Welcome to
The Wagner Society of America
Chicago, Illinois, USA

Upcoming 2012 Events

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

Eric Weimer
Opera Coach, Conductor, Pianist and Lyric Opera Staff
Backstage at The Ring

Weimer

Eric Weimer has established himself as one of the pre-eminent coach/Assistant Conductors in the international opera world. Through his work at some of the world’s leading companies—in particular, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Bayreuth Festival, but also the San Francisco Opera, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Cleveland Orchestra—he has prepared some 150 productions, collaborating with most of the world’s greatest opera maestri: James Levine, Sir Andrew Davis, Bruno Bartoletti, Donald Runnicles, Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim, Franz Welser-Moest, Antonio Pappano, James Conlon, Christoph Eschenbach, Christian Thielemann, and Georg Solti. In this work, he has coached and worked closely with virtually all the major singers active on the international opera stage. While famous as a German specialist—he has prepared no less than twelve complete cycles of Wagners’s Der Ring des Nibelungen—he is known also for the breadth of his experience with other repertoires, particularly the Baroque and the Italian. A fluent speaker of German and Italian, he has prepared most of the German and Italian repertoire that Lyric Opera of Chicago has presented in the past 24 years. A former musicologist—Dr. Weimer holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and is the author of Opera seria and the Evolution of Classical Style—he is also in great demand as a coach of young singers. He joined the music staff of the Ryan Opera Center (training wing of Lyric Opera of Chicago) in 1992.

(Marriott) Courtyard Chicago
165 East Ontario
(1/2 block east of Michigan Ave)
Chicago

7:00 p.m. - Reception
7:30 p.m. - Program

Cost: $5.00 for members/10.00 for guests

Questions:
847-256-1292

Sunday, March 18th, 2012

Hilan Warshaw

Filmmaker, Author, Lecturer
Motifs and Montage:
Sergei Eisenstein and the Cinematic Gesamtkunstwerk


Hilan Warshaw

Tis lecture explores Wagner's influence on the work of Sergei Eisenstein, the pioneering Soviet filmmaker and theorist. The talk will include clips from Eisenstein's films and Wagner's operas, as well as a discussion of photographs and designs from Eisenstein's historic 1940 production of Die Walküre for the Bolshoi Theater.

HILAN WARSHAW is a filmmaker, writer, and educator based in New York City. He has produced and directed videos for organizations including Carnegie Hall, the League of American Orchestras, Dicapo Opera Theatre, and Quill Classics. In addition to his directing work, his writing and editing credits include PBS documentaries about music and the arts. His writings about Wagner and film have been published by McFarland Press, The Wagner Journal, and Wagner Notes, and he recently wrote film-related entries and appendices for the new Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia (forthcoming in 2013). In autumn 2011, he was a Visiting Scholar at Barnard College, where he taught a course in Romanticism and Film. He has lectured at venues including NYU's Deutsches Haus, Hofstra University, the Wagner Society of NY, Wagner Society of America, and Boston Wagner Society.  He has a B.F.A. with honors (Film & TV) and M.F.A. (Musical Theatre Writing) from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and he studied orchestral conducting at Mannes College of Music and the Aspen Music School. www.hilanwarshaw.com

Affinia Chicago Hotel
166 E. Superior St.
Chicago
1 block south of Chicago Avenue and 1 block east of Michigan Avenue

2:00 p.m. - Reception
2:30 p.m. - Program

Cost: $5.00 for members/$10.00 for guests

Questions:
847-256-1292

Sunday, April 22, 2012
Joint Event with the Near North Chapter of Lyric Opera

Luncheon and Recital
featuring
AMBER WAGNER

Soprano

Amber
Photo Credit: Larry Lapidus

The University Club
76 E. Monroe Street
(Elevator access to private dining room)
Chicago, Illinois 60603

12:30 PM - Social Hour
1:00 PM - Luncheon
2:15 PM - Program

Cost: $70.00 for members/$75.00 for guests

 

Previous 2012 Events

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

Philip Gossett
Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor,
University of Chicago
Wagner and Verdi
gossett

Preliminary thoughts about the two bicentenaries of 2013: Wagner and Verdi were both born in 1813. Professor Gossett recently reviewed Peter Conrad's new Verdi/Wagner, for the Times Literary Supplement and will discuss some of the differences and similarities between these two composers, who represent two very different countries. Much separates them, but much also joins them together, and that is worth discussing!

