Wagneriana O! nun waren wir Spring 2010 Nacht-geweihte. Volume 7, Number 2 –Tristan und Isolde From the Editor On May 21 members of the Boston Wagner Society and the general public thrilled to the sounds of the expansive and beautiful voices of our four hugely talented singers—Helden- tenor Alan Schneider, Sopranos Andrea Matthews and Joanna Porackova, and Mezzo-Soprano Rachel Selan—expertly accompanied by Jeffrey Brody on the Longy’s concert-grand Steinway. This was a terrific performance, a concert that will not be easily forgotten. The large heroic voices washed over the audience, who seemed stunned by the music being produced and the sensitive dramatizations of the characters of Rienzi, Elsa, Lohengrin, Brünnhilde, Tristan, Isolde, and Brangäne. Here are comments by our members: “A thrilling From left to right: Jeffrey Brody, Joanna Porackova, recital!” “My heart was thumping during the Tristan Love Andrea Matthews, Rachel Selan, and Alan Schneider Duet.” “It was so emotional, particularly the two duets.” “Such at the end of the May 21 concert at the Longy School of Music a wonderful Wagnerian evening.” For a review of this concert, see page 2. For more photos, see page 8. Those of us who attended Longwood Opera’s “Tales from Der Ring des Nibelungen” heard Alan Schneider (Siegmund and Siegfried), Joanna Porackova (Brünnhilde and the Third Norn), and Rachel Selan (Wellgunde) sing Wagner again, with Jeffrey Brody at the piano. The concert was in English, with a piano reduction by Peter Pachl, the vice president of the International Siegfried Wagner Society, and by pianist and conductor Rainer Armbrust, who is also the program adviser of the Boston Wagner Society. This was a heroic performance that lasted almost four hours and included numerous dramatic highlights from the Ring Cycle. Many of the singers, including the above three, were in splendid voice and character. Jeffrey Brody’s fingers flew fast and furious to play this incredibly complicated music. Lectures for Bayreuth Goers The Wagner Society of New York will present a series of lectures in English that will accompany the last set of performances at the Bayreuth Festival this summer. This series is dedicated to the memory of Wolfgang Wagner, who gave his approval for the lectures. The speaker this year is John J. H. Muller, who has been on the music history faculty of the Juilliard School for 30 years. Professor Muller has lectured for many organizations, including the Metropolitan Opera Guild, where he presented talks during the Kirov Ring Cycle and the Metropolitan Opera’s most recent Ring Cycles. His essay on Parsifal has appeared in the book Wagner Outside the Ring (edited by John Louis DiGaetani). The lectures are from 10:30 a.m. to noon, at the Arvena Kongress Hotel, Edfuard Bayerlein-Strasse 5A, Bayreuth. The cost is 12 euros per lecture. Here are the dates: August 20 Das Rheingold August 21 Die Walküre August 23 Siegfried August 25 Götterdämmerung August 26 Parsifal August 27 Lohengrin August 28 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg BWS Events in the Fall We are busily planning events for the fall of 2010. The Boston Wagner Society turns seven on September 20, and we are reminded of Wagner’s words from Der fliegende Holländer: “Die Frist ist um, und abermals verstrichen / sind sieben Jahr!” (The term is past, and once again are ended / the seven long years!). We might change the last words to “seven short years,” as the time has flown by too quickly. To cele-brate our seventh anniversary, we bring you a lecture by the filmmaker, writer, and musician Hilan Warshaw, titled “From Bayreuth to Hollywood: Richard Wagner and the Art of Cinema.” This event will include extended excerpts from a 1964 film of Der fliegende Holländer, made in East Germany by Joachim Herz. The tentative date is Saturday afternoon, September 25, 2010. Details will be announced. On the afternoon of October 16, we will have a lecture and book signing by Professor Nicholas Vazsonyi, whose work Richard Wagner: Self-Promotion and the Making of a Brand (just published by Cambridge University Press) was very well received. For a review of this book, see page 5. Details of the event will be announced. –Dalia Geffen “Exquisite Love Duets & Solos by Richard Wagner” Alan Schneider, Heldentenor; Andrea Matthews, soprano; Joanna Porackova, soprano; Rachel Selan, soprano; Jeffrey Brody, piano; May 21, 2010, Pickman Hall, Longy School of Music In “Exquisite Love Duets & Solos by Richard Wagner,” the Boston Wagner Society (BWS) tackled a difficult program of Wagner excerpts. Accompanied by the redoubtable pianist Jeffrey Brody, they managed to pull it off with spirit and passion. The first choice may have struck listeners new to Wagner as odd: Rienzi, Wagner’s third opera. However, it was his first successful one, and many thought it owed much of its