Our 2023 festival opens with Wagner's Götterdämmerung, the final part of our new Ring cycle (performances 29, 31 May, 2, 4, 6 June 2023).
Wagner fits within a German ecological tradition stretching from Von Humboldt through Haeckel and Himmler to the Greens. Can any of this be heard in the music itself? This talk will show you how.
This episode is a lecture by Professor Michael Spitzer, author of acclaimed book The Musical Human, with musical illustrations by Longborough's Ring cycle répétiteur Kelvin Lim, recorded at an event for Longborough members.
Michael Spitzer is Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool, having previously lectured at Durham University for twenty years. He is an authority on Beethoven, and the author of four acclaimed books: Metaphor and Musical Thought; Music as Philosophy; and most recently, A History of Musical Emotion: One Thousand Years from Chant to Pop; and The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth, which was an international best-seller (translated into 12 languages), and a BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week'. A keen Wagnerian, he has taught The Ring many times to his undergraduate students.
Kelvin Lim trained at the RCM and has worked for companies including: ROH, ENO, Glyndebourne, Opera Holland Park, Grange Park, ETO, Longborough, NI Opera, Neville Holt, Iford & BYO. He is Musical Director of Opera Scenes and Vocal Coach at Trinity Laban, and has coached for Jette Parker Young Artists. Kelvin is recipient of the Bayreuth Bursary, and has accompanied Sir John Tomlinson, Sir Thomas Allen and Stuart Skelton, worked with Aïda Garifullina, Christopher Ventris, & Nelly Miriciou, and played in masterclass with Sir Antonio Pappano. His company Opera Forge performed for the Wagner 200 celebrations at the Royal Festival Hall.
Conductor: Carmen (ROH Education/Olympic Arena) Cavelleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci, Samson et Dalila, The Turn of the Screw, Norma, Otello, La Fille du Regiment and Acis and Galatea, Beatrice et Benedict, La bohème, Così fan tutte, Amahl and the Night Visitors. Assistant Conductor: Der fliegende Hollander (Anthony Negus), Don Giovanni, Un ballo in Maschera, Albert Herring (Steuart Bedford), Rape of Lucretia, A Christmas Carol (Trinity). Chorus Master: Opera Holland Park, Chelsea Opera Group; The Mastersingers, Dorset Opera. Future engagements: Jenufa, Saul (Aylesbury Opera), Die Walküre, assistant cond. Così fan tutte (Longborough), assistant cond. La bohème (Winslow Hall).
