The Wagner Journal July 2023 issue has been published

The July 2023 issue (vol.17, no.2), guest-edited by Katherine Syer, contains the following feature articles:

• Adrian Müller on Kurt Overhoff and Wieland Wagner’s Bayreuth

• Kirsten Paige on the curious connections between the two ‘nervous asylums’ on the green hill at Bayreuth and the Festspielhaus with which they were sometimes confused

• Ryan M. Prendergast on ‘humour and humourlessness’ in Die Meistersinger

• Interview with Pietari Inkinen, conductor of the 2023 Bayreuth Ring

• Tribute to Matthew Rye, 1962–2023, reviews editor of The Wagner Journal

plus reviews of: Lohengrin at the Met, Tannhäuser at Salzburg and Covent Garden, Parsifal in Geneva, The Rhinegold at ENO; Jessye Norman: The Unreleased Masters; biographies of Minna Wagner and Cosima Wagner by Eva Rieger and Sabina Zurmühl, and Fortuny: Time, Space, Light by Wendy Ligon Smith.

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One of the finest monuments in sound ever to have been raised to the everlasting glory of music. (Claude Debussy on Parsifal)

"The thing about Wagner is that there can be no true success in any production of his operas, only degrees of failure. There is so much in these bloody pieces, all you can do is try to live up to them." (Keith Warner, The Guardian)

"I have never come across an audience with so much hatred, so much anger, such a thirst for revenge. They take everything personally. It makes you a little bit scared, and it's really quite terrifying." (Lance Ryan on the audiences at Bayreuth)

"People sometimes complain that Wagner operas are too long, that they get stiff and sore about 10.30 because they have rushed in to hear one of his works straight from work and are not properly prepared for listening to his music. The audience, as much as the artists, must be prepared for a performance."
(Benjamin Britten to Alan Blyth, Gramophone)

"I was bowled over. It was the year after Wieland Wagner had died; to be able to see his productions was a total knock-out. These bare stagings, where everything was done with lighting. The light changed with the music, and the shadows and patterns seemed as archetypal as the music itself. Nobody had done that on the stage before. I thought it was extraordinary and wonderful."
(Patrick Carnegy to The Guardian)

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