January 2011 WAGNER NEWS 200: JANUARY 2011 Editor: Roger Lee CONTENTS From the Chairman ...... 4 Society Diary ...... 5 Aldeburgh 2011: Programme details ...... 6 “Wagner at the Rodd”: The Goodall Academy for Young Artists ...... 14 Forward View: Wagner events in Britain ...... 32 Opera Gala in Berlin ...... 34 Northern Wagner Orchestra’s Tristan und Isolde weekend ...... 36 Obituary: Peter Hofmann ...... 37 Letter ...... 38 Reviews: Die Walküre at Longborough ...... 8 James Rutherford’s Bayreuth debut as Hans Sachs ...... 12 Wagner at the Proms ...... 20 at Bayreuth ...... 24 The Rehearsal Orchestra’s Act II of Die Walküre at Henry Wood Hall . . . . 28

CONTRIBUTORS Neil Howlett For 17 years a Leading at ENO, his international career covered a repertoire of more than 80 roles. After 17 years of teaching at the Guildhall School of Music he became Head of Vocal Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music. [email protected] Katie Barnes Having published 46 reviews for Wagner News since 1997, Katie Barnes is “a civil servant by necessity and a passionate opera lover by choice.” [email protected] Paul Dawson-Bowling The annual Paul Dawson-Bowling Lecture is a landmark event in the Society’s calendar from one of our principal reviewers. Details of his presentation: “Donald McIntyre – Colossus from New Zealand”. are in the Society Diary. [email protected] Jeremy Rowe Previous interviews for the Society from our newly-elected Chairman include those with Antonio Pappano, Susan Bullock, Jane Eaglen, Andrew Shore and Graham Clark. [email protected] Roger Lee His proudly-held career as a member of the Northern Wagner Orchestra chorus is owed to the fact that they do not hold auditions. [email protected] Cover: Mastersingers Company tenor Andrew Rees as Siegmund at Longborough, 2010 Photo: Longborough Festival Opera www.lfo.org.uk

–2– EDITORIAL

The New Year brings a Wagner News which is firmly focussed on the future. Several major items in this issue report the progress made by young performers of whom the Society can be justifiably proud. We share the very rewarding responsibility of providing sponsorship for The Mastersingers Company which was formed in 1998 by Malcolm Rivers to help young Wagner singers to develop their careers.

When Malcolm Rivers was elected Chairman of the Wagner Society we were delighted that he would be bringing his wealth of knowledge and expertise from the world of opera, and it was quickly clear that the Society would benefit enormously from his stewardship of the job. Little did he or anyone else anticipate that not only his musical skills but also all his resources of diplomacy and integrity would be mightily stretched on his watch.

Malcolm has been an outstanding Chairman. He steered the Society through a prolonged and challenging crisis with great determination whilst organising a wonderful programme to encourage the development of young artists. He has now resigned in order to concentrate on using his unique skills to even greater effect for the benefit of young musicians and members of the Society alike, and so we can look forward to many more exciting and rewarding events under his direction.

The coaching and advice which The Mastersingers’ distinguished and experienced Wagner mentors like Sir , Dame and Antonio Pappano gave to James Rutherford in recent years to prepare the principal Die Meistersinger role of Hans Sachs has now spectacularly borne fruit with his critically acclaimed performances of this role at Bayreuth in 2010, and he has also been booked for the 2011 Festival.

Back in London James Rutherford began his preparation to perform Wotan with The Rehearsal Orchestra when he was invited by Malcolm Rivers to take his first steps in tackling this mountain of a role in Act II of Die Walküre at the Henry Wood Hall alongside Mastersingers Company artists Magdalen Ashman, Andrew Rees (cover picture) and Alwyn Mellor.

Our reports of Mastersingers Company alumni performances from Bayreuth, Longborough, Leeds, London and Presteigne demonstrate that we currently enjoy an abundance of talented young singers who are developing their potential as Wagnerian musicians. It is our privilege to help them master their craft as the voices of the future.

www.mastersingers.org.uk

–3– FROM THE CHAIRMAN

I am very excited to be voted into this prestigious position. I have been involved in music all my life, starting as a boy chorister. As a teacher I have been involved in music education for forty years, including founding and directing the “National Festival of Voices” which has given thousands of children their first experience of singing in a concert.

I trained as an interviewer with BBC Radio, but remained in the teaching profession, and I have been a headteacher for twenty-three years, at first in the state sector, and now as the head of an arts-based independent school.

I have also had considerable experience as an amateur conductor, and have been lucky enough to conduct concerts in the Royal Albert Hall and Birmingham’s Symphony Hall. I was musical director for the inauguration of the Channel Tunnel, and the 100th birthday of the Blackpool Tower!

I currently present the annual opera gala for the Little Venice Music Festival. I am civilly partnered to Ian Jones, and together we run the company Jones-Rowe Opera Tours, specialising in small-scale tours to Wagnerian operas. Ian is, of course, Webmaster for the Wagner Society.

I joined the committee of the Wagner Society about twelve years ago as Secretary, and then moved into the role of Programme Director. As Chair I hope to continue the policy of a wide range of events, from scholarly lectures to lighter anecdotal evenings, and will be especially keen to see increased recruitment of younger members.

The best way to contact me is by email: [email protected] and I will always be delighted to receive messages and suggestions from members.

JEREMY ROWE

–4– SOCIETY DIARY

Saturday 15th January 2011 IAN BERESFORD GLEAVES: STUDY DAY ON Portland Place School Main Building (ie not the Sixth Form Centre) 56-58 Portland Place, London W1B 1NJ. Nearest tube: Oxford Circus or Regent’s Park. Limited and expensive on-street parking. Tickets: £35

Wednesday 26th January 2011 PAUL DAWSON-BOWLING’S ANNUAL LECTURE “Donald McIntyre – Colossus from New Zealand”. Donald McIntyre is best known for his central role as Wotan in the Bayreuth Ring of 1976 which celebrated the centenary of Wagner’s original staging. He is one of his century’s most profound and magnetic artists and master of many roles. Paul Dawson-Bowling will illustrate the presentation with CD and DVD recordings of gems both famous and rare. Portland Place School Sixth Form Centre, 143 Great Portland Street, London W1W 6QN. Nearest tube: Oxford Circus or Regent’s Park. Free parking after 6pm. Wine at 7 pm, Presentation at 7.30. Tickets: £12

Tuesday 15th February JAMES RUTHERFORD: “BACKSTAGE AT BAYREUTH” Fresh from his triumph as Bayreuth’s Hans Sachs, James will be interviewed by Jeremy Rowe. Portland Place School Sixth Form Centre, 143 Great Portland Street, London W1W 6QN. Nearest tube: Oxford Circus or Regent’s Park. Free parking after 6pm. Wine at 7 pm, Presentation at 7.30. Tickets: £12

HOW TO OBTAIN TICKETS Tickets for the Wagner Society’s London events are available in advance from: The Ticket Events Secretary Wagner Society 3 Howard Gate Letchworth Garden City SG6 2BQ

Please enclose a stamped, addressed envelope and make cheques payable to The Wagner Society.

–5–– 5– The Mastersingers Company present ARTISTS AND FAMILIES IN EXILE ALDEBURGH: 13th to 15th May 2011

FRIDAY. 13th MAY

8pm Jubilee Hall THE WANDERER A recital by James Rutherford fresh from his highly acclaimed Bayreuth debut as Hans Sachs. This will be followed by an insight into his career with David Syrus , Head of Music at the , Covent Garden (piano) and David Edwards . £15

SATURDAY 14th MAY

10am Jubilee Hall WAGNER IN EXILE A lecture-recital with our Goodall Academy scholars presented by David Edwards with Kelvin Lim (piano).

12.00 Jubilee Hall DAME ANNE EVANS MASTERCLASS Magdalen Ashman (mezzo) and Andrew Rees (tenor) with David Syrus (piano).

These two events: £15 inclusive.

4pm Jubilee Hall INTRODUCTION TO DIE WALKÜRE AT THE MET David Edwards talks about the Levine/Lepage Ring

5pm Aldeburgh Cinema DIE WALKÜRE FROM THE MET A live relay from the , New York. Featuring Bryn Terfel as Wotan.

These two events: £22 inclusive.

–6–– 6– SUNDAY 15th MAY

10am Jubilee Hall BRITTEN AND THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE Excerpts from Britten’s Kinderkreuzzug . Originally illustrated by Sir Sidney Nolan and first performed for the 50th anniversary of The Save the Children Fund at St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1969.

11.30 Jubilee Hall PIANO RECITAL OF LISZT AND OTHER TRANSCRIPTIONS Performed by Kelvin Lim . To include pieces based on the Wagner repertoire plus Schubert’s “Wanderer Fantasy” Jubilee Hall.

