Wagner Quarterly 160 March 2021
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Marie Collier: a Life
Marie Collier: a life Kim Kemmis A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History The University of Sydney 2018 Figure 1. Publicity photo: the housewife diva, 3 July 1965 (Alamy) i Abstract The Australian soprano Marie Collier (1927-1971) is generally remembered for two things: for her performance of the title role in Puccini’s Tosca, especially when she replaced the controversial singer Maria Callas at late notice in 1965; and her tragic death in a fall from a window at the age of forty-four. The focus on Tosca, and the mythology that has grown around the manner of her death, have obscured Collier’s considerable achievements. She sang traditional repertoire with great success in the major opera houses of Europe, North and South America and Australia, and became celebrated for her pioneering performances of twentieth-century works now regularly performed alongside the traditional canon. Collier’s experiences reveal much about post-World War II Australian identity and cultural values, about the ways in which the making of opera changed throughout the world in the 1950s and 1960s, and how women negotiated their changing status and prospects through that period. She exercised her profession in an era when the opera industry became globalised, creating and controlling an image of herself as the ‘housewife-diva’, maintaining her identity as an Australian artist on the international scene, and developing a successful career at the highest level of her artform while creating a fulfilling home life. This study considers the circumstances and mythology of Marie Collier’s death, but more importantly shows her as a woman of the mid-twentieth century navigating the professional and personal spheres to achieve her vision of a life that included art, work and family. -
Wagner March 06.Indd
Wagner Society in NSW Inc. Newsletter No. 103, March 2006 IN NEW SOUTH WALES INC. President’s Report In Memoriam While on the subject of recordings, we are still waiting for the first opera of the promised set from the Neidhardt Birgit Nilsson, the Wagner Soprano Legend, Ring in Adelaide in 2004, and regretting that last year’s Dies at 87 and Tenor James King at 80 triumphal Tristan in Brisbane with Lisa Gasteen and John Birgit Nilsson, the Swedish soprano, died on 25 December Treleaven went unrecorded. 2005 at the age of 87 in Vastra Karup, the village where Functions she was born. Max Grubb has specially written for the Newsletter an extensive appraisal and appreciation of the On 19 February, we held our first function of 2006, at which voice, career and character of Nilsson (page 10). Nilsson’s Professor Kim Walker, Dean of the Sydney Conservatorium regular co-singer, Tenor James King has also died at eighty: of Music, spoke about the role of the Conservatorium, Florida, 20 November 2005 (see report page 14). the work of the Opera Studies Unit in particular, and the need to find private funding to replace government grants A LETTER TO MEMBERS which have been severely cut. Sharolyn Kimmorley then Dear Members conducted a voice coaching class with Catherine Bouchier, a voice student at the Con. From feedback received at and Welcome to this, our first Newsletter for 2006, in which since the function, members attending found this “master we mourn the passing of arguably the greatest Wagnerian class” a fascinating and rewarding window onto the work soprano of the second half of the 20th century, Birgit of the Conservatorium, and I’d like on your behalf to once Nilsson. -
Eljnral Mtttntt £>*Rt?0 3
