The Day of the Death
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.
18 May is a bit the day of the death:
Mahler and the Resurrection
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
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
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
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)
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
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 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. >>>
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 
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. ++ een Vliegende Hollander die Dracula ontmoet, Aleksandr Scriabin en het einde van de wereld, en de nimmer opdrogende spraakwaterval Henry Rollins. |