These two events: £15 inclusive

3pm Aldeburgh Cinema NEW FILM: “THE WAGNER FAMILY” Tony Palmer introduces his film on the current Wagner Clan. Followed by a discussion on the issues it raises led by Jeremy Rowe (Chairman of the Wagner Society) £15

8pm Jubilee Hall CONCERT: “LIFE AS AN EXILE” Music, poetry and prose hosted by Humphrey Burton . Songs written in exile (Wagner, Britten, Weill) and by Schubert, Wolf and Sondheim on the theme of The Wanderer. Readings from Brecht, Auden and Thomas Mann. Featuring James Rutherford and our other Goodall Academy scholars with David Syrus and Kelvin Lim (piano). £20

There will be a permanent exhibition of the works of Sir Sidney Nolan throughout the weekend at both The Red House (The Britten-Pears Trust) and The Cinema Art Gallery.

There are still some full packages available (deposit £100 per person) for the whole weekend from Rosemary Frischer: [email protected] or call 020 7700 7999. 2 St George’s Avenue, London N7 OHD. Single tickets are also available from Rosemary.

Aldeburgh Music Box Office: 01708 687 120 [email protected]

Self-catering accommodation can be obtained from Tuohy and Son: 01728 452 066 [email protected]

This programme is provisional and subject to change at the discretion of the Mastersingers Company according to the availability of artists. The final programme will appear in the April issue of Wagner News .

–7–– 7– A STUNNING WALKÜRE IN STAGGERING CIRCUMSTANCES

Longborough Festival Opera on 24th July 2010 by PAUL DAWSON-BOWLING

Gripping, dramatic, moving to the very depths! These were some of the epithets that sprang to mind at Longborough at the end of Act II, but it would exhaust my supply of superlatives to praise it adequately. It is a long time since I was at a Die Walküre so penetrating and so satisfying. The Seattle production by Stephen Wadsworth in 2005 might have been its peer, but the foundation of the Wagner experience is the music, and at Longborough the conductor was Anthony Negus, who proved in a different league from the Ring conductor at Seattle. Negus is another of those neglected English Wagnerian “greats” and he brought to Die Walküre the same unforced naturalness of pacing as he did in and in the Parsifal some years back. He had then taken over the last of the run from the much-trumpeted Vladimir Jurowski. Good as Jurowski had been, Negus was simply better. At Longborough he showed the same ability to pinpoint myriad felicities of detail without compromising the drama or his vision of the whole. The Festival Orchestra, backboned out of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, provided him with a surprising measure of Wagnerian Heft as well as transparency and magic in Siegmund’s Hymn to Spring and Love. I understand that this performance again made use of the Lessing reduction as happened with Das Rheingold , although it is not that much of a reduction. Would anyone reasonably complain about being short-changed with “only” six horns instead of Wagner’s eight? My only quibble, only just worth a mention, is that the heavy brass could not always make their full impact at the great moments of crisis, and my guess is that situated deep under the stage in a limited space, their full blast might have damaged the hearing of the other members in the orchestra. Another reason why Die Walküre at Longborough was so exceptional was the choice of the singing actors. This was a youthful cast and yet boasted not only radiant promise but finished achievement. At ENO and above all at Covent Garden the managements today seem in denial of any obligation to promote British talent, always preferring some semi-competent foreigner to natives of these Isles, and it is all credit to Martin Graham, the moving spirit of Longborough, that he is apparently taking over with a will their forgotten function of nurturing new talent. He is fostering stars who will soon probably be in demand across the globe. The wily Speight Jenkins of Seattle, always ahead of the game, has already signed up Alwyn Mellor, the Longborough Brünnhilde, for the next outing of his Ring , and at Longborough it became clear why. Alwyn Mellor was a Brünnhilde rich in sonority and musicality, even if she has a little trouble singing soft and high, and she has a histrionic talent beyond that of Jane Eaglen, one the assets of Speight Jenkins’ past Ring cycles. The extraordinary thing is that at Longborough Alwyn Mellor turned out not to be a solitary star or even first among equals because there were others in the cast just as excellent. There was a fine Hunding, Mark Richardson; and the bevy of Valkyries included several other voices, notably Rachel Nicholls as Helmwige who could well go on to Brünnhilde.

–8–– 8– Andrew Rees brought to Siegmund a sonority of peculiar depth and resonance but also some visceral thrill. He also seems gifted with some of the riveting intelligence of John Vickers, so that he made a Siegmund appealing both for intrepid heroism and for sensitive responses to Sieglinde. My only suggestion would be that he should try and develop his mezza voce and explore further the music’s possibilities for raptness such as made John Vickers so hauntingly sympathetic as Siegmund. Soft singing was an area where his Sieglinde, Lee Bisset, excelled, and although her timbre had a tendency to spread under pressure, what she did musically helped to make her a most winning and appealing heroine. Jason Howard was an exceptional Wotan by any standards. His voice itself has something poised and patrician about it, a distinctive elegance and gravity which he deployed to establish the complexity and depth of Wotan. It is no easy matter to reconcile the grandeur of Wotan with his divided spirit and inner torments, but this production etched out his psychology with lacerating insight, and Anthony Negus and Jason Howard together made Wotan’s monologues all that they should be: breathlessly involving to every last syllable, even to their silences. Above all Longborough had a producer who had grasped the essential fact that Wotan and his destiny must matter to us intensely; otherwise the Ring fails as a dramatic experience, and this is why producers obsessed with notions of Wotan as a despicable venture capitalist or a Pol Pot look-alike (or whatever) do violence to the drama. The hallmark of Alan Privett’s production was not a dotty concept, but a complete congruence of stage action with the music and an overwhelming humanity. Even his handling of the scenes with Fricka touched the heart with their fractured affection; and Alison Kettlewell made a Fricka whose elegance, stature and musicianship were visibly appealing to Wotan and to the audience. Alan Privett’s whole approach was mercifully unpernickety, and he allowed the cast members to address and listen to each other without inflicting fussy business on them. The only tendency to fussiness was his idea of three dancers, (Norns?) clad in black, who writhed and gyrated round the stage and busied themselves unwinding a bale of rope. It was a nice idea in theory but not in practice. On such a small stage it was just an irritating distraction. Otherwise Privett’s way with props and scenery was minimalist, nothing more than a few grids, but as happened in Das Rheingold he showed how less is more. His artistic eye and a sensitive use of low level lighting enabled him to conjure up a dream-world of myth with a compelling veracity and considerable beauty. There was a ravishing realisation of water as an archetype of life, a radiant source which Sieglinde both offers and represents to Siegmund. Many were the insights which Privett brought to the work, and a special moment was the double catastrophe at the end of Act II. The timing and positioning of Brünnhilde and Wotan vis-a-vis Siegmund and Hunding are seldom completely convincing, but here they were not only convincing but overwhelming in effect. As for the final twenty minutes, what can I say that would do it justice to this wonderful performance? It confirmed that this scene can be about the most moving experience in any art – of any form or kind. Martin Graham was first gripped by the spell of Wagner through watching the Chéreau/Boulez Ring on television, after which he conceived the fantastical, quixotic notion of staging it himself. That notion has not seemed fantastical or quixotic for some time, but I wonder if he ever imagined that his own production would surpass the one which had first inspired him. –9–– 9– This Longborough Ring is becoming better than any at Bayreuth for years, possibly since Wieland Wagner’s first post-war version. I am simply lost in admiration for it all, and I suggest that he deserves every possible support that the Wagner Society can give him towards his vision of a complete Ring in the Wagner centenary year of 2013. Any members of the Wagner Society who can help financially should be aware that Longborough Festival Opera’s funding programme now begins in earnest with the appointment of two new staff. Any financial support would be hugely worthwhile. If the finances go well, there will be a Longborough in 2011, Götterdämmerung in 2012 and the complete Cycle in 2013, a delectable prospect!

Andrew Rees (Siegmund) Lee Bisset (Sieglinde) Mark Richardson (Hunding) Jason Howard (Wotan) Alison Kettlewell (Fricka) Alwyn Mellor (Brünnhilde) Rebecca Cooper (Gerhilde) Elizabeth Donovan (Ortlinde) Rachel Nicholls (Helmwige) Harriet Williams (Waltraute) Evelyn Krahe (Schwertleite) Jenny Miller (Siegrune) Catherine King (Grimgerde) Miranda Westcott (Rossweisse) Anthony Negus (Conductor) Alan Privett (Producer) Kjell Torriset (Stage Designer) Guy Hoare (Lighting) with the Longborough Festival Opera Orchestra.

