WagnerWorldWide: Conference Blog

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!