The Wagner Society of Washington, D.C.  announces its final event of the
year, a lecture by the Princeton University Russian music expert

Simon Morrison
on
"Tchaikovsky's Miracle"

Thursday, December 9, 2004, at 7:30 P.M., at the George Washington
University, Funger Hall, 2201 G Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.  The
program will be free and open to the public.


In an illustrated lecture, Simon Morrison will show how Tchaikovsky's
ballet The Sleeping Beauty, which dates from about the same time as
Wagner's last music drama Parsifal, is the antithesis of Wagner's teachings
and all that Wagner caused to happen in music.  Morrison notes that
Tchaikovsky emphasized melodies instead of motifs, set pieces over the
continuous musical development that Wagner preferred, major and minor
keys over chromaticism, and fairytale characters over figures from myth
and legend.  He believes that The Sleeping Beauty is a very classical
work composed for romantic times.  He will examine three dream-like
sections of this ballet, interpreting each as a critical response to
Wagner's aesthetics and creative processes.  He will accompany his lecture
with sound and video illustrations.

Simon Morrison is a member of the music faculty of Princeton University.
He is the ground-breaking author of Russian Opera and the Symbolist
Movement (2002), which explores the occult fascinations of Russian artists
during the "Silver Age" of Russian culture, 1890-1917.  He is at work
on a new book, Ballet Imagined: Essays on the Ontology of Music and
Dance.  This book has required pioneering research in Russia into the
lost choreography of six major ballets.  His search to understand their
music also led him to start ballet training at the age of thirty-seven.
He is working to stage one of the lost ballets, Pas d'Acier, by Sergei
Prokofiev and Georigii Yakulov, at Princeton in April 2005.

The Wagner Society of Washington, D.C.  is a private non-profit organization
devoted to the study and enjoyment of Richard Wagner's art and to the
development of Wagner singers.  Most of its events are free to members
and the public.  The Wagner Society welcomes new members and contributions
throughout the year.  Membership forms and other information are available
at the Society's Website or by calling the Society.

The Wagner Society of Washington, D.C.
P.O. Box 33051
Washington, D.C. 20033
Telephone 301.907.2600
Facsimile 301.907.8671
http://www.wagner-dc.org

Posted by

Janice Rosen, Founder