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Welcome to The Wagner Society of America
Chicago, Illinois, USA

Upcoming 2009 Events

Sunday, December 13, 2009

HOLIDAY LUNCHEON & SILENT AUCTION
Featuring Amber Wagner,
Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition

AmberWagner

Michigan Shores Club*
911 Michigan Ave.
Wilmette

12:00 Noon - Social Hour/Silent Auction
1:00 p.m. - Luncheon

This year again as we did several years ago when Licia Albanese was our guest we are sharing our program with several Lyric Opera Chapters. Please note the instruction to make checks payable to the Evanston Chapter - this was done to simplify the process of receiving the reservations. There will be a silent auction between noon and the luncheon. There will also be the dreaded QUIZ as well as one for the non-Wagnerians.

AMBER WAGNER is completing her 3rd year at the Ryan Opera Center following her being one of the National Grand Final Winners in the Metropolitan Opera's 2007 Competition. Many of you saw her in the Met's HD movie entitled 'The Audition'. This season at Lyric she covered Sondra Radvanovsky in Ernani and will be completing her role as Fekluša in Janáček's Katya Kabanova on December 12th. We have been looking forward to having Amber at an event ever since she first arrived in Chicago. A major career lies ahead - you can look back some day and say 'I saw her when ...'.

* Michigan Shores Club is located in Wilmette one block east of Sheridan Road at Lake Avenue(1st stoplight north of the Bahai Temple). The CTA terminal at Linden Avenue is about 5 blocks from the club. From Chicago on the L take the Red Line to Howard Street and change to the Purple Line to the end of the line (Linden).

Cost: $45.00 Payable in advance to the Evanston Chapter
Reservations are required
Click to download and print Invitation/Reservation form
Guests are always welcome.

Questions: Contact Bill Smith
wrtsco@att.net

847-256-1292 (Days)
847-256-2714 (Evenings)

Previous Events in 2009

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

RACHEL NUSSBAUM WICHERT
Zeitoper and Emotion in the Weimar Era Kroller Opera Garden c. 1927
Kroll Opera Garden (August 1927)

Hotel Allegro
Cinema Room 1
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

7:00 p.m. - Refreshments
7:30 p.m. - Program

Rachel Nussbaum Wichert, one of our members,returned to present a section of her paper, "Zeitoper and Emotion in the Weimar Era", i.e., operas that dealt with contemporary concerns. She will focus on Hindemith's 1929 opera Neues vom Tage, described in Wikipedia as 'notorious for a scene with a naked soprano singing in a bath about the wonders of modern plumbing'. Composers of operas of this type were reacting to displays of emotion in opera as a relics of a bygone culture and to Richard Wagner in particular.

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

THE WAGNER BAN IN ISRAEL
Historical Necessity or Wagnerphobia?
Robert J. Yaffe

BobYaffe

Hotel Allegro
Cinema Room 1
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

7:00 p.m. - Reception
7:30 p.m. - Program

Bob Yaffe, a Member-at-Large on our Board of Directors, presented "The Wagner Ban in Israel—Historical Necessity or Wagnerphobia?" Previously, he delivered a lecture to us entitled "In Defense of Siegfried". He has lectured extensively and taught courses on opera topics at Oakton Community College, various Lyric Opera chapters, Jewish Community Centers of Chicago, and a number of senior and adult education programs. This lecture came shortly after his return from a family wedding in Israel.

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

THE TWO RINGS:
RICHARD WAGNER'S "RING OF THE NIBELUNG"
and
J.R.R. TOLKIEN'S "LORD OF THE RINGS"
Edward R. Haymes
Professor of Modern Languages - Cleveland State University

Hotel Allegro
7:00 p.m. - Reception
7:30 p.m. - Program

Professor Haymes gave an audio-visual presentation entitled Wager's Ring and J.R.R. TOLKIEN'S Lord of the Rings. He teaches in the Department of Modern Languages at Cleveland State University. His research interests include medieval German literature, Old Norse language and literature and, of course, Wagner.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Wagner Birthday Event
Will Berger
Author and Met Co-Host for SIRIUS
Wagner and Architecture

BergerBook

Hotel Allegro
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009,
VENICE 1883: WAGNER'S RING COMES TO ITALY
JOHN BARKER
Professor Emeritus of History - University of Wisconsin

WagnerVeniceCover

Hotel Allegro
Cinema Room
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

7:00 p.m. - Reception
7:30 p.m. - Program

Our society member JOHN BARKER, Professor Emeritus of History - University of Wisconsin- Madison is the author of the new book, Wagner and Venice (University of Rochester Press, November 2008). John's talk is entitled VENICE 1883: WAGNER'S RING COMES TO ITALY. He will focus on Angelo Neumann's touring company and its presentations at La Fenice. We shall have copies of his book available for purchase (at a discount) and inscription.