UNIVERSITY- MUSICAL-SOCIETY (Eljnral Mtttntt £>*rt?0 3 Forty-Seventh Season Seventh Concert Vo* ?S —————No. CCCCXXXXII Complete Series — p « Detroit Symphony Orchestra •* OSSIP GABRILOWITSCH, Conducting •HUl Aufcttnrtam. Atm Arbor, IHirtjigan /^ MONDAY, MARCH 8, 1926, AT EIGHT O'CLOCK PROGRAM J| as Overture to the Opera "Oberon" Weber Fifth Symphony in C minor, Op. 67 Beethoven Allegro con brio Andante con moto 8$ Allegro (Scherzo); Trio Allegro Prelude and Love Death from the Opera "Tristan and Isolde"... Wagner <*§ Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34 Rimsky-Korsakov J§i Alborada Jj£$ Variazioni Rfo Alborada j*g Scena e conto gitano c™ Fandango asturiano 85 (OVER) $£ raffftfft K^ AR Sa ON G A'VITA'BREVI S j ^^5^t^«^^5 THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL MAY FESTIVAL EARL V. MOORE, Musical Director Six Concerts Four Days May 19, 20, 21, 22 ARTISTS, ORGANIZATIONS, AND PROGRAMS (Subject to Change) First Concert—Wednesday Evening, May 19 SOLOISTS LOUISE HOMER Contralto Metropolitan and Chicago Civic Operas CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Frederick Stock, Conductor PROGRAM OVERTURE, "Im Fruhling" Goldmark ARIA MMU. HOMSR SYMPHONY IN B MINOR Chausson Intermission ARIA MME. HOMER "THE PLANETS" .Hoist ARIA MME. HOMER DANCES FROM "PRINCE IGOR" Bbrodine Second Concert—Thursday Evening, May 20 SOLOISTS MARIE SUNDELIUS Soprano Metropolitan Opera JEANNE LAVAL Contralto American Oratorio Singer CHARLES STRATTON Tenor Distinguished American Artist THEODORE HARRISON Baritone Authoratative "Elijah" UNIVERSITY CHORAL UNION ) _ . ,7 „ r , . CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA f hMl W' Moore> Conductor PROGRAM ELIJAH Mendelssohn An Oratorio with words from Holy Script CAST Theodore Harrison Elijah Marie Sundelius The Widow Charles Stratton Obadiah Jeanne Laval An Angel Third Concert—Friday Afternoon, May 21 SOLOISTS ALBERT SPAULDING Violinist CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL CHORUS J. -
Carmel Music Society
Musical Excellence Since 1927 carmel music society PERFORMANCE HISTORY 1927-2013 with support from the Monterey County Board of Supervisors Carmel Music Society Post Office Box 22783 Carmel, California 93922 831-625-9938 831-625-6823 FAX www.carmelmusic.org [email protected] printed on recycled paper 2008-09 2011-12 The Romeros Guitar Quartet Nobuyuki Tsujii, Pianist Adaskin Trio & Gryphon Trio Carmel Music Society Tom Gallant, Oboist Astrid Schween, Cellist & Board of Directors Takâcs Quartet Gary Hammond, Pianist Hans Boepple, Pianist Frederica von Stade, Mezzo-Soprano & Voices of London Kristin Pankonin, Pianist Anne Thorp, President Bennewitz String Quartet Israeli Chamber Project Victoria Davis, First Vice President Triple Helix & Garrick Ohlsson, Pianist Rudolf Schroeter, Second Vice President Paul Hersh, Violist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Violinist & Yefim Bronfman, Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, Pianist Larry Davidson, Third Vice President Dana Booher, Saxophonist* Pavel Haas Quartet Peter Thorp, Treasurer Jae-in Shin, Violinist* Greta Alexander, Secretary 2009-10 Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble Tim Brown Kate Kluetmeier Alexander Quartet & Eli Eban, Clarinetist Doris Cobb Jim Rotter Susan Graham, Beverly Dekker-Davidson Barbara Ruzicka Mezzo-Soprano & Erik Dyar Kumi Uyeda Malcolm Martineau, Pianist Menachem Pressler, Pianist & American String Quartet Gustavo Romero, Pianist Advisors Albers String Trio David Gordon, Renée Bronson Timothy Fain, Violinist & Cory Smythe, Pianist Bert Ihlenfeld, Ginna -
Forgotten Splendour
FORGOTTEN SPLENDOUR A Chronology of the North Shore Music Festival 1909 to 1939 by Andrew Cottonaro Beginning in 1909 and lasting until 1939, the North Shore Music Festival of Northwestern University was a significant musical and social event in the Chicago area. For a few days each Spring, the campus hosted a diverse body of performers in a series of grand concerts. Naturally, some of that era’s most eminent singers could be heard there. Their presence certainly helped to sell tickets and their artistry helped to sustain the festival as a popular and critical success. Now, sixty years later, the festival hardly even counts as a faded memory. To date, two books (in part), offer a general outline of the festival’s history, but both lack any detailed analysis of who appeared and what was actually sung. This is the first attempt to present a chronology of the vocal offerings (quite distinct from the orchestral offerings) at the festival. Northwestern University, the official sponsor of the festival, is located in Evanston, Illinois (USA). The town is a suburb of Chicago, directly north of the city and on the banks of Lake Michigan. Because of this geographic position, Evanston and the other cities of the area are called the North Shore, hence the origin of the festival’s name. Northwestern University was incorporated in 1850 and gradually won recognition for its academic excellence. The establishment of musical studies, however, was a tangled web of many failed efforts. In a final and desperate attempt to salvage musical education, the university’s board of trustees in 1891 appointed Peter Christian Lutkin (1858-1931) to direct musical studies, a post that he held until his death. -
