We all know there are many different kinds of opera lovers and it definitely takes a specific type of person to fall in love with Wagner! As our production of Götterdämmerung comes to a close, we wanted to share the moments when two opera lovers became devoted Wagnerites.

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Peter Hunt 

I was 22 and walking past the old amphitheatre entrance at the Royal Opera House in London. A guy waved a ticket and said "it’s a good seat and only 30 bob!" I had nothing better planned and had been to a few operas but didn't know any Wagner. It started five minutes later, which is why he was in a hurry to sell. No surtitles and I didn't know what it was about. Anyway, [Birgit] Nilsson, [Gottlieb] Frick, [Wolfgang] Windgassen with Rita Hunter and Gwyneth Jones as Rhinemaidens or Norns, or both. [Georg] Solti conducting with demonic power. It blew my mind, even if I understood nothing.

I have been going to opera ever since, all over the world and averaging nearly 100 nights a year recently, trying to include a Ring Cycle every year. [Last summer I saw] the beautiful [Die] Meistersinger [von Nürnberg] opening night at Glyndebourne [Festival] with top headliners Gerry [Gerald Finley] and Michael [Schade]. It is awesome to have such marvelous Canadians everywhere!

I have been a COC subscriber for around 35 years now.

Above: a trailer for Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg as a part of the 2016 Glyndebourne Festival.

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Shant Alajajian

I was once cautioned against taking up with Wagner. Folks had talked of his ponderous works, his megalomania; his disregard for one’s demanding schedule and attention span, but perhaps it was exactly these qualities that attracted me to him. Tristan and Isolde opened up for me the metaphysics of music, the philosophies of Schopenhauer and Buddhism, and following from that, the realization that the folly of man arises from his insatiable desires, and that love, above all else, remains a redeeming quality in him. Tristan and Isolde is purely sublime. There is really no other way to describe it. This opera comes straight from the mind of an unquestionable genius, a man who undoubtedly succumbed to his prejudices, but who set music alight, and revolutionized it for the delight of modern audiences.

 

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Photo credits (top - bottom): Ain Anger (left) in Götterdämmerung (COC, 2017), photo by Michael Cooper; Melanie Diener and Ben Heppner in Tristan und Isolde (COC, 2013), photo by Michael Cooper.