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A Letter from the President
Dear Members
Your committee
I’m pleased to advise that Michael Moore is our
new Treasurer, in succession to Elle Rasink, who resigned at our May
AGM. I know you will join me in welcoming Mr Moore to the committee
and in thanking him for making his time and experience available for
us. With Mary Haswell, whom we welcomed as our new Secretary in the
previous Newsletter, we now have a full committee.
Recent Society Events
On Saturday 22 May, Wagner’s birthday, we
held our AGM, followed by a recital by the four Sydney Conservatorium
opera students whom we sponsored in German language courses at the
Goethe Institut this year - Erin O’Connor, Emily Garth, Rebecca
Hilder and Jessica Pratt, accompanied by Sharolyn Kimmorley, the 2003
Bayreuth Scholar. This recital of German operatic music and lieder
was an outstanding success, and it gave members the opportunity to
hear the quality and depth of talent of these young students from
the Conservatorium, some of whom we hope will go on to become the
next generation of young stars of opera in Australia, and perhaps
internationally.
These singers and Sharolyn then joined us as our guests
at afternoon tea, and led us in singing "alles Gute zum Geburtstag"
to our birthday boy. The winners of our afternoon raffle were Leona
Geeves, who took the first prize of two premium tickets to a winter
season performance by Opera Australia (and chose Rosenkavalier), Alister
Wong who won two A-reserve tickets (and chose the Barber of Seville),
and Julian Block, who won a Ring Cycle CD set featuring John Wegner
as Wotan (kindly donated by Judy and Joseph Ferfoglia.)
I’m delighted to report that we will be making
further German language scholarships available to students from the
Conservatorium next year, and that we made a donation of $2,000 to
Jessica Pratt, who left in early July to take up a number of scholarships
in Israel and Italy from which she will return in March next year.
We look forward to hearing these scholarship students, and Jessica,
singing for us next year.
On Sunday 18 July, Dr Antony Ernst gave a talk
on Ring productions which is reviewed elsewhere in this Newsletter
[p. 5]. Our false starts in the printing of Antony’s book on
the Ring entitled "The Once and Future Ring" have continued,
with the launch which we had advertised not taking place. However,
the delays have now come to an end and the book should be appearing
soon – certainly in time for our September 19 meeting.
Forthcoming Events
Ring Cycle preparation package: 0n Sunday 19 September
and Sunday 17 October the Society will be offering members
a range of views on how to prepare for the Ring. In September, Jim
Leigh has kindly offered to present the film of the Making of the
[Solti] Ring Cycle and to offer advice, based on years of Bayreuth
attendance (among other Ring performances), on the best way to prepare
yourself for the artistic marathon. At the October function, Dr Dennis
Mather, Dr Terence Watson and I will be covering a variety of aspects
of the Ring, including the music (by Dennis Mather).
On Sunday 7 November , we will hold our last
function of the year, just two days before the first cycle of the
Neidhardt Ring starts in Adelaide. PLEASE NOTE – the date has
changed because a number of members have indicated that they will
be attending the Victorian Wagner Society’s seminar on 13-14
November and others will be setting off to drive to Adelaide
This last meeting is always a light-hearted affair,
and we will have a Members’ Market so that you can downsize your
Wagner CD collection or recycle those unwanted presents of Wagner
paraphernalia you have collected over the years - and know that everything
is going to good homes. [See p. 10 for more details] We will also
show a DVD entitled "Sing Faster! The Stagehand’s Ring Cycle",
which in 55 minutes tells the story of a production of the Ring solely
from the viewpoint of the San Francisco Opera's union stagehands.
Bayreuth
Ten members have obtained tickets to this year’s
Bayreuth Festival through our Society: Armand Bartos, Barbara de Rome,
Jennifer Ferns, Pauline Holgerson, Renate and Herman Junker, Naomi
Kaldor, Barbara McNulty, and Jeffrey Smart and Ermes de Zan. They
will be attending the third Ring cycle, which will end the era of
Jurgen Flimm’s Ring, although what will replace it 2006 is anyone’s
guess, as you will read in this Newsletter.
Bayreuth Costume
Nearly 2 years ago (in Issue 90 of this Newsletter,
December 2002) I reported that Mr Richard King, a former president
of the Society and an honorary life member, found something remarkable
when he was cleaning out his linen cupboard - a costume from Bayreuth!
Herr Reinhard Heinrich, who was costume designer for the 1998 bi-centenary
production of Meistersinger (the German government’s birthday
gift to Australia) brought with him a sailor's costume - trousers,
jacket and sailor's cap - from the 1978 Kupfer production of the Flying
Dutchman at Bayreuth, for which Hr Heinrich was also costume designer.
Colin Jones, who was at the time a member of our committee, took the
costume around auction houses to have it appraised, and continued
to show it to anyone was interested, without getting an enthusiastic
offers. A few months ago, the costume sold at auction for $60. As
Mr Jones commented ruefully after the hours of effort he had put into
selling the costume, had he known that it would go so cheaply, he
would have kept it and made a donation to the Society! Thank you Colin
for your hard work in trying to get us a better price for this item.
Members Abroad
Mr Paul Curran, a longstanding member of our Society, will direct
a season of Tannhauser for La Scala in February 2005. Some years ago
Mr Curran gave a talk at a seminar we held at the Art Gallery of New
South Wales, discussing opera production, particularly in St Petersberg
when he worked at the Mariinsky Theatre. We congratulate Mr Curran
on his appointment – the first time, as far as we know, any
member of our Society has directed a Wagner opera! La Padania announced
this with the words "… dai nomi importanti come Paul Curran
che curerà la regia del "Tannhauser" di Richard Wagner,
direttore Jeffrey Tate (interpreti Franz Josef Selig, Robert Gambill
e Adrianne Pieczonka a febbraio 2005)." An important name indeed.
Roger Cruickshank 24 July 2004
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