Dear Wagner Society NSW friends
WSNSW — NEXT EVENT: PROFESSOR THEA BREJZEK ON REVOLUTIONARY SWISS STAGE DESIGNER ADOLPHE APPIA – in-person event at 2.00pm, Sunday 18 April at the Goethe Institut
Program:
12.30pm: DVD – Ludwig II Castles in Bavaria
2.00pm: Professor Thea Brejzek talks about revolutionary
Swiss stage designer Adophe Appia
3.30pm: Afternoon tea
Goethe Institut, 90 Ocean Street, Woollahra
Members of the public are most welcome!
Members $25 / non-members $30 / full-time students $10
Amazing to think the the last time we met at the Goethe was on 27 October 2019, for a talk by fellow member Dr Robert Mitchell on ‘Wagner & Paris’. How nice it will be to get together in person here once again.
Registration: Please register by replying to this email if you will be attending. This is important – we need to know how many will be attending for the purposes of Covid-19 regulations and catering.
Pre-pay (optional): by using your bank’s internet banking facilities to send your payment electronically – listing your name – to Westpac Banking Corporation, Paddington NSW Branch.
Account Name: The Wagner Society / BSB: 032040 / Account Number: 911323
or
Pay at the door: preferably cashless by those who have not pre-paid (as encouraged by Covid-19 safety measures)
On arrival: COVID Safe check-in using a QR code by those attending.
Catering: There will be catering served to members of the audience in accordance with Covid-19 regulations.
About Adolphe Appia
Adolphe Appia (1862 – 1928) was a Swiss architect whose theories of staging, use of space, and lighting have had a lasting influence on modern stagecraft, helping to bring a new realism and creativity to theatrical production, and to evoke an atmosphere rather than representing a concrete place. His ideas have influenced later stagings, including those of Wieland Wagner.
Appia is best known for his many scenic designs for Wagner’s operas. He rejected painted two-dimensional sets for three-dimensional “living” sets because he believed that shade was as necessary as light to form a connection between the actor and the setting of the performance in time and space. Through the use of control of light intensity, colour and manipulation, Appia created a new perspective of scene design and stage lighting.
About Professor Thea Brejzek
Dr Thea Brejzek is Professor in the Interior Architecture Program at UTS and teaches regularly at the Institute for Theatre, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna.
Thea has a background in opera stage directing and theatre studies and until 2012 was a Professor at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Switzerland and the Director of the practice-informed PhD program Scenography in a collaboration between Zurich and the University of Vienna.
She publishes and lectures widely on the history and theory of scenography and performative environments.
About the DVD on Ludwig II castles in Bavaria [12.30pm]
Ludwig II of Bavaria followed family precedent in undertaking an extravagant building programme during his relatively short reign from 1864 to 1886.
The castles constructed on his orders included the romantic Neuschwanstein and the magnificent Schloss Linderhof, with its elaborate formal gardens, grottos and fountains. Ludwig was fascinated by Wagner and his operas, on subjects that had long been dear to him. These include Lohengrin, which Ludwig first saw in 1861, the beginning of his preoccupation with Wagner, and the earlier Tannhäuser.
This beautiful documentary explores Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and the Munich Residenz Nibelungen Hall, with music by Wagner and Marschner.
With warm regards from the President and Committee of Wagner Society in NSW.
