Number 201: APRIL 2011 - Wagner Society of England

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From Bill Bliss LETTERS I am full of praise for the work done by our committee members over the past year concerning the financial irregularities of our previous treasurer. In particular you were all very open and prompt in informing us about the crisis which at one time sounded as if it was going to endanger the future of the Society. As ordinary members we only see a small fraction of the work and worry involved. My small contribution to the contingency fund set up at the time can more than happily remain with the Society. But, and quite separately, am I the only member to feel a fraction of disquiet when I read the latest issue of Wagner News and saw that the new chairman and web master are co-owners of a commercial organisation that sells Wagner opera tours? This disquiet is not reduced by the presence of an advertisement for those tours on page 35 (the only full page advertisement in this issue). I am sure that everyone is behaving correctly and honourably and I have no doubt that Jones-Rowe provide an excellent service. But for a rank and file member of the Wagner Society (for over 20 years) there must be an absolute perception of independence when I read the articles – and particularly the reviews – in Wagner News. Obviously no reviewer would consider their judgement to be under any form of influence but if two committee members are promoting tours to a particular production that our reviewer has seen then impartiality could be perceived to be compromised. I hesitate to write my second paragraph but I am sure you would like to hear the views of the rank and file and wonder if they are shared by any others. If I am in a minority of one I shall be happy to accept that I am at one extreme of the bell curve commoncottage@btinternet.com Seeing the ENO/Goodall Ring cycles led Bill Bliss to become a Society member more than 30 years ago, winning the Bayreuth ticket ballot in 1988 for Lohengrin, which he describes as “unforgettable.” He adds: “I have no musical aptitude, but my membership is for life.” Jeremy Rowe writes: Thanks, Bill for your encouraging words regarding the recovery of the Society from its difficult times last year. We have received a number of letters like yours, and are greatly encouraged that members have recognised the work done to rescue the Society. Regarding the small opera tours company that my partner and I run as a side-line, we are conscious of the risks of a conflict of interest, which we are extremely careful to avoid. In the past we have always paid for advertising in Wagner News, and our company in a small way sponsors the Society through donations. We were able to make a modest donation to assist the Society through the recent financial crisis. We do not advertise specific tours to the members of the Society, and we only respond to enquiries we receive from our generalised advert. Incidentally, it’s not the day job for either of us, and we arrange only a very few tours annually. The very limited number of tours organised are booked well in advance, before reviews appear, and thus patrons cannot be influenced by reviews appearing in Wagner News. I trust you and other members feel reassured by these comments. – 36 –
From Colin Humphreys LETTERS I smiled on reading Paul Dawson-Bowling’s review of the 2010 Bayreuth Ring. Firstly, because it was his first Bayreuth Ring for 46 years, which beat my own lapse of 44 years that was remedied in 2009. Also, ruefully, because he sounds to have heard a better cast than I did. We shared a delight in the conducting and an exasperation with its occasional idiosyncrasies. “Immer wieder gibt es Momente des Stillstand” (Time and again there are standstill moments) was one of concepts behind Tankred Dorst’s Ring production according, in 2009, to the accompanying booklet. So, I assumed that this must be behind Thielemann’s making the Luftpause at the end of Götterdammerung. That this sounds as though it had become an even bigger “standstill” last year set me researching the provenance of the habit. From the 16 recorded live performances I sampled, ranging from Bodanzky in 1938 to Barenboim in 1992, it emerged that Thielemann’s partners in crime are Knappertsbusch and Böhm at Bayreuth, the former pausing ever longer with the passing years. I can recall hearing Böhm do it there in 1965 and am pretty sure Solti used to at Covent Garden in the ‘sixties. My memory doesn’t stretch to what Downes, Davis and Haitink did in the intervening years. As I was told at the time that Maazel took a breather in 1968, one must conclude that this largely a Bayreuth habit, but even there the exception rather than the rule. Blessed as we are with Pappano and Bychkov, I suppose it is too much to hope that London will ever hear Christian Thielemann’s Wagner conducting – the most inspiring I have heard for many a year, Luftpause notwithstanding. colin.g.humphreys@btinternet.com Colin Humphreys’ interest in opera self-ignited at the age of sixteen and has endured for fifty years. It started with Wagner: the Solti Ring in 1964 and Bayreuth in 1965 but has since broadened to embrace the whole canon. DAVID WATERS Re-establishing Wagner News has been a process which has succeeded only due to the willingness of David Waters to be unstintingly generous in sharing his time and his knowledge to mentor a new editor into the job. I believe that Wagner News and its readers are abundantly in his debt henceforth. Roger Lee Editor – 37 –
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Page 3 and 4: EDITOR’S NOTE WRITE FOR WAGNER NE
Page 5 and 6: FROM THE CHAIR-ELECT There have bee
Page 7 and 8: During the Ride of the Valkyries th
Page 9 and 10: ungainly bustle to reveal black rid
Page 11 and 12: WOLFRAM WAS THE STAR OF THE EVENING
Page 13 and 14: way of presenting the scene, and sh
Page 15 and 16: his fatal inability to declare hims
Page 17 and 18: “BEHIND THE SCENES AT BAYREUTH”
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Page 21 and 22: e allowed to look more surprised at
Page 23 and 24: The emasculated sorcerer has usurpe
Page 25 and 26: audience, and their goggles and gas
Page 27 and 28: acting in this scene is horrifyingl
Page 29 and 30: Received after the January issue of
Page 31 and 32: Mathilde Wesendonck, his devious ex
Page 33 and 34: RICHARD WAGNER AND THE CENTRALITY O
Page 35: emembering first and foremost that
Page 39 and 40: President: Dame Gwyneth Jones Vice

Number 201: APRIL 2011 - Wagner Society of England

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