Commemorating the Bicentennial of Wagner's Birth (1813-2013)!

The Wagner Society of Washington DC is planning an exciting and eventful year in commemoration of the Bicentennial of Wagner's birth! A number of our events will take place at the Goethe-Institut as a result of the special relationship between the two organizations in celebrating this significant anniversary year. Click here for our latest flyer!

Check this page often for announcements. Details will be posted here and on our Calendar of Events pages as events are confirmed! We've got quite a few items posted through June already! Check them out and save those dates!

National Philharmonic Presents All-Wagner Program @ Strathmore!

Saturday, June 1, 2013, 8:00 pm
Music Center at Strathmore
5301 Tuckerman Ln, North Bethesda, MD
Metro to Grosvenor-Strathmore on Red Line

Attention Wagner novices and aficionados alike! The National Philharmonic, under the direction of Conductor Piotr Gajewski, presents selections from each of Richard Wagner’s 10 best-known operas to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Call 301-581-5100 and mention promotion code NPWagner for a 20% discount on tickets! For online purchases, please use source code 3066. Kids 7-17 Free (available for purchases made by phone or in person). Offers not applicable to previously purchased tickets.

Click here to order online! Click here for driving directions. Complimentary parking!

Issachah Savage on the Millennium Stage: Works by Quilter, Beethoven, and Wagner!

Sunday, June 2, 2013, 6:00 p.m.
Kennedy Center, Millennium Stage, Washington, DC
Metro to Foggy Bottom on Orange and Blue Lines

One of America’s most promising young tenors, Issachah Savage, a native of Philadelphia and a resident of Washington DC, has enjoyed a performing and teaching career for many years. He is just beginning his Wagner career and was the winner of the Wagner Division in the Liederkranz Competition and has numerous other prestigious awards such as the Grand Prize of the Marcello Giordani Foundation Vocal Competition. He has studied most recently with the Dolora Zajick Institute for Young Dramatic Voices and is a protégé of the Wagner Society of Washington DC.

Click here for additional details.

This event is FREE and open to the public.

Asher Fisch -- On Wagner

Tuesday, June 18, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Goethe-Institut, 812 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC
Metro to Gallery Place/Chinatown on Red, Green, and Yellow Lines
Click here for an index of area parking garages

Israeli-born conductor Asher Fisch will discuss his career with particular attention to the works of Wagner. Maestro Fisch appears with many of the world’s most renowned opera companies and symphony orchestras. With a vast repertoire that spans three centuries stylistically from Gluck to Adams, Maestro Fisch is particularly known and appreciated for his interpretive command of core German Romantic and post-Romantic repertoire, from Beethoven through Berg, including virtually the entire canon of Wagner and Strauss.He is currently conducting Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera and will conduct three Ring Cycles in Seattle this summer.

Click here for additional details.

This event is FREE and open to the public.

Presented by the Wagner Society of Washington DC in partnership with the Goethe-Institut.

Wagner in der Wildnis: Siegfried

Our 13th Annual Weekend Retreat (a Members-only event)

Friday, May 31 to Sunday, June 2, 2013
Cacapon Resort State Park
Berkeley Springs, WV 25411
Having studied all ten of Richard Wagner’s mature operas, we returned to Der Ring des Nibelungen in 2011. In 2013 we will undertake an in-depth study of Siegfried. The program features lecture and discussion sessions, informal conversations between sessions and at meals with lecturers and members, and a DVD showing.

The two presenters, our "dream team" veterans, are:

Pianist Jeffrey Swann offers his prized lecture-demonstrations at the piano. Known from previous Wildnis weekends, his concert performances for the Wagner Society of Washington, DC, his talk for the Smithsonian's Tristan und Isolde seminar in 2004, and his lectures at Bayreuth.
Professor Simon Williams, Chairman, Drama Department, University of California at Santa Barbara, presents his insightful lectures on Wagner and drama. His latest books: Wagner and the Romantic Hero, now in paperback, and A History of German Theatre.

Cacapon Resort State Park, near Berkeley Springs, WV, is two-hour drive from downtown Washington. Car pools can be arranged. Click here for a virtual tour.

Registration Fee to be paid in full by March 1: $420 per person (single room) or $360 per person (double room) includes all lectures, two nights’ lodging, breakfast, lunch, dinner, morning coffee, a welcome cocktail, and two after-hours parties.

Priority for rooms in the Main Lodge will be given to members at the Patron level and above. Some participants may need to be accommodated in nearby motels.

This event is SOLD OUT. Call 703-370-1923 to be placed on the waiting list.

Latest Newsletter!

An electronic version of our latest newsletter is now available. Click here to download it.

New Book: Quo Vadis, Wagner?

The Wagner Society of Washington DC is proud to publish Chairman Jim Holman's latest book, Quo Vadis, Wagner? Approaching the Bicentennial. A collection of essays by distinguished Wagner analysts, the book examines the question of Wagner's place in the 21st century from a number of different perspectives. Contributor's include Leon Botstein, Barry Millington, Thomas Grey, Saul Lilienstein and a dozen others. The book is a significant contribution to Wagner studies as we approach the bicentennial of the composer's birth.

Click here to look at the table of contents and introduction.

The book is available through the Wagner Society of Washington DC. Use the payment form below to get your copy!

 

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New Recording: Re-discovering Richard Wagner Through His Music by Saul Lilienstein

 

A little Wagner music for your stocking? No politics—no Freudian analysis—no arcane discussions of wives, sweethearts, petty hatreds, financial dealings, egocentricities—vegetarianism or choices in satin underwear distracts from the essential core that keeps us going back to Wagner’s Music Dramas: the greatness within the music, the majesty of his artistic conceptions.

Long awaited recording of Saul Lilienstein’s all-day seminar at the Goethe Institut on March 19, 2011.

$40 for the set of four CDs
(includes shipping and handling)

AVAILABLE ONLY THROUGH WSWDC

Submit your order below through paypal. Alternatively, send a check to: WSWDC—P.O. Box 58213—Washington DC 20037

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The Wagner Connection

The Wagner Connection is an online forum hosted by the Wagner Society of Washington DC created to promote discussion, among Wagnerites and other opera lovers, of Wagner's art, life, and influence. Its goal is to facilitate dialogue between members and friends of WSWDC and give them a more active presence online as a community. Want to discuss the best and worse Wagner biographies with other enthusiastic fellow Wagnerites? Have any Wagner collectibles which you would like to sell or exchange? Looking for tickets to buy or sell tickets for a sold out performance? Want to discuss a particular leitmotif with others? You can do this and much more at the Wagner Connection!

The Wagner Connection is open to the public and all you need to get started is a valid e-mail address. There are two easy ways to register and begin using it:

1) Go directly to the Wagner connection by going to connection.wagner-dc.org. If this is your first time, create an account by clicking on "Register" and following the instructions. To log into your account after creating it, you can do so by following the "Login" link.

2) Log on to www.wagner-dc.org. Under the "Resources" top menu, you can find a link to the Wagner connection.

Have questions or comments? There is a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page to help with most problems which you can find by clicking on the "FAQ" link. You can also contact connection@wagner-dc.org for questions not addressed there.