11 February 2012
9 AM
Kerasotes Showplace Icon Theatre
1625 Park Place Blvd
(W 16th St and Park Pl Blvd)
St Louis Park, MN 55416
MORE DRAMA, TRAGIC LOVE, DESTRUCTION OF THE GODS, HOPE AND SUBLIME MUSIC
We are fortunate to again have Daniel Freeman, music
scholar and Wagner expert, lead us through the last opera of Richard Wagner's
Ring cycle before the Metropolitan Opera's HD broadcast with the stellar cast
of Deborah Voigt and Jay Hunter Morris and Fabio Luisi conducting.
The last (and longest) opera of the Ring cycle by Richard Wagner details at
last how the magic gold of the Rhine is returned to the Rhinemaidens, its
rightful guardians; relates the tragic end of the love of the hero Siegfried
for his beloved Brünnhilde; and depicts the final destruction of the rule
of the gods on earth, a fitting punishment for their greed and moral corruption.
But human corruption is also exposed, and it is mortals who covet the power
of the Ring fashioned from the gold of the Rhine who are responsible for disrupting
Siegfried’s noble love affair with Brünnhilde. Together, it is they who have
possession of the Ring at the start of the drama. Siegfried is drugged into
forgetting who Brünnhilde is and both are forced into disastrous marriages
with others, the last of the unhappy marriages portrayed in the Ring cycle.
Siegfried is later murdered for possession of the Ring, but just before he
dies he remembers Brünnhilde once more, and she forgives him for abandoning
him. It is Brünnhilde (rather than Siegfried’s murderer) who wrests the Ring
from his finger just before his corpse is to be consumed in a funeral pyre.
Brünnhilde soon jumps in herself with the Ring in hand. When the fire from
the pyre dies down, the banks of the Rhine overflow and the Rhinemaidens succeed
in retrieving the Ring. Valhalla, the dwelling place of the gods, catches
fire, and its occupants perish. But with the Ring once again secured by the
Rhinemaidens, Wagner’s music conveys a feeling that all will be right once
again in a world free of the tyranny and capriciousness of the gods.
Even with so many hours of music that
comes before it, the listener is astounded by Wagner’s ingenuity and inexhaustible
font of musical ideas. Among the treasures to be encountered in the last opera
of the Ring cycle is some of the most beautiful and imaginative writing for
male chorus, the most penetrating funeral music, and the most evocative musical
depiction of the out-of-doors that was ever conceived. And reserved for the
very last is a theme to express the hopes of all mankind that is as simple,
direct, and appealing as anything ever imagined by a Broadway composer.
This presentation is followed at 11A.M. by an HD
broadcast of a live Metropolitan Opera performance with a stellar cast t of
Deborah Voigt and Jay Hunter Morris and Fabio Luisi conducting.
We look forward to seeing you at this illuminating presentation
Saturday, February 11, at 9AM at the Kerasotes Showplace Icon 14 Theatre,
at 1625 Park Place Blvd (W 16th St and Park Pl Blvd), St Louis Park, MN 55416.
The fee for the lecture is $10. for members of the Wagner Society and the
Germanic-American Institute, and their guests, $20. for non-members before
February 5, 2012; thereafter it is$15. for members and $25. for non-members;
and free to students with valid ID. Remember, members bringing friends to
our events pay the discounted member rate for all.
Doors open at 8:45 AM. Follow this link for
a map
http://tinyurl.com/37hmsf2
Please note:
These rates do NOT include admission to the
HD broadcast. Theater tickets must be purchased separately.
There are two ways to complete your lecture registration:
or register by check (payable to The Richard Wagner Society
of the Upper Midwest) mailed to
The Richard Wagner Society of the Upper Midwest
P. O. Box 3804
Minneapolis MN 55403
Daniel Freeman's presentation is followed at 11A.M.
by an HD broadcast of a live Metropolitan Opera performance with a stellar
cast t of Deborah Voigt and Jay Hunter Morris and Fabio Luisi conducting.
It is recommended that you purchase
theater tickets as soon as possible! To purchase theater tickets, please follow
this link:
