May 4, 2008

by: Randy Kinkel

May 04, 2008

Wolfgang Wagner

( Phoenix, AZ )
•Rattle contract extended in berlin
•Wolfgang Wagner steps down in Bayreuth
•Monumental Carmina Burana Planned for O2

It's this week in classical music, an update on what's happenning in the classical music wporld, I'm Randy Kinkel.

The Berlin Philharmonic voted to extend the contract of it's chief conductor, Simon Rattle, last week. The vote came after reports of a "turbulent relationship" between members of the orchestra and Rattle. The Maestro's contract will extend past his current 2012 date but it has not yet been determined what the length of that extention will be.

Wolfgand Wagner, Grandson of composer Richard Wagner, announced he is stepping down from his post as director of the richard Wagner Festival at Bayreuth. The 88-year old has led the festival for the past 57 years. Wolfgang Wagner had a lifelong contract as director of the Wagner festival, which he has managed since 1951. Although he suffered poor health, he had refused to resign unless the festival leadership was handed to his 29-year-old daughter, Katharina Wagner. The stalemate was unlocked when longtime rivals Katharina and 63-year-old Eva Wagner-Pasquier, Wolfgang's daughter from his first marriage, set aside their differences to submit a joint leadership proposal to the foundation that runs the festival. "This wasn't an easy decision,'' said Stefan Mueller, Wolfgang Wagner's lawyer. ''But once it was clear that his two daughters were willing to team up, he thought it was time to leave. Mr. Wagner is convinced that this would be the soundest solution and he thinks it will go through.

A monumental production of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana is planned for next January in England. To be held at O2, the concert venue in the former millenium dome that has recently hosted the Led Zeppelin Reunion concert and world Boxing Championships, will be a first in more ways than one.This production of Carmina Burana has already played to 150,000 on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro and more than a million people in 13 years of worldwide touring. It has not visited Britain before. Franz Abraham, the German impresario behind the production, described his Carmina Burana as "the antiboring classical spectacle". The production features over 250 performers including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Brighton Festival Chorus and Youth Choir, as well as dancers, actors, and singers, A huge, moving central tower provides a backdrop to the spectacle that Orff originally envisaged for his music. There will be fireworks, giant puppets, cannon, vast light projections, masks the size of a man, bungee aerial sequences and "erotic scenes. Walter Haupt, a student and friend of Orff, created the production coming to the O2 and will conduct it. "This is not only the most monumental version of Carmina Burana," Mr Abrahams said. "It is the most authentic version. Orff's widow came to the premiere and had tears in her eyes. She said that this is what he dreamed for his masterpiece."

For more information on these and other items and events, go to the website, kbaq.org, be listening each week at this time, for another update, and join me at noon every weekday for the Mozart Buffet, an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries.I'm Randy Kinkel, for KBA's "This week in Classical Music", on listener-supported, 89-5 KBAQ Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.

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