IN RE WAGNER
STAATSSTREICHER & THOMAS DE MAIZIÈRE
Violists of the Staatskapelle Berlin one and all, the »Staatsstreicher« – we leave it up to you whether you prefer to translate this pun as »State String Players« or »putschists« – enjoy their occasional forays into other genres. On these excursions, they regularly work with prominent reciters, most of them also moonlighting far from their main professions. Today’s concert focuses on the main work of the (fictitious) author Ernst von Pidde (1877-1966), judge at a district court in his day job. His posthumous book »Richard Wagners ›Ring des Nibelungen‹ im Lichte des deutschen Strafrechts« (Richard Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung considered under the aspect of German Criminal Law) offers a relentless assessment of Wagner’s tetralogy, which is revealed as a conglomerate of serious crimes. Whether murder or manslaughter, abduction or theft, arson or cruelty to animals: Wagner’s gods, heroes and giants don’t stop at anything. The unusual viola quartet has taken on the guise of the »Comedian Violists« to offer a humorous commentary on Richard Wagner and his »Ring«. Recited by the experienced jurist and former Federal Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Maizière, it includes musical arrangements and pasticcios from the »Ring«, »Der Fliegende Holländer«, »Lohengrin« and »Parsifal«, but also »Der Rosenkavalier« and »Don Giovanni«.
STAATSSTREICHER VIOLA QUARTET OF THE STATE OPERA UNTER DEN LINDEN BERLIN
THOMAS DE MAIZIÈRE RECITATION
A humorous legal examination of »Richard Wagner’s ›Ring des Nibelungen‹ considered under the aspect of German Criminal Law«, combined with light-hearted opera pasticcios arranged for viola quartet
7.30 pm
Löwensaal
THIS CONCERT IS PART OF THE SERIES »WAGNER PLUS«