Affinia Chicago Hotel
166 E. Superior St.
Chicago
1 block south of Chicago Avenue and 1 block east of Michigan Avenue

7:00 p.m. - Refreshments
7:30 p.m. - Program

2011 Events

Sunday, December 11th, 2011
THE WAGNER SOCIETY ANNUAL HOLIDAY PARTY

Featuring:

Philip Kennicott
Cultural Critic for The Washington Post

Mark Twain and Wagner

Kennicott
(Photo courtesy of The Washington Post)

On the record, Samuel Clemens professed bemused confusion about the work of Richard Wagner, an extension of what is often assumed to be his feelings about opera in general. Did Mark Twain in fact say that Wagner’s music is better than it sounds? And if he did, what did he mean? This talk looks into the deeper record of Twain’s musical knowledge, his appreciation of opera and his complicated relationship to Richard Wagner. Twain’s encounter with Wagner’s music sets the stage for later American encounters with modernism and high art, and it displays in miniature cultural anxieties that plague Americans to this day.

Philip Kennicott is chief art critic of The Washington Post, where he has also served as classical music critic and culture critic. He is a long time columnist for Gramophone, a frequent contributor to Opera News and former editor of Musical America, Chamber Music and Ovation magazines.

Union League Club
65 W. Jackson Blvd.

Chicago, IL

12:30 PM - Social Hour
1:00 PM - Luncheon
2:15 PM - Program

Wednesday, November 16th

MARTHA NUSSBAUM
Department of Philosophy and Professor of Law,
University of Chicago

Nietzsche and Dionysus:
Schopenhauer and Wagner
in "The Birth of Tragedy"

Martha Nussbaum

We are proud to have Martha Nussbaum for our November program. Professor Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, appointed in the Philosophy Department, Law School, and Divinity School at the University of Chicago. She is an Associate in the Classics Department and the Political Science Department, a Member of the Committee on Southern Asian Studies, and a Board Member of the Human Rights Program. She is the founder and Coordinator of the Center for Comparative Constitutionalism. She has received over 40 honorary degrees from colleges and universities around the world. She has authored over 20 books and edited 14 others. Last year, she appeared in a 3-hour interview/call-in program on C-SPAN's BookTV's "In Depth" (Complete program is available for viewing at: http://www.booktv.org/Watch/11557/In+Depth+Martha+Nussbaum.aspx ) She is also a long-time member of the Wagner Society of America.

(Marriott) Courtyard Chicago
165 East Ontario
(1/2 block east of Michigan Ave)
Chicago

7:00 p.m. - Reception
7:30 p.m. - Program

Wednesday, October 19th

MARK THOMAS KETTERSON
Chicago Correspondent for Opera News

Mark Thomas Ketterson

Local writer Mark Thomas Ketterson, the Chicago correspondent for Opera News magazine, will discuss his own personal history as an arts writer, and share his thoughts about the current state of the art form as well as the process of assembling a critical review of an operatic performance, using Lyric Opera’s 2010-2011 production of Wagner’s Lohengrin for illustrative purposes.

Hotel Allegro
Screening Room II (Third Floor)
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

7:00 p.m. - Reception
7:30 p.m. - Program.

