Shining a spotlight on Verdi and Wagner's legacies

Beijing Music Festival salutes two of the greatest composers the world has known, Chen Jie reports.

Yu Long, artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival, says music is an art that has passed from one generation to another. "It is those great composers who guide us to walk all the way here. Their music comforts us, inspires us and sometimes drives us mad," Yu says. So every year, the BMF pays tribute to those great musicians and invites all music fans to enjoy their legacy. This year, as the whole world is celebrating the 200th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner, the BMF will devote most of its programs to salute the two opera giants.

"Both are geniuses," Yu says. "They not only created great music but shaped the musical life of people in their countries. Verdi comforts the human spirit while Wagner is the one who drives you mad. His music makes you feel willing to die like Isolde."

On Oct 4, Yu will conduct the China Philharmonic Orchestra in performing a gala concert to kick off the monthlong festival.

Chinese soprano He Hui, Serbian soprano Milica Ilic and Hungarian mezzo-soprano Ildiko Komlosi will sing the trademark arias of Verdi and Wagner's operas such as Wagner's Tannhauser and Tristan and Isolde, and Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, Rigoletto and Aida.

Verdi's fans will have two concerts and three operas: Rigoletto, Il Trovatore and La Traviata.

"Talking about opera, Verdi is one of the top three composers you would think of," says Tu Song, BMF's program director. "Verdi created some of the most beloved operas of all time, from the romantic La Traviata to Shakespearian dramas Macbeth, Otello and Falstaff. Many of his arias are considered the greatest songs ever written, streaming out of opera houses into football stadiums and even the charts."

But in critic Tang Ruofu's eyes, Wagner is more versatile and ambitious.

"Different from other opera composers, Wagner wrote both the score and the libretto. He created the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) and more importantly, he raised funds to run the annual Bayreuth Festival and build his own opera house Bayreuth Festival Theater. It was there that the Ring cycle and Parsifal premiered."

In 1885, two years after the composer's death, the Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick called Wagner "the world's first regisseur (theater director)". Tang thinks he was the first producer and had great impact on opera.

"You could criticize Wagner's political views but it's not his fault that he was loved by Hitler and listened to surreptitiously by Speer, Hess and Von Schirach in their Spandau Prison," Tang adds.

In 2005, the BMF debuted the full-length Ring cycle in China and in 2008, it presented Tannhauser. This year, the festival collaborates with Salzburg Easter Festival, Saxon State Opera Dresden and Teatro Real Madrid to produce Wagner's last opera, Parsifal, and makes its debut in China to close this year's festival on Oct 29 and 31.

Except for those two opera giants, this year's festival also celebrates the centennial of British composer Benjamin Britten (1913-76) and 80-year-old "living legend" Krzysztof Penderecki.

On Oct 5, Charles Dutoit will conduct Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, London Voice Chorus and Shanghai Spring Children's Choir to play Britten's War Requiem.

On Oct 8, the young Hangzhou Symphony Orchestra and London Voice Chorus will perform a concert version of Britten's opera Peter Grimes. Both works will be premiered in China.

The Polish composer Penderecki will conduct the China National Symphony Orchestra for two concerts of his works including his 2012 work Double Concerto for Violin, Viola and Orchestra and his Symphony No 8"Songs of Transience", which was commissioned by the BMF and premiered in 2007.

Chinese music and musicians are always one of the festival's major points. This year, BMF commissioned Chinese composer Zhou Long to score Nine Odes, a symphony epic for four vocalists and orchestra, based on poems by the Chinese poet Qu Yuan.

In 2010, the BMF and Opera Boston co-commissioned Zhou to create the opera Madame White Snake, which earned him the Pulitzer Award in 2011 and became the first Chinese musician to win the prize.

As always, the festival will also present free concerts for children, the crossover concerts featuring jazz, pop, movie music and master classes for conservatory students.

Contact the writer at chenjie@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 09/27/2013 page18)