Back home. Being a little bit exhausted after 10 days of academic conferences, I have to admit. But: after more than 45 papers later I am also very happy I did this. Not only this trip, but also trying to put together this global Wagner enterprise in the first place. 
Cultural phenomena in musicology are very often dealt with mainly from a historical angle. But culture also shapes all kind of spaces. Not only we experience spaces through culture and its history, but cultural spaces as countries, cities, and also the globe define themselves through the arts: as there is pop culture, literature, theater and classical music. The last topic of my conference blog from Bern: spaces as/for culture.
As Peter Hagmann wrote in his review of Marthaler’s Handel pasticcio “Sale” at the Zürich Opera house on November 6 (Neue Zürcher Zeitung): to him, this production was not so much a night on Handel and Marthaler but more an evening on Zürich and Marthaler. Meaning that the town of Zürich as a cultural but also as an economic space inspired this production maybe more than Handel’s music did. I was always fascinated with the “if”-question. 
Karol Berger’s brilliant paper on Saturday brought one up. He discussed the ending of “Meistersinger” within a fascinating range from formal analysis to the content of the opera and to its broad cultural-political context. The paper also made people think and ask: “what if Wagner would have come up with a different solution for this ending?” My own “if”-question relates to the cultural space topic. What if Wagner would have been successful in Paris? What if “Rienzi” in the 1840s would have been staged at the Académie Royale de la Musique? And this very successfully? The answer: there would be no Bayreuth Wagner Festival, no “Ring des Nibelungen”, no “Meistersinger”, no Music Theater Studies at Bayreuth University, no WagnerWorldWide project … But maybe: the model of French Grand opera would have been further developed and would have become the most important model for opera globally. Maybe, there would be the “Institut National Wagner” (founded in 1872), and also the “2013 Paris PACuG”; standing for “2013 Paris Projet d’Arts de la Culture Globale”. A gigantic arts festival including and celebrating contemporary music and theatre, the movies, but also sports, education etc. Being made possible by national funds and celebrating Wagner the cosmopolitan French. I know, a silly idea. But the example might illustrate: Spaces do create culture
both on a national and global level. There were many papers at the Bern conference looking at spaces for/as culture: the stage, the orchestra pit, the auditorium, the opera house, the town, the region, the country, the globe; but also more concrete: the  Palais Garnier in Paris, Calcutta, Italy, Prague, London Russia, Poland and so on. Today in our everyday cultural life we are used to global phenomena as World Music, Holly- and Bollywood. All being art forms relevant to the world. Historically, Opera was one of the first art forms
being truly global. 
The conference was finished with a podium discussion. This brought together three representatives looking at the Wagner year from a more practical perspective: the general manager of Geneva Opera House and opera director Tobias Richter, the dramaturg and head of the Opera and Music department at Bern Theater Xavier Zuber and journalist Peter Hagmann, whom I mentioned above. My question to all of them: what can we expect from the Wagner year 2013? Tobias Richter is preparing a “Ring”-production for Geneva. He made it very clear, how important it is to make sure this work (and all of Wagner’s work) is prepared carefully with a lot of time. Peter Hagmann is looking forward to especially the musical aspect of Wagner performances in 2013, pointing out that the predominance in the newspapers on the visual aspect takes away the focus from the music. Xavier Zuber’s idea for an innovative way of dealing with globalisation and Wagner is quite futuristic. But the future is not too far away. There will be another Wagner year rather soon, that is in 2033 to commemorate 1883, the year when he died. He suggests a WorldWide production of the “Ring”, each part being introduced at a different cultural space throughout the globe. Here is a list of possible places: “Rheingold” in Abu Dhabi, “Walküre” in Bejing, “Siegfried” in Manaus and “Götterdämmerung” in Bern 2033. Or where ever Xavier Zuber will be at that time.
This blog is to be continued end of January 2013, from Columbia, South Carolina for WagnerWorldWide:America. Please stay tuned!