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2007-08 Events

Sunday, December 7, 2008
Annual Holiday Party
nancy_gustafson

featuring Soprano Nancy Gustafson
(Last August's Sieglinde at Millennium Park)

We are pleased to have Nancy as our guest for this event. She has sung a number of Wagnerian roles including Freia in San Francisco, Eva in Chicago, Elsa in Dallas, Irene (Rienzi) in Paris, and most recently Sieglinde this past August at Millennium Park. A native of Evanston, she will be in town for her annual benefit concert for the Over The Rainbow Association. We shall have a door prize of two tickets to that concert to be held on Saturday, December 13th in Evanston. After dinner Nancy will speak briefly about her career and then field questions from the audience.

Hotel Allegro
Green Room
171 W. Randolph Street
Chicago

5:00pm – Social Hour
5:45pm – Buffet Dinner, THE QUIZ and all sorts of prizes
7:15pm – Program – NANCY GUSTAFSON, soprano

Monday, November 24th
Marlis Petersen (Soprano)

(Photo: Larry Lapidus)

Fine Arts Building
410 S. Michigan Avenue
Chicago

7:00pm Reception - Suite 801- Elizabeth Stein Company

7:30 PM Program - Suite 825 - Pianoforte Chicago

Marlis is in Chicago to sing the title role in Lulu at Lyric Opera of Chicago. We last saw her as Adele in Die Fledermaus. Her next operatic performances will be at the Berlin State Opera singing the role of Aphrodite in Hans Werner Henze's Phaedra. She will sing Lulu at the Metropolitan Opera in the 2009-2010 season. She began her career in her native Germany in Nuremberg and later in Düsseldorf-Duisberg. Please join us to meet this wonderful artist. There will be a Q + A session following her remarks.

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
Cheryl Studer, soprano
Recital with Fred Ockwell, Piano

Sherwood Conservatory of Music
Buffet Dinner - Grace O'Malley's
Q&A Session with CHERYL STUDER

Sunday, December 2, 2007
Annual Holiday Party

featuring Soprano Christine Brewer
(Dyer's Wife in Lyric's Die Frau ohne Schatten)

Christine will be singing the Dyer’s Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten at Lyric Opera of Chicago, followed by performances in Paris. Upcoming performances include Fidelio with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Brünnhilde in The Ring at the Metropolitan Opera. Within recent years roles that she has sung include Isolde and Queen Elizabeth I in Benjamin Britten's Gloriana. You will not want to miss this delightful lady, whom The Guardian in London described as ‘one of the greatest voices in the world.’ You may have heard her at Ravinia this past summer.

Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel
163 E. Walton (1 block east of Michigan Avenue)
Chicago

12:30pm – Social Hour
1:00pm – Buffet Luncheon, THE QUIZ and all sorts of prizes
2:15pm – Program – CHRISTINE BREWER, soprano

Sunday, November 25, 2007
A Special Invitation to All Wagner Society Members
from the
Evanston, Highland Park/Deerfield, and
Wilmette Chapters of Lyric Opera:
Holiday Luncheon
with mezzo soprano Viktoria Vizin
The Michigan Shores Club
911 Michigan Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois
(One block east of Sheridan Road at Lake Avenue)

Monday, November 5, 2007
DR. PETER PACHL
Vice-President of the International Siegfried Wagner Society
and Director of the Pianopianissimo Music Theater, Munich


Dr. Peter Pachl, our Speaker	Dr. Pachl's Biography of Siegfried Wagner	Siegfried and Winifred in early 1916

Siegfried Wagner and His Operas

Dr. Peter Pachl will speak on Siegfried Wagner (1869-1930), Wagner's only son, composer, conductor, and director of the Bayreuth Festspiele from 1908 until his death in 1930. The program will include audio and video.

He was born in 1953 in Bayreuth and got his basic music education in the school Regensburger Domspatzen. He then studied musicology, theatrology and linguistics at the University of München. He worked as a stage director in various German theatres (in Kassel, Bonn, München, Nürnberg, Mainz a.o.), with works of the operatic repertory (by Gluck, Mozart, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Massenet, Thomas, Lortzing, Nicolai, Cornelius, Wagner, Verdi, Strauss, Pfitzner, Zemlinsky, Puccini, Schreker, von Schillings, Strawinsky, Britten, Bernstein, von Einem a.o.) as well as the dramatic repertory (by Aristophanes, Lope de Vega, Ingrisch, Nestroy, Ramuz, Rosendorfer, Sartre a.o.).

