Alexander Rothe Lecture on Chéreau’s Bayreuth Centennial Ring Cycle

Alexander Rothe will deliver a lecture on "Revisiting Chéreau’s Bayreuth Centennial Ring Cycle Forty Years Later" on Sunday, December 4, 2016, at 2:00pm at the Liederkranz Foundation, 6 East 87th Street.

Rothe is a Core Lecturer in Music Humanities at Columbia University, where he received his Ph.D. in Musicology in 2015. 

When the Bayreuth centennial Ring cycle, now a classic, first appeared in 1976, audience members and demonstrators were outraged. On the 40th anniversary of this legendary staging, it is imperative to return to the controversial aspects that make it so meaningful today. While Chéreau depicts the modern state as a totalitarian-like force, Boulez focuses instead on the artistic innovations of the music. Both artists approach the theme of Wagner the revolutionary to comment on their own involvement in the May 1968 protests in France. For further information and background see Rothe's blog

Wagner Society members and students are free, and non-members will be charged $10.00. No reservations required. More details about the Wagner Society may be found at www.wagnersocietyny.org.