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Does Wagner mess with our minds?

HEARING WAGNER: Does Wagner mess with our minds? with Sir Colin Blakemore Saturday 22 November 10:30-17:00 Birmingham Hippodrome, Patrick Centre Theatre The emotional impact of music is undeniable, and this is nowhere more obvious than in Romantic music such as the operas of Richard Wagner. But can the effects of music be measured? Is this even desirable? The Hearing Wagner event taking place at the Birmingham Hippodrome on Saturday 22 November aims to air these and other questions and show how psychologists and musicologists are working together to understand better what is going on in these extraordinary works. Researchers from Goldsmiths University of London and the University of Oxford in the AHRC's Transforming Musicology project have been finding out how a live audience responds to the sensations produced over the four operas of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Last week, the Mariinsky Opera from St Petersburg, under their charismatic condu

7 November 1881: Wagner visits Monreale

R. had a restless night, since he had taken medicine, but he is looking well. He arranges his worktable in the salon, and the situation pleases him. In the afternoon we drive to Monreale. [Added on the next page, under Tuesday: "Yesterday, on the journey to Monreale, R. notices a small and very independent poodle, a favourite breed of his, and in the evening he is still thinking of the little creature, having been struck by its intelligence."] Sublime impression: "What people they must have been to build such a thing!" R. exclaims. We are enchanted by the cloisters. The valley of oranges is like a fairy tale, and when we return home we feel that nothing less than Shakespeare will do. — We begin H[enry] VI , Act I, the children showing great interest. As he reads, R. looks so wonderfully young that I have to tell him so. And when we are discussing this first act, he says, "He is the greatest of them all." — "What images!" he exclai

5 November 1881: Wagner arrives in Palermo

On 5 November 1881 Richard Wagner and his family arrived at Hôtel des Palmes (now: Grand Hotel Et Des Palmes ) in Palermo, Sicily , to finish Parsifal. Read more on Wagneropera.net: Richard Wagner in  Sicily or Wondersofsicily.com Photo: Per-Erik Skramstad / Wagneropera.net

The Wagner Journal: November 2014 issue

The November 2014 issue (vol.8, no.3) of The Wagner Journal , now available, contains the following feature articles: • 'Kundry’s Baptism, Kundry’s Death' by Christopher Wintle • 'Timely Timelessness: Regietheater at Bayreuth in the 1970s' by Simon Williams • 'Wagner Manuscripts at the British Library' by Nicolas Bell Plus reviews of: the Frank Castorf Ring in Bayreuth Der fliegende Holländer in Copenhagen Tristan und Isolde in Lübeck and Florence a concert performance of Götterdämmerung in Leeds CDs of a solo disc by James Rutherford and of Wagner's edition of Gluck's Iphigenia in Aulis Stefan Herheim 's Die Meistersinger, Parsifal directed by Romeo Castellucci and Wolfgang Wagner on DVD, together with Joachim Herz 's pioneering Der fliegende Holländer New books on Wagner and Freud by Tom Artin, Wagner and Manet by Therese Dolan, Schultze und Müller's satirical take on the Ring and The Cambridge History of Music Performan

MARK BERRY: AFTER WAGNER

MARK BERRY: AFTER WAGNER Histories of Modernist Music Drama from Parsifal to Nono A Special Offer: Save 25% Click here for the publisher's flyer and discount code: http://boybrew.co/9781843839682flyer This book is both a telling of operatic histories ‘after’ Richard Wagner, and a philosophical reflection upon the writing of those histories. Historical musicology reckons with intellectual and cultural history, and vice versa. The ‘after’ of the title denotes chronology, but also harmony and antagonism within a Wagnerian tradition. Parsifal, in which Wagner attempted to go beyond his achievement in the Ring, to write ‘after’ himself, is followed by two apparent antipodes: the strenuously modernist Arnold Schoenberg and the æstheticist Richard Strauss. Discussion of Strauss’s Capriccio, partly in the light of Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron, reveals a more ‘political’ work than either first acquaintance or the composer’s ‘intention’ might suggest. Then come three composers fro

Washington National Opera announces casting for Ring 2016

Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced complete casting for its first full presentation of Richard Wagner's four-part Ring cycle . Three cycles will be presented from April 30 to May 22, 2016 and will be directed by Artistic Director Francesca Zambello and conducted by WNO Music Director Philippe Auguin. Contribution packages with priority seating for The Ring are on sale now. For more information, go to WNO's Ring website . The complete casting announcement follows the principal casting announcement this spring. WNO's Ring cycles feature two outstanding Brünnhildes. Acclaimed British soprano Catherine Foster, who has stunned audiences at Wagner's hometown festival of Bayreuth in performances of the role, will make her U.S. debut in Cycles I and II. Internationally renowned Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, whose performances as Brünnhilde were highly acclaimed in this production's San Francisco run in 2011, makes her WNO debut in Cycle III. American heldentenor

The Wagner Journal, July 2014 issue is out

The Wagner Journal: July 2014 issue The July 2014 issue (vol.8, no.2), now available, contains the following feature articles: 'Spinning the Yarn: Intertextuality in Wagner's Use and Reuse of his Songs in his Operas' by Malcolm Miller 'Richard Wagner and the "Zurich Writings" 1849–51: From Revolution to  Ring ' by Hilda Meldrum Brown ‘Wagner's Acquittal', in which Joachim Köhler retracts his claim that Wagner was a forerunner of the Holocaust ‘Reckoning up the  Ring : A Mathematician's Diary of Bayreuth 1876' by Patrick Carnegy, discussing the journal kept by Alfred Pringsheim, father-in-law of Thomas Mann, on his 1876 visit to Bayreuth Joseph Horowitz on Artur Bodanzky and the golden age of Wagner at the Met Plus reviews of: Tannhäuser  and  Parsifal  in Berlin Der fliegende Holl änder  in Copenhagen Das Liebesverbot  in Leipzig Guy Cassiers' Milan  Ring  and the Met  Parsifal  with Jonas Kaufmann on DVD

Richard Wagner bust at Grand Hotel Et Des Palmes, Palermo

A bust of Richard Wagner in the foyer of Grand Hotel Et Des Palmes (aka Hôtel des Palmes), Palermo, Sicily. Richard Wagner and his family arrives at the hotel on 5 November 1881. Here he orchestrated Parsifal Act 3. Read more on Wagneropera.net: Wagner in Sicily Photo: Per-Erik Skramstad / Wagneropera.net

Richard Wagner in Sicily 1881–1882 - part 1

Richard Wagner and his family arrived at Hôtel des Palmes (now: Grand Hotel Et Des Palmes ) in Palermo on 5 November 1881. Here he orchestrated Parsifal Act 3. Read more on Wagneropera.net: Richard Wagner in  Sicily Photo: Per-Erik Skramstad / Wagneropera.net

Longborough Festival Opera - Royal Philharmonic Music Award

Longborough Festival Opera 's 2013 Ring Cycle has been shortlisted in the Opera and Music Theatre category of the RPS (Royal Philharmonic Society) Music Awards. The RPS Music Awards presented in association with BBC Radio 3, are the highest recognition for live classical music and musical excellence in the UK. Awards, in thirteen categories, are decided by independent panels consisting of some of the music industry’s most distinguished practitioners. The awards honour musicians, composers, writers, broadcasters and inspirational arts organisations. This year’s RPS Music Awards celebrate outstanding achievement in 2013. Awards in 13 categories are chosen by eminent independent juries from the music profession and are unique in the breadth of musical achievement they span, from performers, composers and inspirational arts organisation to learning, participation and engagement. This year’s awards are for achievement in the UK during 2013. Winners will be announced at the

The March 2014 issue of The Wagner Journal is out

The March 2014 issue of The Wagner Journal (vol.8, no.1) is out. Here is a brief description of the contents: Feature articles: 'Transformation at Tribschen: How a French Literary Trio Became a Wagnerian Musical Trio' by Heath Lees, describing the visits of Judith Gautier and friends to the Wagners in 1869/70 'Tracking Träume: The Sources and Sounds of Wagner's Wesendonck Lied' by Peter Bloom on the interlocking of the Wesendonck Lieder and Tristan und Isolde 'Wagner Tenors and the Quest for the "Ideal" ' by David Breckbill 'Strange and Forbidden Fruits: A report on the conference at Leeds University' by Tash Siddiqui Plus reviews of: Parsifal at Covent Garden and the Lyric Opera, Chicago, the Ring in Melbourne and a gruelling Wagnerian extravaganza in Lille  the Ring recorded under Franz Konwitschny at Covent Garden in 1959 and at the Metropolitan, New York, under Erich Leinsdorf in 1961–2 The Rienzi directed by J