41934_WagnerNews219_MH_13895 Wagner News 174 18/09/2015 10:54 Page 1 No: 219 October 2015 41934_WagnerNews219_MH_13895 Wagner News 174 18/09/2015 10:54 Page 2 Wagner news Number 219 October 2015 CONTENTS 3 Jon Vickers 1926-2015: Dame Gwyneth Jones 6 Paul Dawson-Bowling 7 Katie Barnes 8 The 2015 Wagner Society Singing Competition 9 Reflections on Bayreuth Andrew Dickinson 10 News from the Wagner Society of South Africa Jilly Cohen 12 Cosima : A new play by Robert Mansell Katie Barnes 16 Longborough: Victim of its own success? Hilary Reid Evans 18 Triumph at Longborough Jeremy Rowe 20 Six years of Longborough Richard and Sylvia Lemon 22 Performing the role of Kurwenal at Longborough Stuart Pendred 25 Supernumerary at Longborough Brian Smith Walters 26 Truimphant Ring in Dessau Jeremy Rowe 28 The Dessau Ring Paul Dawson-Bowling 31 Notes from a Wagner Virgin on the Castorf Ring Simon Empson 32 Bayreuth Lohengrin : Thankyou, Wagner Society! Sean O’Byrne 33 The Bulgaria Sofia Ring Paul Dawson-Bowling 36 Wagner’s Shakespeare Katie Barnes 38 Wagner’s debt to Berlioz John Crowther 40 Christian Thielemann’s appointment as MD at Bayreuth John Crowther 41 Wagner’s Birthplace Richard Lemon 42 Saffron Opera: Birth of a new opera company Francis Lambert 45 CD Review: The Seattle Ring Paul Dawson-Bowling 47 Wagner Symposium: Gesamtkunstwerk or not? David Edwards Barry Millington John Crowther 50 Time becomes Space + Sir John Tomlinson Masterclasses MCL Website Cover picture of Jon Vickers supplied by his family to Dame Gwyneth Jones. Printed by Rap Spiderweb – www.rapspiderweb.com 0161 947 3700 41934_WagnerNews219_MH_13895 Wagner News 174 18/09/2015 10:54 Page 3 Jon Vickers: 1926 - 2015 A FINE, UPRIGHT MAN WITH VERY STRONG CONVICTIONS Dame Gwyneth Jones My heart was filled with great sadness when I heard of the death of my dear friend and colleague Jon Vickers. I knew that Jon had been struggling with Alzheimer’s disease and actually, Adrian and I made a special trip to the Sunrise Home near the Niagara Falls to visit him, despite the advice of his daughter Allison not to come; because Jon would not recognise me. He did recognise me and we spent two wonderful hours chatting together, to the delight of Allison. Of course it was heart-breaking to see him in such surroundings, but I am so very grateful that we went. Jon Vickers was one of the greatest heroic tenors of our time. He had a magnificent voice which was uniquely powerful and which had a very distinctive beautiful timbre with the facility to reduce to almost a whisper with expressive pianissimo tones. His vocal intensity and dramatic interpretation, together with his superior acting ability, made his presence on stage riveting. Born on October 29 th 1926 in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, a small rural town in Canada, Jon was the sixth of eight children. A man of the land who was most at home on his farm surrounded by nature and his family, he had an abiding search for the truths and essences of life. Throughout his career Jon made each of his roles something special and he has left his mark on the various characters he has tackled. He only sang roles that he absolutely believed in so that he could totally convince and move his public with the depth of his characterizations. This he was able to do through intense study of every aspect of the role, which gave him profound understanding, enabling him to project true human emotion. His expression of the words was always with true meaning, no matter whether the language was English, French, German or Italian. He expressed the words through the music and directly from his heart, so perfectly fulfilling the composer’s wishes. As he once said, “Everything I do as an actor I find a motivation for in the music” and “The voice has to be the servant of the words, of the music, of the drama, of the art form”. He was a deeply religious and private man, holding strong convictions which sometimes presented him with problems when portraying certain characters like Parsifal. I remember that we were scheduled to do a new Wieland Wagner production of Tannhäuser together at Covent Garden; but unfortunately, he cancelled on moral grounds. Then Wieland died, so it never happened. In many ways we were very similar, which made it sheer bliss to be on stage with him. We shared a great and wonderful rapport, which enabled us to enter together into the realms of the various operas which we were interpreting. I felt very strongly that once on stage we had no need to act, just to be – and allow ourselves to be transported by the music because we both totally identified ourselves with the