Sunday, May 22nd
Wagner's 198th Birthday Dinner

CARTER SCOTT
Soprano

Carter Scott

Michigan Shores Club
911 Michigan Ave
(1 block east of Sheridan Road at Lake Avenue)
(1st stoplight north of the Bahai Temple)
East Porch
Wilmette IL

CARTER SCOTT, soprano, who appeared at Lyric Opera of Chicago last season in Verdi's Macbeth, will give a program consisting of the Wesendonck Lieder, along wtih other works of Wagner, Bellini, Strauss (both Richard and Johann II), and Puccini! . Carter gave a wonderfully well received program for the Near North Chapter of Lyric two seasons ago. Fred Ockwell will accompany her.


5:15 PM Social Hour + Cash Bar

6:00 PM Program
6:45 PM Dinner


Wednesday, April 27th

NICHOLAS VAZSONYI
German Faculty, University of South Carolina

Vazsonyi

Professor Vazsonyi will speak on his recent book, Richard Wagner: Self-Promotion and the Making of a Brand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Affinia Chicago Hotel
166 E. Superior St.
Chicago
1 block south of Chicago Avenue and 1 block east of Michigan Avenue

7:00 p.m. - Refreshments
7:30 p.m. - Program

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

AMBER WAGNER
Soprano

Amber
Photo Credit: Larry Lapidus

When we asked Stephanie Blythe about young singers that we should keep an eye out for, she responded, 'There's Amber Wagner." Amber sang for our joint holiday event in December, 2009 with several Lyric Opera chapters. Amber is here in Chicago to sing two performances as Elsa in Lohengrin at Lyric Opera of Chicago on March 5th and 8th.

For our evening with Amber, as usual for events with performing artists, she will give a brief autobiographical statement and then field questions from the audience. If you haven't seen the DVD of 'The Audition' do it !

Affinia Chicago Hotel
166 E. Superior St.
Chicago
1 block south of Chicago Avenue and 1 block east of Michigan Avenue

7:00 p.m. - Refreshments
7:30 p.m. - Program

 

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
STEPHANIE BLYTHE
Mezzo-Soprano
Blythe

One of the leading mezzos of our day, Stephanie has been in Chicago for Un Ballo in Maschera and for The Mikado. From all reports she has stolen the show in her first ever Katisha. We know her best in roles such as Fricka in Die Walküre or Orpheus in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, but her diverse repertoire includes her personal tribute We'll Meet Again—The Songs of Kate Smith, which she'll be presenting in New York on February 16th at Lincoln Center as part of the American Songbook series.

As usual with our get-togethers with performers a large part of the program was devoted to the Question and Answer portion.

Hotel Allegro
Cinema Room (Third Floor)
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011

THE WAGNER SOCIETY ANNUAL HOLIDAY PARTY!!!

Featuring:

Soprano CHRISTINE STEYER

A Lavish Buffet

"The Quiz" + LOTS of Prizes


Click Image to View Christine's Website

Program will include excerpts from Der Rosenkavalier, works of Brahms, Wolf, Mahler, and more!

5:15 PM Social Hour - Cash Bar

6:00 PM Program - Christine Steyer, soprano

6:45 PM - Buffet Dinner
with "THE QUIZ" + Lots of (Consolation) Prizes

Michigan Shores Club
930 Michigan Avenue
Wilmette, IL

Events from 2010

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

OPENING NIGHT AT LA SCALA!!
Live at 10:00 a.m. CST: Die Walküre (Live Broadcast in HD)


Also: Recorded Rebroadcast at 7:00 p.m. CST

Film Row Cinema at Columbia College
1104 S. Wabash Avenue - 8th Floor
Chicago, IL 60605

La Scala of Milan opens its 2010-11 season with the second installment of its new production of the Ring! Be part of this LIVE event by attending the HD transmission at 10:00 a.m. CST (Chicago time: La Scala's gala Opening Night gets underway at five o'clock, Milan time).

