard, New York Met Barlow for Opera Holland Park in 2008.

Those with healthy memories may recall that Amanda was runner-up in the Rita Hunter Competition 2002, won the Bayreuth Bursary the following year and was also a finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Competition in 2003. She appeared in the Mastersingers 2004 production of Die Walküre (Act III) as Sieglinde, with Elaine McKrill as Brünnhilde) and Julian Tovey as Wotan and went on to represent her native South Africa in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2005. Her early career was spent with Welsh National Opera where she sang a bridesmaid in Le Nozze di Figaro (2001) and, as an Associate Young Artist, a Flowermaiden in Parsifal (2003). She went on to sing with English Touring Opera, appearing as Fiordiligi, Jenufa, Tatyana and Alcina – roles that need to be sung with beauty and lyricism but which also provided the groundwork for the heavier repertoire that would follow. Amelia Un ballo in maschera , Maddalena Andrea Chenier, Elisabetta Don Carlo and the Puccini roles listed above all make more dramatic demands upon the singer, and Amanda now has these firmly under her belt. She has also sung Salomé at La Monnaie, Brussels – of which again Mastersingers audiences were given a foretaste at the Royal Academy in 2008 when she performed the final scene during A Richard Strauss Afternoon conducted by Lionel Friend and staged by David Edwards. The future promises more Toscas in Italy and South America, some light relief with Falstaff Alice Ford in Toronto and the delicious prospect of Lohengrin Elsa at La Monnaie in 2015. Mastersingers fans will be booking their tickets to Brussels very soon – and of course hoping that a return to Covent Garden and ENO will not be too far distant as well.

– 36 – the Wagner society REHEARSAL FOUNDED 1953 President: Dame Gwyneth Jones. Kammersangerin ORCHESTRA Registered charity number 266383 Registered Charity No. 1076508 Artistic Director: Malcolm Rivers

Tristan und Isolde Scenes 1v, 2ii, 3ii with the Rehearsal Orchestra Conductor: David Syrus

Henry Wood Hall, Trinity Church Square, London SE1 4HE Nearest Tube is Borough (Northern Line)

Sunday October 19 th 2014 2 - 5pm Rehearsal, 6 - 7.30pm Run-through

Rachel Nicholls, Neal Cooper and Alison Kettlewell Covered by Cara McHardy, Jonathan Stoughton and Lise Christensen Musical coach: David Syrus

Tickets £20 (full-time students £10) Refreshments available all day in the Crypt

Event sponsored by The Wagner Society, Eric Adler, Frances & David Waters

To: Peter Leppard, Sickleholme Cottage, Saltergate Lane, Bamford, Hope Valley, S33 0BE [email protected]

Please send me_____tickets @ £20 for Sunday October 19 th 2014.

I enclose cheque for £………………payable to The Wagner Society and a SAE .

Name……………………………………………………….phone………………………

Address……………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………….…e-mail………………..………………………

– 37 – APRÈS LE DÉLUGE Wagner changed the musical world forever. Following the difficulties and challenges of TRISTAN with the tidal flood that concludes GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG , Wagner ensured that no subsequent music would sound the same again. Perhaps for the first time in musical history composers were aware of the burden of the task that faced them: to follow Wagner’s lead, or to reject it? How did the next generation react to the Wagnerian revolution and how did composers reflect and adapt what the master of Bayreuth had inspired?

Borrowing a phrase attributed to Madame de Pompadour on the eve of the French Revolution: Après moi, le déluge Mastersingers and the Music Club of London present a weekend of events exploring the repercussions and influence of Wagner's writing on the late 19 th and early 20 th century musical landscape. Presentations include a masterclass with Dame Anne Evans, illustrated lectures, live recitals and discussion on the music of Puccini, Strauss, Schoenberg, Janá ek, Debussy, Mahler and others over the course of an idyllic September weekend by thečsea in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. The Musical Director is Phillip Thomas and the weekend is curated by David Edwards.

