WAGNER & HEAVY METAL
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    • Donnerwetter!
    • From Metal to Wagner
    • From Rush to Lohengrin
    • Franz Liszt - The First Rock Star
    • The Wagner - Strauss connection
    • The day of Wagner & Heavy Metal
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  • Latest
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2014
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2017 - Meistersinger
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2017 - Der Ring
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Parsifal 2018
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Parsifal 2023
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Tannhäuser 2023
  • One Ring to rule them all
    • Wagner & Tolkien: Ring to Ring
    • Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang 1924)
  • Metal Section
  • Nederlands
    • De kluis (recensies)
    • Trip naar Bayreuth (2014)
    • De tovenaar van Bayreuth (2014)
    • Bayreuther Meistersinger (2017)
    • Bayreuther Ring (2017)
    • Parsifal in Bayreuth (2018)
  • Contact
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The woman without Fairy tale

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Katie Mitchell places DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN, an opera brimming with symbolism and supernatural mysticism, in a clinical world of (gun) violence. With her,  DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN is not a fairy tale but a bleak thriller full of moral tension and ostentatious displays of power. >>>

Listening into the Abys

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Black metal comes usually with the imagery of death, Satan and so on. New York trio IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT wraps their dissonant, atonal, yet highly addictive music in the imagery of silent movies, the city of New York and Art Deco. A journey into sound in which Pierre Boulez also pays a visit. >>>

SALOME: The Poetry of Horror

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The contrast between baroque opulence and the bleak coldness of its characters is wonderfully displayed in SALOME from Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. Ersan Mondtag evokes the poetry of horror in Richard Strauss' 'scandal' opera with a mesmerizing, graphic novel-like expressiveness. >>>

Die ersten Menschen

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The Dutch National Opera brings DIE ERSTEN MENSCHEN from Rudi Stephan, a compelling work that blends late-Romantic intensity with psychological depth, making it a significant yet long forgotten gem of early 20th-century opera. >>>

NOSFERATU, A Symphony of Horror reincarnated

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With NOSFERATU, Robert Eggers fulfills his lifelong dream to give F.W. Murnau's century-old horror film a modern, 21st-century update. >>>

ON ART AND WAR

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In a world increasingly drawn to authoritarianism, the question of separating art from its context might feel urgent (again). A reflection on some personal struggles and resulting findings. >>>

Idomeneo caught in a web

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Dutch National Opera's production of Mozart's IDOMENEO, in a direction of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, is visually striking and musically polished, but lacks the emotional depth and dramatic urgency to truly move. It’s a production that captivates the eye more than the heart. >>>

Beyond space and Sound

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Absolutely Elsewhere is a masterpiece on which BLOOD INCANTATION boldly go beyond to where they did go before, further perfecting their blend of death metal and prog rock with ambient flavours. Join us for a journey through the space-time continuum of cosmic metal with vistas of Parsifal and revelations of Philip K. Dick. Jump aboard! >>>

Bruckner's Bicentenary

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In 2024, we celebrated Anton Bruckner's 200th birthday. Composer of massive symphonies. Wagner & Heavy Metal takes us on a journey through the music of the composer and organist from Ansfelden (and pauses briefly at the dark sounds of heavy metal). >>>

From Cosima's diaries

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On January 1, 1869, a few weeks after leaving her husband Hans von Bülow to live with Richard Wagner, Cosima Wagner began a diary that she would continue until February 12, 1883, the day before Wagner died.

Here is a selection of (illustrated) excerpts from her diaries. >>>

ORFEO (Richard Powers)

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"Be grateful for everything that still hurts. Dissonance is a form of beauty not yet destroyed by familiarity."
ORFEO by Richard Powers,  a story about a man dubbed “Biohacker Bach", the Unabomber of cell biology, is like taking a trip through your record collection. >>>

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A new contributor to Wagner & Heavy Metal is the METALMANCER. From time to time this blackened revenant of a depraved renaissance will cast his/its darkness over all things heavy in metal or life:
With ARKA'N ASRAFOKOR, metal from Togo, and the good old death metal pioneers of NILE. Two bands that are each exotic in their own way. Plus THE GRUNT, a reflection on the guttural vocalization that infests and dominates the darkest realms of metal. And The METALMANCER also weighs in on the dark yearning for annihilation that pulses through art and music, capturing the fascination of mankind with death and decay. 

