• Event type: Spoken Word
• Venue: Queen's College
• Time: 7.30pm

Keith Warner, director of the recent Ring at Covent Garden, delivers the Eva Turner Lecture under the auspices of the Wagner Society. The lecture,’Wagner in Practice’, will examine Wagner’s own instructions about performing his music dramas and their relevance today.

Queen’s College, 43–49 Harley St, London W1G 8BT

• Event type: Concert
• Venue: Royal Festival Hall
• Time: 7.30pm

Semi-staged performance in German with English surtitles

Philharmonia Orchestra
Andrew Davis conductor
David Edwards director
Susan Bullock soprano
James Rutherford bass

Mariya Krywaniuk       Gerhilde
Jennifer Johnston       Waltraute
Miriam Sharrad            Schwertleite
Katherine Broderick    Helmwige
Magdalen Ashman      Siegrune
Antonia Sotgiu              Grimgerde
Maria Jones                     Rossweisse
Elaine McKrill                  Ortlinde

Wagner Prelude, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Wagner Prelude and Liebestod, Tristan und Isolde
Wagner Die Walküre, Act III

Britain’s reigning Brünnhilde, Susan Bullock, stars with the leading Wagner bass James Rutherford and a talented cast of sister Valkyries in the complete Act III of Die Walküre, which contains some of Wagner’s most ravishing music. The celebratory Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the ecstatic Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde complete the programme.

This concert will be preceded by an afternoon of related activities on the Festival Hall terrace and in the Ballroom, including pop-up Valkyries, balcony fanfares and a performance of Vitali Bujanowski’s arrangement of Ring highlights for 16 horns. There will also be a performance of the Siegfried Idyll and an exhibition of illustrations from Barry Millington’s new book Richard Wagner: the Sorcerer of Bayreuth in the foyer.

• Event type: Concert
• Venue: St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden
• Time: 7.30pm

Elisabeth Meister soprano

Matthew Hargreaves bass-baritone

Nigel Foster piano

Recital to include the complete songs of Wagner: the 7 Compositions for Goethe’s Faust, the Parisian songs and the Wesendonck Lieder, plus some rare items.

• Event type: Film
• Venue: Barbican Centre
• Time: tbc

A screening of the landmark production of Wagner’s Ring directed by Patrice Chéreau for the centenary of the Bayreuth Festival in 1976. This production, a classic in the history of Wagner stagings, was hugely influential both in its political interpretation of the tetralogy and in its theatrical vibrancy. Patrice Chéreau will be present to discuss his work with Patrick Carnegy, author of Wagner and the Art of the Theatre.

• Event type: Film
• Venue: Barbican Centre

A screening of the landmark production of Wagner’s Ring directed by Patrice Chéreau for the centenary of the Bayreuth Festival in 1976. This production, a classic in the history of Wagner stagings, was hugely influential both in its political interpretation of the tetralogy and in its theatrical vibrancy. The screening of Die Walküre will be prefaced by a short introduction by Barry Millington.

• Event type: Film
• Venue: Barbican Centre

A screening of the landmark production of Wagner’s Ring directed by Patrice Chéreau for the centenary of the Bayreuth Festival in 1976. This production, a classic in the history of Wagner stagings, was hugely influential both in its political interpretation of the tetralogy and in its theatrical vibrancy. The screening of Siegfried will be prefaced by a short introduction by Barry Millington.

• Event type: Film
• Venue: Barbican Centre

A screening of the landmark production of Wagner’s Ring directed by Patrice Chéreau for the centenary of the Bayreuth Festival in 1976. This production, a classic in the history of Wagner stagings, was hugely influential both in its political interpretation of the tetralogy and in its theatrical vibrancy. Gwyneth Jones, who starred as Brünnhilde, will be present to share her memories of the production with Patrick Carnegy.

