Wagner Operas Podcasts show

Wagner Operas Podcasts

Summary: The official podcast of www.wagneroperas.com

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Podcasts:

 The Italian Wagnerians | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 42:49

For many years, Italian was a second language to Wagner's operas, as Italian singers performed the composer's music in their native tongue. Based on his Italian performances, tenor Giuseppe Borgatti became the first Italian heldentenor to be invited to perform at Bayreuth. Although, after the war, most Italian opera houses presented Wagner in German, great post-war artists such as Mario Del Monaco, Renata Tebaldi, and Maria Callas became the last generation to sing Wagner's music in Italian.

 Performance Practices in PARSIFAL (Part 3) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 40:25

Concluding this series, we look back at the work of American baritone Clarence Whitehill, who excelled in Wagnerian roles, and performed at the Bayreuth Festival in 1904. The program also features some of the best Wagner conductors on the scene today. We highlight musical excerpts from Donald Runnicles at the Vienna State Opera, Valery Gergiev at the MET, and Pierre Boulez leading the 2004 controversial staging of Parsifal from the enfant terrible of German art, Christoph Schlingensief.

 Performance Practices in PARSIFAL (Part 2) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 38:31

The second part of the show brings us past the Bayreuth Nazi Era to the 1951 re-opening of the Festival. This podcast features a recording from the early 1920's where the original Bayreuth Parsifal bells can be heard (they were destroyed during World War II), a recording of the Good Friday Spell conducted by Siegfried Wagner, the composer's son, and an excerpt from the landmark 1951 Wieland Wagner Bayreuth production of this opera, featuring baritone George London and tenor Wolfgang Windgassen.

 Performance Practices in PARSIFAL (Part 1) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 26:57

In our premiere Podcast, we will explore the various ways in which Wagner's last opera, Parsifal, has been performed since it first saw the light of day at the Bayreuth Festival of 1882. We will focus on the way that conductors have approached this musical score. It is our hope that you will enjoy the musical numbers that we have selected for you. My sincere thanks goes out to my friend Keith Barnes who provided me with the rare musical excerpts that you will hear in this program.

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