characters. I feel so utterly privileged to have sung 42 performances with Jon and will always treasure the memories of these performances and the very special friendship which we shared. The first time we worked together was in 1968 in a new production of Aida at Covent Garden. I remember how he laughed so heartily when I entered the stage at the first dress rehearsal wearing a simply dreadful costume. “Good heavens!” he said, “What –3– 41934_WagnerNews219_MH_13895 Wagner News 174 18/09/2015 10:54 Page 4 on earth have they done to you?” “Take a good look, Jon” I replied, “You’ll never see it again!” I wanted to see people’s reaction to the monstrous costume I had been given to wear before designing and making new costumes myself. What a fabulous Radames he was! Simply glorious! Which was all the more a pity that, for some reason, he absolutely refused to take part in the live television performance. It would be so wonderful to have him on this document now! Two years later we sang Fidelio together at Covent Garden. I can still hear his thrilling “Gott! Welch Dunkel hier!” ringing in my ears as I came down the steps into the dungeon and saw how he hungrily took the piece of bread out of my hand, the desperate looks we exchanged and the sheer joy and relief of being held in his strong arms in the jubilant “Oh, namenlose Freude!” . I was so fortunate to have Jon as my twin brother Siegmund for my MET debut in 1972 and to have the joy of singing Fidelio performances again with him in Chicago in 1975. Here a rather amusing story stays in my mind. We were invited to the lovely home of Carol Fox, the Director of the Chicago Opera, after the premier for a celebration dinner. Hettie, Jon’s wife, was sitting next to me and Jon was sitting opposite us. Everything was fine until the dessert was served by two men wearing white gloves. Somehow, the man serving the custard poured the entire jug over Hettie’s head. Jon thought it was hysterically funny and his laughter rang out loud and clear. Hettie remained serenely calm and simply said very quietly “I’m afraid that I must visit the Ladies Room!” Shortly afterwards the same waiter tripped and poured an entire pot of black coffee over Carol’s beautiful white fluffy cat who was sitting on a lovely pink satin cushion. It was definitely time for us all to leave! In 1975 we sang Don Carlo together at the Staatsoper in Vienna and then in 1978-9 came seventeen unbelievably beautiful performances of L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Palais Garnier in Paris. (See photo on opposite page.) Jon was magnificent as Nerone. He had simply everything that the role required: beauty of voice, majestic appearance and a personality full of sensitivity and sexuality. Our voices blended to perfection in this music and the atmosphere we created in our love scenes totally captivated the audience. It was an extremely beautiful Günther Rennert production, with big orchestra conducted by Julius Rudel. The cast was quite incredible throughout, with more dramatic voices than usual: Christa Ludwig, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Jocelyn Taillon, Valerie Masterson and Richard Stilwell. We really set Paris on fire! What could possibly surpass these performances? The answer came in 1982 with six performances of Tristan und Isolde at Covent Garden. I simply cannot begin to describe the sheer sublime ecstasy of singing the long second act duet with Jon. We were transported into heavenly spheres singing this divine music! Jon was not only a fabulous, true heldentenor. He had everything necessary to make him one of the greatest artists of our time. His interpretations of Samson and Peter Grimes are legendary and I am very grateful that I had the opportunity of hearing his Peter Grimes, whilst in Los Angeles to sing my first Turandot at the Olympic Festival with The Royal Opera in 1984. During the interval our Stage Manager Stella Chitty came to fetch me and asked me if I would go to Jon’s dressing room to try and persuade him to continue with the performance. I do not know the reason why Jon was so raving mad; but many people were just plainly frightened of him when he was in this state. I knocked very quietly at his door and entered, wondering what I would find inside. When Jon saw me, his face lit up into an enormous smile. “Hello, my dear! How lovely of you to come to visit me!” I told him –4– 41934_WagnerNews219_MH_13895 Wagner News 174 18/09/2015 10:54 Page 5 how much I was enjoying the performance and how marvellous his interpretation was, which I meant truly with all my heart! We chatted a bit and all his anger was forgotten.