Thursday, June 21

The conference in Shanghai starts this morning. It is taking place in the newest building of Shanghai Conservatory which is only a few years old and very well equipped. The class room is full of people: mostly the speakers of the conference and also lots (!) of students. There are film cameras set up, and many photos are shot during the whole day. Opening addresses are being given. Than we take a picture outside of the building with everybody posing in front of the blue conference poster which has all the information on the event. The next thing will be my own presentation: an introduction to WagnerWorldWide. Danny is helping out with the Chinese version of my paper. And again I have a good feeling talking and being translated. She is doing a great job. There is that very quiet and concentrated atmosphere to be observed in the room, but – again – because of the ‘indirect’ communication, it is hard to tell what people think. But this time too, as in Huangzhou: after my talk, there are lots of questions. And, we have time to get to talk. Professor Yang wants to know my personal areas of research which are linked to the five topics. There is an interesting question on the general situation on German musicology today, how the discipline contextualizes the areas of research we are dealing with. Another question is: Are there specific ways of looking at Wagner in the academic reception to be distinguished in Europe depending on the national point of view? All of this shows the wide range of interest. As also do the papers of this first conference day. But despite the fact that there are a lot of different areas of interest being tackled in these papers, I would like to point out a couple of special topics where Chinese scholars seem to focus on: one is Mythology and the other one is Wagner’s Antiquity reception. The famous music critic and head of the Wagner Society China Liu Xuefeng reflects on options of directing Wagner today. He uses his huge treasure of performances he experienced in Europe and elsewhere. According to him Wagner’s work could be looked at as ‘not perfect’ – while the music actually is. Which makes me think: that could be the reason, why Wagner still stimulates all these different new approaches. Exactly the creative impulse he brings out is probably his major legacy. Professor Tao Xin from Shanghai conservatory delivers a brilliant analysis of Robert Carsen’s “Ring”-production from Cologne opera house which was performed at the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010. As I hear, not everybody liked this interpretation. But the wide range of opinions on this and the arguments to prove these opinions seem as diverse as in Europe. There can be no doubt: the appreciation for Wagner, the knowledge of Wagner and the critical thinking on Wagner is tremendous in this country.