My first blog on the Bern conference was on identity and culture. This one deals with the public sphere, the publicity of opera and Wagner research. I know. A much too big topic for a blog. But the format makes it short.
What would Wagner ‘be’ as a phenomenon, if we would not write about him? An interesting thought: What kind of an existence would he and his work have, if there were no publications on him, just the performances? Christine Lemke-Matwey in her article in Die Zeit “Ekstasen mit viel Rosenwasser” (October 4, 2012, link below) also picks up on Wagner. She is looking at the academic outcome of the anniversary so far. She herself is somehow also writing on Wagner, but not exactly. She is writing on the people who write academically about Wagner; as I am writing about Lemke-Matwey who writes about the academics who write about … Her main point: Wagner studies is going in a cercle, and she is right; my point: We all participate being part of that circle. Sometimes – sure – this seems redundant. But sometimes this is fruitful and – also – fun. 
Let’s take another look at our conference again. First of all: It is amazing how information we know about transforms into something else once we create a new ‘case’ around this. As Daniel Jütte did with his talk on the German-Jewish reception of Wagner in the late 19th century. Second: Press, PR and also academic and general communication is basic to both the distribution and the politics of information. There were quite a high number of papers at the conference looking at 19th century press as a central instrument to shape up the relationship between identity and opera. In many cases these articles in the contemporary newspapers were more important than the actual outcome of reception within opera performances itself. Journalists took a great part in creating 19th century national discourses. This was done more and more on an international platform. Benjamin Walton showed in his paper: Not just the fact that a Rossini opera was performed in Calcutta makes 19th century opera more international than before. But the circumstances, how it was proudly communicated worldwide, gave culture a new kind of existence, which was a global one. 
The Wagner circle and the circus around Wagner studies will be also serving the book market (which could be actually much smaller than people assume right now …). There is a very high number of new books on Wagner already being published now. And, there is also a high number of old books on Wagner being either updated or just published again. And there is even a book being published before its event should have created it (I know…). The main Wagner conference next year in Leipzig scheduled for the birthday week of may already prepares for its proceedings now. The book will be out at the conference. There will be more of this next year: Other books on Wagner including more Wagner encyclopedias (one being edited by Nicholas Vazsonyi, host of WagnerWorldWide:America next year at the University of South Carolina).
And finally: www2013 wants to be part of the circle (and trying to avoid the circus aspect of this…), meaning: We will be presenting the results of our enterprise as well creating two or three volumes on WagnerWorldWide. That is more stuff being written on Wagner, on Wagner scholars and journalist, and also on Wagner performances and Wagner art.

http://www.zeit.de/2012/41/Richard-Wagner-200-Geburtstag-Literatur

This is my second trip within the www2013 project. In that sense: this is also my second trip ‘to’ Wagner, so to speak. I feel like not only travelling to the places but also to the cultural phenomenon within the places. Each time Wagner becomes something different: Wagner in China, and Wagner in Switzerland now, in November 2012.After China and WagnerWorldWide:Asia, I yesterday arrived in Bern for WagnerWorldWide:Europe organized by Arne Stollberg, Ivana Rentsch and Anselm Gerhard. This is exciting. Sure, this is the same globe (I am not on Mars…), but still: this seems like a whole different ‘world’ here. Bern is a very pretty, friendly and beautiful small town, and much calmer than Shanghai, the busy metropolis of the 21^st century; different people, different foods, different energy etc. I flew in yesterday from Berlin where I attended a conference on music in Prussia. That was a good prologue to the Bern conference and its topic: “Wagner and Opera between Nationalism and Globalisation”.Is it possible and does it make sense to talk of “Prussian” music? What does “Prussian” music sound like? I myself at the Berlin conference gave a talk on Gaspare Spontini and his opera “Agnes von Hohenstaufen”. This composer was born Italian, became French under Napoleon and started to engage himself with German national opera in the Prussian capital of the 1820s and 1830s. He was covering with his life quite a bit of the European world at that time as it can be considered a typical 19^th century bio of a composer. Richard Wagner was born in Saxony, tried to compose operas for Paris, where he failed. He went to Switzerland, and finally ended up in the upper Franconian province. Not quite as international as Spontini, but still also very European. Spontini’s opera “Agnes”, by the way, was not accepted to be a national opera. Culture in the 19^th century wants to construct identity, especially national identity. In that sense, Spontini and the official Prussian cultural politics of his King Friedrich Wilhelm III. also failed. Culture and opera tried to make people feel good to “be” something: either Prussian, Italian, French, German or even a combination of those. One major topic of the Bern conference is to ask, how aspects of national culture were constructed within different European spheres and how these relate to other concepts as globalisation or transnationalism. Not only the term national opera was used in the 19^th century but also – in a similar way – the term of world opera. Giuseppe Verdi for example was very proud that his Italian operas were performed – almost – all over the places. The national and the global met in the 19^th century. Jürgen Osterhammel introduced both categories in the first paper of this conference as instruments to analyze 19^th century culture, also asking: “Was ist Welt?” (“What is World”)? ‘World’ is also something being represented by its achievements. The Bavarian ‘world’ of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, as Osterhammel showed, became global because of three phenomena (or ‘products’): that is BMW, that is Siemens and that is – last but not least – Richard Wagner. Wagner the ever changing cultural phenomenon may be looked at from two sides here, that is production and reception: As somebody who engaged himself with representing ideas with national impact as in “Die Meistersinger”; and as somebody who is still identified by his audiences as specific German (or Bavarian…). Identities may shift.Is Wagner – by now – part of a global culture?