A Riveting Conquest Of The Flying Dutchman
Once more, Jaap van Zweden has raised his baton to deliver us a Wagner opera to remember, casting a spell over the Concertgebouw with a haunted interpretation of Der Fliegende Holländer. >>>
Introducing: The Metalmancer
We welcome a new contributor to Wagner and Heavy Metal. Periodically, THE METALMANCER will shine his darkness on metal records that have come to his attention. He starts with two bands that are each exotic in their own way. ARKA'N ASRAFOKOR, metal from Togo, and the good old death metal pioneers of NILE. >>>
DIABOLUS IN MUSICA
The Philharmonie de Paris is host to an exhibition that whispers 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. >>>
The Rhine Gothic
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
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
A blog post about Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen as graphic novel. About graphic novels that exist and novels that don't (and can only be judged by their cover) >>>
Wagner & Heavy Metal GOES TO Legoland
Images with music. Wagner & Heavy Metal goes to Legoland.
Being LudwigOn 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)
This year's visit to Bayreuth was about productions where the boundaries of the stage were stretched, and exceeded. There was Augmented Reality in Parsifal but Tobias Kratzer's Tannhäuser was a textbook example that ideas carry a production, not technology. >>>
The Steampunk Ring
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
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
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
Toying around with image and sound. Combining the music of Richard Wagner with film footage. >>>
THE DAY OF WAGNER & HEAVY METAL
BEETHOVEN's MIGHTY NINE
He would have entered his 255th 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 Chailly; this is an inventory, guaranteed subjective and by no means complete, of Ludwig's symphony cycles. >>>
MORE REVIEWS >>
A gateway from the world of HEAVY METAL to OPERA >> |
ABOUTThis 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.
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.
Join in and enjoy the ride ... - Wouter de Moor 
|
