NEWS FROM THE WAGNER SOCIETY

For more information, please contact:

Thomas Arthur (press)

Aurelius Fernandez at 301.907.2600 (general)

WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 2005 ––––– The Wagner Society of Washington, D.C. is pleased to present a free lecture on poetry and creating an opera libretto by the renowned poet

Dana Gioia

Chairman of The National Endowment for the Arts

The program will be open to the public on Thursday, March 17, 2005, at 7:30 P.M. at the George Washington University, Funger Hall, 2201 G Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

Dana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed poet, critic, translator, educator, and former business executive. He earned his undergraduate and business degrees from Stanford and a comparative literature degree from Harvard. He was for fifteen years an executive of General Foods in New York and became the company’s Vice President of Marketing while he wrote books, essays, and poetry.

He is an influential critic and is best known for his 1991 book Can Poetry Matter? about the role of poetry in contemporary culture. Of his published collections of poems, Interrogations at Noon won the 2002 American Book Award. His 1991 book, The Gods of Winter, still in print, is one of the few American books ever to be the main selection of England’s Poetry Book Society. The anthology he co-edited, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, is the best-selling college literature textbook in the United States.

Dana Gioia is a long-time commentator on American culture and literature for the BBC. His poems, translations, essays, and reviews have appeared in many magazines including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, Slate, and The Hudson Review. For six years, he was the classical music critic for San Francisco magazine. Much of his poetry has been set to music, and he has written two libretti for West Coast composer Alva Henderson, War Requiem and the opera Nosferatu which is based on the classic 1922 vampire film. Nosferatu was premiered last October by The Rimrock Opera in Billings, Montana and later received performances by Opera Idaho in Boise. The Washington art song composer, Lori Laitman, has set several of his poems to music. They were premiered here in Washington in 2004.

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 at any time. Membership information is available at the Society’s website or by telephone.

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The Wagner Society of Washington, D.C.

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

Telephone 301.907.2600 ~ Facsimile 301.907.8671