Why not name him Bruno---a Czech gargoyle from the gothic St. James Church of Brno. I’ve always loved these leering, nightmarish creatures of stone---especially the ones perched high in the air, as they’ve seen it all.Today we had the most exquisitely balmy spring weather in Vienna, but I elected to spend two hours in a concert hall, thinking that I would see a performance of Wagner’s Siegfried at the Staatsoper, advertised as a matinee. Now I know why tickets could be had for as little as 1.5 Euros---this was no ‘performance’ matinee, but an intense and at times jovial panel discussion, with Sven-Eric Bechtolf (director) and Franz Welser-Möst (conductor), focusing on the upcoming production of Siegfried. Their topics ranged from ‘what Hitler could have learned from Wagner’ to the deep and seamless connections between drama, lyrics, and music in this—and indeed all—of Wagner’s operas. The discussion was amplified and embellished by selections from the opera performed by two singers, and with film clips...sadly, none from "What's Opera, Doc?" with Elmer Fudd's Siegfried in hot pursuit of Bugs Bunny, in drag as Brünnhilde.
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