Intermezzo

A double dose of Wagner in Birmingham

Andris Nelsons must really, really like Parsifal. For the CBSO's just-announced 2014-15 season - Andris's last at the helm - he's programmed it twice.

The first outing is on 25 August 2014 (Bank Holiday Monday). Klaus Florian Vogt makes a rare UK appearance to sing extracts from Parsifal and Lohengrin, and there's Elgar's Second Symphony to follow.  Tickets are on sale now.

We don't get the full 306-minute Grail Magic until Sunday 17 May 2015, when Burkhard Fritz (or "Fritz Burkhard" as the CBSO site puts it) takes the title role. The remainder of an outstanding cast includes Georg Zeppenfeld, James Rutherford, and Mihoko Fujimura. Public booking opens on 27 May.

For those who wish to weep a little tear over Andris's departure for Boston, he's conducting two farewell concerts, on 17 and 18 June 2015. They feature a new work from his fellow-Latvian Eriks Ešenvalds together with Mahler's Third Symphony.

Heavy metal Wagner

One of the quirkiest Wagnerversary celebrations was a concert by Finnish metal band Apocalyptica.

The group, which was formed around three classically-trained cellists, was joined by the MDR Sinfonieorchester in Leipzig last May for two hours of Wagner and Wagner-inspired music.

Above, a taster, below, the whole event.

Wagner, on screen, in London

More films have been made about Richard Wagner (and his works) than any other composer - not that you'd guess it from the peculiar dearth of Wagnerversary screenings. This is soon to be remedied.

First up is Der fliegende Holländer at the Barbican on 7 December. Joachim Herz's 1964 film (extract above) is a movie version of the opera, mimed to a soundtrack from the Gewandhaus Orchester and a host of DDR star singers. By the time he made the film, Herz had directed three different stage productions of the opera.  Instead of shooting one of these, he wanted to "create images from the music, which then act as if the music had been created from the images." The largely realistic result is interleaved with ambitious dream sequences for Senta.

On 12 January, the Barbican show Carl Fröhlich's 1913 silent movie The Life and Works of Richard Wagner with live piano accompaniment. The 100-year old film, the first screen biography of the composer, is available online without soundtrack.

Finally, the Institut français is showing Patrice Chéreau's legendary Bayreuth Ring over four nights from 20 to 23 January. The Ciné Lumière's comfortable seats and excellent cafe make it the ideal venue, but bear in mind that the stated running times on the site don't include intervals

 

Swan vibrators stimulate Wagner interest

Powered by solar cells, the swan-shaped vibrators respond to light, stimulating the piano strings to join in. The Schwanenvibratorenbringen is part of a multi-room installation by composer/artist Georg Nussbaumer.

Nussbaumer's response to Lohengrin, which also includes the chrysalid composers below, was commissioned as part of Weimar's Wagnerversary celebrations.

Walk of Wagner

Enterprising artist Volker Wunderlich roped in local students to create a Walk of Wagner on the streets of Bayreuth. The stencilled heads have been applied to the pavements between the railway station and the Festpielhaus, a walk of some ten minutes. The graffiti is apparently legal, as the chalk-based paint should wash away in the rain.

"We want to make young people aware of Wagner," he said. Wunderlich also makes t-shirts with the same motif. His next project? Wagner-shaped biscuits.

Wagnercake

Richard Wagner's 200th birthday was celebrated last night in Bayreuth via the traditional medium of cake.

Guess who nabbed the first slice?