Wagner’s thrilling Tristan and Isolde is being performed in Auckland on Saturday. It’s an all-day event -- not just because of the perceptive Peter Bassett’s pre-concert talk,*but because each act of Tristan is as long as your Italian operas!
But in the concert hall that matters not at all. Each act seems to last no time at all. (And it’s perfect for “angsty teenagers.”)
It starts with the Tristan chord, and ends with an orgasm.
The orgasm you’ll hear about on Friday. The Tristan Chord, the most discussed musical noise in history, today. From the moment it first rung out over an astonished concert hall in 1848, it changed music.
Perfectly integrated with the drama it was about to tell, the stunning piece of music told the tension of Isolde and Tristan’s impossible love. It told the tale in music, the union of two phrases describing the love …
Legend has it that when Richard Wagner read Arthur Schopenhauer’s miserabilist magnum opus, The World as Will and Representation, Wagner immediately understood his life’s calling. Schopenhauer’s message was that man is doomed to be cut off forever from knowledge of the seething irrationality of the World Will—the best to be hoped for is some feeling about what underlies reality.
Ignoring the gloom, what Wagner took from his Schopenhauer was that true reality could be revealed to us only through two mediums: sex, and music. To which he responded, “I’m the man!” and out of him came Tristan and Isolde.
More about that tomorrow…
* Tristan und Isolde under the microscope
Join noted Wagner author, speaker and broadcaster Peter Bassett for an engaging and revealing analysis of Richard Wagner’s most inspired work.
10am – 12noon, Saturday 19 July 2014
The Langham Hotel, 83 Symonds Street, Auckland
Tickets are $25 and can be paid for on the door.
Refreshments are included.
RSVP to pgbassett@bigpond.com
Seating is limited..
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