Ruby Rich Schalit Womens Contribution to Music in AU.Pdf (PDF, 2.35MB)
WOMEN 1S CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC IN .AU�'TRALIA Women have contributed to music in Auatralia in a wide field of endeavour. The Billiers, composers, instnimentalists, teachers, administrators and musicolo�ists have all played their part in Australian history and can lay claim to a place on the honours board of their couatry. AM brevity i• the keynote of this report it must of necessity b� selective. I have therefore endeavoured to catalo�ue only some of the outstandiDi women who have helped to make Australia known internationally or who have been responsible for some historic landmark within Australia. The list has been arr&D&ed chronolo�ically to create a aenae of histor�cal deve lopnent. ************************************* ... ;- . \ EMJ\l!ELINE M. WOOLLEY On 29 June, 1895 it was reported in the Sydney Mail a the pleasure · 'for the first· time in the history of N.S.W. we h ve d w r d to record an event which is by no means common,in the o� o l in namely, the production of an orig al cantata by two ladies. verses , The composer , Emmeline Woolley and the author of the Pedl.ey,are professors of music resident in Sydney.• Miss Ethel ,, Emmeline Woolley who gained this notoriety was a person was f d in of diverse musical attributes. She born in Here or appointment 1843 and came to Australia as a very young girl upon the f of her father, Dr. John Woolley, as the first principal o the University of Sydney. Her earliest I'ecollections were of Norwich, where Dr. -
Wagner Society of New York a Centennial Tribute to Sir Georg Solti October 17, 2012
Wagner Society of New York A Centennial Tribute to Sir Georg Solti October 17, 2012 SIR GEORG SOLTI, DAS RHEINGOLD, AND THE STEREO ERA Joe Pearce President, Vocal Record Collectors Society Photo by Allen Warren Sir Georg Solti’s 1958 recording of Das Rheingold is considered to be, even after over a half-century of the most stalwart competition, one of the very greatest operatic recordings ever made. Indeed, for many of us, it has an impor- tance out of all proportion to just its musical and interpretative merits, for it ushered in a new era of operatic record- ing in a way that perhaps neither Sir Georg nor the set’s indefatigable producer, John Culshaw, could possibly have envisioned. To understand its full importance, however, it is first necessary to look at the conditions obtaining for recorded opera in general, and for recorded Wagner in particular, up to the time of its issuance. And in this context we must also briefly examine the tremendous accomplishment of Sir Georg Solti, who not only conducted Das Rheingold but over seven ensuing years made possible the completion of the entire RING project: the first-ever com- plete studio recording of what many consider the greatest artistic masterpiece, musical or otherwise, of the entire 19th century. In a survey of critical opinion published by the BBC Music Magazine (January 2012 issue), the Solti RING was voted “the greatest recording of all time.” Richard Wagner’s music was always a problem for the early recording industry. Unlike, say, Giuseppe Verdi, most of whose operas were easily divided up into arias, duets, trios and the like, (those of a relatively short duration favored by three- to five-minute 78rpm sides), most of Wagner’s scores were through-composed and not easily excerptable. -
VOCAL 78 Rpm Discs Minimum Bid As Indicated Per Item
