2010

Leon Botstein: Wagner in the 21st Century

Leon Botstein has been president of Bard College since 1975, where he is also the Leon Levy Professor in the Arts and Humanities. He received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in European history from Harvard. A voice for innovation in American higher education, he is the author of Jefferson's Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture and has been a pioneer in linking higher education to public secondary schools. President Botstein is also music director and conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the radio orchestra of Israel. His recording of the music of Popov and Shostakovich, with the London Symphony Orchestra, was nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award. His most recent recording is Bruno Walter’s Symphony in D Minor with the NDR Symphony Orchestra. Other recent CDs are John Fould’s A World Requiem, Ernest Chausson’s Le roi Arthus, and Paul Dukas’s Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, all with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Editor of the venerable American journal The Musical Quarterly, he was editor of The Compleat Brahms, co-editor of Jews and the City of Vienna, 1870–1938, and author of Judentum und Modernität: Essays zur Rolle der Juden in der Deutschen und Österreichischen Kultur, 1848–1938. Among other honors, he has received the Centennial Medal of the Harvard Graduate School of the Arts and Sciences, the Cross of Honor from the Republic of Austria, and the Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is married to art historian Barbara Haskell, a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and has three children.

Peter P. Pachl: Siegfried Wagner - A Very Original Composer

Professor Peter P. Pachl will review some of the operatic works of Siegfried Wagner and will present both audio and video examples of these rarely performed works. Professor Pachl is the founder of the International Siegfried Wagner Society. Sound and film samples will focus on several of Siegfried Wagner's operas, especially to Der Kobold (The Goblin), An Allem ist Hütchen Schuld! (Everything is Little-Hat's Fault) and Der Schmied von Marienburg (The Blacksmith of Marienburg), stage productions directed by Pachl.

In 1989 he became professor of opera stage direction in Hannover. He has taught staging and cultural management in Weimar, in Bayreuth, in Vienna and in Bochum, as well as, Dresden, Hamburg, Den Haag and Berlin. Since 1980 he has been the artistic directoy of the Munich Music Theater Pianopianissimo. From 1990 through 1995 he was artistic directoy and manager of the Thuringia State Theater and Symphony Orchestra as well as the Rudolstadt Festival. From 1998 to 2000 he was artistic co-directoy and principal dramaturgist of the Hagen Theater. He has published numerous works, uncluding the biography Siegfried Wagner, Genie im Schatten (1988, 1994), and has been responsible for a large number of radio and TV productions, CDs and DVDs.

The 21st Evelyn Lear and Thomas Stewart Emerging Singers Concert

Since 2001 the Evelyn Lear & Thomas Stewart Emerging Singers Program (a partnership with the Wagner Society of Washington DC) has guided some of the most talented young American voices in the Wagnerian tradition. Benjamin Gelfand (remember his stunning ESP performance at the Arts Club las November!) will lead the program in addition to two other Wagner singers. A reception will follow the concert.

Desirée Mays: Heroes of "The Ring"

"Take a good look at Wotan," Wagner said, "He is us." Who is this flawed God and tragic hero who must give way to a New World? Who are the heroes of The Ring? What is a hero? The talk will discuss the criteria for heroes: traditional Greek heroes, tragic, epic, messianic, and romantic heroes, even "free" and anti-heroes, and match them with both the characters in the cycles and Wagner himself. Who are our heroes today? Do we have any? And, if not, what does this signify? Music examples will be part of the presentation. Desirée Mays is a globe-trotter for opera and works exclusively presenting opera talks to many diverse groups ranging from Wagner Societies to neophytes. She has been the resident lecturer for The Santa Fe Opera for over a decade, writes a book each year, Opera Unveiled, on the five operas of the Santa Fe season, is a radio personality nationally and occasionally acts as lecturer/tour director taking people all over the world for art tours.

We have recently added audio clips from the 17th and 18th Emerging Singers Program concerts. Click here to go to the Emerging Singers Program page.

Dan Sherman has graciously put together a list for us of the recordings featured during his October 15th lecture, "Wagner recordings you don't know." Click here to see the list.

Lecture by Saul Lilienstein: Wagner's music and the Jews

Richard Wagner's reputation has had to survive more "bad press" than that of any major artist - in any field of art. We all know that we brought a great deal of this upon himself and it is not the purpose of this lecture to exonerate him of his personal failings. Lilienstein's lecture will be about Wagner's music, examining and questioning whether his anti-semitism is a significant or an extraneous factor within the music dramas he created. Wagner's music will also be examined within the larger context of anti-semitic elements found within European artistic culture.

A former student of Leonard Bernstein, Saul Lilienstein, was for many years Artistic Director and Conductor of Maryland's Harford Opera theater, and then of Operetta Renaissance in Baltimore, conducting and producing in all well over fifty operas. A highly regarded Professor of Music, his is a familiar voice at the Smithsonian Institution, Johns Hopkins University in Rockville, here at the WSWDC and recently at the Wagner Symposium in (Canton) Ohio. Lilienstein's subject range from opera to Bach and Beethoven, from Gypsy Music to Immigrant Cultures to Music of The Beatles.

