Wagner at Teatro San Carlo

The Flying Dutchman at Teatro San Carlo, Naples, IT
(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151027297492342&set=a.316402232341.151803.269288422341&type=1&theater)
no copyright infringement intended

2013 will be Richard Wagner Year. Teatro San Carlo will have The Flying Dutchman, with the scenography signed by Valerio Adami.

The music of Wagner in the settings of Adami: an Italian artist influenced by Pop Art, who started as an Expressionist, to come later to a style reminiscent of French cloisonnism, featuring regions of flat color bordered by black lines. Jacques Derrida devoted a long essay to Adami's work, discussing the function of the letter and the proper name in painting, with reference to narration, technical reproduction, ideology, the phoneme, the biographeme, and politics (wiki).

The Art of Valerio Adami
(Music by Thomas Newman)
(video by Distant Mirrors)

(It's Time for Wagner)

Liebestod from Wagner to Liszt

(http://scriabin.com/etude/1910/04/some-familiar-teaching-pieces-by-franz-liszt.html)
no copyright infringement intended

The picture above shows Franz Liszt in the home of his son-in-law, Richard Wagner. Cosima Wagner, Liszt’s daughter, sits at the left of the picture with her arm around her son, Siegfried Wagner. On the wall hangs a portrait of King Ludwig, the fanatical Royal Patron of Wagner. It is said that Wagner frequently took his compositions to his greatest friend, Liszt, in order to hear how they sounded, since the great operatic composer played very indifferently.

(http://scriabin.com/etude/1910/04/some-familiar-teaching-pieces-by-franz-liszt.html)

Liszt: Liebestod
Jorge Luis Prats at the Miami International Piano Festival
(video by vaimusic)

(It's Time for Wagner)

(Liszt)

Liebestod again: Kirsten Flagstad and Wilhelm Furtwängler

Portrait of Mathilde Wesendonck, 1850
Author: Karl Ferdinand Sohn
StadtMuseum Bonn
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mathilde1850.jpg)
no copyright infringement intended

Mathilde Wesendonck was the muse of Wagner while he created Tristan and Isolde. She was the wife of a silk merchant, a great admirer of Wagnerian music. The husband had invited the composer at his estate. Wagner (who was also married,  with his first wife) became infatuated with Mathilde. It is not known whether she returned his affections to the same degree, or if the affair - if there was one - was ever consummated. She was a poet, and Wagner would set five songs to her verses (the Wesendonck Lieder).

(wiki)

Wagner: Liebestod Aria, from Tristan and Isolde
Kirsten Flagstad
Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor
(video by violinthief)

Mild und leise
wie er lächelt,
wie das Auge
hold er öffnet
--seht ihr's, Freunde?
Seht ihr's nicht?
Immer lichter
wie er leuchtet,
stern-umstrahlt
hoch sich hebt?
Seht ihr's nicht?

and ends

ertrinken,
versinken, -
unbewusst, -
höchste Lust!

Softly and gently
how he smiles,
how his eyes
fondly open
--do you see, friends?
do you not see?
how he shines
ever brighter.
Star-haloed
rising higher
Do you not see?

to drown,
to founder -
unconscious -
utmost joy!

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebestod)

(It's Time for Wagner)

Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde

(http://themillstone.blogspot.com/2009/02/tristan-and-isolde.html)
no copyright infringement intended

Herbert von Karajan, Berliner Philharmoniker
(video by DjangoMan1963)

You either love it or hate it, indifference is impossible.

(http://themillstone.blogspot.com/2009/02/tristan-and-isolde.html)

(It's Time for Wagner)

The Rheinmaidens of Wagner: Diana Damrau as Woglinde

H.A.Guerber (?) - Illustration of the Rhinemaidens
1905
no copyright infringement intended
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wagnersmaidens.jpg)

The Rhinemaidens (die Rheintöchter): three water-nymphs (Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Flosshilde) from Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung).


Of the 34 characters in the Ring cycle, the three Rhinemaidens are the only ones who did not originate in the Old Norse Eddas. Wagner created his Rhinemaidens from other legends and myths, most notably the Nibelungenlied which contains stories involving nixies or mermaids. The key concepts associated with the Rhinemaidens in the Ring opera cycle—their flawed guardianship of the Rhine gold, and the condition (the renunciation of love) through which the gold could be stolen from them and then transformed into a means of obtaining world power—are wholly Wagner's own invention, and are the elements that initiate and propel the entire drama.

