On September 6, the citizens of Saxony-Anhalt, a state in the former East Germany, will vote in a closely watched election. Recent polls put the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party at an unprecedented 43 percent. Among the potentially profound consequences for the region if the party governs Saxony-Anhalt are changes to its artistic life, of […]
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In Defense of the Program Note
On his first visit to London in 1851, Hector Berlioz attended several chamber music concerts at The Musical Union, a subscription series run by impresario John Ella. His dispatches from the city were effusive: “The London public is very attentive and serious in its tastes and I have been able to see for myself its […]
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Bach Festival Leipzig Stands By John Eliot Gardiner
Following allegations of inappropriate behavior against the conductor John Eliot Gardiner in June, the Bach Festival Leipzig informed employees today of its decision to continue its collaboration with the conductor. Gardiner will lead a performance of Bach’s B-Minor Mass at the festival in June 2027. The widely covered incident took place on June 16 at […]
Posted inBreaking
Life After Monsieur
On Tuesday, the newspaper Badische Neueste Nachrichten announced the death of Hans Florian Messner at the age of 84. Messner was best known in musical circles for his connection to Pierre Boulez, for whom he served as a personal valet for over 50 years. Messner hailed from South Tyrol, a German speaking region in the […]
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License to Earn
Judging by the number of lightsabers illuminating the packed arena, the Greenville Symphony Orchestra was doing great. Based in South Carolina, the regional orchestra settled below a screen set at the back of the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, which seats a bigger audience than their usual venue, and played the score to “Return of the […]
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Götterdämmerung Without Flames
In the late 19th century, talking about attention was all the rage. And of all that century’s artists and thinkers, Richard Wagner had perhaps the most wildly oscillating views on the fraught relationship between the production and consumption of works of art. At times, these views were a holdover from his revolutionary days: He held […]
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“Disney, of course, would do it better”
The morning before “Siegfried,” the “curator” of the Bayreuth “Ring,” Marcus Lobbes, gave an interesting question and answer session with Griffin Kaiser, a filmmaker and a member of the Wagner Society of New York. Before I report on what Lobbes said, I must make the point that if a work of art needs discursive intervention […]
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A Day of Genuine Dread
Unlike, apparently, the Wagner family and the minds behind the Bayreuth Festival, I actually like and respect the “Ring” cycle as both a work of art and a way of looking at the world. It feels insane to me that the cycle needs to be defended on its own merit, being one of the most […]
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Enfeebled Expression
AI is everywhere in Bayreuth. When I go to the coffee shop on Sophienstraße, there are AI portraits of Richard Wagner wearing bad emo eyeliner on the walls. On my way to the Festspielhaus, there are AI posters for what can only be described as a “dinosaur rodeo.” AI-generated signs litter the streets—for breakfast, for […]
Posted inReport
Plenty of Fish
I was 15 the first time I went to Le Poisson Rouge. I was in New York on vacation from Canada, and a concert listing for the Kronos Quartet caught my eye. I had grown up on their recordings of Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Morton Feldman, but to see the group up close, in […]