He has now completed approximately seventy five highly acclaimed CDs for the Washington National Opera, analyzing the repertoire in the most extensive series of its kind in the English language. (His articles on music have appeared in newspapers throughout the country) In 2005, the Wagner Society of Washington DC bestowed the Society's Award of "uncommon contributions" upon Mr. Lilienstein, who is honored to join past recipients Plácido Domingo, Thomas Stewart, Evelyn Lear and Heinze Fricke on an illustrious list.

Donald Crosby at the Library of Congress: WSWDC favorite Donald Crosby will join a panel of experts to discuss "The Icelandic Edda: Myth and the Mind --- Wagner, Tolkien and Beyond." The panel will look at the origins and influence of the Edda, a few of the Edda-related treasures in the Library's collections, including a manuscript fragment, and the potent combination of myth and music and its effect of the mind.

The panel will be followed by a Concert --- The Sequentia Ensemble will unveil its dramatic recreation of the Edda, the powerful Norse saga that fired Wagner's transformation of ancient myth into a new art form. Click here for more details.

Place: The Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress.
Date and Time: Thursday, January 28, 6:30pm. Concert at 8pm.

Ryan Brown: Wagner and Gluck's Armide

Ryan Brown is the founder, conductor, and artistic director of Opera Lafayette. Through his work with Opera Lafayette, Mr. Brown has become a leading figure in the revival of baroque opera in America. His vivid explorations of the French repertoire  in particular have earned him an international reputation, receiving the highest praise from critis in the United States and abroad. There performances have highlighted various traditions of the tragédie-lyrique, the opéra-ballet, the opéra-comique, the pastorale, and the dramma-giocoso. Mr. Brown was raised in a musical family in California, and performed extensively as a violinist and chamber musician in New York and on tour before turning his attentions to conducting. He and his wife and sons divide their time between Washington DC and Southwestern Colorado.

2009

WSWDC Garden Party

The Board of Directors of the WSWDC invites its members to a garden party in appreciation of their continuing support.

RSVP by June 9: click here to RSVP for the garden party.

Suggested donation, $20.

Wagner in der Wildnis: Tristan und Isolde

The number of Members who can participate this year is 75. Rooms in the Main Lodge will be assigned on a first come-first served basis. Some participants will be accomodated in near-by motels. This is a Members-only event. Register now!

THIS EVENT IS SOLD-OUT.

Siegfried Cast Party

Following the matinee performance of Siegfried at the Kennedy Center. Limited availability.

Donald H. Crosby --- Sigurd und Brünnhilde

Donald Crosby was the first lecturer of the Wagner Society of Washington DC ten years ago!

Siegfried --- Wagner's Scherzo

WSWDC Chairman Jim Holman returns to the Kennedy Center for the third straight year, taking on the Ring's most enigmatic and challenging opera, Siegfried. Jim's talk will help introduce the Washington National Opera's performances of Siegfried in May. As usual, the author of Wagner's Ring: A Listener's Companion and Concordance and Editor of Wagner Moments will include plenty of musical examples; come hear the Grand Foyer of the Kennedy Center resound with the stunning music of Siegfried.

Here is the video of the lecture:

Emerging Singers Concert --- #18

An Evelyn Lear Master Class!

Famed teacher Evelyn Lear will present a Master Class, open to the public and free of charge, at the Austrian Embassy. She will work with singers who will be performing at the Emerging Singer Program Concert on March 12. Come see this world famous teacher as she imparts the wisdom of her fabled career to the singers of the future!

A (Second) Evening with Evelyn Lear

Evelyn Lear will take the stage to share three important parts of her remarkable life so far ––– her career as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century; her life as the wife of the great Wagnerian bass-baritone Thomas Stewart; and her work as the inspirational Artistic Director of the esteemed Emerging Singers Program, a collaboration with the Wagner Society of Washington DC to develop American singers with the potential for singing Wagner’s works. In a wide-ranging talk, she will describe some of the many famous people she has worked with, speak to the difficulty of turning down an opportunity to sing at Bayreuth, and much more. She will illustrate her talk with video and sound recordings from her private collection and with rare archival materials not generally available to the public.

Evelyn Lear is one of the most celebrated American opera and concert singers of our times and is especially noted for her expertise in the German repertoire. She has sung in all of the important places from Broadway to Berlin and has enjoyed a remarkable career in starring roles at all of the major opera houses of the world from the Met to La Scala. She has performed with the world’s greatest conductors and appeared at all of the leading music festivals of the world. She has made over fifty recordings of opera, songs, and oratorio and received Grammy Awards for many of these. Evelyn Lear has recently been named an artist-in-residence by the University of Maryland. This month, she was presented The Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Opera Association.

This event is free and open to the public.