The Rhine Gothic

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From the chronicles of the Rhine comes the story of Wotan and the cursed gold.  A Gothic tale of  madness, betrayal, and eternal lament, whispered in hushed tones by those who dared to remember. >>>

AT THE MOUNTAINS OF VASTNESS:  WAGNER MEETS H.P. LOVECRAFT

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The music, too, was of ineffable inspiration. Insensible as I am to music in general, I cannot escape the magic of Wagner, whose genius caught the deepest spirit of those ancestral yellow-bearded gods of war & dominion before whom my own soul bows as before no others --

Thus wrote H.P. Lovecraft in a letter about the music of Richard Wagner. We look at what the composer of the music of the future and the writer of cosmic horror might have to tell each other. >>> 

Judging a book by its cover

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A blog post about Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen as graphic novel. About the graphic novels in existence and the ones that can only be judged by their cover >>>

Being Ludwig

On June 13, 1886, Ludwig II, king of Bavaria, was found dead in Lake Starnberg. A man for whom art was not a luxury but a necessity and who enabled Richard Wagner, through generous donations, to complete his Ring des Nibelungen and build the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth (for which eternal thanks). >>>

​Beyond the gilded stage: Parsifal & Tannhäuser in Bayreuth (2023)

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The Bayreuther Festspiele features productions that push and transcend the boundaries of the stage. While Augmented Reality is used in Jay Scheib's Parsifal, Tobias Kratzer's Tannhäuser serves as a prime example of how strong ideas, rather than technology alone, drive a production. >>>
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The Steampunk Ring

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A tale in images of Der Ring des Nibelungen for which inspiration was sought in Steampunk - that combination of nature and digitless science in a world that can be simultaneously antique and futuristic. The images were generated with AI software. >>>

HEAVY METAL OPERA

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If there is one opera that deserves the name 'Heavy Metal opera' it's Elektra: Richard Strauss' screaming-for-vengeance opera that brought domestic relations to dystopian lows and drama in the genre of opera to new musical heights. >>>

A DESCENT INTO THE NIBELHEIM OF THE MIND

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​WAGNER & HEAVY METAL on music & books. 

From ' HEAVY' (Dan Franklin) to a heavy book 'WAGNERISM' (Alex Ross). Plus Wilhelm Furtwängler in Italy and (a lot) more. >>>

WAGNER AT THE MOVIES

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Toying around with image and sound. Combining the music of Richard Wagner with film footage. >>>

THE DAY OF WAGNER & HEAVY METAL

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​On 13 February we look back in awe:

13 Feb 1883: Death of Richard Wagner

13 Feb 1970: Birth of Heavy Metal (Black Sabbath release their debut album)


13 February is Wagner & Heavy Metal​ day
​
>>>

BEETHOVEN's MIGHTY NINE

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He would have entered his 256th year of life, were it not that he left our earthly realms at the age of 56. Without new music by Ludwig van Beethoven for almost two centuries now, all we are left with is more of the same, in different versions. From Furtwängler to Karajan to Chailly; this is an inventory, guaranteed subjective and by no means complete, of Ludwig's symphony cycles.  >>>

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DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER
​Jaap van Zweden 
Radio Filharmonisch Orkest
​(September 2024)

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DIE WALKÜRE
Kent Nagano and Concerto Köln
(March 2024)

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SIEGFRIED
Karina Canellakis 
Radio Filharmonisch Orkest
​(November 2023)

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LOHENGRIN
Christof Loy
Dutch National Opera (November 2023)

