The Wagner Journal July 2021 issue has been published

The July 2021 issue (vol.15, no.2) of The Wagner Journal has been published and contains the following feature articles:

• ‘Reciprocal Redemption: Parsifal, Kundry and Shared Compassion as Wagner’s Allegorical Vision for Germany‘ by Vanessa K. Iacocca

• ‘ ‘‘A Mass can never interest, but only dumbfound us‘‘: Chorus and ‘‘Chorality‘‘ in Wagner’s Late Music Dramas‘ by John Pierce O’Reilly

• ’Observations on Today’s German Opera Scene’ by Richard Wagner, translated by Niall Hoskin

• ’How Tristan and Isolde Almost Went Down to Rio’ by Peter Bassett

• Table of Contents for The Wagner Journal, March 2007 to March 2021

plus reviews of: streamed performances of Tristan from Weinviertel, the Ring from Paris, Lohengrin from Berlin and the Wesendonck Lieder from Glasgow; a DVD of Lohengrin from Stuttgart; Nicholas Logie’s Nine Articles on Conducting by Richard Wagner (trans. and commentary), Chris Walton's Richard Wagner’s Essays on Conducting (trans. and commentary), Barry Emslie’s Pathways to Redemption: the Life and Work of Richard Wagner and Benjamin Britten

Subscribe here...

Social Media

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)

Wagneropera.net