James Ross --- Conducting Wagner: Tips and Critiques

Using Richard Wagner’s famous and respected treatise On Conducting as a point of departure, Mr. Ross will compare and contrast historical recordings of several great Wagner conductors. He will seek to answer the question “Whose conducting might Wagner have respected the most?”

James Ross is a musician of international reputation, active in three fields: conducting, horn playing, and teaching. Upon graduation from college, he began his conducting studies in earnest with Kurt Masur in Leipzig while simultaneously serving as horn soloist of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and becoming the first-ever American member of that orchestra in its long history. During the last two decades, he has guest conducted such diverse orchestras as the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Utah Symphony, the Orquesta Ciudad Granada, and the National Symphony Orchestra. Now he is the Director of the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, and Artistic Director of the National Orchestral Institute. In the field of opera, he has conducted Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio at the Théâtre du Rhin in Strasbourg, The Marriage of Figaro at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, and Handel's Rodelinda at the Glyndebourne Festival. Prior to his appointment at the University of Maryland, he served on the faculties of Yale, the Curtis Institute, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr.

This lecture is free and open to the public.

2008

17th Emerging Singers Program

Thursday, October 23, 2008, 7:30pm
German Embassy, 4645 Reservoir Road, Washington DC

Featuring selections and scenes from Wagner's major works, Lohengrin, Die Walküre, Tristan und Isolde, Das Rheingold, and Tannhäuser, the 17th ESP concert will include several singers new to this program.. sopranos, Othalie Graham and Kara Shay Thompson; baritones, Jerett Gieseler and Daniel Klein. Betty Bullock will accompany the singers on piano.

See our Information Flyer for more details.

Wagner Society 10th Anniversary Celebration!

Thursday, November 6, 2008
German Embassy

Details to be announced.

NOTE! The location of the monthly Society programs, Thursdays, at GWU has changed. The NEW location is just two blocks away from the old, in the Media and Public Affairs Building, at 805 Twenty-First St., NW, Room 310. This building is at 21st and H Streets, just 'kitty-corner' from Lisner Auditorium. See link to campus map, below.

Donald Arthur -- Bayreuth Die Meistersinger

Thursday, November 13, 2008, 7:30pm
GWU, Media and Public Affairs Building, 805 21st Street, NW

Donald Arthur will lead a panel discussion of the current Bayreuth production, by Katharina Wagner, of Die Meistersinger. Mr. Arthur had collaborated on the English narration script and subtitles and had narrated the Katharina Wagner documentary. Panelists will include members of the Wagner Society community who have seen the production. See our Information Flyer or our Press Announcement for more details.

Iain Scott Lecture

Thursday, December 4, 2008, 7:30pm
GWU, Media and Public Affairs Building, 805 21st Street, NW

Iain Scott, One of Canada's leading and popular experts on opera, a regular guest on the CBC Saturday Afternooon at the Opera and a frequent guest panelist on the Met's Opera Quiz, will talk to us on a topic to be decided. See our Information Flyer for more details.

National Symphony Orchestra, an All Wagner Program

Thursday, October 30, at 7:00 pm; Friday, October 31, at 8:00 pm; and Saturday, November 1, at 8:00 pm, at the Kennedy Center, Concert Hall

The program will consist of: Die Meistersinger, overture; Götterdämmerung, Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey; Tristan und Isolde, Preluse and Liebestod; and Die Walküre, Act III, scene 3. Ivan Fischer will conduct, and Elizabeth Connell, soprano, and Juha Uusitalo, bass-baritone, will sing.

Ticket prices are $20 - $80. See NSO, Wagner for more details.

Saul Lilienstein, on "What to Listen for in Wagner"

Monday, October 27, 2008, 7:00 pm, at the Kennedy Center, Terrace Gallery -- a Performance Plus(TM) evening

As the National Symphony Orchestra (not performing here) prepares for its all Wagner program (Oct.30 - Nov.1), popular music lecturer and Wagner Society awardee Saul Lilienstein presents an in-depth look at the four pieces on the NSO program, along with other aspects of Wagner's work.

Tickets are $13 (subscribers/Members) and $15 otherwise. See Performance Plus for more details.

Saul Lilienstein, on "Wagner and Brahms"

Thursday, October 16, 2008; at GWU, the Media and Public Affairs Building, 805 21st Street, NW, Room 310.

Saul Lilienstein, a favorite local lecturer, presented a program on the interlocking relationship -- personal and musical -- of these two musical giants. Mr. Lilienstein just completed CD Commentaries on Wagner's Ring cycle, for the WNO, and sponsored by Society Board member, John Pohanka. Mr. Lilienstein is the recipient of The Wagner Society Award. See our Information Flyer for more details.

An Evening with Jeffrey Swann, "The World of Nature: Wagner, Schumann, Liszt, Debussy & Messiaen"

Friday, September 19, 2008, at the German Embassy

Jeffrey Swann, the most recent recipient of The Wagner Society Award and a featured lecturer at Wagner in der Wildnis weekends and at the Bayreuther Festspiele, again performed here. His recent Beethoven and Chopin cycles received rave reviews from the New York Times.