Wagner worldwide

Wagner worldwide

“Distant Resonance” is an artistic research project scheduled to run for three years. “Sounding Situations” is teaming up with Kampnagel, Radialsystem Berlin, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and various other institutions to explore the ways in which its own sound and sensation and story are connected to and resonate with distant locations. The first part of the “Wagner Worldwide” trilogy is set to premiere in the Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. With this project Sounding Situations creates a multi-perspective music theatre about the activities of the Russian mercenary group ‘Wagner’ as a musical Echtzeit cinemascope. TikTok mythologies and Discord legends meet an uncertain present. Together with the instrumentalists, a multi-layered and heterogeneous live composition is created. Sensitive, contemporary, Dionysian and minimal — a Echtzeit Wagner in the news studio. “Wagner Worldwide” is an attempt to illustrate the area of overlap between the activities of the Wagner mercenary group made up of Russian paramilitaries and the mythological deeds depicted by Richard Wagner. Exploring how the feelings of the public are informed by current global myths, the project aims to deconstruct these myths and set up opposing narratives. Music is provided by instrumentalists involved with, and influential within, Berlin’s alternative “Echtzeit” scene, a community whose work is known for generating compositions in the realm of overlap between reduction, minimalism, new music and post-Cage soundscapes. The assumption is that Echtzeit pieces challenge the prevailing polarising interpretation of Wagner’s works. Over the course of five scenes, “Wagner Worldwide” overlays the political research of Sounding Situations onto the musical cosmos of “Echtzeit Wagner”. In June 2023, the mercenaries of the „Wagner Group“ marched towards Moscow and announced their intention to take power in Russia. The event was broadcasted live and commented worldwide on social media. The coup failed and the ...

Wagner worldwide

“Distant Resonance” is an artistic research project scheduled to run for three years. “Sounding Situations” is teaming up with Kampnagel, Radialsystem Berlin, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and various other institutions to explore the ways in which its own sound and sensation and story are connected to and resonate with distant locations. The first part of the “Wagner Worldwide” trilogy is set to premiere in the Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. With this project Sounding Situations creates a multi-perspective music theatre about the activities of the Russian mercenary group ‘Wagner’ as a musical Echtzeit cinemascope. TikTok mythologies and Discord legends meet an uncertain present. Together with the instrumentalists, a multi-layered and heterogeneous live composition is created. Sensitive, contemporary, Dionysian and minimal — a Echtzeit Wagner in the news studio. “Wagner Worldwide” is an attempt to illustrate the area of overlap between the activities of the Wagner mercenary group made up of Russian paramilitaries and the mythological deeds depicted by Richard Wagner. Exploring how the feelings of the public are informed by current global myths, the project aims to deconstruct these myths and set up opposing narratives. Music is provided by instrumentalists involved with, and influential within, Berlin’s alternative “Echtzeit” scene, a community whose work is known for generating compositions in the realm of overlap between reduction, minimalism, new music and post-Cage soundscapes. The assumption is that Echtzeit pieces challenge the prevailing polarising interpretation of Wagner’s works. Over the course of five scenes, “Wagner Worldwide” overlays the political research of Sounding Situations onto the musical cosmos of “Echtzeit Wagner”. In June 2023, the mercenaries of the „Wagner Group“ marched towards Moscow and announced their intention to take power in Russia. The event was broadcasted live and commented worldwide on social media. The coup failed and the ...

Wagner: Die Walküre

Richard Wagner’s opera »Die Walküre« is a passionate exploration of big themes such as love and betrayal, loyalty and rebellion. The god Wotan wanted to rule through contracts rather than violence but, as a result of broken promises, becomes increasingly entangled in problems until blood begins to flow. Finding no solutions, Wotan finally cries: »One thing alone do I want: the end!« But his daughter Brünnhilde thwarts his plans… At the Hamburg International Music Festival, there is an opportunity to experience the opera in historical original sound for the first time under conductor Kent Nagano. At the festival, Kent Nagano is not conducting »his« orchestra, the Hamburg State Opera, but rather the Dresdner Festspielorchester, Concerto Köln and a top-class cast of soloists, who explore the playing and singing techniques of the 19th century. »More intimate tone colours, a more multi-layered and transparent sound, freed from the ballast of the centuries,« say the performers about the project, which seems to have been tailor-made for the transparent acoustics of the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall. One of Wagner’s most famous pieces, the »Ride of the Valkyries« – famously used by director Francis Ford Coppola as background music to a helicopter attack in the anti-war film »Apocalypse Now« – thus sounds altogether different.

Debussy Wagner Berlioz

Debussy Wagner Berlioz

Westbam meets Wagner

Elektronische Musik trifft auf die Meisterwerke Richard Wagners

Richard Wagner / Siegfried

Performed by the musicians of Concerto Köln and the Dresdner Festspielorchester under the direction of Kent Nagano, this Siegfried is the fruit of years of research into what would be a historically informed reading of Wagner’s operas.

Richard Wagner: Siegfried

Now he sets out into the world: Siegfried, the free hero, is to set right what Wotan, the father of the gods, messed up at the beginning of the story. Finally, part three of Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelung" can be experienced in Kent Nagano's original sound project. Siegfried grows up in the forest, reforges the sword Nothung, slays the dragon Fafner, wins from him the "Ring of the Nibelung", breaks Wotan's spear and lovingly awakens the Valkyrie Brünnhilde.

Richard Wagner: Götterdämmerung

Der Ring ist geschmiedet. Mit der »Götterdämmerung« vollenden Kent Nagano, Concerto Köln und das Dresdner Festspielorchester ihr viel beachtetes Projekt: Richard Wagners mythischer Opern-Vierteiler aus historisch-informierter Perspektive.Was in Köln mit den »Wagner-Lesarten« begann und in Dresden als »Wagner Cycles« eine Fortsetzung fand, kommt endlich zum krönenden Abschluss: Unter der Leitung von Kent Nagano erkunden zwei vereinte Spitzenensembles und eine exquisite Sängerschar nun im Originalklang auch die »Götterdämmerung«, das finster-feurige »Ring«-Finale. Darin verrät Held Siegfried Brünnhilde und sie ihn, findet dieser den Tod, versinkt das unheilvolle Gold im Rhein, brennt die Götterburg und scheint Zukunft wieder möglich. ​Gefördert vom Kuratorium KölnMusik e.V.