No: 205 April 2012 Number 205 April 2012 INSIDE 4 18th January Committee Meeting Report Andrea Buchanan 6 Covent Garden Die Meistersinger Katie Barnes 10 Karlsruhe Singing Competition Andrea Buchanan 11 Munich Visitors Jeremy Rowe 12 Birmingham Die Meistersinger Gerald Mallon 13 Favourite Books Geoffrey Griffiths 14 Masterclasses with Petra Lang Katie Barnes 17 Pleased to meet you Richard Hyland 18 Cinema relay of Götterdämmerung from the New York Met Ewen Harris 22 Presteigne Weekend: 21st to 23rd September 24 Richard Strauss Event: 12th April 25 From Russia with Love David Edwards 28 Tristan und Isolde at Birmingham Paul Dawson-Bowling 29 Book review: Wagner’s Women Chris Argent 34 Bayreuth Festival tickets Andrea Buchanan 35 Letter to Bayreuth from the North American Wagner Societies 36 A conversation with Richard Berkeley-Steele Jeremy Rowe 37 New Wagner Society website goes live Ken Sunshine 38 Letters Karel Werner Colin Humphreys 40 Book review: Guide to Tristan und Isolde Meirion Bowen Cover: Petra Lang (See: page 14) Photo: Peter West [email protected] 01256 322 339 Printed by Rap Spiderweb – www.rapspiderweb.com 0161 947 3700 –2– EDITOR’S NOTE “The survival of an art form depends partly on its relevance to any given era and partly on its adaptability in terms of communication. ” On pages 18 to 21 of this issue we report the live relay of Götterdämmerung to our cinemas from the Metropolitan Opera, New York. This quotation (from Decca producer John Culshaw in 1967) came to mind as 21st century technology enabled us to join a worldwide audience and to witness an ingeniously innovative approach to set design in the form of “The Machine” or, as our reviewer Ewen Harris would have it, “The Planks”. Upon completing the historic Solti recording of Der Ring in 1964 John Culshaw mused: “I wondered what Wagner would have thought of his masterpiece becoming available in terms of mass communication. He had built his theatre for a devoted minority to set a standard and an example to be followed by other theatres throughout the world. He had no reason to suppose that more people than could ever be accommodated in all those theatres would eventually have access to his work.” Culshaw argued that if the philosophy of Der Ring is to be shown to have universal application and validity, and if its content is to make contact with a wide modern audience then the means of presentation must be those of our time rather than those considered adequate in the 19th century. In the July 2011 issue of Wagner News we reported David Edwards’ introduction to the New York Met’s relay of Die Walküre at the half-way point of the Cycle. Speaking at the Mastersingers’ Living in Exile weekend in Aldeburgh he advised us that, whatever we think of Robert Lepage’s production, we have to accept that the art form is changing for a new generation of audiences. “If that brings health, vitality, money, imagination and longevity to the business which we all love, then I am all for it. We have to accept that ‘fings ain’t what they used to be.” Asked which of the modern productions he thought Richard Wagner would have approved, David Edwards directed us to RW’s well-known dictum: Kinder, schaff’ neues ! (children, do something new). “I think that he would have loved to see as much imagination, variety and challenge as possible in the production of his work. What is critical is that we tell the story. As directors and designers we have to provide the singers with an environment in which they can do this truthfully and most effectively, and we must always stimulate the minds of the audience.” John Culshaw’s description of the achievement manifested in the first complete studio recording of Der Ring as “the happiest of coincidences, ie the coming together of a team of enthusiasts who loved Wagner and found nothing irreconcilable between his work and the medium at their disposal” could equally well be applied to those who brought us the recent Ring production from the New York Met. “Ring Resounding: The recording in stereo of Der Ring des Nibelungen ” by John Culshaw, published in 1967, features as one of Geoffrey Griffiths’ Favourite Books on page 13. Humphrey Burton’s legendary 1965 BBC TV documentary of the recording of the Solti / Culshaw Götterdämmerung : “The Golden Ring” is available on DVD. –3– REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE Notes from the Committee Meeting held on 18th January 2012 Andrea Buchanan The Chairman began the meeting by drawing attention to the declining number of attendees at Wagner Society events. The result of this was that most of the events were losing money and the poor attendance reflected badly with invited speakers. The committee discussed various reasons for this and it was decided that we would hold the next few events in the Swedenborg Hall to see