Treat for fans as Wagner work to be staged in Beijing
In 1967, the first Salzburg Easter Festival presented a production of Richard Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung, also known as Ring Cycle, conducted by Herbert von Karajan (1908-89).
That year, Jaap van Zweden was a 7-year-old boy, who loved playing football and the violin.
Five decades later, Van Zweden, the Dutch conductor, who is the music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic and will be the next music director of the New York Philharmonic starting with the 2018-19 season, will take the baton and lead the Hong Kong Philharmonic to perform Die Walkure, one section of the Ring Cycle, based on the original version of Karajan.
The joint production of the Beijing Music Festival and the Salzburg Easter Festival is to mark the 50th anniversary of the Salzburg Easter Festival and pay tribute to the conductor, Karajan. It will be staged in Beijing on Tuesday and Friday.
Die Walkure, or The Valkyrie, is a three-act music drama, the second of the four works which form Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung.
Based on characters from the Norse sagas and the German epic poem, The Song of the Nibelungs, the libretto and music were written by Wagner over the course of 26
If you go
years, from 1848 onward.
“When you look at history, it’s like time travel. I believe in eternity and the cycle of life. I feel honored that I have the chance to bring back the production from 1967,” says Van Zweden in Beijing.
Since his childhood, music has been an irresistible attraction for Van Zweden.
Born in Amsterdam to a music-loving family, he received his first violin lessons at the age of 5. He began his conducting career in 1995.
Appointed as the music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic in 2012, he heads one of the largest and busiest music organizations in Hong Kong, presenting more than 150 concerts every year.
Under Van Zweden, the Hong Kong Philharmonic offers a variety of initiatives, including a four-year project to perform and record the complete Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung since 2014.
The performances recorded live for the world’s leading classical music label — Naxos label — have won positive reviews internationally.
“You are not a complete musician if you don’t play Wagner. An orchestra is not a complete orchestra if they don’t play Wagner,” Van Zweden says.
Van Zweden says Wagner’s music is timeless. “It’s the conductor that combines the performances of the singers and the orchestra from the contemporary world with Wagner’s music.”
He also calls Karajan “an inspirational figure”, who taught him to interpret music by Wagner.
Yu Long, the artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival, says: “Marking the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Music Festival, we are thrilled to bring back the historical Karajan creation with Van Zweden. We look forward to seeing how the play is reinterpreted for our time.”
The BMF has staged Wagner’s Tannhauser, Tristan and Isolde The Master-Singers of Nuremberg and Parsifal.
In 2005, it took 15 hours over four nights for The Ring Cycle premiere in China.
This production of Die Walkure will feature an international cast, including the Bulgarian director Vera Nemirova and Australian operatic tenor Stuart Skelton.