No: 218 July 2015 Wagner news Number 218 July 2015 CONTENTS 4 Report of the 2015 Wagner Society AGM Andrea Buchanan 5 From the Treasurer Neil King 6 RWVI Dessau Kongress Andrea Buchanan 7 Mythos und Utopie : The 2015 RWVI Kongress in Dessau Tom Empson 10 News of Young Artists Andrea Buchanan 12 Secret Opera: Die Walküre Katie Barnes 14 Die Walküre Act III in Cardiff Roger Lee 15 Die Walküre in Cardiff: A Wealth of Emotions Ann Massey 18 Parsifal in Berlin Peter Simpson 20 David Edwards / Mastersingers Event: Bayreuth or Bust Katie Barnes 22 Masterclasses with Dame Gwyneth Jones Katie Barnes 27 Parsifal in Birmingham Paul Dawson-Bowling 28 A Soprano’s Memories of Dame Gwyneth Jones Richard Hyland 30 A New Opera Guide to Die Meistersinger David Edwards 32 Longborough: Staging the Invisible Carmen Jakobi 34 Neal Cooper: Climbing Mount Tristan Roger Lee 37 Memories Dame Gwyneth Jones 40 Forthcoming Event: Time Becomes Space 41 Forthcoming Event: Wagner’s Shakespeare 42 Maria Radner and Oleg Bryjak Jeremy Rowe 44 Wagner Society Forthcoming Events Gillian Wyn-Thomas Cover picture: Dame Gwyneth Jones’ masterclass with Andrew Dickinson. Photo: Richard Carter Printed by Rap Spiderweb – www.rapspiderweb.com 0161 947 3700 EDITOR’S NOTE Our cover story tells of Dame Gwyneth Jones’ masterclasses with Andrew Dickinson and Mae Heydorn, winners of The President’s Award at the 2014 Wagner Society Singing Competition. Following these coaching sessions Dame Gwyneth was prompted to recall some of her own experiences as a young singer on pages 37 to 39. News on page 10 of five of the young artists who have received support from the Wagner Society / Mastersingers collaboration includes that of the arrival of a contract from Deutsche Opera for the 2014 Competition Winner Andrew Dickinson. Sir Henry Cooper’s nephew Neal Cooper shares his thoughts on tackling the heldentenor role of Tristan on pages 34 to 36, heralding the reports of the Longborough Festival Opera’s production of Tristan und Isolde which will appear in the October Issue of Wagner News . Both of the Longborough casts for Tristan are richly populated with more than a dozen artists who are beneficiaries of the career development support which they have received from the Mastersingers, the Wagner Society Goodall Scholars Scheme and from Longborough’s conductor, Anthony Negus. Pre-eminent among our current group of alumni at Longborough is Rachel Nicholls in the role of Isolde. In the Longborough programme brochure she writes: “My whole journey of transition from early music to doing what I do now has been entirely overseen by Anthony Negus. Without him and everyone at Longborough, as well as Malcolm Rivers and the Mastersingers, I would never have been able to study with Anne Evans with whom I’ve been working since 2011.” The process of recognising the talent and potential for development of such artists starts with selections made at Mastersingers and Goodall Scholars auditions before panels which for Longborough included Anthony Negus and stage directors Carmen Jakobi and Alan Privett. It is also informed by assiduous observations made by Mastersingers coaches and advisors over the last ten years or so. Candidates are thus identified who are most likely to benefit from the vocal, dramatic and language coaching funded by these organisations. The faith which the Directors of Longborough Festival Opera Martin and Lizzie Graham continue to demonstrate by casting their Wagner productions so abundantly with artists who have passed through this system is testimony to an outcome of which all of us in the Wagner Society can be proud. –3– Brief Report on the 61 st Annual General Meeting of the Wagner Society Held in London on 12 th May 2015 Andrea Buchanan, Secretary • The meeting was declared open at 19:30. • 34 members attended, including Dame Gwyneth Jones (President), Richard Miles (Chair), Neil King (Treasurer), Andrea Buchanan (Secretary) and Margaret Murphy, Geoffrey Griffiths, Edward Hewitt and Charlie Furness-Smith (Committee members), Gillian Wyn-Thomas (co-opted Committee member) and Roger Lee (Editor: Wagner News). • The minutes of the 2014 AGM were adopted. • The Chair welcomed Henry Kennedy, present at the meeting, as the Society’s new Webmaster and Social Media Manager. • A discussion was held around declining membership numbers, although it was noted that numbers were now holding steady, due to a number of new joiners via the website. • It was noted that members who had not paid their subscriptions, or who had underpaid would no longer be considered as members from April 2015. All those affected had been contacted several times. • Several members commented about the fact that events were held exclusively in London and wondered whether the Society could consider broadening its scope by holding events in other locations. The practical difficulties