Directed by Guy Cassiers, the production features Daniel Barenboim on the podium and a stellar cast which includes Nina Stemme (Brünnhilde), Waltraud Meier (Sieglinde), Simon O’Neill (Siegmund), Vitalij Kowaljow (Wotan), Ekaterina Gubanova (Fricka). and John Tomlinson (Hunding).

For those who prefer to view this event in the evening, there will be a rebroadcast at 7:00 p.m. CST.

Sunday, October 31st, 2010

HILAN WARSHAW
Wagner and Cinema

Hilan Warshaw

Hotel Allegro
Cinema Room (Third Floor)
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

2:00 p.m. - Refreshments
2:30 p.m. - Program

HILAN WARSHAW, filmmaker and writer from New York City. Hilan has a B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the Tisch School of the Arts (NYU) and has studied orchestral conducting at Mannes College of Music and the Aspen Music School. His lecture-demonstration concerns the relationship between cinema and the operas of Richard Wagner as well as the impact that Wagner's work had on the development of the film industry.

Wednesday, September 29th

DR. JOHN T. RAFTERY, MD
Psychoanalytically Based Psychotherapy: Richard Wagner - Myth of the Hero

Siegfried
Detail from Siegfried painting by Franz Stassen (1886-1949)

Hotel Allegro
Cinema Room (Third Floor)
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

7:00 p.m. - Refreshments
7:30 p.m. - Program

JOHN RAFTERY has served as Associate Professor of Psychiatry at The University of Chicago and Director of Inpatient Psychiatry at U. of C.'s Medical Center. He has been a recipient of the Mental Health Professional of the Year Award from the State of Illinois. He is currently in private practice in Chicago.

 

Saturday, May 22, 2010
(Wagner's 197th Birthday)

MARGARET JUNTWAIT
Host of The Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts

MJuntwait

Michigan Shores Club
911 Michigan Avenue
Wilmette, IL

MARGARET JUNTWAIT, host of The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts on Saturday afternoons and co-host with Will Berger of the live evening broadcasts on Sirius XM satellite radio. Margaret has hosted the Saturday broadcasts since December, 2004. An actress and lyric soprano she is just the fourth host of these broadcasts. We are delighted to welcome her and her husband. There will be an opportunity to ask questions after her presentation

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

DR. PETER PACHL
Vice-President of the International Siegfried Wagner Society
and
Director of the Pianopianissimo Music Theater, Munich

Peter Pachl

Hotel Allegro
Cinema Room 1
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

7:00 p.m. - Refreshments
7:30 p.m. - Program

Peter Pachl is back for another stimulating evening, this time discussing some of the rarely-performed works of Richard Wagner.

He was born in 1953 in Bayreuth and got his basic music education in the school Regensburger Domspatzen. He then studied musicology, theatrology and linguistics at the University of München. He worked as a stage director in various German theatres (in Kassel, Bonn, München, Nürnberg, Mainz a.o.), with works of the operatic repertory (by Gluck, Mozart, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Massenet, Thomas, Lortzing, Nicolai, Cornelius, Wagner, Verdi, Strauss, Pfitzner, Zemlinsky, Puccini, Schreker, von Schillings, Strawinsky, Britten, Bernstein, von Einem a.o.) as well as the dramatic repertory (by Aristophanes, Lope de Vega, Ingrisch, Nestroy, Ramuz, Rosendorfer, Sartre a.o.).

In 1989 he became professor of opera stage direction in Hannover; where he has since taught such topics as: stage music in Weimar, in Bayreuth, in Vienna and in Bochum, as well as management of cultural products in Weimar, Dresden, Hamburg, the Hague and Berlin. Since 1980 he is art director of the München Music Theater Pianopianissimo; in 1990-95 he was art director and manager of the Thuringia State Theater and Symphony Orchestra as well as the Rudolstadt Festival, while in 1998-2000 he was art co-director and principal dramaturgist of the Hagen Theater. He has published numerous works, including the biography Siegfried Wagner, Genie im Schatten (1988, 1994), and made a large number of radio and TV productions. 