Alwyn Mellor as Brünnhilde Photo: Longborough Festival Opera General Booking for the 2011 season at Longborough opens on 7th March. Booking Office: 01451 830 292 or www.lfo.org.uk

– 10 – DIE WALKÜRE AT LONGBOROUGH

Andrew Rees (Siegmund) and Lee Bisset (Sieglinde) Photo: Longborough Festival Opera

– 11 – DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG AT BAYREUTH 2nd August 2010. A report by JEREMY D ROWE

This is not a review of Katharina Wagner’s controversial production, which has been mightily agonised over elsewhere, but a report about the debut of our own James Rutherford in the role of Hans Sachs. One of the youngest Hans Sachs ever to sing the role at Bayreuth, (perhaps the youngest) James was with this performance catapulted into stardom. It seemed only yesterday that he was trying out the role with piano at Queens Gate Terrace, and yet here he was, centre stage at Bayreuth. From his first notes it was clear that he was going to make an impact. By the first interval members of the audience were asking one another who this excellent young singer was and where he had appeared from. Delving into their programmes, they were excited to learn more about him. He really came into his own as the opera progressed, and whatever you might feel about the concept of this production, he clearly fitted into the image of the bearded and suited artist Katharina envisaged. He conserved his voice, singing with long lyrical phrases, and filling the Festspielhaus with his rich Norwich tones. I was assured by others better able to judge than me that his German pronunciation was excellent. By the reflective long arias of the third act he was carrying all before him and he portrayed a world-weary Sachs, tired of all the petty politics of his world and resigned to the degeneration of art when it gets into the hands of those (Beckmesser?) who don't understand it. His voice reminded me of Sir John Tomlinson and surely he will be a worthy successor to the great man. The lavish programme was printed immediately after the dress rehearsal so that all the photographs showed the current cast, not last year’s, and James was well to the fore in the images created by the photographer. The programme also contained a lengthy section in English giving many of the background points of view which were the foundation of Katharina’s concept, and these certainly helped understand what she was trying to say. What conflicting emotions greeted the first staging of this production in 2010! There can be no greater contrast than that between the foot-stamping, cheering audience who greeted James, and the unanimous booing of Katharina. Appearing alone in front of that famous green curtain, he looked stunned by the reception to his first Bayreuth success, and afterwards remembered little of the roar of approval which greeted his curtain-call. We are lucky to have watched this rising star grow in the masterclasses and recitals with the Wagner Society, and proud to see one of our own rising to the top so well. We will be following his career with much anticipation! James Rutherford will be in conversation with Jeremy Rowe on Tuesday 15th February at Portland Place Sixth Form Centre. – 12 – James Rutherford as Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger , Bayreuth 2010 Photo: Bayreuther Festspiele

– 13 – WAGNER AT THE RODD A report by NEIL HOWLETT of the 2011 Bayreuth Bursary auditions and of the first Goodhall Academy for young professional singers event at The Rodd in Presteigne. A sunny Sunday morning in early Spring. Shafts of sunlight stream through the windows. A high-ceilinged room in the clothed with paintings, a be-robed Sir Henry Wood presiding benignly, the floor space occupied by a concert grand, a harpsichord and an organ. The surplus instruments are tidied away. The audition panel, chaired by Dame Anne Evans, is assembled and seated, ready for the fray. The auditions for the Wagner Society’s Bayreuth Bursary and the Goodall Academy are ready to begin. The Goodall Academy is a new venture intended for the mature, large-voiced singer who is suited to the Wagnerian repertoire. For these individuals there is little career structure. Their voices mature late, they find lighter repertoire awkward and the larger, heavier operas – which suit them – are rarely staged. Their best hope is to learn the repertoire, get good coaching, and become good enough to audition and work in Germany. The Academy has been started this year, on a small scale for now, to help these singers on their way. Back to the Henry Wood Room. The panel is ready and waiting. News comes through that the first candidate has abandoned her journey and returned home to prevent a fire! She will now arrive by taxi. She will be late. The panel casts its eyes skywards and contemplates the prospect of a delayed conclusion to twenty seven auditions. Sunlight filters on to the floor. Suddenly the door opens. She’s here, and ready to sing! Without warning, the panel is confronted – like Wotan – by a stern, formidable Fricka, laying down the law. Minutes later she sweeps out. What a start! Wow! The panel’s collective back stiffens: all doubts resolve. A stream of characters pass, mostly women: Sieglinde, Elsa, Elisabeth, Helmwige, are the most common. The men are few, but unexpectedly a potential Wotan appears, deeply involved in his tortured monologue. A real bonus, the panel thinks. With increasing anticipation, the panel settles for the afternoon session, which starts in fine style with a lyrical Elsa, and finishes – at last – with another lustrous soprano. Gradually the places for the Bursary Final are filled, and likely candidates for the Academy are noted and identified. The stream of talent is wide and varied; the panel packs up and goes home tired but happy and optimistic. Gravely, Sir Henry continues to gaze down on a scene very close to his heart: the enrichment of the musical futures of his fellow countrymen and women. Time passes. Now, it is August and the scene changes to The Rodd, a rambling sixteenth century house in the Welsh Marches, the home of the late Sir Sidney Nolan, already an arts centre in its own right. The barn is the focus of the weekend’s activities, which start with a fascinating interview by Gary Kahn with Sir John Tooley about the Wagner productions which took place during his time in the management of the Royal Opera House. His urbane charm sets the tone for the weekend’s work which follows. The chosen students include young professionals with some experience of the repertoire, a Bayreuth Bursary winner and other outstanding candidates from the auditions. Dame Anne Evans, Sir John Tomlinson and Neil Howlett form the teaching panel. Between them they have performed well over thirty Wagner roles.

– 14 – Scenes from Das Rheingold, Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung make up the first masterclass. A young Siegmund, keen to explore further possibilities, successfully tries his hand at Loge’s narration. A dark-voiced bass, new to Wagner, is taken through part of Wotan’s tortured monologue from Act II of Die Walküre, but the artistic highlight of the session reveals itself to be Waltraute’s plea to her sister for the return of the ring, when the Fricka from the auditions makes her first appearance: stimulating and enjoyable! The day’s activities close with a rare treat: a recital of a selection of the great monologues for bass given by Sir John Tomlinson. This tour de force in every sense included scenes for Gurnemanz, Hagen, Hans Sachs and King Marke; and was brought to a rousing, and ventriloquial conclusion with an encore of the ‘trio’ from the second Act of Siegfried, when all three parts – Wotan, Alberich, Fafner – were taken by the same singer! Preluding the next day’s masterclass is a recital of Liszt’s transcriptions of Wagner’s music from Tristan und Isolde, Tannhäuser and Der fliegende Holländer given by Kelvin Lim. This feat of technique and stamina whets the appetite for what is to follow. Sir John starts the afternoon with a young baritone, examining in detail the Dutchman’s opening monologue; and continues by acquainting the mezzo of the first day with the real thing, by singing a large proportion of his own part in the second scene of Das Rheingold between Wotan and Fricka. She, sturdily and totally in character, carries her side of the argument. This enthralling confrontation, with its blow and counter-blow, grips the audience’s attention completely, and acts as a perfect foil to the calm of the second half of the session. From conflict to one of the greatest lyric highlights of the Wagner canon: ‘ Ewig war ich ’, Brünnhilde’s ecstatic outpouring from the last scene of Siegfried is tackled by a young lyric-dramatic soprano, sensitively mentored by Dame Anne, who is delighted to exult in the ease and vibrancy of the difficult top C. And so the Goodall Academy has come to fruition for the first time. Five young singers have had their artistic prospects enhanced and their eyes opened to possibilities unknown before the weekend. The tuition and guidance from experienced singers who have actually sung these roles have introduced the students to the professional rigor and discipline which they must expect in the real world that awaits them. It is hoped that next year coaching and masterclasses can be expanded to include more students, working on a wider range of repertoire. I’m sure that Sir Henry would approve!

Photo: Peter West [email protected]

– 15 – NEWS OF YOUNG SINGERS

Following her success as Sieglinde at Longborough last year Lee Bisset has been engaged to sing the role at Sao Paulo in May/June 2011.

The Mastersingers Company scholars appearing in Siegfried at Longborough in July are Alwyn Mellor as Brünnhilde and Julian Close as Fafner.

James Rutherford has been engaged to sing Hans Sachs again at Bayreuth in 2011.He will also sing Sachs in Hamburg, Vienna and Budapest and the Dutchman in Hamburg.

Paul McNamara (Bayreuth Bursary Winner, 2000) is scheduled to sing Parsifal at Würzburg and Loge at Weimar during the summer.

Amanda Echalaz will make her Chicago Lyric debut in Autumn 2013 as Madama Butterfly.

Mastersingers Company scholar Amanda Echalaz as Sieglinde in 2005 Photo: Peter West [email protected]

– 16 – THE GOODALL ACADEMY AT THE RODD, PRESTEIGNE

The inaugural public event of The Mastersingers “Goodall Academy” took place from 13th to 15th August in a sixteenth century tithe barn at the Rodd on the Welsh border. Sir John Tomlinson, Dame Anne Evans and Neil Howlett conducted masterclasses with half a dozen young Goodall Academy artists and as a bonus Mastersingers repetiteur Kelvin Lim performed a recital of some of Liszt’s formidable Wagner transcriptions for piano. Gary Kahn opened the weekend in conversation with Sir John Tooley, former General Director of the Royal Opera House, who discussed productions of the Ring under , and Colin Davis. Dame Anne Evans and Neil Howlett opened the masterclasses with soprano Alwyn Mellor, mezzo Magdalen Ashman, tenor Andrew Rees, and bass Stuart Pendred in music from Der Ring and Der fliegende Holländer. In an addition to the “serious” business Sir John Tomlinson demonstrated why he is regarded as the greatest bass we have ever produced with a recital of “Wagner Monologues” which included his very special “Niedhöl” performance, appearing as Alberich, The Wanderer and Fafner all at the very same time! The weekend ended with a splendid Grand Dinner at the Judge’s Lodging in Presteigne with a feast authentically prepared from original Victorian recipes especially for the occasion.

Sir John Tomlinson and accompanist Kelvin Lim take their applause Photo: Peter West [email protected]

– 17 – THE GOODALL ACADEMY AT THE RODD

Stuart Pendred with Neil Howlett

Magdalen Ashman with Dame Ann Evans

– 18 – Alwyn Mellor with Dame Anne Evans

Andrew Rees with Neil Howlett Photos: Peter West [email protected]

– 19 – WAGNER AT THE PROMS A review by KATIE BARNES After the death of Wagner in the previous year’s Proms, in 2010 we were given a mighty feast of two main courses with a number of side dishes which included a number of Preludes and a rare performance of the Kaisermarsch . The ‘first course’, in the substantial shape of Welsh National Opera’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in a semi-staged concert was served on 17th July. The men all wore plain black shirts and trousers, and the women dark coloured dresses. The semi-staging, on a narrow strip at the front of the platform conveyed the essence of the story, but it was plain that little of Richard Jones’ acclaimed production (extensively documented by Gerald Mallon and Richard Miles in Wagner News No. 199) had survived into this setting. There was some stage movement, but it was puzzling that some of the singers faced the front all the time while others related to their colleagues. Due to lack of space the chorus, including the apprentices, sat behind the orchestra and in Act I the Meisters sat in two banks along the sides of the acting area. In these straitened conditions the musical virtues of the performance had to predominate. The WNO orchestra adapted well to a space infinitely vaster than their largest “regular” venue, the Wales Millennium Centre, and produced a beautifully mellow sound in the Prelude. Later, the brass sounded very intrusive and rather harsh, and one player made a horrible error when they entered too early at “Dem Vogel, der heute sang”. The Summer night music at end of Act II sounded like a soft, fragrant breeze blowing over the street and cooling the heated passions aroused by the riot. The WNO chorus (augmented for this opera) were in fine form, although they had a hard battle with the mighty Albert Hall organ in the opening chorale and there was some loss of dramatic contact in Act I because the apprentices, placed among the chorus, were so far isolated from the action. Although little of the physical staging was evident at this Prom, it was clear that the beautifully observed and precisely nuanced relationships between the characters were the result of many weeks of work between Jones and the cast. Even in this setting they could create a sense of intimacy and immediacy and make one care about the characters. Bryn Terfel won golden opinions from the critics for the first night in Cardiff, and on this showing Sachs will, like the Dutchman, be one of his great Wagner roles. (Coincidentally, they were the two from which he sang arias when he first came to international attention at the Cardiff Singer of the World in 1989.) In contrast to his tentative air when he sang Wotan at Covent Garden, he radiated complete, confident ownership and identification with Sachs. He wears the role like a comfortable pair of old shoes. Maybe he finds it easier to identify with a man of the people than with a god. Working as a member of the team of Meisters in Act I he did not take undue prominence, but with his Fliedermonolog in Act II, he grabbed the audience and did not let them go. He made it so clear that Sachs’ bad temper and impatience with David were caused by his disquiet over Stolzing’s trial song, and I have seldom seen the Sachs/Eva relationship shaded in so beautifully. Although he tries to be paternal, with a younger-than-usual Sachs (and a rather mature Eva) it was painfully clear that they could have come together if Stolzing had not come on the scene. There was such deep affection between them in their Act II scene (the moment when her hand momentarily twitched his sleeve said everything) and when she stormed away his moment of deep dejection, seeing his hopes of winning her finally dashed to the ground was heartbreaking. He also had a great rapport with

– 20 – Christopher Purves’ diminutive Beckmesser, including some beautifully timed comic business which made the most of their different dimensions. This Sachs did not have the darker side brought out by many of the greatest exponents of the role, but for all his surface bonhomie I had an uncomfortable feeling that his baiting of Beckesser in Acts II and III had an unkinder, even crueller edge to it than is often the case. I loved the moment in Act II when Beckmesser’s hand strayed too close to the last and was nearly hit by the hammer, and Terfel’s dance of triumph just before the riot was priceless. But I wished that he had not made eye contact with the audience, pointing at Beckmesser at the moment that Sachs decided to give Beckmesser the song. At that moment he ceased to be Sachs and was Terfel, being self-consciously and self-indulgently “funny”. Otherwise he placed Sachs first, and put himself at the service of the character. Purves’ radiantly self-satisfied Beckmesser was the other huge hit of the evening. His sheer flamboyance, such as his contortions of agony while marking the Trial Song, veered dangerously close to caricature but never quite toppled into it. His repartee with Sachs in Act II was a joy as Beckmesser was needled by Sachs’ apparent affability into revealing his vindictiveness (at one point Sachs was nearly hit on the nose by a brandished lute). The teaming of this tiny man with the massive Terfel was a comic inspiration reminiscent of Siegfried and Mime. Alberich surely awaits. I adored Amanda Roocroft’s girlish Eva, beautifully sung and exquisitely acted, so utterly possessed by her sudden, bewildering love for Stolzing that she was the focal point whenever she appeared onstage. It was almost impossible to watch anyone else when she was around. She brought out so well how Eva’s rational thought was driven out by the bewildering torrent of her new love. All the joy, pain, and madness of youthful love was there. O Sachs became the emotional highlight of the opera – here, most of all, we saw her inner conflict between her two loves and the different emotions they aroused in her. She looked simply gorgeous, too. Anna Burford’s lovely, rich voice and dark, sultry presence as Magdalene were the perfect foil to the golden Roocroft. She conveyed so well her response to David’s proximity, even when she was not looking at him. I liked how in Act II we saw her changing her mind in mid-sentence about taking Eva’s place at the window, and her quizzical expression as Beckmesser serenaded her was a delight. A familiar problem at the Proms is that some singers persist in singing for the radio microphones rather than for the audience in the Royal Albert Hall. On this occasion the principal culprit was Raymond Very’s plain-voiced Walther. The volume level dropped whenever he was singing, and I did not care for what I could hear. Andrew Tortise was a pleasant, boyish David, but his long list of modes and tones would have benefited from a greater variety of vocal colour. I had the impression that he may have felt a little lost without the production. Brindley Sherratt sang well as Pogner, although the voice was somewhat monochrome. He acted well and was very touching in his gradual realisation that his well- meaning gesture had unleashed chaos and could ruin Eva’s happiness. The father/daughter relationship was beautifully realised, with such tenderness, and there was one heart-stopping moment in Act II, at “Nicht doch! Was denn?”, as he suddenly looked deep into Eva’s eyes and realised, with blinding clarity, that she was in love with Stolzing. The Meisters were strongly cast and Simon Thorpe’s Kothner was a winner, proud of the traditions of his Guild (his joyous beam as he pointed out the Tabulatur to Stolzing said it all) and splendidly sung. David Soar as the Nightwatchman displayed a voice of enormous potential despite having to stand at the back of the choir seats to deliver his two pronouncements. – 21 – I felt that the performance lost a little momentum in Act III, partly because the heat in the auditorium was by that time intense, which made the audience sleepy and fidgety, and the orchestra was a little ragged, although the fanfares between Scenes 1 and 2 were excellent. Nonetheless this was a notable achievement. The audience, of course, was ecstatic, but I was impressed by the fact that there was no lionising of Terfel as the star turn, and all the curtain calls were taken by all the principals together. Very appropriate, as this was a solid company achievement, and it was salutary seeing Terfel work as part of a team rather than as an indulged star. The ‘second course’ on August 1st consisted of a pair of Wagner-themed concerts. As an afternoon prelude to the business of the evening the organ virtuoso Wayne Marshall played a selection of Wagnerian arrangements by Edwin Lemare. Both the programme and Marshall’s own pronouncements in the course of the concert emphasised how difficult these pieces were to play, and he certainly made them sound difficult. Most of them also sounded heavy and bombastic. The Meistersinger overture which opened the programme was the least successful. The organ made the music sound unwieldy, and the need for one performer to represent all the groups of orchestral instruments meant that there were some awkward gaps in the music as he moved from one theme to the next. The Tannhäuser overture was more successful, probably because the music is not so complex, and because the Pilgrims’ Chorus sounded particularly appropriate for the organ. Marshall’s own improvisation of themes from Tristan und Isolde was pleasant but went on for too long and contained very little that was recognisable as Tristan until the very end. Lemare’s arrangement of the , which made me think that the warrior-maidens were riding shire horses, provided a suitably tumultuous, if deafening, end to the announced programme, topped by Marshall’s improvised encore, which cheekily combined themes from Die Walküre and Tristan . I staggered out into the street, feeling as though I had been beaten about the ears with an organ pipe. The evening concert could not have provided a greater contrast. Simon Rattle conducted the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in the Love Scene from Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet , followed by Act II of Tristan und Isolde , the greatest star-crossed lovers of all. The sound of the period instruments was a revelation, just as it was in the Prom performance of Das Rheingold in 2004: very light and flexible, light-years away from the traditional concept of ‘heavy’ Wagnerian instrumentation. Only the ‘natural’, valveless hunting horns (which the programme note assured us that Wagner preferred) sounded ill- tuned and blaring, and their placement in the gallery made them sound too close to the action. It might have been better to place them offstage as Donald Runnicles was to do with the post horn in the third movement of Mahler’s Symphony No 3 three nights later, with wondrous results. On the other hand I have never heard the transition in Isolde’s mind from the raucous horns to the murmuring stream depicted so magically, and the lovers’ Nacht der Liebe was drenched in musical perfume. Violeta Urmana’s passionate, imperious, regal Isolde was darker of voice than one normally expects in this role, full of dusky, sultry tones which gave the character an unexpected but not unwelcome earthiness. Her invocation to “Frau Minne” was outstanding. Ben Heppner sounded in better voice than he was at Covent Garden last year, but still vocally frail and unpredictable, and his voice did not blend well with Urmana’s. He has been announced to sing Peter Grimes at Covent Garden next year, but on his current form it is hard to imagine how he will manage it.