musical atmosphere to Wagner’s mentor Giacomo Meyerbeer. In fact, wags joked that, with its traces of the bel canto style, Rienzi was “Meyerbeer’s most successful work.” However, the BWS’s performance of “Rienzi’s Prayer” showed Wagner’s style beginning to take a new path, away from the melodic swoop of bel canto and into the individualized surge of the through-composed. Tenor Alan Schneider handled this soliloquy-like piece with restraint and razor-edged diction. The core of the evening was four pieces from Lohengrin, Wagner’s last traditional opera before he started forging music dramas like the Ring Cycle. Soprano Andrea Matthews sang “Elsa’s Dream,” one of Wagner’s loveliest arias, with sweet passion and longing. She rendered the songlike piece with the skill that comes from long experience. She provided a gracious stage presence and warmly generous singing. Brody’s piano improvisations stood in for the interchanges between king, chorus, and the villainous Telramund. Matthews’s contrast in the repeated line—“Er soll mein Streiter sein!” (He will be my champion!)—determined, then tender, was striking. The oft-performed Bridal Chamber duet between Lohengrin and Elsa went well. Like Wagner’s other two rescued-women operas—Die Walküre and Siegfried—there are moments of sheer over-the-cliff lyricism. But unlike (for example) Die Walküre’s love scene between Siegmund and Sieglinde, the Bridal Chamber duet is fraught with dramatic tension between lovers, as Elsa manipulates to discover Lohengrin’s name. Matthews delivered her staccato lines 2 during the conflict’s peak like brads from a nail gun. Each one struck Schneider’s Lohengrin dead on, and he responded with manly timing. Lohengrin’s song “In fernem Land” is a poignant and complex aria. Schneider began it as an assertive declaration, with conventionally balanced lines. Then he carried it into a freer, more rhapsodic zone, as the piano evoked the transcendent realm of his origin: “In fernem Land, unnahbar euren Schritten, / liegt eine Burg, die Monsalvat genannt” (In a far-off land, to mortal feet forbidden, / there is a castle, Monsalvat by name). In the final piece, “Mein lieber Schwan” (My beloved swan), Lohengrin’s farewell to the impulsive Elsa, Schneider conveyed a heady sweetness of tone. He sang with near-perfect poise and legato. Soprano Joanna Porackova performed “Ewig war ich” (Immortal was I) from Siegfried intriguingly. Revolving around Brünnhilde’s hesitations to yield to Siegfried’s love, it is one of the most beauteous scenes in the opera. Porackova definitely emoted! Throughout the excerpt, she gradually built striking contrasts, showing not just Brünnhilde but any young passionate woman in conflict with her emotions. The Love Duet and Brangäne’s Watch, from Tristan und Isolde, comes at a crucial moment in the opera. Tristan and Isolde, under influence of the metaphorical “magical potion” of love intoxication, declare their love for one another and are so immersed in the moment, they fail to see the approach of King Mark and his minions. Schneider was persuasive as the callow Tristan, eyes clouded by a comely princess. Mezzo-Soprano Rachel Selan did a womanlike job on the understated role of Brangäne. Once again, Porackova transfixed the scene with longing, but this time she was more carnal in her approach. Her shocking high notes, intensely rendered fortissimos, and robust legatos imbued the listeners with palpable eroticism. Her voice was both highly trained and volatile. There was no telling in what manner she’d approach a tricky passage, except that it would be extraordinary. How I’d love to see her act in a fully stage version! The work of pianist Jeffrey Brody is worth noting. Wagner obviously never transcribed his work for piano, so what does it mean when someone plays a “piano reduction”? Franz Liszt composed transcriptions of music from Tristan und Isolde (most notably the Liebestod), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Parsifal, and the Ring operas, but these included everything, the singing as well as the orchest- ral parts. So just where did the event’s piano accompaniment music come from? I asked Brody, and got this intriguing reply: As for reductions, I essentially make up my own as I go along, varying at times from what is on the page. The Lohengrin duet reduction was by Theodore Uhlig (Peters Volksbühne edition), and the Tristan was by Richard Kleinmichael. The Siegfried was by Karl Klind- worth. But I always take freely and modify according to circumstances, need, and level of keyboard difficulty. Thus, in all of these there is some of my own, so it’s never the same way twice, particularly the Tristan. The more intense the performance from the singers, the more I add and embellish. Sometimes the thicker and more detailed reductions can be more of a hindrance to the singers, so I leave out things.