In 1980 he founded the Pianopianissimo Music Theater in Munich, where he serves as Artistic Director. He founded the International Siegfried Wagner Society in 1972, where he is currently Vice President.

Cost: $ 5.00 per person for refreshments
Reservations
are not required
Guests are always welcome.

Questions: Contact Bill Smith
wrtsco@att.net

847-256-1292 (Days)
847-256-2714 (Evenings)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

WAGNER & WOTAN:
THE RING CYCLE & NORSE MYTHOLOGY

Dr. Karl E. H. Seigfried, Music Institute of Chicago

EddaDeckblatt

Hotel Allegro
Cinema Room 1
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

7:00 p.m. - Refreshments
7:30 p.m. - Program

Dr. Seigfried's presentation WAGNER & WOTAN: THE RING CYCLE & NORSE MYTHOLOGY will take an in-depth look at the Norse mythos that informs Wagner's Ring Cycle. Rather than attempting to deconsruct the composer's music dramas, he will turn back the clock to examine the myths and legends that Wagner himself studied, interpreted, and transformed. Drawing on runic inscriptions, ancient poetry, ethnographic documentation, medieval studies, 19th century research, and contemporary scholarship, this presentation will provide a holistic view of the world of Norse mythology that situates Wagner not as an end- point, but as a gifted voice in a continuum that extends from prehistory through today.

Cost: $ 5.00 per person for refreshments
Reservations
are not required
Guests are always welcome.

Questions: Contact Bill Smith
wrtsco@att.net

847-256-1292 (Days)
847-256-2714 (Evenings)


2009 Events

Sunday, December 13, 2009

HOLIDAY LUNCHEON & SILENT AUCTION
Featuring Amber Wagner,
Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition

Amber

Michigan Shores Club*
911 Michigan Ave.
Wilmette

12:00 Noon - Social Hour/Silent Auction
1:00 p.m. - Luncheon

This year again as we did several years ago when Licia Albanese was our guest we are sharing our program with several Lyric Opera Chapters. Please note the instruction to make checks payable to the Evanston Chapter - this was done to simplify the process of receiving the reservations. There will be a silent auction between noon and the luncheon. There will also be the dreaded QUIZ as well as one for the non-Wagnerians.

AMBER WAGNER is completing her 3rd year at the Ryan Opera Center following her being one of the National Grand Final Winners in the Metropolitan Opera's 2007 Competition. Many of you saw her in the Met's HD movie entitled 'The Audition'. This season at Lyric she covered Sondra Radvanovsky in Ernani and will be completing her role as Fekluša in Janáček's Katya Kabanova on December 12th. We have been looking forward to having Amber at an event ever since she first arrived in Chicago. A major career lies ahead - you can look back some day and say 'I saw her when ...'.

*  Michigan Shores Club is located in Wilmette one block east of Sheridan Road at Lake Avenue(1st stoplight north of the Bahai Temple). The CTA terminal at Linden Avenue is about 5 blocks from the club. From Chicago on the L take the Red Line to Howard Street and change to the Purple Line to the end of the line (Linden).

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

RACHEL NUSSBAUM WICHERT
Zeitoper and Emotion in the Weimar Era Kroller Opera Garden c. 1927
Kroll Opera Garden (August 1927)

Hotel Allegro
Cinema Room 1
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

7:00 p.m. - Refreshments
7:30 p.m. - Program

Rachel Nussbaum Wichert, one of our members,returned to present a section of her paper, "Zeitoper and Emotion in the Weimar Era", i.e., operas that dealt with contemporary concerns. She will focus on Hindemith's 1929 opera Neues vom Tage, described in Wikipedia as 'notorious for a scene with a naked soprano singing in a bath about the wonders of modern plumbing'. Composers of operas of this type were reacting to displays of emotion in opera as a relics of a bygone culture and to Richard Wagner in particular.

