Bayreuth Interview

[Dr. B This interview is from the online version of Das Opernglas for July. I've done the best I can with the translation. These two women are now the head of the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. I have left the title Frau since it does not really mean Mrs. A Frau is a grown up woman, a Fraeulein a young one.]

IN FOCUS
EVA WAGNER-PASQUIER &
KATHARINA WAGNER

How does the new double head on the green hill function? Ralf Tiedemann visited the festival chiefs Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Katharina Wagner immediately after the signing of the agreement in May 2009 in their new offices. Selected bits from the discussion.

RT: To you both first of all congratulations on the assumption of the leadership of the Bayreuth festivals. The contracts were signed at the beginning of May, approximately eight months after you were officially designated as successors of your father. What was the reason in the end that it took so long?

KW: The large time interval is relatively easy to explain. Contract stories of this kind last always somewhat longer. In our specific case one must also consider that we have instead of as before one, now we have four partners. That is a new legal construction, with which all must be in agreement.

RT: Frau Wagner-Pasquier, since October 2007 you have radically opposed a double head with your half sister. In April 2008 it looked completely different. What has moved you to this to some extent spectacular 180-degree turn around?

EWP: The fact that I did not want to co-operate with Katharina appeared in the press. However, I cannot remember that I ever said that publicly in such a way. Through various circumstances, which developed in the past years, we were given the first chance to become acquainted with each other, leading to the development of this new constellation. That has to do with a great many private things, which do not turn on public events. There one quickly interprets somewhat wrong. We stated in the first months of our co-operation that we both are on a very good common path. That is the most important thing, and what one also expects from us.

RT: You have formulated a high requirement in your common concept: Until 2013 Bayreuth should be again the center of the Wagner attention. That will succeed only with a purposeful strategy in the quality assurance and - improvement of the two artistic main components - music and scene -. We begin with the musical one: Where do you see, Frau Wagner, specific needs for action within this area?

KW: As in every other opera house, as with us, many artists are already committed for the coming years. However, we see a need for improvement. Everything was not wrong that was made here, but there was certainly also some unfavorable things. We discuss at present, whom we want to engage in the future. Also with the conductors we want to achieve larger variety, so that we can experience a broad pallet interpretative meaning. But that is not under any circumstances a negative valuation of the conductors who have worked here!

I think, in musical regard one will notice the improvements relatively soon. Of the already contracted stage directors, there is no one that one would have to be ashamed of. Right now, while we speak, Hans Neuenfels is rehearsing below, and I can promise you that ”Lohengrin“ will be very exciting. Also Sebastian Baumgarten, who stages “Tannhäuser” in the following year, I am very excited about, because his work is always very much differentiated.

RT: You, Frau Wagner-Pasquier, are considered a proven judge of voices [Stimmenkennerin]. How do you estimate the current situation in the Wagner singing?

EWP: I must say completely honestly that I do not see so much difference between today and the time, when Wolfgang Windgassen or Astrid Varnay sang. Nowadays there are just as few Siegfrieds or Brünnhildes, as there were always few. On the other side today far more young singers have the chance to develop better - supports by many world-wide advancement programs. And we as organizers will find it far simpler to be attentive to talent, than thirty, forty years ago was the case. From here it I do not see larger doubts for the next years.

RT: Does Bayreuth need stars?

EWP: Who in former times was a star? Wagner careers run usually differently. Forest stage appearances [Waldbühnen-Auftritte] and promotional tours do not usually go together. One does not go to a ”Ring“ because a certain star sings.

RT: Suppose the Siegmund is called Plácido Domingo…

EWP: Right. But that is an exception. Also a Waltraud Meier has surely her own fan club, which travels particularly for her appearances - including the husband of our chancellor. But in Bayreuth no more tickets were asked for when Domingo sang Parsifal here. On the other hand naturally also the Wagnerian looks up the stagings world-wide and notices if good, interesting singers are engaged.

RT: What does a production have to achieve in order to bring progress to Bayreuth?

KW: A production must be reference the piece and may not be popular. Otherwise in Bayreuth in principle the artistic freedom must also be protected. With the “Ring” the production question in the meantime has become very difficult, because interpretively already so insanely much has been made. The challenge does not become smaller for us by “the Wagner year” 2013. We are clear about the fact that Bayreuth must set an indication there and contribute something historical [?]. We have this requirement. We are in our considerations in addition, already a step further, and I hope that we will in the positive sense come to a surprising solution.

EWP: After world-wide everywhere so many good stagings have been produced, we have a rather far way in Bayreuth perhaps in some things. I won’t name any names. On the other side in the past productions here were criticized in a way which was not at all justified. Look at the excitement around the “Ring” in 1976. At that time also nobody knew Patrice Chéreau.EWP: After world-wide everywhere so many good stagings have been produced, we have a rather far way in Bayreuth perhaps in some things. I won’t name any names. On the other side in the past productions here were criticized in a way which was not at all justified. Look at the excitement around the “Ring” in 1976. At that time also nobody knew Patrice Chéreau.

[Opera Chic has pictures of these ladies here.]

And...

I always like it when two of my obsessions appear together: Jonas Kaufmann and Dmitri Hvorostovsky do the duet from Pearl Fishers. When was it ever this gorgeous?

Almost Like Being There

"Gralserzählung" Jonas Kaufmann as Lohengrin in Munich projected on a screen in front of the opera house.

