The composer Richard Wagner is one of musical history’s great storytellers, but he’s also one of its most controversial figures. His antisemitism and Nazi affiliations have led to performances of his work being unofficially banned in Israel and spurned by many Jews. We’ll be tackling the issues around this contentious musician head on with Israeli composer Avner Dorman, whose opera Wahnfried: The Birth of the Wagner Cult, opens at Longborough this summer, and the director of music at the University of St Andrews, Michael Downes, whose new book Story of the Century: Wagner and the Creation of The Ring, tells the story behind The Ring of the Nibelung. Join us to discuss the Wagner legacy and get a special peek at Dorman’s opera, billed as portraying the Wagner dynasty as the musical version of the Roy family in the TV show Succession.
Please register below to receive the Zoom link, which will be sent out a few days before the event.*
*This event begins at 7.30pm (GMT). If you booked your ticket and have not received the link by 5pm (GMT) the day before, please check your spam folder and, if it's not there, email operations@jewishrenaissance.org.uk.
Pictured: The Rhinemaidens in the first production of The Ring at Wagner's opera house in Bayreuth, Germany, 1876
Free
JR has an ethical ticketing policy and is offering free tickets to this event, but if you can afford it, please donate to support our work. We are proposing denominations of 18 – the numerical value of the Hebrew word 'chai', meaning 'life'.