VOCAL 78 rpm Discs Minimum bid as indicated per item. Listings “Just about 1-2” should be considered as mint and “Cons. 2” with just slight marks. For collectors searching top copies, you’ve come to the right place! The further we get from the era of production (in many cases now 100 years or more), the more difficult it is to find such excellent extant pressings. Some are actually from mint dealer stocks and others the result of having improved copies via dozens of collections purchased over the past fifty years. * * * For those looking for the best sound via modern reproduction, those items marked “late” are usually of high quality shellac, pressed in the 1950-55 period. A number of items in this particular catalogue are excellent pressings from that era. Also featured are many “Z” shellac Victors, their best quality surface material (later 1930s) and PW (Pre-War) Victor, almost as good surface material as “Z”. Likewise laminated Columbia pressings (1923- 1940) offer particularly fine sound. * * * Please keep in mind that the minimum bids are in U.S. Dollars, a benefit to most collectors. * * * “Text label on verso.” For a brief period (1912-‘14), Victor pressed silver-on-black labels on the reverse sides of some of their single-faced recordings, usually featuring translations of the text or similarly related comments. VERTICALLY CUT RECORDS. There were basically two systems, the “needle-cut” method employed by Edison, which was also used by Aeolian-Vocalion and Lyric and the “sapphire ball” system of Pathé, also used by Rex. and vertical Okeh. -
August 2015 Newsletter
THE RICHARD WAGNER SOCIETY OF W.A. Inc AUGUST 2015 NEWSLETTER Following the annual general meeting we had a very JOHN’S JOTTINGS interesting talk by Mandy Farmer, the production manager with WA Opera, about the time she spent at The Society’s activities began a little earlier than usual Covent Garden late last year working with the produc- this year, so that we could take advantage of the pres- tion team on the Royal Opera House’s Tristan und ence in Perth in February of Heath Lees, one of our Isolde. Her talk was very informative and we learnt favourite visitors. As usual we had an entertaining as about many of the things that go on behind the scenes well as informative illustrated presentation from in both large and smaller opera houses. This was fol- Heath, on the topic of The Ups and Downs of Wagner lowed by a screening of Wagner: A Genius in Exile, a on Film. After sketching the various approaches that documentary featuring Antoine Wagner, a New York film makers have taken to the subject of Wagner since based photographer who is also a great-grandson of he was first depicted on silent film in 1913 by the Ger- Richard. The documentary is set in Switzerland, where man film pioneer and director Carl Froelich, Heath the composer spent many of the most productive gave some illuminating insights into some of the chal- years of his life, especially working on the text and lenges and joys that he had in making his own four- later the music of the Ring. -
Die Frau Ohne Schatten W
20.02.2020 Die Frau ohne Schatten w So klingt nur Dortmund Saison 2 019 / 20 Stephan Gould Der Kaiser Elza van den Heever Die Kaiserin Michaela Schuster Die Amme Michael Volle Barak, der Färber Lise Lindstrom Die Färberin Katrien Baerts Hüter der Schwelle, Stimme des Falken Thomas Oliemans Der Geisterbote Bror Magnus Tødenes Stimme des Jünglings Andreas Conrad Der Bucklige Michael Wilmering Der Einäugige Nathan Berg Der Einarmige WDR Kinderchor Dortmund Željo Davutović Einstudierung Rotterdam Symphony Chorus Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra Yannick Nézet-Séguin Dirigent Abo: Konzertante Oper In unserem Haus hören Sie auf allen Plätzen gleich gut – leider auch Husten, Niesen und Handyklingeln. Ebenfalls aus Rücksicht auf die Künstler bitten wir Sie, von Bild- und Tonaufnahmen während der Vorstellung abzusehen. Wir danken für Ihr Verständnis! 2,50 E Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949) »Die Frau ohne Schatten« Oper in drei Aufzügen op. 65 (1915) (konzertante Aufführung in deutscher Sprache mit Übertiteln) Erster Aufzug – Pause ca. 20.05 Uhr – Zweiter Aufzug – Pause ca. 21.30 Uhr – Dritter Aufzug – Ende ca. 23.00 Uhr – Expresseinführung um 18.40 Uhr im Komponistenfoyer 4 Programm 6 Gipfeltreffen des Jahres zurückzuholen und den Kaiser versteinern zu lassen, wenn nicht die Große Dramatik mit ausgewiesenen Strauss-Experten Tochter »einen Schatten wirft«, also fruchtbar und damit Mensch wird. »Die Frau ohne Schatten« mit ihrer überbordenden Musiksprache und ihrer Die Handlung spielt sich in und zwischen drei Welten ab: dem unsichtbaren märchenhaften, dichtverwobenen Handlung ist Richard Strauss’ komplexeste Geisterreich Keikobads, dem glitzernden, übermenschlichen Reich des Kaisers und zugleich persönlichste Oper. Mitten im Ersten Weltkrieg hat der Kompo- und der lauten, prosaischen Menschenwelt. -