Artists appearing include Dame Anne Evans, Phillip Thomas, Rachel Nicholls, Laura Parfitt, Michael Bracegirdle, Eddie Wade, Julian Jacobson and David Edwards

Venue: Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh

September 12 th – 14 th 2014

Casting correct at time of printing however Mastersingers/MCL reserve the right to alter programming and/or artists

Registered Charity No. 1076508 Artistic Director: Malcolm Rivers

– 38 – APRÈS LE DÉLUGE Aldeburgh, 12 th to 15 th September 2014

Presented by The Mastersingers and The Music Club of London

TITLE: ……… FIRST NAME: ……………..…….. SURNAME: ……….…………… ADDRESS: …………………………………………………………………...... ……… …………………………………………………………………………..…… ……………………………………... POSTCODE .……………………...… If you have any queries please contact Rosemary Frischer: 0207 700 7999 or [email protected] before completing this form I enclose (non-refundable) deposit of £100 per person: Total: £………… Please send a cheque payable to The Music Club of London to Rosemary Frischer at 2 St George’s Avenue, London N7 0HD enclosing an A5 stamped, addressed envelope .

SIGNED: ………………………………....……. DATE: ………………..……………… The cost of the weekend per person includes three nights accommodation, dinner on Friday, lunch on Saturday and Sunday, coach travel from London (if required), tickets for all events at the Jubilee Hall and all gratuities. Please tick your choice of room. WHITE LION HOTEL ROOMS BRUDENELL HOTEL ROOMS Inland double/twin: £494 J Inland double/twin: £515 J Single occupancy: £615 J Single occupancy: £695 J Sea view double/twin: £554 J Sea view double: £595 J Single occupancy: £705 J Single occupancy: £820 J Superior sea view double: £608 J Superior inland double: £632 J Single occupancy: £787 J Single occupancy: £875 J Sea view single: £584 J Superior sea view double: £650 J Deluxe sea view double: £710 J Inland single: £575 J Please tick if you will be travelling by coach from London: J To comply with insurance requirements this package is available to members of The Music Club of London only. If you are not a member please enclose a separate cheque for £15 Single or £20 joint membership payable to The Music Club of London.

– 39 – WALTER WIDDOP: THE GREAT YORKSHIRE TENOR Richard Hyland Recently I saw an advert in Gramophone for a book on Walter Widdop who hailed from my native town of Halifax. I already possessed a tape of his recordings and the 1938 recording of Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music . I phoned the author, Michael Letchford to order a copy which also contains a CD of 19 priceless recordings dating from 1924 to 1930 including four Wagner tracks. It was so apparent that this was a labour of love for the author who has not left a stone unturned to research Widdop’s life and career. Mr Letchford’s admiration for the artist and the man shines through every page. I found it impossible not to share his feelings. Widdop lived in Norland, a village overlooking Sowerby Bridge. He left school at twelve to work in a mill but then studied part-time, a common practice in that era. He sang so much at work that his workmates clubbed together to enable him to have professional tuition. I found it extremely moving that working-class men who cannot have been well paid thought their colleague deserved their support. Widdop went to an eminent teacher in Halifax. At 21 he couldn’t read music. The aspiring tenor won singing competitions throughout the land and went to London to pursue a career despite lack of funds. In a remarkably short time he was performing major Wagner roles. Wagner and Handel were to form the backbone of his career. Fame did not change the man. He enjoyed the company of old acquaintances and was also a friend of the legendary Herbert Sutcliffe, the only Englishman to average over 60 in Test cricket .How we could do with these two gentlemen now! I particularly liked the fact that Widdop did not allow himself to be cowed by the acerbic wit of Sir Thomas Beecham. A letter from Widdop shows him to have been an articulate man despite his lack of formal schooling Walter Widdop died at the age of only 57 after singing Lohengrin’s farewell at the Proms. It is tempting to say that he was born too soon but the inter-war years were far from being a Wagner desert, especially in unlikely places. I had to pinch myself on reading that Covent Garden came to the Halifax Theatre Royal for a fortnight. Widdop sang Siegmund twice and two Tristans with Florence Austral under Barbirolli. How good was he? I turn to Neville Cardus the great cricket writer who, incidentally, introduced Barbirolli to Mahler’s music. Cardus wrote: “For consistently satisfying vocalism his was better than Melchior”. Michael Letchford writes: “Much as I love Melchior, he can sound sloppy compared with Widdop, often approaching notes from below. It is a relief to hear Widdop land with a real ping! on the right note…” This book is extremely well written with a selection of handsome photographs. It is a real treasure-trove which I know I shall consult again and again for the wealth of information on inter-war music and the admirable man. I do hope that some fellow Wagnerians will seek to find out more about Walter Widdop. You don’t have to be a Yorkshireman; Michael Letchford certainly isn’t. Walter Widdop The Great Yorkshire Tenor: £28.50 from Michael Letchford Artists, Goar Lodge, Smith’s Green, Takeley, CM22 6NS 01279 870 590 [email protected]

