Roger Wright Interview

[Sir Velo]

Roger Wright, Controller of Radio 3, recorded an interview with the editor of Gramophone, Martin Cullingford, just before the Proms Season "kicked off" (sic). In it, inter alia he defends the decision to perform seven Wagner operas, and none by Verdi, which makes sense once the reasoning is explained.

Further on Wright goes on to explain the rationale behind the scheduling of Britten's contemporaries in programmes which feature the late centenarian of Aldeburgh.

The full interview can be heard here.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm listening to it now.

I'm not convinced by the argument that there wasn't enough space for Verdi operas.

[PhilipT]

The talk in the Proms queues was that the only Verdi opera Roger was offered featured singers he didn't think were of the quality he was looking for. Perhaps he thinks it tactful not to say so?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

That would make more sense.

[Sir Velo]

I'm listening to it now.

I'm not convinced by the argument that there wasn't enough space for Verdi operas.

You must have been listening to a different interview as he quite clearly didn't make this point. He said that, at the present moment, there was a golden period of fine Wagner performers around, and of those conductors and singers who were available (and who had made it plain, as Elder did over Parsifal that they wanted to perform Wagner) it made more sense to put on top quality Wagner than lesser drawer Verdi (in terms of performer availability).

[french frank]

That would make more sense.

Poor old Verdi then, if, in his bicentenary, there were no decent performers available!

[Barbirollians]

Poor old Verdi then, if, in his bicentenary, there were no decent performers available!

Indeed, it strikes me as bizarre - quite clearly Pappano and Calleja were available for a start . Is he really suggesting they could not have got a decent cast together for Travaiata for example ?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Opera North's splendid Otello would have met any criteria of artistic merit. A 'phone call to Richard Farnes and I'm sure the cast and orchestra could've arranged their diaries for an evening in South Kensington.

[aeolium]

And Pappano and his Santa Cecilia orchestra were here but the Viva Verdi concert was frustrating for what it might have been. After all they have performed a long Rossini opera at the Proms in recent years.

[Barbirollians]

Opera North's splendid Otello would have met any criteria of artistic merit. A 'phone call to Richard Farnes and I'm sure the cast and orchestra could've arranged their diaries for an evening in South Kensington.

Hear hear

[ahinton]

I openly confess that, my immense respect and admiration for Verdi nothstanding, Wagner's mature stage works do far more for me than do most of Verdi's yet, even so, I still struggle to appreciate and convince myself of either the logic or the veracity of Roger Wright's arguments on this - and I do think that, marvellous though the exposure of Wagner at the Proms has unquestionably been, the comparative sidelining of Verdi alongside it may risk sending out some strange, if not actually wrong, signals of apparent disproportionality; one might ponder on whether the perhaps rare remark in Wagner's favour credited to Verdi upon hearing of the German composer's death, "sad, sad, sad!...a name that will leave a most powerful impression on the history of art" has here been taken to heart in preference to some of his other far less positive ones about him...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

You must have been listening to a different interview as he quite clearly didn't make this point. He said that, at the present moment, there was a golden period of fine Wagner performers around, and of those conductors and singers who were available (and who had made it plain, as Elder did over Parsifal that they wanted to perform Wagner) it made more sense to put on top quality Wagner than lesser drawer Verdi (in terms of performer availability).

This is what he said:

If you... if you commit to seven Wagner operas, then (and we wanted to do a Britten opera - we got Billy Budd from Glyndebourne - and I was particularly keen to get a Tippett opera as a way of celebrating Britten) that gives you nine operatic evenings. It doesn't leave that much .... room, given what else we have to put in, for example to put in some Verdi operas as well.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

If you... if you commite to severn Wagner operas, then (and ... I was particularly keen to bet a Tippett opera as a way of celebrating Britten) that gives you nine operatic evenings. It doesn't leave that much .... room, given what else we have to put in, for example to put in some Verdi operas as well.

Was he drunk?!

Whilst sharing ahinton's greater admiration for Wagner than for Verdi, I personally would have sacrificed Tannhauser (either of them!) for Otello (or Falstaff ... or even Aida. I suspect Britten (seeing that we're "celebrating" him with other composers ) would have agreed.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Ah, as you were typing your reply, I was correcting the typos. But the bit about celebrating Britten with Tippett does sound strange.

[Barbirollians]

The Ring would have been enough - the Tristan, Parsifal and Tannhauser were over-egging the pudding if it meant no Verdi .

I would have swopped them for Otello , Traviata and Don Carlos any day .

I suspect Britten would have preferred Mozart.