of arranging such events that this presented to a Committee that was almost entirely London based, and many of whom worked full-time, were noted. • It was agreed that a survey would be conducted in the near future to ascertain what members wanted in the way of events. • The President suggested that more purely social events could be held. There would be such an event in December, organised by the Treasurer. • The Treasurer noted in his report that the financial position at the end of 2014 had been better than expected, due in no small measure to the claiming of a backlog of Gift Aid. He further noted the strict budget that was now in place for 2015, the simplification of membership fees and the donation given to Mastersingers. The Annual Accounts were adopted unanimously by the meeting. • The current Independent Examiners were re-elected for the current financial year. • The three current members of the Committee standing for re-election and the one new member standing for election were all voted in unanimously. • One of the members suggested that more could be done to educate young people about Wagner. The Chair pointed out initiatives that had already been undertaken in this area, and agreed that this should be prioritised. The Events Manager invited members to submit any suggestions in this regard to her. • The meeting closed at 21:45 and members were invited to stay on for drinks with the Committee You can read the full draft of the minutes on our website www.wagnersociety.org Please note you will need to log in to access this document. –4– FROM THE TREASURER Neil King Those of you attending the AGM in May will have heard me refer to changes to the subscription levels for overseas members as well as some comments on unpaid and underpaid subscriptions. These issues were discussed and agreed by the Committee at meetings during the spring and so I wanted to take this opportunity to summarise the changes for all members. SUBSCRIPTIONS With so many communications now being sent by email, we have decided to abolish the subscriptions levels for overseas members. Therefore, the Society now has only the following three membership categories and subscriptions: Individual members: £30 per annum Joint members: £40 per annum Students: £15 per annum UNPAID SUBSCRIPTIONS We quite appreciate that it is easy to overlook paying the annual subscription. In the past we have been lenient with regard to unpaid subscriptions and have effectively continued to assume that members will renew their subscriptions for about six months before removing their name from the membership list. If a member then did not renew, this practice means that they might have received two or even three copies of Wagner News without paying for them and this does not seem fair on other members. We have therefore agreed that, in future, no mailings will be sent to any member who has not paid their subscription by the due date and we will not undertake to issue individual reminders to members. UNDERPAID SUBSCRIPTIONS Despite repeated reminders, some members have not amended their standing orders to reflect the new subscription levels that were introduced in 2012. In practice this means a number of members are underpaying by £5 per annum. We have tried to contact all members individually about this issue and many have made the necessary changes but we now feel it is time to take firm action in the interests of all members. In future therefore we have agreed that any amount received that does not cover the current subscription level will be treated as a donation only and that membership will immediately lapse. (Subsequent payment of the shortfall will, of course, reinstate membership.) –5– REPORT ON THE AGM OF THE RICHARD WAGNER VERBAND INTERNATIONAL Dessau, May 16 2015 Andrea Buchanan, Member of the Board, RWVI There were 70 voting delegates present, along with a number of non-voting attendees and guests. The Wagner Society was represented by Andrea Buchanan, who attended both as the voting delegate for our Wagner Society and a member of the Board of the RWVI. Simon Empson and Tom Empson, members of the WS, also attended as guests. The meeting was contentious from the outset, as 10 out of 14 members of the Board had signed a letter of no confidence in the President, Thomas Krakow from Leipzig, elected for a five-year term in Graz in 2014 along with the rest of the Board. This had given rise to a slew of motions from member societies, the most pertinent of which were the following: 1. From the WS of Bremen that all speeches be limited to 3 minutes. This did not get considered until it was far too late for it to have any relevance. 2. From the WS of Graz – that the Constitution of the RWVI be amended to reduce the size of the Board from 15 to 8 and that the current quota of German and non-German members of the Board be abolished.