Jul 30, 2018
It’s that time of the year, when
that midsummer classic the
Bayreuth
Festival begins once again. I will be attending
this yearly ritual, and ahead of me will be performances of
The Flying Dutchman,
Parsifal, Die Meistersinger von
Nürnberg, and the new production of
Lohengrin, directed by the first American to mount
a...
Apr 8, 2018
In this podcast, we explore the
link between the musical score of Alfred
Hitchcock’s masterpiece Vertigo, written
by composer Bernard Herrmann, and the music of
Richard Wagner’s Tristan und
Isolde. The 1959 film, whose themes center on obsession,
and the links between love and death, covers similar terrain...
Feb 18, 2018
When Parsifal is playing in town at the
M
etropolitan Opera it is a
not-to-be-missed event. Luckily this year, I get to see it
twice. My first visit was yesterday at the Saturday
matinee. I was joined by my good friends Francis and his wife
Julia, as well as my friend Vlad. Francis and I went to
Bayreuth last summer,...
Feb 15, 2018
A guidebook to the city of Bayreuth, written at the turn of the century, got me thinking: I wonder what a trip to Bayreuth would have been like in those days. In this video podcast we will take a trip to 1905, and listen to the glorious voices that graced the Festspielhaus during the beginning of the 20th century.
Dec 17, 2017
The Christmas season does not
usually bring to mind the music of Richard Wagner,
but it should, for on Christmas morning, in the year 1870,
Cosima, the composer's wife, woke from her
slumbers to a new composition written by her husband to celebrate
her 25th of December birthday, and played at their house by...