{"id":565,"date":"2022-07-26T13:32:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T17:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/?p=565"},"modified":"2022-10-26T13:35:31","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T17:35:31","slug":"traveling-to-bayreuth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/traveling-to-bayreuth\/","title":{"rendered":"Traveling to Bayreuth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Jacksonville Symphony may not have any performances until opening night on September 30th<\/sup>, but the summer months are usually a welter of activity for musicians. I especially enjoy attending music festivals to hear other orchestras, gaining inspiration from my colleagues. I have just returned from the Bravo! Vail music festival in Colorado, where I heard the Philadelphia Orchestra play three magnificent concerts (including a Tchaikovsky Path\u00e9tique<\/em> accompanied by a thunderstorm) amid the Rockies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next week I travel to Bayreuth, Germany, to the music festival that Richard Wagner founded in 1876 solely for the performances of his own operas. In perhaps the most extraordinary example of egotism in musical history, Wagner chose the quiet town as the perfect environment in which to build an opera theatre to his exact specifications, allowing listeners to spend unadulterated time contemplating his mammoth music dramas. For Wagner lovers, Bayreuth is the equivalent of Mecca, with waiting times for tickets well over ten years. Over the course of a week, we will hear the entire four-opera cycle, The Ring of the Nibelung<\/em>, sung by a world-class cast. The opera house itself is a wonder with a famous orchestra pit, nicknamed the \u2018mystical abyss,\u2019 that sinks deep under the stage allowing the orchestra to play full volume with no danger of covering the singers\u2019 voices. Nothing has changed since the Festspielhaus<\/em> opened in 1876: trumpets, playing themes from that night\u2019s opera will call the faithful into the house, where we will sit in tuxedos on the same wooden seats Wagner designed, with no air conditioning, for four operas with an average length of three hours. Not for the faint-hearted, but tremendously exciting for this Wagnerite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amidst this travel, we\u2019re preparing for next season. Away from the Symphony, I\u2019m looking forward to starting to teach conducting students at the University of North Florida, strengthening the Symphony\u2019s collaboration with UNF\u2019s excellent music department. At Jacoby Symphony Hall, we\u2019ve put together a tremendously varied program for all of you. I\u2019m especially excited about our new production of my favorite Mozart opera, The Magic Flute<\/em>, which we will perform in English with a spectacular cast. We will welcome back some of your favorite guest artists, including cellist Joshua Roman and phenom pianists Alessio Bax and Conrad Tao. One of my happiest memories of last season was the standing ovation for composer Tarik O\u2019Regan\u2019s brand new piece, Trances. <\/em>It\u2019s such a thrill to bring new music into the world right here in Jacksonville, and we\u2019ll continue our commitment to the music of today next season, with a new piece by American composer Sean Shepherd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two new musicians also join the Symphony family. After a years\u2019-long search, Adelya Nartadjieva begins as our new concertmaster. Some of you may have heard Adelya perform at our final classical concert of last season. We are delighted she\u2019s joining us full time in September; I know her leadership and breathtaking playing will help us achieve great things together. And Kevin Fitzgerald starts his tenure as associate conductor. Kevin comes to us from the Alabama Symphony and the Tanglewood Music Festival. He’ll be conducting a wide range of concerts from pops to Symphony in 60, and I know you will enjoy his infectious enthusiasm for music! The opening of the season is only eight short weeks away. We can\u2019t wait to see you back at Jacoby Symphony Hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Jacksonville Symphony may not have any performances until opening night on September 30th, but the summer months are usually a welter of activity for musicians. I especially enjoy attending music festivals to hear other orchestras, gaining inspiration from my colleagues. I have just returned from the Bravo! Vail music festival in Colorado, where I heard the Philadelphia Orchestra play three magnificent concerts (including a Tchaikovsky Path\u00e9tique accompanied by a thunderstorm) amid the Rockies.  Next week I travel to Bayreuth, Germany, to the music festival that Richard Wagner founded in 1876 solely for the performances of his own operas. In perhaps the most extraordinary example of egotism in musical history, Wagner chose the quiet town as the perfect environment in which to build an opera theatre to<\/p>\n

Continue readingTraveling to Bayreuth<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"nfd_image_url":"","nfd_onboarding_generated":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conducting-electricity","category-jacksonvillesymphony"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":566,"href":"https:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565\/revisions\/566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}