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Sunday, December 11th, 2011
THE WAGNER SOCIETY ANNUAL HOLIDAY PARTY!!!
Featuring:
Philip Kennicott
Cultural Critic for The Washington Post
Mark Twain and Wagner
(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
Cost: $40.00 for members/$50.00 for guests and non-members
Deadline for reservations ad cancellations is December 7th.
Payment: Send checks addressed to and payable to
The
Wagner Society of America
P. O. Box 514
Wilmette, IL 60091
Questions:
847-256-1292 (Days)
847-256-2714 (Evenings)
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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"
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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)
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2009 Events |
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Sunday, December 13, 2009
HOLIDAY LUNCHEON & SILENT AUCTION
Featuring Amber Wagner,
Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition
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 
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
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
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
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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Sunday, December 7, 2008
Annual Holiday Party
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)
(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
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Annual Holiday Party
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
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Dr. Peter Pachl,
our Speaker
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Dr. Pachl's Biography of Siegfried Wagner |
Siegfried and Winifred in early 1916 |
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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
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Dr. Sven Friedrich,
our Speaker
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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
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.
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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. |
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