– 40 – TERRY QUINN: RICHARD WAGNER THE LIGHTER SIDE Roger Lee In 1957 Neville Cardus wrote: “One of the several shortcomings of musical criticism is a plentiful lack of humour and an excess of solemnity. Beckmesser is winning with ease.” With the examination of every aspect of Wagner’s life and works being necessarily serious, occasionally heavy going and sometimes dark, it is, as Terry Quinn says: “time for some light relief.” What we have here is a richly illustrated 300 page collection of interesting and/or humorous quotations, little known facts, often satirical visual caricatures and a wealth of such useful “straight” material as a Bare Bones Plot summary of each music drama. Was a cylinder recording really made of Wagner conducting the Bayreuth Festspiel Orchestra in a four minute fragment of Tristan und Isolde with Amalie Materna as Isolde and Albert Niemann around 1880? What are the names of Wotan’s ravens? (Munin (memory or thought) and Hugin (reason) since you ask…). How does the total of more than 4,700 Wagner performances at the Proms compare with that of the second most performed composer, Beethoven? (More than double!) However small, however vast your knowledge, in these pages a Wagner hinterland invites exploration. Of course there is likely to be ground which you have thoroughly trodden. Or, perhaps more accurately, which you thought you had. The abundance of narrative threads in this book may however enhance what you already knew. Ever since a snatch of film of Sir Reginald Goodall conducting made me wonder how orchestras and singers coped with an apparently total lack of any discernible downbeat I have found myself uncertain as to whether or not to be recruited to the ranks of the credulous about the well-known story of Reggie leaning over the rostrum at ENO whilst the double basses were waiting to play the opening to Das Rheingold and whispering: “I’ve started.” Reading Terry Quinn’s account I was finally able to get to the root of this anecdote. On that occasion Reggie had turned up without a dress suit. The costume department couldn’t find anything small enough to fit him so he entered the pit wearing a jacket with sleeves a few inches too long for him. So when he gave that (let’s say, ever so subtle) downbeat for the E flat the musicians were unable to see the hands hidden up his sleeves and so they continued to wait… Our own Malcolm Rivers turns up in Quinn’s account of the Seattle Ring as do some anecdotes from our then photographer Peter West which appeared in Wagner News 202 as a Pleased to meet you item in July 2011. There are excellent features on what Quinn terms “Helden Wagnerians” such as Brian Magee, Speight Jenkins, Reginald Goodall, Bernard Levin and George Bernard Shaw as well as interesting references to the early days of the Wagner Society. As well as such absorbing serendipity the book also embodies useful sources of reference. An extended section on the Bayreuth experience for example offers worthwhile advice to prospective visitors. For those who require a quick introduction or reminder each work is discussed in just a few pages. As well as an enjoyable (casual?) read for established Wagner enthusiasts I believe that this book can present a positive answer to that gift-buying question which may arise from time to time as to whether there exists something out there which would be capable of providing a newcomer to the subject with an effective introduction to the world of Richard Wagner. – 41 – VENUES FOR WAGNER SOCIETY EVENTS Peter Leppard, Events Manager The cost of room hire in London can be eye-wateringly high. It is not uncommon to be told by a venue that their charge for an evening is in four figures. I of course don’t agree to those sorts of sums, but the result can be a long search to find somewhere much more reasonable. Other factors to consider when choosing a venue are: proximity to a tube station, whether there is flat access for the less physically able and, for some events, whether there is a decent piano. This year we have booked St Botolph’s Church Hall (just round the corner from Liverpool Street Station) for a number of our events. Although it is a little further east than we normally go, it does fulfil all the above criteria (and if you live in East Anglia it’s really convenient). The name “Church Hall” does not inspire, I know, but it’s certainly not a traditional draughty, dreary church hall. It’s a warm and comfortable venue with pleasant architecture too. So do please come along and try it! Before I book the venue for our next tranche of events it would be helpful to have some audience feedback on St Botolph’s Church Hall. If you come to one of our events there, do please let me know afterwards ([email protected]) whether you feel that it’s somewhere we should continue using. Many thanks. The Society may at times appear to be a little London-centric and so I do want to trial holding an event in another city. It’s a risky thing to do because we don’t have a significant concentration of members in any one location other than London. I would be grateful for any suggestions that members may have.

