Dresden Music Festival also gives guest performances abroad with Wagner project
Published: Wednesday, Mar 6th 2024, 13:10
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The Dresden Music Festival's Wagner project also resonates abroad.
"I am looking forward to the 'Walküre' premiere in Prague with great anticipation," Festival Director Jan Vogler told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur in Dresden on Wednesday. The series of concert performances of the work on period instruments begins this Saturday in the Czech capital.
"What a beautiful sign, which is typical of the character and significance of this new Wagner care. New soundscapes and modern perspectives are thus coming from the heart of Wagner's longstanding place of activity, Dresden, and sending exciting musical messages out into the world." Further stops on the tour include Amsterdam (March 16), Cologne (March 24), Hamburg (May 1) and Lucerne (August 21). The work will also be performed at the start of the Dresden Music Festival on May 9.
The Wagner project ("The Wagner Cycles") under the musical direction of Kent Nagano with the Dresden Festival Orchestra and Concerto Köln began in 2023 with "Rheingold" - the first part of Wagner's monumental opera tetralogy "Der Ring des Nibelungen".
The aim is to stage one part of Wagner's "Ring" every year on historical instruments and with a view to the vocal and linguistic practices of the period in which it was composed. The concerts are preceded by intensive workshops and rehearsals in close cooperation between the orchestra, the ensemble of singers and academics. The federal government is supporting the project with two million euros. The money comes from the budget of the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Claudia Roth (Greens).
"May the magic of music bring our wonderful cities of Prague and Dresden, and us, their inhabitants, even closer together in friendship," emphasized Vogler. Both cities have a significant Wagner history. "The first director of our State Opera, Angelo Neumann, was a close friend of Wagner and almost turned Prague into a second Bayreuth. As early as 1885, Gustav Mahler conducted 'Die Walküre' here at Neumann's invitation."
The Dresden Music Festival was founded in 1978 and was well-known even before the fall of the Berlin Wall, with numerous guest performances by stars and ensembles from the West.
Vogler's directorship has significantly increased the international appeal of the festival since 2009. The festival not only regularly hosts top orchestras from all over the world, but also renowned soloists from the fields of classical music, jazz, world music and rock. This year, the music festival will take place from May 9 to June 9, 2024.
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