– 22 – Sarah Connolly cut an awkward figure on the platform, not helped by an unattractive dress and a peek-a-boo hairstyle which kept flopping over her eyes, but she radiated dramatic truth and her singing was truly wonderful. I have rarely heard the Tower Warnings (for which she stood at the rear of the choir seats, which turned out to be a perfect placing) sung and played with such amazing beauty. At those moments it was easy to believe that this is the most beautiful music ever written. As Thomas Mann wrote, the ascent of the violins passed all understanding. Franz-Josef Selig, sounding in vastly better voice than when he sang Fasolt at Covent Garden three years ago, was a deeply moving King Marke, his very stillness revealing the depth of the betrayed king’s torment. Timothy Robinson made much of Melot’s few pronouncements, his triumphant sneer the ideal foil to Selig’s grave sorrow, and the young Dutch baritone Henk Neven, who was to distinguish himself at a Chamber Prom the following day, made what may the shortest Prom debut ever with Kurwenal’s three words “Rette dich, Tristan!”. My only complaint was that the concert was a single act. If only this had been a complete performance of the opera.

2011 MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTIONS

The Membership Secretary would like to thank those members who have paid their 2011 subscriptions, all of which became due for renewal on 1st January.

Rates remain unchanged from 2010: United Kingdom: Individual/Institution: £20 Joint membership: £25 Europe outside the UK: £25 Rest of the world: Surface mail: £25 Airmail: £40 Full time students under 25: Half of the above rates.

Unless you have arranged to pay by banker’s order, please send your remittance (sterling only, please) to: The Membership Secretary The Wagner Society 16 Doran Drive Redhill RH1 6AX

Your membership number will be shown on the address label sending your Wagner News.

– 23 – DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN AT BAYREUTH A review of the cycle on 20th-25th August 2010 by PAUL DAWSON-BOWLING It was an eerie experience to be at a Bayreuth Ring again 46 years after my last one there, and 52 since my first. Not only were the porticoes and corridors still thronged with friendly ghosts, momentous Wagnerian presences from the past, as happened last year with his other three late masterpieces but this third cycle from 2010 was magnificent in its own right, the last outing of Tancred Dorst’s underrated production, and possibly the last occasion when Thielemann conducts the Ring at Bayreuth.It is sad that it will leave no DVD memorial, because although it has been continuously damned with faint praise, it is far more coherent and compelling than the recent versions from Copenhagen, Weimar or Valencia which have achieved DVD immortality. There are real ideas behind Dorst’s production, mostly about parallel worlds. Ordinary life goes ahead on the human plane unaware of the tremendous forces and titanic figures, gods and heroes, or purely psychological – who knows – which shape the destiny of the universe. At the end of Das Rheingold children skip innocently across the stage where the gods have just completed the elemental events that set the Ring in motion. In Act II of Die Walküre while Wotan and Fricka battle out their cosmic crisis, a dismounted cyclist chats briefly in the background with his girlfriend before becoming absorbed in a newspaper. In Siegfried a motorway viaduct is being driven aloft through the forests above Neidhöhle, and construction workers emerge from the tent with no notion of the elemental clashes occurring below. To see this Ring at last cleared up the puzzle as to why it looked as if Brünnhilde is apparently laid to sleep on a wooden pallet. It is a wooden pallet. It has been taken over from among the debris of old tyres and derelict car wheels which litter the wild place which becomes her rock. Against this humdrum background of people going about their affairs, Tancred Dorst elected to play the myth very straight and with considerable beauty. Wotan’s spear, a real spear, almost never left his hand; and his great confrontation with Erda in Siegfried recalled Wieland Wagner’s version in 1958 in its simplicity and elemental grandeur. In Die Walküre Wotan wore black half-armour; in Siegfried he had simple black vestments; in Das Rheingold the gods were all in white, in a less successful combination of Roman toga and the unappealing baggy knickers worn by elderly patients at risk of falls. One scene was outstanding and unique, and haunted the imagination. The Norns were starry figures located among debris of old bones but also somewhere among the stellar constellations of space. Generally however, Tancred Dorst’s concept worked less well in Götterdämmerung because the Ring itself now moves from the metaphysical world of gods and heroes to one of ordinary human beings. As happens in most creation myths, the Gods have disappeared from the scene, and because the action descends to the ordinary human world, there was no longer be any revealing parallel that Tancred Dorst could draw between the myth-world of the action and ordinary humanity. The action of Götterdämmerung is already set in ordinary humanity. Wagner’s music tells us that the vassals are rough, brutish, and dangerous, and it was a mystery why Dorst dressed them in tails, or had them foppishly sipping cocktails with their Sloane-ranger companions, even during the hunt in Act III. These aberrations were redeemed by the fact that events onstage were always in synchrony with the music. Brünnhilde flung herself round to gaze aghast at Siegfried exactly at Wagner’s octave drop. Sieglinde leapt up after Hunding’s grim challenge exactly where the music describes her

– 24 – hectic agitation. Dorst rightly understood Wotan’s farewell as Wotan’s tragedy, and because of his impeccable timing he made it more moving than ever, particularly because Wotan left the stage only to reappear on a causeway at the back among the flames, unable to bear the heartbreak without one final, distant look. ’s musical direction, less expansive than at Berlin but still weighty and immense, was a core element in the magnificence of this Ring , but there were times when he was simply maddening. He is so incredibly musical; the playing he draws from the orchestra is so glorious! Act III of Siegfried was the ultimate in tonal shading and instrumental colouring which gave cause to marvel, and Gutrune’s solo scene in Götterdämmerung after the funeral music was a microcosm of sad and lonely loveliness. Thielemann mostly struck a better fusion of musical nuance and epic scale than in his other cycles of recent years (if the recordings are to be trusted) and he succeeded particularly at the point where Siegmund draws Nothung from the tree. This is one of those points where Karajan, who worshipped Wagner but not uncritically, might have awarded him an E for orchestration (as he did for the Liebestod ), and it is the point where the trumpets play the sword motive fortissimo and then crown it with a fanfare at exactly the same time as the bass trumpet repeats the sword motive an octave lower. Generally conductors either swamp the bass trumpet and give the fanfare its head, or ensure that the bass trumpet comes though by reining back the fanfare, which detracts from the electrifying effect. By some magnificent sleight of a conductor’s hand Thielemann virtually managed the best of all worlds – Thielemann at his greatest, and there were many other examples. Exasperatingly then, he ruined other outstanding moments through ham-romantic distortions. There were his ritenutos which would undercut the swing of the music, as happened just before Wellgunde’s “Heia du Holde”. And why did he did he have to turn the last note of Das Rheingold into a sharp sforzando followed by a long crescendo? Why did he wait for three seconds of silence after the Götterdämmerung motive has died away before playing the final eight bars of the Ring ? Happily there was absolutely nothing contrived or niggardly about his motive power at the beginning of Die Walküre Act II, and the Descent to Nibelheim made just one instance where he unleashed a terrifying elemental force which no-one nowadays would imagine from him who did not hear him live. Above all he appeared to relish the spectacular sonority of Bayreuth to a degree that is not evident of his well-mannered Opus Arte CDs. I now realise that even the Bayreuth theatre is not uniform in regard to acoustics, and our position this year provided a yet better perspective than in 2009. We could more fully appreciate the saturation, the density, the seething richness of the strings, and the particular focus on the second violins and violas and the important inner harmonies on which Wagner’s modulations often turn. Within the embracing gorgeousness of the strings, the wind section shone brightly, and above all there was the dry blaze of the Bayreuth brass, one of the most exciting sounds in the world. As for blend and the balance within the orchestra or between orchestra and stage, there is simply nothing like it; and these are all reasons which Stephen Fry might have put forward to Anita Walfisch on his BBC4 documentary when she challenged him as to why he had to go and hear Wagner at Bayreuth. Producers and conductors may come and go, but the sound of the Bayreuth orchestra is as “constant as the Northern Star”, as unforgettable as it is inimitable, and difficult to appreciate on new recordings because today’s engineers are so addicted to tampering with the sound. Even if Thielemann could be maddening, this was musically a magnificent Ring , even a great one, as if he recognised that the chance for him to conduct the Ring at Bayreuth might not come again; and it was

