WAGNER & HEAVY METAL
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    • Ein Holländer in Bayreuth 2014
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    • Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang 1924)
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The Day of the Death

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On 18 May, Helmut Berger died (29 May 1944 – 18 May 2023). Perhaps his best performance was the title role in Visconti's Ludwig II, in which Berger gave a gripping portrait of the Märchenkönig: the king of Bavaria, Maecenas of Richard Wagner, without whom there would have been no Ring des Nibelungen and no Festspielhaus in Bayreuth.
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18 May is a bit the day of the death:
  • Gustav Mahler (+1911)
  • Ian Curtis (+1980)
  • Dieter Fischer Dieskau (+2012)
  • Chris Cornell (+2017)
It's also the birthday of Walter Gropius  >>>

Mahler and the Resurrection

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To commemorate the bombing of Rotterdam (on 14 May 1940), the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra is touring a number of places in the Netherlands with Gustav Mahler's 2nd symphony. On 16 May they paid Amsterdam a visit. The city where Mahler himself conducted the Dutch premiere of this symphony in 1904. >>>

TIME

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Whether reflecting on the past in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, acknowledging the transitory nature of life in the career and music of Metallica, or the cycle of rise and fall in Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen, time is a central theme that reminds us that everything changes and passes. >>>

KÖNIGSKINDER: A TRIUMPH IN TRISTESSE

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As in Engelbert Humperdinck's success opera, Hänsel und Gretel, Königskinder brings two children and a witch to the stage. But unlike in Hänsel und Gretel, in Königskinder humans are the real evil. Read more about Christof Loy's production here >>>

COSIMA's DIARIES ON TWITTER

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On January 1, 1869, a few weeks after leaving her husband Hans von Bülow to live with Richard Wagner, Cosima began a diary that she would continue until February 12, 1883, the day before Wagner died. You can find a collection of diary excerpts in this string of tweets. >>>

UPLOAD (LIVING IN A DATA STREAM)

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Michel van ​Aa’s latest opera UPLOAD explores the transhuman existence. A life in cyberspace without the burden of a physical body. Homo Deus in the Blockchain. >>>

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
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>>>

BEETHOVEN's MIGHTY NINE

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He would have entered his 253nd 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.  >>>

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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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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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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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MORE METAL >>>

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Recensies en blogs in het Nederlands 

De Wederopstanding met Mahler als herdenking van het bombardement op Rotterdam van 1940. Königskinder van Engelbert Humperdinck en Der Freischütz van Kirill Serebrennikov. Verder in het archief: UPLOAD van Michel van der Aa (science fiction in een operahuis), Pagliacci / Cavalleria Rusticana en Tannhäuser van De Nationale Opera, Die Tote Stadt van De Nederlandse Reisopera, Lohengrin in Vlaanderen en  Parsifal in Bayreuth.
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 een Vliegende Hollander die Dracula ontmoet, Aleksandr Scriabin en het einde van de wereld, en de nimmer opdrogende spraakwaterval Henry Rollins.

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Contact
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Wagner-HeavyMetal.com
  • Home
    • Donner und Wetter!
    • 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
  • 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