Wagner Gala

Artists:

• Olena Androsiuk, soprano
• Olesia Bubela, soprano
• Oleksandr Zozulia, baritone
• Lviv National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra 
• Myron Yusypovych, conductor

Program:

• Richard Wagner.
  • Coming of Guests from the opera “Tannhäuser”
  • Introduction to Act I of the opera “Lohengrin”
  • Elsa’s Dream from Act 1 of the opera “Lohengrin”
  • Funeral March from the opera “Twilight of the Gods”
  • Overture to the opera “Tannhäuser”
  • Elisabeth’s aria “Dich, teure Halle” from the opera “Tannhäuser”
  • Wolfram’s Romance “O du mein holder Abendstern” from the opera “Tannhäuser”
  • Introduction and Death of Isolde from the opera “Tristan und Isolde”
  • Introduction to Act III of the opera “Lohengrin”

Richard Wagner wrote 13 operas. His works – amazingly innovative, full of expression, tension, in terms of musical language, were ahead of their time and caused a dizzying wave of admiration for his work among contemporaries and descendants.

If we make a list of the characters, scenes, costumes, and objects that abound in Wagner’s operas, we will find a fascinating universe before us. Dragons, dwarfs, giants, gods and demigods, spears, helmets, swords, trumpets, rings, horns, harps, rainbows, swans, lakes, rivers, mountains, fires, seas and ships, and on them – miraculous phenomena and disappearances, bowls with poison and magic drinks, disguises, enchanted castles, fortresses, duels, impregnable peaks, underwater and terrestrial abysses, flowering gardens, hideous evil creatures, immaculate and eternally young beauties, priests and knights, passionate lovers, cunning sages, powerful rulers and those suffering from evil spells…

Magic and witchcraft reign in his works, and the constant background of everything is the struggle between good and evil, sin and salvation, darkness and light. To describe all this, the music must be special, dressed in luxurious clothes, full of small details, like a great adventure novel, inspired by fantasy, in which anything can happen.

Even when Richard Wagner tells about ordinary events close to ordinary people, he always tries to get away from everyday life: to depict love, its charm, contempt for dangers, unlimited personal freedom. All adventures arise spontaneously for him, and the music turns out to be natural, flowing as if there were no obstacles in its path: it has a power that dispassionately embraces life, turning it into a miracle. It easily and outwardly carefreely moves from the pedantic imitation of music before the 19th century to the most amazing innovations and music of the future.