– 25 – not without reason that the audience gave his solo curtain calls ovations that bordered on the hysterical. Another reason why this Ring was magnificent was because of major improvements in the cast. There was now not a weak link; every minor role and not so minor role (Mime and Loge both outstanding), were excellently sung and vividly portrayed. There was Edith Haller who gave us a delectable Elsa at Covent Garden last year; and now she took pride of place in this Ring as the singer who performed more roles than anyone else. She was a superlative Freia and a mysterious Norn before becoming a fetching, sweet-natured Gutrune; but additionally she was now a lustrous, enchanting Sieglinde, a breathtaking improvement on her predecessor’s juddering, squally version. Johann Botha, who was to her Elsa at Covent Garden, brought to Siegmund a virility of timbre, a sense of line and a musical conviction, fervent and reflective by turns, that overrode reservations about his generous build and the way he waddled off at the end of Act I of Die Walküre . Lance Ryan as Siegfried sounded more fresh, more open- throated and open-hearted than in his Lohengrin in Birmingham this June, singing now with a reckless freedom (apparently) that defined Siegfried. It is rare to find a singer who throws himself at Siegfried’s three high Cs as he did, and this was just a part of his total command of the role, interestingly childish and unfinished in that he offered the reluctant Brünnhilde a catapult and then an apple from his satchel as inducements to passion. Linda Watson mastered the problematic variety of Brünnhilde, but her voice is becoming unsteady, and it is a pity that she was dressed in a garb that emphasised her grand dimensions and made her look not like Siegfried’s glorious beloved or even his aunt, but more like his grandmother. Albert Dohmen’s imperial, sympathetic Wotan is occasionally starting to buckle under the strain, but he points the text and phrases the music with evermore intense and revealing effect, and Wotan’s monologues in Die Walküre were a highlight of the cycle. For the Rhinegold Wotan he ceded place to Alfred Reuter whose portrayal was impulsive but more sonorous than at Berlin three years ago. When playing the ruffian with Alberich he was vehement without being gratuitously sadistic in the way that the Rhinegold Wotan is often now made out to be; and Wotan’s cast change to Die Walküre was less disruptive than it might have been because of his evolution to a god who has long “lost any lightness of heart”. Andrew Shore’s 2010 appearance may well have been his final Alberich at Bayreuth, and this is now a very great portrayal indeed, so concentrated, so obsessive and so dangerous, and yet so curiously majestic, that he matches the greatest Alberichs in his appalling grandeur. Eric Halvarson as Hagen seemed to be a commissar from some military regime in central Europe, and he filled the role well without making the blood run cold. Ralf Lucas was simply an undistinctive puppet king, but then Gunther is undistinctive unless played by a Hans Hotter. Götterdämmerung may have been the least effective part of Tancred Dorst’s production, but the grand finale, Wagner’s ultimate catastrophe of fire and flood and his most impossible creation, went astonishingly well, leaving the Ring restored to its primal innocence in the depths of the Rhine surrounded by the . The two ultimately great Rings in my experience were Karajan in Vienna, and Knappertsbusch/Wieland Wagner at Bayreuth, but Thielemann’s conducting was often so overwhelming and the production so effective, that they almost lifted this cycle into this league – until Thielemann’s maddening dead halt just before the end (some bold innocent even started a clap, instantly shushed and muffled) took all the steam out of the music and tarnished the spell.

– 26 – Warts and all this remained an outstanding, often overwhelming Ring , and the Ring at Bayreuth is always the Ring at Bayreuth. Thanks to Wagner’s incomparable work itself, existence on this earth has few more life-enhancing experiences to offer than this.

Ulrike Helzel (Woglinde) Christiane Kohl (Wellgunde, Woodbird) Simone Schröder (Flosshilde, Schwertleite, 1st Norn) Andrew Shore (Alberich) Mihoko Fujimura (Fricka, Erda in Siegfried) Johan Reuter (Wotan in Das Rheingold) Edith Haller (Freia, Sieglinde, 3rd Norn, Gutrune) KwangchulYoun (Fasolt, Hunding) Diogenes Randes (Fafner) Clemens Bieber (Froh) Ralf Lukas (Donner) Wolfgang Schmidt (Mime) Christa Mayer (Erda, Waltraute in Götterdämmerung) Johan Botha (Siegmund) Albert Dohmen (Wotan in Die Walküre and Siegfried) Linda Watson (Brünnhilde) Wilke te Brummelstroete (Siegrune) Martina Dike (Waltraute in Die Walküre) Miriam Gordon-Stewart (Helmwige) Sonja Mühlbeck (Gerhilde) Alexandra Petersamer (Rossweisse) Annette Küttenbaum (Grimgerde) Lance Ryan (Siegfried) Ralf Lukas (Gunther) Eric Halvarson (Hagen) Orchestra and Chorus of the 2010, Christian Thielemann (conductor), Tancred Dorst (producer).

Die Walküre at Bayreuth, 2010 Photo: Bayreuther Festspiele

– 27 – DIE WALKÜRE ACT II IN SOUTHWARK The Rehearsal Orchestra, Henry Wood Hall, 24th October 2010 A report by KATIE BARNES This was the Rehearsal Orchestra’s eighth annual Wagner day. Yet again I find it almost impossible to believe that this talented group of musicians can have reached such a high standard in performing such notoriously difficult music in such a short space of time. Before the evening performance (which was far too assured to be given the title of “run- through”) conductor David Syrus stated that they had been rehearsing over the weekend for a total of nine hours. In these circumstances the occasional “rough edge” and wayward note was only to be expected. But what the orchestra’s interpretation may have occasionally lacked in finesse was more than compensated by the thrilling immediacy of their response to the music. The initial statement of the Valkyries’ motif thundered like a cavalry charge. Fricka’s rams bleated in terror. The orchestra quaked with foreboding at her entry and melted most beautifully into the Wälsungs’ love theme. The oboe solo after Brünnhilde’s “Weh’, mein Wälsung!” was a lovely, plangent moment of repose before the headlong terror of Sieglinde’s flight, and Hunding’s horns growled with rage. The weekend was a voyage of discovery, as much for the audience as for the performers. As always at these events it was such a huge privilege to be allowed to witness the process of creation at first hand and to see how the music was dissected into its component parts so that tiny phrases could be refined. To the conductor and orchestra, this is all part of the day’s work, but to the audience it is the part of the artistic process that we rarely see. After the rehearsal of Act II we received the unexpected bonus of the conclusion of Act III, and the most enthralling moment of the day came when the harps alone played the Magic Fire music. It was unforgettable. Unusually for a Rehearsal Orchestra event, two of them already had stage experience in their roles. Alwyn Mellor (Brünnhilde) and Andrew Rees (Siegmund) had appeared in Die Walküre at Longborough last summer. Mellor, suitably attired for her character with black leggings, boots and top with a shimmering black and silver velvet jacket, was completely inside the role all the time: vocally thrilling, so fearless in her war- cries that she could seem almost reckless yet always secure and well grounded. Her tone in the solo “Schwer wiegt mir der Waffen Wucht” was simply exquisite, and in the Todesverkundigung her voice was beautifully mellow, solemn and consoling, even maternal. She and Rees struck sparks from one another and made this the pivotal scene of the cycle, as it should be. Andrew Rees’ voice has developed amazingly well over the past couple of years and is now a clarion Heldentenor with a very exciting sound. It rang out like a trumpet, full of rage and mockery as he defied first Brünnhilde and then Hunding and was beautifully lyrical in Zauberfest . I wished that Stuart Pendred (Hunding) had had more to sing as this was another exciting voice with so much resonance that it sounded as though he was wearing a microphone! I look forward to seeing him with a larger assignment next time. Sieglinde’s part in this Act is quite short but very intense, consisting almost entirely of hysteria. Ione Cumming was careful to vary it as much as possible to avoid her scenes appearing to be “one-note”. She was very strong dramatically and conveyed the sheer physical agony of the terrified woman’s hallucinations. On this showing her voice is a little colourless but impressively powerful.