In 1989 he became professor of opera stage direction in Hannover; where he has since taught such topics as: stage music in Weimar, in Bayreuth, in Vienna and in Bochum, as well as management of cultural products in Weimar, Dresden, Hamburg, the Hague and Berlin. Since 1980 he is art director of the München Music Theater Pianopianissimo; in 1990-95 he was art director and manager of the Thuringia State Theater and Symphony Orchestra as well as the Rudolstadt Festival, while in 1998-2000 he was art co-director and principal dramaturgist of the Hagen Theater. He has published numerous works, including the biography Siegfried Wagner, Genie im Schatten (1988, 1994), and made a large number of radio and TV productions.

In 1980 he founded the Pianopianissimo Music Theater in Munich, where he serves as Artistic Director. He founded the International Siegfried Wagner Society in 1972, where he is currently Vice President.

Tower Club - Ambassador Room
Civic Opera Building - 39th Floor
20 N. Wacker Dr.
Chicago, IL 60601

Times: 7:00 pm - Reception
7:30 pm - Program

Cost: Free - Reservations not required

Tuesday, October 23, 2007
DR. SVEN FRIEDRICH


Dr. Sven Friedrich, our Speaker	Lembac's Portrait of Cosima, 1879	Dr. Friedrich's Wagner CD-ROM

Cosima Wagner — A Remembrance

Dr. Sven Friedrich will speak on Cosima Wagner and afterwards will answer questions from the audience about The Bayreuth Festspiele – Past, Present and Future.

Sven Friedrich (born 1963) studied Theater History, Modern German Literature, and Communication Studies at the University of Munich where he received his Ph.D. with his dissertation on Wagner’s theatrical aesthetics. Since 1993 he has been Director of the Richard-Wagner-Research Institute and of its National-Archives as well as the Richard Wagner Museum in Haus Wahnfried, all in Bayreuth. Among his multitude of his duties include the responsibilities for the Franz Liszt Museum and the Jean Paul Museum also in Bayreuth.

Friedrich’s literary activities included co-editing the wagnerspektrum (http://www.wagnerspectrum.de), and curated the exhibition and its catalogue, Der Ring – Die Szene als Modell. Die Bühnenbildmodelle des Richard-Wagner-Museums und der „Ring des Nibelungen“ in Bayreuth (“The Ring” – the Model as the Scene. The Stage Models of the Richard-Wagner-Museum and Der Ring des Nibelungen in Bayreuth, 1876-2000). He has written numerous essays and books, and recently edited the 50,000+ page CD-ROM compilation of all of Wagner’s writings, librettos, and correspondence for Digitale Bibliothek (www.digitale-bibliothek.de).

Union League Club
65 W. Jackson Blvd.

Times: 7:00 pm - Reception

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
DR. KATHERINE SYER

Claiming the Ring
A Program in Honor of Richard Wagner's 194th Birthday

Dr. Katherine Syer will survey several recent international productions of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, exploring how designers and directors profile regional characteristics in production. By loosening the interpretational lens away from Germanic or Nordic influences, many opera houses around the world are claiming the Ring as their own.

Katherine Syer is on faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she teaches musicology and regularly offers seminars on opera production history. Together with William Kinderman, she is co-editor of A Companion to Wagner’s ‘Parsifal’ (Camden House/Boydelland Brewer, 2005), and she regularly leads seminars during the Bayreuth Festival. She is currently working on a critical production history of Wagner’s Ring, with a special focus on stagings from the 1970s onward. Dr. Syer was recently named a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Society. She came to our attention at a symposium on Parsifal at the University of Chicago in the fall of 2005 where she was the respondent to a presentation by our member, Rachel Nussbaum.

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Chicago Athletic Association

The CAA is closing due to reorganization and remodeling on May 31. This event will be our last at this fine location for some time.

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007
PENELOPE TURING

PENELOPE TURING, a spirited octogenarian, is returning for her third visit to us. She was here last in 2000. She will be talking about the 50 Bayreuth festivals that she has personally attended. She has missed only 5 since she started attending in 1952.

Viktoria Vizin
mezzo soprano

and the
Ars Nova Chorus
Kecskemét , Hungary

in a musical program of arias and choruses by

Wagner, Verdi, Brahms, Liszt, Elgar, Selmeczi, and Orbán.

Friday, March 16th, 2007
Chicago Athletic Association (Dining Room)
12 South Michigan Avenue , Chicago

Reception at 5:30

Musical Program at 6:15
Buffet Dinner at 7:15.

Friday, March 16th, 2007
V
iktoria Vizin sang the title role in Carmen at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2006 and most recently at Covent Garden . She will be reprising that role at the Metropolitan Opera in the 2008-09 season in addition to singing the role of Maddelana in Rigoletto. The Ars Nova Chorus is the professional chorus of Viktoria's hometown in Hungary .

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