News from The Wagner Society

For more information, contact

Tom Arthur (press)

Aurelius Fernandez at 301.907.2600 (other)

WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 2004 ———— The Wagner Society of Washington, D.C. announces its final event of the year, a lecture by the Princeton University Russian music expert

Simon Morrison

Tchaikovsky’s Miracle

Thursday, December 9, 2004, at 7:30 P.M., at the George Washington University, Funger Hall, 2201 G Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. The program will be free and open to the public.

In an illustrated lecture, Simon Morrison will show how Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Sleeping Beauty, which dates from about the same time as Wagner’s last music drama Parsifal, is the antithesis of Wagner’s teachings and all that Wagner caused to happen in music. Morrison notes that Tchaikovsky emphasized melodies instead of motifs, set pieces over the continuous musical development that Wagner preferred, major and minor keys over chromaticism, and fairytale characters over figures from myth and legend. He believes that The Sleeping Beauty is a very classical work composed for romantic times. He will examine three dream-like sections of this ballet, interpreting each as a critical response to Wagner’s aesthetics and creative processes. He will accompany his lecture with sound and video illustrations.

Simon Morrison is a member of the music faculty of Princeton University. He is the ground-breaking author of Russian Opera and the Symbolist Movement (2002), which explores the occult fascinations of Russian artists during the “Silver Age” of Russian culture, 1890-1917. He is at work on a new book, Ballet Imagined: Essays on the Ontology of Music and Dance. This book has required pioneering research in Russia into the lost choreography of six major ballets. His search to understand their music also led him to start ballet training at the age of thirty-seven. He is working to stage one of the lost ballets, Pas d’Acier, by Sergei Prokofiev and Georigii Yakulov, at Princeton in April 2005.

The Wagner Society of Washington, D.C. is a private non-profit organization devoted to the study and enjoyment of Richard Wagner’s art and to the development of Wagner singers. Most of its events are free to members and the public. The Wagner Society welcomes new members and contributions throughout the year. Membership forms and other information are available at the Society’s Website or by calling the Society.

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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