Sunday, June 24

In the air. On LH 729. Going west, back to Germany. Exhausted, but happy with all new kin of impressions, academically and culturally. Sometimes I am not sure what kind of an impact we are able to make as academics in the humanities. Especially if we are constantly asked to produce ‘numbers’: in Euros for extra financial support on research or in new students coming to our university. But after my China experience it seems clear how important it is to do the work we are doing: to connect culturally. And not only commercially. Finding ways of communicating with each other is so important. Wagner with his critique of an alienated world is a good medium for this exchange with China. The intellectual and emotional connection to Wagner and his work is big in the East and the West. The general curiosity on both sides amazing. In that sense Wagner is truly universal being able to bring people together with different cultural backgrounds. Yesterday I had my sightseeing day in Shanghai. A warm day, cloudy, with a lot of humidity and rain. My first impression: Other cities of that scope seem to be so dated compared to this… I am getting a quick glance on that hungry and shiny surface of a modern world with all its lights, fancy skyscrapers, high rise freeways, expensive stores and hotels. This is fascinating. But it also leaves a somewhat strange taste at the same time. China here is so much about money. As my friend pointed out the first night at dinner, smiling at me with some slight traces of disgust in his face. Now I understand better what he was referring to. The day before my sightseeing experience at the conference made me believe again that it is important what we are doing in the humanities. Danny gave an excellent talk on Carl Dahlhaus, my first academic teacher in Berlin in the 1980s. She and I agree: Dahlhaus’ work is still amazing, since he connected all kind of historical, aesthetical and cultural information to our field of interest: music. Truly modern in that sense. As for him there are translations available of his books in Chinese by now, which is great. They help to connect. Rémy Campos and Aurélien Poidevin talked about their recent historical reconstruction of the Paris “Meistersinger” production of 1897. Their talk demonstrated that the shift from the Wagner version of the Munich premiere in 1868 to this version done in France at the end of the 19^th century (and its recreation) is quite a big one. The staging of Wagner became somehow its own leitmotif at that conference. One of the questions brought up after my own talk that day on the history of the Bayreuth festival referred to this as well: Will there be some kind of a Chinese version of the “Ring” soon? And what would that look like? The conference was ended with a very lively final discussion. Sitting at tables and facing each other, this was the most stimulating part of the conference. We were discussing topics which had not been touched yet. And somebody suggested – it was meant to be more of a joke – to combine Chinese Opera with Wagner. I ask myself right now: why not? With all of this we missed Nicholas Vazsonyi’s presence in China. The planned presentation and workshop on “Meistersinger” would have been extremely relevant within the context of the other talks and the general topic of how to stage Wagner in the 21^st century. I am very glad I did all of this, and I am looking forward to more cultural encounters between the East and the West. In December 2013 we hope to be able to welcome our new Chinese friends in Thurnau. The big city will be replaced by a remote countryside and the venue of the conference, the castle of Thurnau, could be covered with snow. Another place, another time: helping us to shape up another perspective on Wagner.