– 28 – Magdalen Ashman made Fricka a small lady with huge attitude. The sight of this goddess harrying her huge Wotan was itself worth the price of admission. Her acting was superbly vivid. She radiated indignation, sarcasm, rage, exasperation and belligerence without ever compromising the character’s dignity, and her deep, full mezzo voice is simply marvellous. I want to hear her again, soon. The big “draw” of the day, and probably the reason for the hearteningly large audience, was the opportunity to hear James Rutherford as Wotan. I cannot commend enough his caution in making his first attempt at the role (which so many of us are expecting him to play) in such a supportive environment. At first hearing, Wotan’s music does not seem such a natural ‘fit’ for his voice as Sachs, and as he was having to concentrate upon the music he was less vivid dramatically than some of his colleagues. But these are still very early days, and much will come with experience. As a first go at this killer role it was terrific. He traced Wotan’s downward path from serene confidence that he would win the argument with Fricka to the utter emptiness of “Was verlangst du?” and “Nimm der Eid!”. His articulation of the text in the great narratives was superb, and he captured the correct sense of introspection, physically relaxed even while Wotan’s nerves were stretched taut. “Das Ende, Das Ende!” was simply shocking, the first like a trumpet call, the second soft and despairing. He saved plenty of power for “Ha, Freche du!”, a huge outburst of rage and grief. “Geh’ hin, Knecht!” was, unusually, sung more in sorrow than in anger until the final snarl of “Geh!” dismissed Hunding from life. This was one of the Rehearsal Orchestra’s finest Wagner days yet. As ever, all thanks are due to Ludmilla Andrew, Eric Adler and Frances and David Waters for their generous sponsorship. Long may these annual Sunday afternoons in the “engine room” of opera continue to instruct and enthral us.

Photo: Peter West: [email protected]

– 29 – DIE WALKÜRE ACT II WITH THE REHEARSAL ORCHESTRA

The Rehearsal Orchestra at Henry Wood Hall

Ione Cumming (Sieglinde)

– 30 – David Syrus (Conductor) with Magdalena Ashman (Fricka) and James Rutherford (Wotan)

James Rutherford (Wotan), Magdalen Ashman (Fricka) and Alwyn Mellor (Brünnhilde) Photos: Peter West: Donnington Arts 07770 637 931

– 31 – FORWARD VIEW

GLYNDEBOURNE: DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG 21st, 25th + 29th May and 2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th, 18th and 26th June

The 2011 Glyndebourne Festival will open with their first ever staging of Die Meistersinger von Nürenberg , directed by David McVicar and conducted by Music Director Vladimir Jurowski. Gerald Finley makes his role debut as Hans Sachs, with Anna Gabler as Eva.

(This will fulfill the dream of Glyndebourne’s founder John Christie to stage this work and who performed the role of Sixtus Beckmesser in a concert performance in the Organ Room at Glyndebourne in 1928!)

Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski Director: David McVicar

Online booking from 5th March: www.glyndebourne.com [email protected] 01273 813 813

GRANGE PARK OPERA: TRISTAN UND ISOLDE Arlesford (near Winchester) SO24 9AQ 3rd, 11th, 17th, 22nd, 25th and 30th June plus 3rd July at 4.20 pm

Sung in German with English surtitles Tristan: Richard Berkeley-Steele Isolde: Alwyn Mellor King Mark: Clive Bayley Brangäne: Sara Fulgoni Kurwenal: Stephen Gadd Melot: Andrew Rees Shepherd/Sailor: Richard Roberts Director & Designer: David Fielding

The English Chamber Orchestra Conductor: Stephen Barlow www.grangeparkopera.co.uk (Online booking available from February) 01962 737 366

OPERA NORTH: DAS RHEINGOLD (CONCERT PERFORMANCE)

Leeds Town Hall: 18th and 29th June; 1st July at 7.30 pm Symphony Hall Birmingham : 24th June at 7.30 pm The Sage Gateshead : 26th June at 7.30 pm The Lowry Salford Quays : 10th September at 7.30 pm [email protected] 01132 439 999

– 32 – MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: DIE WALKÜRE Bridgewater Hall: Act I: Friday 15th July at 7.30. Acts II and III: Saturday 16th at 3.30

The Friday programme begins with a specially commissioned dramatic prologue written by Gerard McBurney: “The Madness of an Extraordinary Plan: A Guide to Wagner’s Ring Cycle”. Sir leads the Hallé Orchestra and three actors in what is described as “a guide to ’s revolutionary reinvention of the musical language of opera.”

Sung in German with English surtitles.

Brünnhilde: Susan Bullock Wotan: Egils Silins Siegmund: Stig Andersen Sieglinde: Petra Maria Schnitzer Hunding: Clive Bayley Fricka: Susan Bickley Gerhilde: Miranda Keys Waltraute: Madeleine Shaw Helmwige: Katherine Broderick Ortlinde Yvonne Howard Grimgerde: Ceri Williams Schwertleite: Linda Finnie Siegrune: Alison Kettlewell Rossweisse: Leah-Marian Jones www.mif.co.uk www.bridgewater-hall.co.uk 0161 907 9000

LONGBOROUGH FESTIVAL OPERA: SIEGFRIED Moreton in Marsh: July 25th, 28th and 30th at 3.30

Sung in German with English surtitles.

Daniel Brenna Siegfried Alwyn Mellor Brünnhilde Colin Judson Mime Julian Close Fafner Evelyn Krahe Erda Anthony Negus Conductor www.lfo.org.uk 01451 830 292

– 33 – BERLIN OPERA GALA Deutsche Oper, 6th November 2010. A report by JEREMY D ROWE Deutsche Oper hold an annual opera gala every November to raise money for research into and support of victims of AIDS. Over 17 years the gala has grown into one of the most glittering events in the Berlin social calendar, and raises a huge amount for the charity. Ian and I were very lucky to get hold of a pair of tickets this year, and had little idea of how glamorous the occasion was to be. From the moment our taxi arrived at the red carpet on Bismarkstrasse, door opened by doormen in white tie and tails, to finally retiring exhausted at 2.30am, we enjoyed a most astonishing evening. The centrepiece of the gala was a lengthy and extraordinary concert. The full orchestra of Deutsche Oper was on stage, and under conductor Donald Runnicles got the concert off to a cracking start with a very speedy and tightly controlled performance of Bernstein’s Candide . This was followed by a lengthy introduction of speeches about the AIDS charity, and then the opera excerpts started in earnest. First up was Simon O’Neill, who sang Siegmund’s Wintersturme . It was, perversely, the worst slot of the night, with an audience who had not ‘warmed up’. Simon’s performance was rather wooden, and he looked distinctly uncomfortable. This was not a Wagnerian audience but the social glitterati of Berlin and they clearly didn’t rate Wagner very highly. Applause for Simon was rather lukewarm. It’s a tricky piece to put into a gala of this type, for although it starts with the famous ‘tune’, it’s hard to find a place to stop which doesn’t sound like petering out. It was good to see Wagner presented, especially by Simon, but not a good choice to start the evening’s music. Simon was followed by Amanda Echalaz who was in very fine form indeed. With Vissi d’arte from she woke up the audience with a full-bloodied rendition. She has terrific volume and used her voice at its most powerful to create, in a very short time, a thrilling atmosphere of glamour and menace. Following her earlier success in the role at ENO she is beginning to stamp her own characterful interpretation on this part. At last the audience had something they understood, and she received a great ovation. Runnicles maintained strict control over his well-rehearsed orchestra, switching effortlessly from one to the next, and from one style to the next. Highlights included Christiane Karg singing an aria from the little-known Haydn opera, L’Isola Disabitata ; Andreas Scholl singing the “Cold Song” from Purcell’s King Arthur (such a contrast of styles for the orchestra!), and Pretty Yende, who brought the house down with a fantastic performance of “Je marche sur tous les chemins” from Massenet’s Manon ’ This was followed by a lavish supper, and then partying on the Deutsche stage until the small hours of the morning. We didn’t win the Mercedes which was the top opera prize, but we thoroughly enjoyed the party with all the stars of the show. We were confidently assured that the party would go on until 5.00am, at which point only the members of the orchestra would be still standing and still drinking, but we cannot verify the truth of this! Jones-Rowe OperaTours have negotiated a few tickets for next year’s gala Let us know if you would like to come.

– 34 – ADVERTISEMENT

JONES-ROWE Opera Tours

Luxury long weekend tours to exciting destinations, to see the works of Richard Wagner and other . Featuring small accompanied groups, gourmet gala dinners, airport limo transfers, champagne receptions and best available seats in the house. Single occupancy arrangements. Bespoke summer festival tours also available.