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

THE WAGNER BAN IN ISRAEL
Historical Necessity or Wagnerphobia?
Robert J. Yaffe

BobYaffe

Hotel Allegro
Cinema Room 1
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

7:00 p.m. - Reception
7:30 p.m. - Program

Bob Yaffe, a Member-at-Large on our Board of Directors, presented "The Wagner Ban in Israel—Historical Necessity or Wagnerphobia?" Previously, he delivered a lecture to us entitled "In Defense of Siegfried". He has lectured extensively and taught courses on opera topics at Oakton Community College, various Lyric Opera chapters, Jewish Community Centers of Chicago, and a number of senior and adult education programs. This lecture came shortly after his return from a family wedding in Israel.

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

THE TWO RINGS:
RICHARD WAGNER'S "RING OF THE NIBELUNG"
and
J.R.R. TOLKIEN'S "LORD OF THE RINGS"

Edward R. Haymes
Professor
of Modern Languages - Cleveland State University

Hotel Allegro
7:00 p.m. - Reception
7:30 p.m. - Program

Professor Haymes gave an audio-visual presentation entitled Wager's Ring and J.R.R. TOLKIEN'S Lord of the Rings. He teaches in the Department of Modern Languages at Cleveland State University. His research interests include medieval German literature, Old Norse language and literature and, of course, Wagner.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Wagner Birthday Event
Will Berger
Author and Met Co-Host for SIRIUS
Wagner and Architecture

BergerBook

Hotel Allegro
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009,
VENICE 1883: WAGNER'S RING COMES TO ITALY
JOHN BARKER
Professor Emeritus of History - University of Wisconsin


WagnerVeniceCover

Hotel Allegro
Cinema Room
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

7:00 p.m. - Reception
7:30 p.m. - Program

Our society member JOHN BARKER, Professor Emeritus of History - University of Wisconsin- Madison is the author of the new book, Wagner and Venice (University of Rochester Press, November 2008). John's talk is entitled VENICE 1883: WAGNER'S RING COMES TO ITALY. He will focus on Angelo Neumann's touring company and its presentations at La Fenice. We shall have copies of his book available for purchase (at a discount) and inscription.

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2007-08 Events

Sunday, December 7, 2008
Annual Holiday Party
nancy_gustafson

featuring Soprano Nancy Gustafson
(Last August's Sieglinde at Millennium Park)

We are pleased to have Nancy as our guest for this event. She has sung a number of Wagnerian roles including Freia in San Francisco, Eva in Chicago, Elsa in Dallas, Irene (Rienzi) in Paris, and most recently Sieglinde this past August at Millennium Park. A native of Evanston, she will be in town for her annual benefit concert for the Over The Rainbow Association. We shall have a door prize of two tickets to that concert to be held on Saturday, December 13th in Evanston. After dinner Nancy will speak briefly about her career and then field questions from the audience.

Hotel Allegro
Green Room
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

5:00pm – Social Hour
5:45pm – Buffet Dinner, THE QUIZ and all sorts of prizes
7:15pm – Program – NANCY GUSTAFSON, soprano

Monday, November 24th
Marlis Petersen (Soprano)
marlis petersen

(Photo: Larry Lapidus)

Fine Arts Building
410 S. Michigan Avenue
Chicago

7:00pm Reception - Suite 801- Elizabeth Stein Company

7:30 PM Program - Suite 825 - Pianoforte Chicago

Marlis is in Chicago to sing the title role in Lulu at Lyric Opera of Chicago. We last saw her as Adele in Die Fledermaus. Her next operatic performances will be at the Berlin State Opera singing the role of Aphrodite in Hans Werner Henze's Phaedra. She will sing Lulu at the Metropolitan Opera in the 2009-2010 season. She began her career in her native Germany in Nuremberg and later in Düsseldorf-Duisberg. Please join us to meet this wonderful artist. There will be a Q + A session following her remarks.


Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
Cheryl Studer, soprano
Recital
with Fred Ockwell, Piano

Sherwood Conservatory of Music
Buffet Dinner - Grace O'Malley's
Q&A Session with CHERYL STUDER

studer

Sunday, December 2, 2007
Annual Holiday Party

brewer

featuring Soprano Christine Brewer
(Dyer's Wife in Lyric's Die Frau ohne Schatten)

Christine will be singing the Dyer’s Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten at Lyric Opera of Chicago, followed by performances in Paris. Upcoming performances include Fidelio with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Brünnhilde in The Ring at the Metropolitan Opera. Within recent years roles that she has sung include Isolde and Queen Elizabeth I in Benjamin Britten's Gloriana. You will not want to miss this delightful lady, whom The Guardian in London described as ‘one of the greatest voices in the world.’ You may have heard her at Ravinia this past summer.

Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel
163 E. Walton (1 block east of Michigan Avenue)
Chicago

12:30pm – Social Hour
1:00pm – Buffet Luncheon, THE QUIZ and all sorts of prizes
2:15pm – Program – CHRISTINE BREWER, soprano

Sunday, November 25, 2007
A Special Invitation to All Wagner Society Members

from the
Evanston, Highland Park/Deerfield, and
Wilmette Chapters of Lyric Opera:
Holiday Luncheon
with mezzo soprano Viktoria Vizin
The Michigan Shores Club
911 Michigan Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois
(One block east of Sheridan Road at Lake Avenue)

Monday, November 5, 2007
DR. PETER PACHL
Vice-President of the International Siegfried Wagner Society
and Director of the Pianopianissimo Music Theater, Munich

pachl coverf siegfriedundwini  
Dr. Peter Pachl,
our Speaker
Dr. Pachl's Biography of Siegfried Wagner
Siegfried and Winifred in early 1916
 

Siegfried Wagner and His Operas

Dr. Peter Pachl will speak on Siegfried Wagner (1869-1930), Wagner's only son, composer, conductor, and director of the Bayreuth Festspiele from 1908 until his death in 1930. The program will include audio and video.

He was born in 1953 in Bayreuth and got his basic music education in the school Regensburger Domspatzen. He then studied musicology, theatrology and linguistics at the University of München. He worked as a stage director in various German theatres (in Kassel, Bonn, München, Nürnberg, Mainz a.o.), with works of the operatic repertory (by Gluck, Mozart, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Massenet, Thomas, Lortzing, Nicolai, Cornelius, Wagner, Verdi, Strauss, Pfitzner, Zemlinsky, Puccini, Schreker, von Schillings, Strawinsky, Britten, Bernstein, von Einem a.o.) as well as the dramatic repertory (by Aristophanes, Lope de Vega, Ingrisch, Nestroy, Ramuz, Rosendorfer, Sartre a.o.).

In 1989 he became professor of opera stage direction in Hannover; where he has since taught such topics as: stage music in Weimar, in Bayreuth, in Vienna and in Bochum, as well as management of cultural products in Weimar, Dresden, Hamburg, the Hague and Berlin. Since 1980 he is art director of the München Music Theater Pianopianissimo; in 1990-95 he was art director and manager of the Thuringia State Theater and Symphony Orchestra as well as the Rudolstadt Festival, while in 1998-2000 he was art co-director and principal dramaturgist of the Hagen Theater. He has published numerous works, including the biography Siegfried Wagner, Genie im Schatten (1988, 1994), and made a large number of radio and TV productions. 

In 1980 he founded the Pianopianissimo Music Theater in Munich, where he serves as Artistic Director. He founded the International Siegfried Wagner Society in 1972, where he is currently Vice President.