• Event type: Masterclass
• Venue: Royal Opera House
• Time: 7.30pm

Acclaimed as one of the greatest Wagner sopranos of the second half of the 20th century, Gwyneth Jones appeared at nearly every Bayreuth Festival between 1966 and 1982 and took a wide range of roles in all the leading opera houses of the world. She draws on a wealth of experience and a rich fund of anecdote, as can be seen in both her masterclass and in the discussion with Humphrey Burton that follows.

• Event type: Symposium
• Venue: British Library
• Time: 10.30am–5pm

Wagner’s writings range widely over subjects as various as race, climate, vegetarianism, aesthetics and modern science. Above all he was formulating ideas that would take dramatic shape in his operas. Distinguished authorities speak about Wagner’s immense literary output with opportunities for discussion and debate.

Promoted by the British Library to coincide with the digitisation of its Wagner holdings. In association with The Wagner Journal.

• Event type: Spoken Word
• Venue: British Library
• Time: 11am – 6pm

A reading of the entire Ring cycle, in English, featuring John Tomlinson and a company of young actors from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, directed by William Relton. This reading provides a rare opportunity both to experience the richness and subtlety of Wagner’s writing and to thrill to the drama of the text as poetry.

• Event type: Concert
• Venue: Kings Place
• Time: 7.30pm

Janice Watson soprano
Joseph Middleton piano

A recital by one of Britain’s leading dramatic sopranos to include Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder and some of his less frequently performed songs, as well as examples by his friend and father-in-law Franz Liszt. The songs Wagner wrote in Paris for celebrated singers include the Adieux de Marie Stuart with its striking grand operatic gestures, while the better-known Wesendonck Lieder, written to poems by his muse and lover, Mathilde Wesendonck, are more intimate in nature. Liszt’s songs include some of the most beautiful in the lieder repertoire.

Hall 1

• Event type: Concert
• Venue: Kings Place
• Time: 7.30pm

A recital by the outstanding Welsh pianist featuring Wagner rarities plus dazzling transcriptions of Wagner by Liszt including Isolde’s Liebestod. Many of Wagner’s piano pieces, of which the sonata for ‘M.W.’ (Mathilde Wesendonck) is the most substantial, were written as dedicatory ‘album leaves’ for friends and admirers.

Wagner

Fantasia in F sharp minor
Sonate für das Album von Frau M.W.
Albumblatt in E major (for Ernst Benedikt Kietz, ‘Song Without Words’)
Albumblatt in E flat major (for Frau Betty Schott)
Ankunft bei den schwarzen Schwänen

Wagner
arr. Liszt Fantasy on Themes from Rienzi
Spinning Chorus (Der fliegende Holländer)
Entry of the Guests and ‘O du mein holder Abendstern’ (Tannhäuser)
Elsa’s Dream (Lohengrin)
Isolde’s Liebestod (Tristan)

Llŷr Williams piano

Hall 1

• Event type: Concert
• Venue: Kings Place
• Time: 8pm

Harriet Walter speaker

Henry Goodman speaker

Nicholas Collon conductor

Hall 1

A dramatised re-creation of the events surrounding the first performance of Wagner’s birthday present to his wife Cosima, the Siegfried Idyll, together with performances of the Idyll and the Beethoven Septet (also played on that day at Haus Tribschen).

• Event type: Film
• Venue: Kings Place
• Time: 6pm

Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s acclaimed production for Glyndebourne, conducted by Jirí Belohlávek and starring Robert Gambill (Tristan), Nina Stemme (Isolde), Katarina Karnéus (Brangäne), Bo Skovhus (Kurwenal) and René Pape (King Mark). Lehnhoff’s production was described by one critic as ‘gravely beautiful, haunting’ and by the Daily Telegraph as follows: ‘I don’t think that I have ever witnessed a more perfect realisation of a Wagner opera than this superb Tristan und Isolde.’

Hall 2

Generously supported by Opus Arte, this screening should appeal to those who want to sample the Wagnerian experience as well as more experienced operagoers.

• Event type: Symposium
• Venue: Kings Place
• Time: 10am–1pm

The first of three symposia in Hall 1 featuring an international roster of Wagner experts examining aspects of the performance of his music under the headings Singing, Conducting and Stage Production. Each symposium will consist of three presentations (six for Stage Production) followed by a round table.