Photo: Richard Carter The cast of The Mastersingers Company presentation Wagner and the Dream King take a break from rehearsals at St Botolph’s Church Hall. From left to right: David Edwards, Cara McHardy, Lise Christensen, Stephen Rooke, Andrew Charity. (See: pages 32 and 33.)

– 42 – the Wagner society

President: Dame Gwyneth Jones Vice President: Sir John Tomlinson CONTACTS

Chairman: Richard Miles [email protected] Court Lodge Farm, Blechingley, Surrey RH1 4LP

Secretary and Wagner Andrea Buchanan [email protected] Society Bursary Manager: [email protected]

Treasurer: Neil King [email protected]

Webmaster: Charlie Furness Smith [email protected]

Committee Member: Edward Hewitt [email protected]

Committee Member: Emmanuelle Waters [email protected]

Events Manager: Peter Leppard [email protected]

Director of The Malcolm Rivers [email protected] Mastersingers and [email protected] The Goodall Scholars: 44 Merry Hill Mount, Bushey, Herts. WD 23 1DJ

Membership Secretary: Margaret Murphy [email protected] 16 Doran Drive, Redhill, Surrey RH1 6AX

Archivist: Geoffrey Griffiths [email protected]

Wagner News Editor: Roger Lee [email protected] 155 Llanrwst Road, Colwyn Bay LL28 5YS

Wagner Society website: www.wagnersociety.org Registered charity number 266383

– 43 – FORTHCOMING WAGNER SOCIETY EVENTS Peter Leppard Events Manager

Thursday 10 th April, 7.30pm: PROFESSOR EVA RIEGER FRIEDELIND WAGNER, RICHARD’S REBELLIOUS GRANDDAUGHTER German musicologist Eva Rieger has lectured internationally and published many Articles and books, the latest of which (2013) is about Friedelind. £15/£7.50 students St Botolph’s Church Hall, Bishopsgate, London EC2M 3TL (Liverpool Street Station)

Tuesday 6 th May, 7.30pm: PROFESSOR ANTHONY OGUS CBE WAGNER PRODUCTION STYLE FROM THE 1960s TO THE PRESENT DAY Emeritus Professor at the Universities of Manchester and Rotterdam, Anthony Ogus is the author of Travels with my Opera Glasses and a well-known giver of talks on opera. £15/£7.50 students St Botolph’s Church Hall, Bishopsgate, London EC2M 3TL (Liverpool Street Station)

Thursday 19 th June, 7.30pm ANTHONY NEGUS: TRISTAN UND ISOLDE Anthony Negus, who will conduct Longborough Festival Opera’s 2015 production of Tristan und Isolde discusses his approach to the work. £15/£7.50 students St Botolph’s Church Hall, Bishopsgate, London EC2M 3TL (Liverpool Street Station)

Thursday 17 th July 7.30pm PROFESSOR JOHN DEATHRIDGE ART OR DOCTRINE? ANOTHER LOOK AT DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG John Deathridge is Emeritus Professor of Music at King’s College London and one of the world’s foremost Wagner scholars. In this lecture he will outline some of his most recent work on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg . Among much else, he will be discussing Wagner’s theological and political reading of Luther's legacy, pagan superstitious practices, the real Hans Sachs’ literary output (including his Book of Trades ), 16 th Century fashionable clothing and why the Prize Song had to be fundamentally redesigned. The evening in this new venue for the Wagner Society promises to be a very lively one. £15/£7.50 students German Historical Institute, 17 Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A 2NJ (Holborn Station)

Friday 12 th to Sunday 14 th September APRÈS LE DÉLUGE A weekend in Aldeburgh presented by The Mastersingers and The Music Club of London Illustrated lectures, live recitals and discussion on the music of Puccini, Strauss, Schoenberg, Janá ek, Debussy, Mahler and others curated by David Edwards. See: Pages 38 and 39. č Monday 6 th October, 7.30pm ELAINE PADMORE MY YEARS AS DIRECTOR OF OPERA AT THE ROYAL OPERA AND AT THE ROYAL DANISH OPERA Elaine will talk about her career highlights at both locations, including commissioning new work. Tickets £15/£7.50 students. Venue (in London) to be announced.

Tickets for Wagner Society events are available from Peter Leppard, Sickleholme Cottage, Saltergate Lane, Bamford, Hope Valley, S33 0BE. Please send cheques payable to The Wagner Society, enclosing an SAE.Tickets are also available at the door. More details of forthcoming events are available at www.wagnersociety.org – 44 –