Tower Club - Ambassador Room
Civic Opera Building - 39th Floor
20 N. Wacker Dr.
Chicago, IL 60601

Times: 7:00 pm - Reception
7:30 pm - Program

Cost: Free - Reservations not required

 

Tuesday, October 23, 2007
DR. SVEN FRIEDRICH

Svenbio
LembachCosima1879
FriedrichWagnerDisk
Dr. Sven Friedrich,
our Speaker
Lembac's Portrait of Cosima, 1879
Dr. Friedrich's
Wagner CD-ROM

Cosima Wagner — A Remembrance

Dr. Sven Friedrich will speak on Cosima Wagner and afterwards will answer questions from the audience about The Bayreuth Festspiele – Past, Present and Future.

Sven Friedrich (born 1963) studied Theater History, Modern German Literature, and Communication Studies at the University of Munich where he received his Ph.D. with his dissertation on Wagner’s theatrical aesthetics.  Since 1993 he has been Director of the Richard-Wagner-Research Institute and of its National-Archives as well as the Richard Wagner Museum in Haus Wahnfried, all in Bayreuth.  Among his multitude of his duties include the responsibilities for the Franz Liszt Museum and the Jean Paul Museum also in Bayreuth.
 
Friedrich’s literary activities included co-editing the wagnerspektrum (http://www.wagnerspectrum.de), and curated the exhibition and its catalogue, Der Ring – Die Szene als Modell.  Die Bühnenbildmodelle des Richard-Wagner-Museums und der „Ring des Nibelungen“ in Bayreuth (“The Ring” – the Model as the Scene.  The Stage Models of the Richard-Wagner-Museum and Der Ring des Nibelungen in Bayreuth, 1876-2000).  He has written numerous essays and books, and recently edited the 50,000+ page CD-ROM compilation of all of Wagner’s writings, librettos, and correspondence for Digitale Bibliothek (www.digitale-bibliothek.de).

Union League Club
65 W. Jackson Blvd.

Times: 7:00 pm - Reception

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
DR. KATHERINE SYER

Syer

Claiming the Ring
A Program in Honor of Richard Wagner's 194th Birthday

Dr. Katherine Syer will survey several recent international productions of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, exploring how designers and directors profile regional characteristics in production. By loosening the interpretational lens away from Germanic or Nordic influences, many opera houses around the world are claiming the Ring as their own.

book
Katherine Syer is on faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she teaches musicology and regularly offers seminars on opera production history. Together with William Kinderman, she is co-editor of A Companion to Wagner’s ‘Parsifal’ (Camden House/Boydelland Brewer, 2005), and she regularly leads seminars during the Bayreuth Festival.   She is currently working on a critical production history of Wagner’s Ring, with a special focus on stagings from the 1970s onward.   Dr. Syer was recently named a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Society.  She came to our attention at a symposium on Parsifal at the University of Chicago in the fall of 2005 where she was the respondent to a presentation by our member, Rachel Nussbaum.
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Chicago Athletic Association

The CAA is closing due to reorganization and remodeling on May 31. This event will be our last at this fine location for some time.

 

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007
PENELOPE TURING

PENELOPE TURING, a spirited octogenarian, is returning for her third visit to us. She was here last in 2000. She will be talking about the 50 Bayreuth festivals that she has personally attended. She has missed only 5 since she started attending in 1952.

 

Viktoria Vizin
mezzo soprano

and the
Ars
Kecskemét , Hungary

in a musical program of arias and choruses by

Wagner, Verdi, Brahms, Liszt, Elgar, Selmeczi, and Orbán.

Friday, March 16th, 2007
Chicago Athletic Association (Dining Room)
12 South Michigan Avenue , Chicago

Reception at 5:30

Musical Program at 6:15
Buffet Dinner at 7:15.

 

Friday, March 16th, 2007
Viktoria
Viktoria Vizin
sang the title role in Carmen at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2006 and most recently at Covent Garden . She will be reprising that role at the Metropolitan Opera in the 2008-09 season in addition to singing the role of Maddelana in Rigoletto. The Ars Nova Chorus is the professional chorus of Viktoria's hometown in Hungary .

 

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