The Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media has signed a cheque for a the new Richard Wagner Academy at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele.
Jan Vogler’s festival has become the space-lab for trying out Wagner operas in ‘historically informed’ performance.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7-yvosng5A
HIP Wagner? No thanks. Presumably they need the lower tuning to assist the plethora of singers who simply can no longer sing Wagner.
Indeed, who are the great Wagnerians of today? Or tomorrow?
If you are telling me that the likes of Davidsen (her reasonable technique duly acknowledged) can hold a candle to the likes of Flagstad, Dame Gwyneth Jones, Birgit Nilsson, etc., then you need your ears tested.
I think we performed at 435Hz so a barely noticeable pitch drop, I might be wrong though.
The orchestral colour is actually radically changed. It’s pretty difficult to balance the woodwinds as they seemed to get a bit ‘lost’ in the string texture. The original brass instruments sound amazing.
So far it’s been enthusiastically received. I think there is space in the Wagner market for HI performances of his works.
Simon Bailey wrote, “I think there is space in the Wagner market for HI performances of his works”. Judging by the trailer on YouTube, I entirely agree. The orchestral sonorities are gorgeous, the HIPP pronunciation (of word endings, for example) is fascinating, the singing and acting are lovely and Nagano is a wonderful conductor.
I’m only sorry that I’ve missed the first half of this Ring but am really looking forward to attending Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. Are there any plans to perform complete cycles in 2026 or 2027?
Siegfried next summer but beyond that unfortunately I don’t know.
Historically informed Wagner would put the pitch at A=440hz and above. Backsides are made for sitting on not speaking from.
It is worth noting that we already have a remarkably extensive idea what true HIP Wagner would have actually sounded like thanks to musicians like Karl Muck (born in 1859) and Lilli Lehmann (born in 1849, when Wagner was 36 years old and was still writing things like Das Liebesverbot!). Both kept earlier traditions going well into the early recorded era.
Many other slightly later Wagner specialists followed. Toscanini was born in 1867 (Wagner was 54). Such was his immense authority in the Wagnerian tradition that he was the Wagner family’s conductor of choice before he began boycotting Bayreuth around 1930 or so. Logically speaking, one could not possibly get much more historically informed than that.
Dresden already misses Thielemann. We all love him
Roth’s orchestra pictured??
As long as it’s not his baton…
If a HIP Wagner results in a lighter and more transparant Klangbild, that would be much interesting.
Gatti is quite a good Wagnerian in fact.
I hope they also do HIP(roductions), i.e, anti-Regietheater.
I don’t mind historically informed productions, but how do you think they could effectively stage things like Alberich turning into a snake and a toad? It’s actually very difficult
‘historically informed’ performance… I hope that means Valkyries with horned helmets flying in on wires and giant mechanical dragons.
I quote Tchaikovsky:
“You will have undoubtedly heard his famous “Wallkührenritt”? What a grandiose and marvellous scene! So just picture for yourself these wild giants flying with thunder-clap through the clouds on their magical steeds. In the concert-hall this piece always makes a powerful impression. But in the theatre, with its cardboard cliffs and clouds of cloth, and then the soldiers galloping awkwardly across the back of the stage and finally with its paltry little theatrical sky attempting to recreate for us the vast reaches beyond the clouds, the music loses its scenic quality. Consequently, the theatre does not intensify one’s impressions here but acts like a glass of cold water.”
https://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/Letter_661