Vocal Style in Wagner from the Golden Age to the Present
What can be learned about Wagner singing from the great artists of the past? Why is it so difficult to cast Wagner operas today? What can be done to rectify the matter?

Speakers: David Breckbill, Neil Howlett, tbc
Chair: John McMurray

• Event type: Symposium
• Venue: Kings Place
• Time: 2–5 pm

The second of three symposia in Hall 1 featuring an international roster of Wagner experts examining aspects of the performance of his music under the headings Singing, Conducting and Stage Production. Each symposium will consist of three presentations (six for Stage Production) followed by a round table.

Conducting Wagner  
Throughout history, lithe, fluid and gestural styles of conducting Wagner (Bülow, Böhm, Pappano) have contrasted with more monumental approaches (Knappertsbusch, Goodall, Levine). Which is more faithful to Wagner’s intentions? How is Wagner conducting likely to evolve in the decades to come?

Speakers: Roger Allen, David Breckbill, Raymond Holden

Chair: Peter Franklin

• Event type: Film
• Venue: Kings Place
• Time: 6pm

Katharina Wagner’s controversial production for the Bayreuth Festival, conducted by Sebastian Weigle and starring Franz Hawlata (Hans Sachs), Klaus Florian Vogt (Walther), Michaela Kaune (Eva) and Michael Volle (Beckmesser). This enthralling production grapples courageously with the dubious legacy of Meistersinger, forcing us to rethink our ideas about the work.

Hall 2

Generously supported by Opus Arte, this screening should appeal to those who want to sample the Wagnerian experience as well as more experienced operagoers.

• Event type: Symposium
• Venue: Kings Place
• Time: Hall 1, 10am–5pm

The last of three symposia in Hall 1 featuring an international roster of Wagner experts examining aspects of the performance of his music under the headings Singing, Conducting and Stage Production. Each symposium will consist of three presentations (six for Stage Production) followed by a round table.

The Challenge of Director’s Opera
Opera production in the modern age has come to be dominated by ‘director’s opera’ or Regietheater. Does contemporary stagecraft represent a travesty or a triumphant fulfilment of the Gesamtkunstwerk? Will traditional stagings ever return? Or is director’s opera here to stay?

Speakers: Paula Bortnichak, Ingrid Kapsamer, Hugo Shirley, Tash Siddiqui, Katherine Syer, Simon Williams
Chairs: Patrick Carnegy, Peter Franklin

• Event type: Spoken Word
• Venue: Goethe Institute
• Time: 7.30pm

Lecture by Professor Tim Blanning, Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, on ‘Wagner and German Nationalism’.

‘I am the most German being, I am the German spirit’, wrote Wagner in The Brown Book. Many commentators, especially after 1933, have taken him at face value. This lecture will seek to show that in fact his relationship with German nationalism was a great deal more problematic and that even such apparently nationalist passages as Hans Sachs’s final address in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg have been misunderstood.

Goethe Institute, 50 Prince’s Gate, Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2PH

• Event type: Spoken Word
• Venue: Goethe Institute
• Time: 7.30pm

Lecture by Mike Ashman, opera director and music historian, on ‘Wagner and Modern Productions’.

To put his new music dramas onstage, Wagner needed to invent a role in the theatre that hardly existed at the time – the opera director. In so doing, he helped return opera to being real theatre. His successors have taken up the challenge. New Wagner productions by directors such as Wieland Wagner, Patrice Chéreau, Ruth Berghaus, David Alden, Richard Jones and Keith Warner continue to lead the way in theatrical innovation.

Goethe Institute, 50 Prince’s Gate, Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2PH

• Event type: Symposium
• Venue: London Jewish Cultural Centre
• Time: 2pm

No aspect of Wagner generates more heat than his anti-Semitism. This discussion will attempt to throw light  too, debating Wagner’s anti-Semitism in relation to his works and his place in history. Speakers: Mark Berry, Cori Ellison, Erik Levi and Barry Millington. Chair: Trudy Gold.