(wiki)

Das Rheingold: Diana Damrau as Woglinde
(video by Lilith89ibz)

Diana Damrau was a student of Romanian soprano Carmen Hanganu.

(It's Time for Wagner)

It's Time for Wagner: Brünnhilde's Awakening (Heil dir Sonne)

no copyright infringement intended
(http://bostonartsdiary.com/wordpress/2011/11/siegfried/)

At length Siegfried went softly to Brunhilde’s side.
He stood and looked upon her sweet, heroic face, and love came into his heart.
Bending low, he tenderly kissed her.
Brunhilde slowly opened her eyes.
She looked up at the blue sky and the smiling sun, and cried:–
All hail to thee, thou glorious sun in heaven!
The flowers slowly opened their petals, the birds began to sing.
Brunhilde’s horse awoke and neighed his glad call.
Brunhilde looked upon Siegfried.
Slowly her memory returned.
As she remembered Wotan’s words: Only he who knows no fear may claim you for his bride, she knew at last her hero had come.
She looked into Siegfried’s strong, brave face, and as he told her of his love, she no longer wished to go back to Valhalla.
She knew that she loved Siegfried with all her heart, and she promised to be his bride.
She told him that she would always be happy when she was by his side.

(http://www.authorama.com/opera-stories-from-wagner-51.html)

Gwyneth Jones and Manfred Jung, Bayreuth, 1980
(video by palalmeida)

I found on an online forum dedicated to music (http://forum.fanclub.ro/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=17965&start=60) a discussion about Brünnhilde's Awakening:

Wagner described Brünnhilde's Awakening with just two notes and I found them to be the most moving combination ever written. Neither virtuosity nor complexity there. It's simply genius that came down from heaven ...

(AlexN)

In fact the two notes are two chords. The second chord is accompanied by a rising sequence played by harp. Then you should consider the dynamics of the two chords (the first is in decrescendo, the second in a slight crescendo, plus fine shading issues). Add to this the orchestration.

(ghionoiul)

(It's Time for Wagner)

It's Time for Wagner

André Gill, Caricature of Richard Wagner
(suggesting that his music was ear-splitting)
Hand-colored Engraving
Cover of L'Eclipse magazine, 1869 April 18
source: http://greatcaricatures.com/articles_galleries/gill/galleries/html/1869_0418_wagner.html
no copyright infringement intended
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gill_Wagner.jpg)

• Der Fliegende Holländer
• Wagner at Teatro San Carlo
• Walkürenritt
• Brünnhilde's Awakening (Heil dir Sonne)
• The Rhinemaidens of Wagner: Diana Damrau as Woglinde
• Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde
• Liebestod again: Kirsten Flagstad and Wilhelm Furtwängler
• Liebestod from Wagner to Liszt 

(Old Masters)

It's Time for Wagner - Walkürenritt

(video by potassiumchlorate)

The Ride of the Valkyries - layers upon layers of orchestral work in preparation of revealing the mountain peak where four Valkyrie sisters of Brünnhilde (Brynhildr in the old Norse tongue) came to carry the fallen heroes to Walhalla. It's Wagner. Enjoy!

(It's Time for Wagner)

It's Time for Wagner: Der Fliegende Holländer

It was 1843 and Richard Wagner was conducting at Dresden's Semperoper the premiere of his Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman). There have been famous recordings during the years, starting with the one made in 1936 at the same Semperoper. A recording from 1944 (at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich) keeps the voice of Viorica Ursuleac, a great Romanian soprano; her husband, Clemens Krauss, was conducting (speaking about Viorica Ursuleac, she was Richard Strauss's favorite soprano, and he called her die treueste aller Treuen - the most faithful of all the faithful - and she truly remained faithful all her life to his operas).


Here is another famous recording of The Flying Dutchman: the Overture, played byLondon's New Philharmonia Orchestra with Otto Klemperer conducting. Just enjoy!

Der fliegende Holländer Ouverture: Part 1/2
(video by Barbebleuei)

Der fliegende Holländer Ouverture: Part 2/2
(video by Barbebleuei)

(It's Time for Wagner)