Word: wagnerities
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Fantastic imagery abounds in two new films of Wagner...
...activity limited to America. Since 1975, Levine has appeared regularly at the prestigious Salzburg Festival in Austria, leading widely acclaimed productions of Mozart's The Magic Flute and La Clemenza di Tito in the composer's home town. When Wolfgang Wagner, grandson of Richard, was seeking a conductor for last summer's centennial production of Parsifal at Bayreuth, Levine was his choice. "Jimmy's star is going up," says a member of the Chicago Symphony. "I don't think anything will interrupt the rise." Levine talks about his ascent to prominence with a characteristic mixture...
...banish interpretive routine to get at the heart of the composer's message. "My function," he says, "is to be a necessary middleman, not a willful, distorting, idiosyncratic, egocentric middleman." His high performance standards are derived from three major influences: Toscanini, Soprano Maria Callas and Director Wieland Wagner. From the incandescent Toscanini, Levine learned the value of a taut, singing musical line. Callas, the indomitable spirit who assaulted her audiences with intense, molten performances, taught Levine that opera must always be convincing as drama, not simply a collection of voices gift wrapped in period costumes. Wagner, who restored Bayreuth...
...assistant conductor at the Met. "He is a conductor, and that is what he is." He is not interested in sports, and he is unconcerned with religion. Although born into a family of Reform Jews, he was never confirmed, and he accepted Bayreuth's invitation to lead Wagner's Christian allegory, Parsifal, in an opera house that, during the Hitler years, was a citadel of Nazism. "I wanted to go to Bayreuth," he explains, "because the only way I know to solve the enigma of Wagner's being a genius and an anti-Semite...
...Director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's request to adjust his rehearsal schedule next season. "Once we counted 40,000 castings arranged over a five-year period," says Levine. "It is a jigsaw puzzle beyond belief." He signs letters and heads into the auditorium for an 11 a.m. rehearsal of Wagner's Tannhäuser...