LJCC, Ivy House, 94–96 North End Rd, London, NW11 7SX

• Event type: Spoken Word
• Venue: Goethe Institute
• Time: 7.30pm

John Deathridge, Emeritus Professor of Music, King’s College London, on ‘Does Wagner Still Matter?’

Early in the 20th century Wagner was a powerful voice in Western culture, but today he is compromised by a fraught legacy. In this lecture, John Deathridge rejects the inchoate image of the ‘failed’ humanist and suggests we go back to the drawing board with some basic questions about sources, reluctant scholarship, radical philosophy and a fundamental overhaul in the way we see Wagner.

Goethe Institute, 50 Prince’s Gate, Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2PH

• Event type: Masterclass
• Venue: Royal Opera House
• Time: 7.30pm

A legend in his own lifetime, John Tomlinson has been striding the world’s stages as Wotan, Hunding, Hagen, Gurnemanz, Hans Sachs, as well as other roles, for most of his distinguished career, appearing at the Bayreuth Festival for eighteen consecutive seasons from 1988. After the masterclass he will talk about singing Wagner.

• Event type: Concert
• Venue: Barbican Centre
• Time: 7.30pm

Concert performance of Act II of Tristan und Isolde with the London Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding. Soloists include Katarina Dalayman, Peter Seiffert and Christianne Stotijn.

• Event type: Symposium
• Venue: London Jewish Cultural Centre
• Time: 7.30pm

In spite of his barely concealed anti-Semitism, Wagner was surrounded by a coterie of Jewish followers. This event includes a screening of Hilan Warshaw’s new film Wagner’s Jews, which investigates the phenomenon, following which a panel discussion will examine the wider issues of Wagner’s reception by Jews throughout history and today.

LJCC, Ivy House, 94–96 North End Rd, London, NW11 7SX

• Event type: Concert
• Venue: Barbican Centre
• Time: 7.30pm

A Wagner concert by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner with Christine Brewer (soprano). Programme to include Wesendonck Lieder, Prelude to Tristan und Isolde and the Faust Overture.

• Event type: Concert
• Venue: Royal Albert Hall

Details to be announced

• Event type: Film
• Venue: Barbican Centre
• Time: tbc

Many of Wagner’s closest associates were Jews – young musicians who became personally devoted to the composer, and provided indispensable help to his work and career. They included Hermann Levi, a rabbi’s son who conducted the premiere of Wagner’s Parsifal; Angelo Neumann, who produced Wagner’s works throughout Europe; and Joseph Rubinstein, a pianist who lived with the Wagner family for years and committed suicide when Wagner died. Hilan Warshaw’s new film explores these relationships in detail for the first time, but also examines the ongoing debate over the performance of Wagner in Israel. This contemporary debate provides a thought-provoking modern framework for the historical drama at the core of the film. In a different form, the questions dividing Wagner’s own Jewish acquaintances still resonate today: is it possible to separate artworks from the hatreds of their creator? Can art transcend prejudice and bigotry, and the weight of history?

The film includes contributions from (among others):

Yossi Beilin, Israeli politician and negotiator of the Oslo peace accords
Leon Botstein, President of Bard College; Conductor Laureate of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra
John Louis DiGaetani, Wagner scholar
Asher Fisch, Israeli conductor
Robert Gutman, Musicologist and Wagner biographer
Uri Hanoch, Deputy Chairman, Central Organization of Holocaust Survivors in Israel
Jonathan Livny, President, Israel Wagner Society
Zubin Mehta, Music Director, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Dina Porat, Chief Historian, Yad Vashem; Chair, Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, Tel Aviv University
Paul Lawrence Rose, Professor of Jewish Studies, Penn State University
Jan Swafford, Brahms biographer

• Event type: Opera
• Venue: Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera’s main contribution to the Wagner bicentenary is a new production of Parsifal by Stephen Langridge, conducted by Antonio Pappano.

Details of auxiliary events will be publicised in due course.