whether this made any difference. We turn to our members to ask you why so few of you come to our meetings. Please let us know your thoughts on the programmes, the locations, etc. Please email: [email protected] or write to me at the address on Page 43. One event that was very well attended was the showing of Tony Palmer’s Wagner Film in conjunction with Highgate Film Society. This was a great success, despite the inclement weather. The committee noted the Chairman’s plans for future events, including an evening in the Autumn with the renowned young heldentenor, Simon O’Neill. Details of forthcoming events in the Spring and Summer can be found on the flyers included with this copy of Wagner News. The Secretary and Treasurer then gave their reports, with the Secretary noting in particular the recent decision by the Bayreuth management to allocate no more tickets via the ticket office to Wagner Societies in future, and the Treasurer confirming that our financial position remained healthy. The Membership Secretary then reported a slow start to membership renewals for 2012. It remains to be seen whether the Bayreuth decision will have a significant impact on membership numbers. It was also felt that communication regarding renewals should be very clear this coming year and should leave no room for misunderstanding, as some of the banking instructions had not been followed. Illegible handwriting on the membership forms remains a problem. The Secretary was pleased to announce that the Society had recently received an allocation of six tickets for Bayreuth thanks to our corporate membership of the Friends. Members will by now have received their ballot letters and the draw for the winners will have taken place. We will publish the results in the next edition of Wagner News. Ian Jones had been tracking the numbers and locations of visitors to the website and reported that after the UK the majority of visitors to the site came from the USA, Germany and Ireland. He was also experimenting with the use of video clips on the site. The meeting then went on to discuss the Library, and the handover of much of the material from Geoffrey Griffiths to Peter Curtis. Peter is doing a wonderful job of housing our archives and we are most grateful to him for this. The rest of the meeting was taken up with the decision to contribute to the Wagner Journal and to confirming our commitment to promising young Wagner singers by making a contribution to coaching fees. The next meeting will be held on 25th April. We welcome feedback from members, so please write to the Secretary with your comments. We also want to build up our email contact list so that we can keep you informed of new events etc. If you wish to be included in this list please email secretary@ wagnersociety.org –4– –5–– 5– MEISTERSINGER MIT MICROBES Royal Opera House Covent Garden: 19th + 23rd Dec 2011 and 4th + 8th Jan 2012 Katie Barnes Photography: Clive Barda / Royal Opera House Having witnessed its first night in 1993 it seems almost unbelievable to me that this production is now eighteen years old and that this was its fifth series of performances. Almost universally acclaimed when it was new, this time around it has suffered something of a backlash from critics who have complained that it takes too sunlit a view of an opera which undeniably has its darker side in Sachs' melancholia, in Beckmesser's humiliation, and, most importantly in terms of recent British history, in the finale to Act II. After the terrible events of last summer, the treatment of the riot as an acrobatic spectacular leaves a sour taste. Yet on closer examination, even the staging of that scene is darker than it first appears. The audience may laugh at the struggling acrobats suspended from the flies, but the sight of Foltz frenziedly taking an axe to one of the lovingly tended miniature houses, and of the sunny David trying to strangle Beckmesser show the madness lurking deep within us all. Where this production is still exceptionally strong is in its sense of the importance of community. The sense of civic pride in Act I when the curtain rises on the packed church and children bring in beautifully detailed models of historic Nuremberg buildings wraps the audience in a warm glow which is repeated when the apprentices are discovered polishing the larger models in Act II. After the horrors of the riot the sense of community re-emerges in Act III Scene 2, especially in the endlessly fascinating dance sequence, during which the sloping stage is covered with different dances which gradually flower and evolve, threading through and around one another as their complex patterns develop and the colours and shapes of the costumes make the crowded stage resemble a living kaleidoscope (the use of the Guild members’ huge picture hats is exceptionally effective).