Date/Time
Saturday 18 Sep 2021
3:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Location
Queensland Multicultural Centre
In his stage works, Richard Wagner embraced Spring as the season of renewal, joy, and love. In Die Walküre, Sieglinde rhapsodically tells Siegmund that he is the Spring for whom she longed in the frosty wintertime. In Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Walther von Stolzing recounts how, by a quiet hearth in wintertime, he read how Spring once sweetly laughed and then awoke anew. After the ‘wintry’ postponement of the Brisbane Ring, I have no doubt that this great project will ‘awake anew’ and that we should prepare for it. To this end, our next meeting on Saturday 18 September will be devoted to highlights of the remarkable production at Valencia, Spain, staged originally in 2007-09. This work was, in some respects, a precursor of the Brisbane Ring, particularly in its use of digital imagery. Our screening at the Multicultural Centre this month will run from 3.00 pm to 4.40 pm.
In January 2020, we screened Götterdämmerung’s Prologue and Act I (up to ‘Hagen’s watch’) from the Valencia production and, on that occasion, our reviewers Geoff and Annette Fisher, wrote: “Carlus Padrissa and La Fura dels Baus’ 2007 realization of the Ring combines innovative use of technology, lighting, and acrobatics. Performed at Valencia’s Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, these operas greatly emphasized the visual aspect of Wagner’s stage directions. Audiences are treated to video creator Franc Aleu’s gorgeous mountain vistas, breathtaking sea and air views, and a stage-engulfing fire projected onto eight separate surfaces.”
On 18 September, we shall be able to view highlights from all 4 parts of the Ring from Valencia in this spectacular production conducted by Zubin Mehta and with celebrated singers including Franz-Josef Kapellmann, Juha Uusitalo, Anna Larsson, Christa Mayer, Jennifer Wilson, Peter Seiffert, Lance Ryan, Stephen Milling, and Matti Salminen. As one reporter noted: “Video feeds on giant monitors transport us from a God’s-eye view of the universe into the bloodstream and even the genome.” This is a screening not to be missed!
You are invited to register for the meeting by informing our Secretary Rosemary Cater-Smith at catersfield@hotmail.com or via the ‘Contact’ page of our website www.wagnerqld.com.au, and making a bank transfer to Bank of Queensland, BSB: 124021 Account Number: 22612919. Payments are $15 for members and $20 for guests. Please use your name and the date (eg Jones September) to identify your payment.
Peter Bassett, President