Music, Emotion and the Brain

I think we are still in the infancy phase of understanding the brain and how it functions in relationship to music. In some respects it is simply a matter of correctly conceiving the problem. Is music the child of language, or is music the precursor? It will be a while before this is understood. Might it be more fruitful to explore "which came first: the music or the musical brain."

Scientific American Mind has an interesting article in the July/August issue called "Why Music Moves Us" by Karen Schrock. The article is full of speculation about the connection between emotion and music without any real conclusion. But what is interesting is the studies that point to remarkable consistency across cultures when it comes to which qualities of music connect to which emotions.

Some sentences of interest:

"In the late 1990s neuroscientist Isabelle Peretz and her colleagues at the University of Montreal found that Western listeners universally agreed on whether a song using Western tonal elements is happy, sad, scary or peaceful."

"This past April neuroscientist Tom Fritz [...] exposed members of the Mafa ethnic group in Cameroon who had never heard Western music to excerpts of classical piano music. The researchers found that the adults who listened to the excerpts consistently identified them as happy, sad or scary just as Western listeners would."

Similar results were found with autistic children. Infants are more interested in music than in speech. Could it be that music describes to us, abstracts for us the physical characteristics our bodies feel during these emotions?

I've always been of the opinion that music is the beginning of abstraction.

Liliana Nikiteanu

In videos and on visits to Zurich I have heard the very fine mezzo soprano Liliana Nikiteanu. Here she is in Figaro. She has the fortune / misfortune to work in the same house as Cecilia. It would be nice to see her step out of Bartoli's shadow.

Artist Fund

The San Francisco Opera has a great singers fund. I will donate $1000 to this fund if you bring Jonas Kaufmann here. Not Carmen. I've seen that. Meistersinger would be fun.

Met Player

I have begun to look into the Met Player, found on the Metropolitan Opera web site. I realize that this puts me way behind the curve.

It's cheaper than buying a lot of DVDs and cheaper than attending the HD broadcasts which generally run about $20.00. For 1 week it is free, so you need to plan ahead to watch a lot of stuff. After that it's $4 to $5 a pop. You would launch these and watch them on your computer.

I have been told that it is possible to download from this site. Then you could watch them over and over, making this a real bargain.  You will need to have sufficient bandwidth.

The currently available repertoire is 68 operas. (I am ignoring the audio.) The choices are mainstream so far, and include all the HD broadcasts to date, including the ones I missed the first time they played. I don't notice Elīna Garanča's Cenerentola. They are showing the Bartoli version instead.

Eugene Onegin, Fidelio, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, I Puritani and Francesca da Rimini I own on DVD. I like all five of them and love Fidelio, Onegin and Francesca da Rimini.

I'm pretty sure without conducting extensive research that I also have 18 more of these performances on VHS. Or maybe more. I have Aidas by both Price and Millo. I have Susannas with both Battle and Bartoli. I have The Ring cycle with James Morris and Tristan with Ben Heppner. I have some of Pavarotti's best work ever in Trovatore and Ernani. I have Freni's Fedora and Ramey's Don Giovanni. Don't miss Les Troyens with Domingo, Troyanos and Norman. These are all wonderful. They are selecting the cream.

Does that leave much of interest? Now that I no longer hate Simon Boccanegra I would be interested to see the Milnes version. In 1984 he would have been at his peak.

It is somewhat surprising to see 5 performances by Renata Scotto in this list, but only one Freni, I think. If I'm wrong then kick me. Perhaps Scotto is viewed more strongly in retrospect. Her performances are some of the oldest included here. She does both Mimi and Musetta as well as Francesca, Manon Lescaut and Louisa Miller. I suspect that Gelb likes her. I like her, too, but not more than Freni. I might like to see some of these.

I would love to see Tatiana Troyanos as Santuza and Pavarotti as Nemorino. I would certainly like to see Taymor's Magic Flute. Domingo's Queen of Spades might also be interesting.

To really arouse my imagination they will have to dig a little deeper into their catalog. I apologize for being a philistine and not being interested in the audio.

Misc

Gert linked to something rather amusing--fans of Katherine Jenkins purport to think that Joyce DeDonato's broken leg is a publicity stunt. We here in America are not required to worry about Katherine Jenkins.

On her website Joyce shows other people performing in wheel chairs in addition to herself.

In October Cecilia Bartoli will be releasing something named SACRIFICIUM. I have no idea what this might be. In the fall she is appearing in Spain with Il Giardino Armonico, the group she performed with on her Vivaldi recording. My son likes them quite a lot. I like them, too. They are far more idiosyncratic than the average original instruments group. For me idiosyncratic is good.

French Connection

I have been to Ohio to visit my son, and while driving around we listened to a little Pierre Boulez--someone I'm not that familiar with. It was fun to get home and watch the movie The French Connection (1971). The score is by Don Ellis (1934-1978) and bore a lot of resemblance to Boulez. This is the late period of modernism, soon to be swept away by minimalism. I was surprised to find that it actually sounded very old fashioned.

Music in airplanes

I brought along my iPod on a recent trip east and listened to a lot of music with the roar of the airplane in the background. I was shocked to hear grossly out of tune notes I had never heard before. Hmmm. Is this related to Glenn Gould's comment about practicing with the vacuum going?

We will not name names. Partly because we cannot remember what they were and don't have an airplane handy.