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| Glyndebourne Theatre as Viewed from the Lawn (The round building is the performance space) |
May 15, 2011
Thanks to the festival’s education director, I got to attend another study day at Glyndebourne. This one focused on Richard Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Master Singers of Nuremberg). Again, it was a real treat and very informative. I heard presentations by a cultural historian, one of the world’s leading Wagner scholars, the conductor, and the director of the new production. The conductor chose to have the understudies illustrate his talk with live musical examples. How bland this music sounds with just the piano!
There were definitely some Wagnerites there, armed with libretti. Some even had scores.
Tidbit for the day: Perhaps some of you know this, but I didn’t. Several famous portraits of Wagner show him wearing a beret. The beret is a political statement; it was the favorite headgear of the “New Old Germans,” who were campaigning for a united Germany and a return to traditional German culture. Why a beret? Partly because they were worn by certain craftsmen and artists like Han Sachs and Albert Dürer during the Renaissance.
Elaborate picnics are the tradition at Glyndebourne. There was another event going on in another theatre so quite a few people were eating in the gardens during the lunch break.
My picnic was tasty but rather simple, I’m afraid. As I walked around I could hear champagne corks popping from various directions.
In just a week’s time, humongous poppies had started to bloom in Glyndebourne’s garden.
They also had the organ room open for us to enjoy.
I’ll see the opera itself on May 25. I am so excited!!!
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