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Dear Members
This year seems to be going from strength to strength. The weekend
at Pokolbin was a great success when 17 members were warmly welcomed
to Catersfield by our hosts Rosemary Cater-Smith and Alec Cater. Robert
Gibson gave two excellent lectures which stimulated much discussion,
and our gala dinner became a tour de force when a six o'clock thunderstorm
caused a five-hour blackout and we dined by candle-light and marvelled
at the skill of the caterers who produced a delicious, multi course
meal despite enormous difficulty. I do thank those members who wrote
letters of thanks and appreciation - and yes, we will try to arrange
another weekend next year. Our heartfelt thanks go to Rosemary and
Alec who ensured that everything went smoothly.
In March we opened our own Internet homepage and our thanks go to
many people. First to Dennis Mather who suggested the idea to me.
Then to Terence Watson and Roger Cruickshank who formed a small sub-committee
to carry the task forward with the help of Dennis, John Studdert,
and Marc Greyling. Barbara Brady has now joined them to provide liaison
with the Newsletter. Marc has done a huge amount of work in launching
our page and has offered to undertake responsibility for maintaining
it on a voluntary basis. We greatly appreciate Marc's enthusiasm,
expertise and generosity. You will find our page on http://www.wagner-nsw.org.au.
It is now up to us all to contribute views and information to demonstrate
our awareness, interest and involvement in Wagnerian events both here
and overseas.
As our page was launched we were overwhelmed by an offer from Betty
and Reg Maloney to meet the costs associated with its development,
an offer we accepted with great pleasure. It is indeed fitting that
two of our Foundation Members should
be the ones to lead us into the future and we do thank them both.
I regret that I was not at the Annual Lunch this year. but I know
Clare Hennessy made everyone very welcome. As you were enjoying your
meal I was drinking a toast to the Master in Prague on my roundabout
way to the San Francisco Ring with some fellow Wagnerians.
This month sees the two SSO Siegfried concerts and we are
proud to sponsor Danny Sumegi in the role of Fafner. The response
to the concerts has been excellent and we reserved over 100 tickets
with Wagner lovers coming from New Zealand, Melbourne and Adelaide.
The first Australasian Seminar on Saturday 26th June at the Goethe
Institut, prior to the Siegfried performance, will be very well attended.
Speakers will be Professor Heath Lees from New Zealand and Robert
Gibson from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Bookings are essential,
as we shall be serving a light lunch, so please ring Barry Walters
on (02) 9387 6642 for information.
Finally two of our members have been ill recently: Betty Maloney
and Elizabeth Jones, and we do wish them both a speedy recovery.
BARBARA McNULTY
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13-Sep-2004
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