[email protected] www.jonesroweopera.org + 44 (0) 20 7402 7494 + 44 (0) 7956 290 884

33 Lancaster Gate London W2 3LP United Kingdom

– 35 – TRISTAN WITH THE NORTHERN WAGNER ORCHESTRA The 2010 “Come and Play” weekend at Leeds University A report by ROGER LEE From 10th to 12th September the Northern Wagner Orchestra held its fifth annual Wagner weekend after their Götterdämmerung last year to complete their first Ring . The 80-plus orchestra of all abilities was conducted by Michael Williamson and a similarly unauditioned male chorus in supported the cast of young professional singers. The event was supported by the Wagner Society, and saw several of “our” young musicians in action: Sarah Estill and Kimberley Myers sharing the role of Isolde, Magdalen Ashman as Brangäne, Julian Close as King Mark and the ever versatile Nick Fowler as Kurwenal and Steuerman. As usual Thomas Lydon took on the job of Chorus Master. NWO events provide opportunities both for relatively accomplished professionals like Sarah Estill and for those embarking upon the Wagner career path. Kimberley Myers appreciated the chance to perform with full orchestra: “As a Wagnerian soprano, things don't come easily at the beginning of our singing journeys because the voice is too big for our young bodies. Because the role of Isolde is so long one would rarely get the chance to take the time out to learn it. This has given me the tools to go on and perform this role and to let companies and agents know that I have the ability and the experience behind me.” Hero of that 41 bar cor anglais solo at the opening of Act 3, Roger Morris said: “I have known and loved Wagner’s music all my life, but NWO offers the opportunity to experience the operas from the inside. There are some really good instrumentalists and I like the fact that players in each section move around to play different parts if they want to.” Cellist Paul Coones found it to be a shattering mental, emotional, and physical experience which represented “a rare chance to play this very special piece, which makes enormous demands on everyone involved. The drama of Tristan takes place not really on the stage but in the orchestra, which tells you everything.” From the back of the cello section Petra Bijsterveld found that the experience changed her perception of Wagner. “I had been stuck with the prejudice of ‘long and heavy’, but really getting into the details of the music has shown me the delicacy of the orchestration. Not many amateurs get the chance to play opera, and certainly not Wagner.” The Horn Society (who just happened to be meeting in the same building) supplied a magnificent off-stage band of six hunting horns for the Act 2 fanfares, positioned far down the corridor to gain glorious echo before handing back to the other half dozen horn players inside the hall. Clarinettist and Leeds University Emeritus Professor of Music Julian Rushton explained why he found it all so fulfilling: “I’ve known these works for the best part of 50 years, rather well. The sheer length as well as the difficulty of music requires tremendous concentration and discipline. At the end one emerges drained but filled with a sense of achievement and gratitude to those who made it possible, and I don’t just mean Wagner. Mike Williamson does a terrific job as both conductor and organiser. He and Sarah Estill deserve the thanks of everyone taking part for making such a worthwhile event happen.” Of the ambitious idea which emerged between herself and Mike Williamson over a pint seven years ago, Sarah Estill said: “we never dreamed that it would establish itself so successfully and attract such a great bunch of talented musicians year after year.” This year’s NWO event will be Tannhauser on 10th and 11th September. [email protected]

– 36 – OBITUARY PETER HOFMANN Tenor and rock musician Peter Hofmann has died at the age of 66. He performed the role of Siegmund in Patrice Chéreau’s legendary “Centenary” Ring at Bayreuth conducted by with Gwyneth Evans as Brünnhilde and Donald McIntyre as Wotan in 1976. At the same time he was at 32 the youngest Parsifal in the Festival’s history. Between 1976 and 1989 at Bayreuth he sang Siegmund for six seasons, Parsifal for five, as well as four years as Lohengrin and one each as Tristan and Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg . He was also Karajan’s choice for Parsifal at the celebrated Salzburg Easter Festival in 1980-81 and Karajan’s Lohengrin in his revival of that work in 1983.He moved between the worlds of classical and popular music, singing the title role in Phantom of the Opera some 300 times. Peter Hofmann’s acting and sensitive phrasing drew critical praise. Hailed by some as the heldentenor of the future, he also received much praise for his appearance. At a time when many singers tended to be somewhat immobile, Peter Hofman’s handsome features and athletic physique presented, according to one critic: “the image of blond German godliness.” Another wrote: “Peter Hofmann gives ground to no Parsifal in recent history in the matter of physique and blond handsomeness.”

BINDERS FOR WAGNER NEWS Binders are available for members to store their copies of Wagner News . Embossed on the spine with “WAGNER” in gold lettering, each binder can hold a dozen issues of the magazine. The cost is £12 for two binders inclusive of postage and packing. They are available from Geoffrey Griffiths, 5 Monkhams Avenue, Woodford Green, Essex, IG8 0HB. Please make cheques payable to The Wagner Society.

WAGNER SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND The Scottish Wagner Society has a lively programme and meets in a beautiful venue in Edinburgh. As members of the Wagner Society we enjoy a reciprocal arrangement which means that we are welcome to attend any of their events. details may be found at www.wagnerscotland.net

YOUR NOTES AND VIEWS The Editor welcomes your comments on anything you read in Wagner News and is glad to receive any information which you may wish to share with our readers. See: page 39.

– 37 – LETTER A Response to the Government Spending Review The recent spending review has withdrawn all central government funding from all the major English conservatoires – the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Trinity Laban, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Royal Northern College of Music. This puts music in a singular position as a subject apparently completely without official approval. The argument over whether to fund higher education from central taxation revenue or from fees is largely an ideological one. In favour of fee revenue, the argument is that graduates will have higher earning power which will enable them to pay back the loans they will incur in their studies. Averaged over the population and over degree subjects, this is probably true. However, it is also true that students from hard-up families will eye the risk far more nervously than those from families worth millions. This is probably particularly the case in music, where there is a relatively high probability of raw talent failing to turn into employable accomplishment – it’s just the nature of the beast that budding musicians must study hard and long even to find out if they have what it takes. (‘What it takes’ of course also includes the willingness to face the long and irregular hours, the employment uncertainty, the performance nerves....) The Establishment in Britain has for at least the last two centuries had a rather patronising view of musicians, who are held in lower regard than is the case in many other European countries. Indeed, they are sometimes apparently assumed all to be amateurs. On the contrary: as we well know, they are some of the hardest-working and most dedicated professionals in any trade. They are also not particularly well paid. At the same time, the Establishment (and that term must certainly include the stalwarts of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Parties who have conducted the spending review) are happy enough to enjoy music at the opera, in concerts, at official functions and at their party congresses and conferences. I do not think it is exaggerating to say that the withdrawal of support from students of music is adding injury to insult. I believe that it would be appropriate for professional musicians to respond by refusing to perform for Conservative or Liberal Democrat politicians. Thanks to TV, newspapers and the internet, most MPs are likely to be recognised at most public venues, and I suggest that musicians who hear that an MP of blue or yellow tinge is in the audience should refuse to perform until the offending individual has left. Musicians asked to perform for Lib/Con functions should refuse, and requests to use recordings should likewise be turned down. Every opportunity should be taken to deny these persons – and those accompanying them – the privilege of hearing professionally-performed music on any occasion.

Richard Black (Freelance Musician)

– 38 – WAGNER SOCIETY CONTACTS

Chairman: Jeremy Rowe [email protected] Flat 20, 33 Lancaster Gate, London W2 3LP

Secretary: David Waters [email protected] 5 Ashley Close, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 7LH

Treasurer: Mike Morgan [email protected] 9 West Court, Downley, High Wycombe, Bucks HP13 5TG

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

Bayreuth Bursary Admin: Maureen McIntosh [email protected] Kimbalyn, Shernfold Park Farm, Frant, East Sussex TN3 9DL

Ticket Secretary: Pam Hudson [email protected] Howard Gate, Howard Drive, Letchworth Garden City SG6 2BQ

Website and Publicity: Ian Jones [email protected] Flat 20, 33 Lancaster Gate, London W2 3LP

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

Editor of Wagner News: Roger Lee [email protected] Cefn Maen, Mountain Lane, Penmaenmawr, Conwy LL34 6YP

Society Website: www.wagnersociety.org

The Wagner Society is registered charity number 266383.

– 39 – Repetiteur Kelvin Lim was the first pianist to be awarded the Wagner Society Bayreuth Bursary Prize in 2007. He is now Co-Director of Postgraduate Opera at Trinity College of Music. As well providing accompaniment for the Mastersingers Company at the Rodd in Presteigne last summer (see: page 17) he also performed the following transcriptions by Franz Liszt: Festival and Bridal Song from Lohengren Valhall from Der Ring Des Nibelungen “Am stillen Herd” from Die Meistersinger Solemn March to the Holy Grail from Parsifal Isolde’s Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde Overture to Tannhäuser

Photo: Peter West [email protected] 01256 222 339

ISBN 0263 3248

– 40 –