Staring into the abyss with WozzecK
In the last opera of the season Opera Ballet Vlaanderen brings a marvelous production of Alban Berg’s WOZZECK. A performance that forces the audience to peer over the edge of the human abyss. >>>
Blast from the past
In 1935, Bruno Walter went into the studio to record the first act (and parts of the second act) of DIE WALKÜRE. The result can count as one of the best Wagner recordings ever. >>> The woman without Fairy tale
Katie Mitchell places Richard Strauss's DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN, an opera brimming with symbolism and supernatural mysticism, in a clinical world of (gun) violence. With her, DIE FRAU is not so much a fairy tale but a bleak thriller full of moral tension and ostentatious displays of power. >>>
Imperial Triumphant: black metal as urban expressionism
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. About black metal as urban expressionism. >>>
SALOME: The Poetry of Horror
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's 'scandal' opera with a mesmerizing, graphic novel-like expressiveness. >>>
Die ersten Menschen
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
With NOSFERATU, Robert Eggers fulfills his lifelong dream to give F.W. Murnau's century-old horror film a modern, 21st-century update. >>>
Idomeneo caught in a web
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. >>>
ON ART AND WAR
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. >>>
Beyond space and Sound
Absolutely Elsewhere is a masterpiece on which BLOOD INCANTATION boldly go beyond to where they went 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
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
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)
"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. >>> 
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. 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
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 the graphic novels in existence and the ones that can only be judged by their cover >>>
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)
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. >>>
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 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. >>>
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 like a natural extension of the hardrock and heavy metal I grew up with. His music can be a place for metal aficionados who might have reached a point of arrival in their listening experience and are 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 
Buhnenbild (WAGNER OPERA STAGINGS in AI)
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