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DAS RHEINGOLD
Kent Nagano and Concerto Köln (November 2021)

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DIE WALKÜRE
Pierre Audi
Dutch National Opera (November 2019)

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BAYREUTH SUMMER BLOG
With Tobias Kratzer's Tannhäuser (July 2019) 

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TANNHÄUSER 
Christof Loy
Dutch National Opera (April 2019)


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LOHENGRIN
David Alden
Opera Vlaanderen (September 2018)

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DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER
Paul Carr
De Nederlande Reisopera (May 2018)

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PARSIFAL
Tatjana Gürbaca
Opera Vlaanderen (March 2018)

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TRISTAN UND ISOLDE
Pierre Audi
Dutch National Opera (January 2018)

MORE REVIEWS >>


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  • One Ring ...
  • Karajan interview
  • From Heavy Metal to Richard Wagner
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>
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In search for the one recording of ​'Der Ring des Nibelungen' that would rule them all ...
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Herbert Pendergast interviews Herbert von Karajan (Stereo Review, 1963). In the interview Karajan talks about Bach, Boulez and Stravinsky as well his predilection for jazz.
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A gateway from the world of HEAVY METAL to OPERA >>

ABOUT

This website wants to be a musical journey from the blues-based hardrock I grew up with to the 19th century music dramas of Richard Wagner I became so enamored with later in my life.
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The music of Wagner feels, more than the music of any other (classical) composer I know, like a natural extension of the hardrock and heavy metal I grew up with. His music can be a place for the metal aficionados who might have reached a point of arrival in their listening experience and might be receptive for something that goes beyond the sound of thunderous bass drums and screaming guitarsolos. Something else, but something that is equally, if not more, satisfying to ears and soul. For me Richard Wagner was the door to new worlds of sound. A guide on a journey through a musical landscape that is still ongoing. 
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Join in and enjoy the ride ...


- Wouter de Moor
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The Last Will and Testament, the latest album of OPETH. (Reviewed by the METALMANCER)
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PAUL DI'ANNO was the link between punk and heavy metal, who became kind of a cult hero after two albums with Iron Maiden. On 21 October 2024, Di'Anno died at the age of only 66.
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In 2024 the Philharmonie de Paris was host to an exhibition that whispered of power chords and guttural growls, of twisted riffs and thunderous drums. The event, DIABOLUS IN MUSICA, lays bare Heavy Metal in all its monstrous glory.
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BURN IN MANY MIRRORS from WODE extracts a theatre of the mind from a swamp of dark sounds, a realm of images brewed by sulphur vapours in which the delirium tremens of blackened metal casts its own intoxicated gaze at the world.
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Black metal from Dutch soil. ELFSGEDROCH stirs in a mythical soup and serves, in hallucinatory flavors, a luscious metal meal.
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A HISTORY OF HEAVY METAL by ANDREW O'NEILL is a hilariously informative book.
MORE METAL >>>

Buhnenbild (WAGNER OPERA STAGINGS in AI)

FROM OUR SPONSORS
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IN THEATERS SOON
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Contact
[email protected]

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Wagner-HeavyMetal.com
  • Home
    • Donnerwetter!
    • From Metal to Wagner
    • From Rush to Lohengrin
    • Franz Liszt - The First Rock Star
    • The Wagner - Strauss connection
    • The day of Wagner & Heavy Metal
    • Classical picks
  • Latest
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2014
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2017 - Meistersinger
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2017 - Der Ring
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Parsifal 2018
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Parsifal 2023
    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth - Tannhäuser 2023
  • One Ring to rule them all
    • Wagner & Tolkien: Ring to Ring
    • Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang 1924)
  • Metal Section
  • Nederlands
    • De kluis (recensies)
    • Trip naar Bayreuth (2014)
    • De tovenaar van Bayreuth (2014)
    • Bayreuther Meistersinger (2017)
    • Bayreuther Ring (2017)
    • Parsifal in Bayreuth (2018)
  • Contact