NEWS FROM THE WAGNER SOCIETY

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Other: Aurelius Fernandez at 301.907.2600

The Wagner Society of Washington, D.C. Announces a Free Lecture by Carolyn Abbate, Professor of Music, Harvard University

The Program will be free and open to the public on Thursday, May 18, 2006, at 7:30 P.M. at the George Washington University, Funger Hall, 2201 G Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

“New Perspectives on The Flying Dutchman: Reverberations”

The Presentation. Professor Abbate’s talk begins at Jersey City’s period picture palace, the Grand Cinema, magnificently restored, chandeliered, and able to hold a thousand viewers. She has taken her two sons to see the 1939 technicolor epic, and winner of three Academy Awards, The Thief of Baghdad. But not four minutes into the film, Professor Abbate’s Wagner alarm goes off: she hears a reference to The Flying Dutchman in the score, and then again, despite distractions and complaints about the “authentic popcorn,” and telling herself she is “off duty,” she is startled by a motivic repetition of this music an hour into the film.

This comes as no surprise: Professor Abbate is the world’s authority on the connections between opera and music in films, and the frequent appropriation of Wagner’s music throughout film history is a starting point for an extraordinary meditation on sailor choruses, generic codes, historical reverberations, Ava Gardner, and the disquieting notion that musical sound might cause an object’s motion. This is a lecture that is not to be missed!

Carolyn Abbate. Carolyn Abbate, Fanny Peabody Professor of Music at Harvard University, is a wide-ranging humanist who ranks among the world’s foremost authorities on opera. Spanning operas from Monteverdi to Ravel as well as film music and sound technology, Abbate’s work crosses disciplinary boundaries from music into literature and philosophy. She is the author of In Search of Opera and Unsung Voices, and co-author of the forthcoming The Penguin History of Opera. She is also the translator of many French scholarly works. She was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1995, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships in 1986 and 1994, and was awarded the Dent Medal of the Royal Music Association in 1993.

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The Wagner Society of Washington, D.C. is a private, non-profit organization devoted to the study and enjoyment of Richard Wagner’s art. Many events are free to members and the public. The Society welcomes new members and contributions through the year. Membership and program information are available at the Society’s website or by telephone.

The Wagner Society of Washington, D.C.

P.O. Box 33051 ~ Washington, D.C. 20033

Telephone 301.907.2600 ~ Facsimile 301.907.8671

www.wagner-dc.org