'The Ring in Australia' by Peter Bassett
The RING in Australia Wagner arrived in Australia (metaphorically speaking) on 18 August 1877, one year after the first Bayreuth Festival, when Lohengrin was performed at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Melbourne by William Lyster’s Royal Italian and English Opera Company. Melbourne in those days was the largest, most prosperous and most cosmopolitan of colonial cities, courtesy of the gold rush. The 1877 opera season also included Aida which was, at the time, Verdi’s latest opera. Lohengrin on the other hand was thirty years old and had long been surpassed by Tristan, Meistersinger, and the entire Ring, and yet how avant-garde it must have seemed to those Melbourne audiences. It was sung in Italian, with the principal singers coming from Europe and the United States. The music was under the direction of Alberto Zelman who, lacking a copy of Wagner’s orchestral score, simply took a piano version and orchestrated it himself. Zelman had arrived in Australia six years earlier from Trieste via India and, although he had conducted operas in northern Italy, it seems that he had never actually seen or heard a Wagner production. On his arrival in Sydney, he had joined the Cagli-Pompei Royal Italian Opera Company and toured the Australasian colonies, eventually coming under Lyster’s management. His son, by the way – also called Alberto Zelman – founded the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Soon after the Lohengrin performances, a local resident Emil Sander wrote to Wagner to inform him of this noteworthy event – a fact recorded by Cosima in her diary. The entry for 21 October 1877 reads: ‘He receives a letter from a theatre director in Melbourne, according to which Lohengrin last month made its ceremonious entry there, too.’ The following day, Wagner replied to Sander as follows: My very dear Sir, I was delighted to receive your news, and cannot refrain from thanking you for it. -
Florence Austral ( 1892 – 1968)
AUSTRALIAN EPHEMERA COLLECTION FINDING AID FLORENCE AUSTRAL ( 1892 – 1968) PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAMS AND EPHEMERA (PROMPT) PRINTED AUSTRALIANA JULY 2016 Florence Mary Austral (26 April 1892[1] – 15 May 1968) was an Australian operatic soprano renowned for her interpretation of the most demanding Wagnerian female roles. She was born Florence Mary Wilson, but adopted the professional surname Austral in 1921 in honour of her homeland of Australia. CONTENT Printed materials in the PROMPT collection include programs and printed ephemera such as brochures, leaflets, tickets, etc. Theatre programs are taken as the prime documentary evidence of a performance. The list is based on imperfect holdings, and is updated as gaps in the Library’s holdings are filled. Unless otherwise stated, all entries are based on published programs in the PROMPT collection. ACCESS The Forence Austral PROMPT file may be accessed through the Library’s Special Collections Reading Room by eCallslip request: http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn3526200 ARRANGEMENT Programs in the National Library’ PROMPT collection are arranged chronologically by Australian performances Overseas performances Where the information is available on the program performances are listed as follows: Date (day and month); Venue, City Name of production Performer’s role. An index to staged productions is provided at the end of the document. This document is also keyword searchable]. OTHER RESOURCES The National Library’s collection also includes: Biographical cuttings Pictures Published works Newspaper