Article:
ISSUE No. 9 March - April 2008

Dresden State Orchestra Performs in Abu Dhabi
Great Wagner Evening at the Emirates Palace

One of the oldest and most renowned orchestras in the world, the Dresden State Orchestra, is coming to the Emirate and will perform on March 8th for all Wagner fans. The Abu Dhabi Wagner Society is sponsoring this top class performance in the auditorium of the luxurious Emirates Palace. Star conductor Fabio Luisi will direct the orchestra and will let Wagner’s overtures and interludes resound in these noble halls.

Dresden State Orchestra – Wagner’s Miracle Harp

The Dresden State Orchestra was founded nearly 460 years ago in Saxony and is among the oldest orchestras in the world. Famous composers like Beethoven, Strauss and Wagner already praised their professionalism and declared the group as the best orchestra in the world.
Wagner called the ensemble "Miracle Harp" and was continuously inspired by their musical offerings. Even today, the orchestra astounds classical music fans with their distinctive sound. Under the direction of the best conductors and composers, numerous operas have made their debut in Dresden during the last several hundred years. The orchestra’s repertoire encompasses the entire range from baroque music to today's popular tunes. Back in Dresden, at the restored Semper Opera, the curtain goes up 250 times each year.

Lohengrin on the Gulf

The first Richard Wagner Society in the Arab World was founded last year in Abu Dhabi. The society already has 30 members, including several citizens of the UAE. As a prelude, a first class concert with six Wagner Singers was held last February. The singers performed a summary of their broad repertoire from "The flying Dutchman", "Parsifal", "Lohengrin", "Tannhäuser" and the world-famous "Valkyrie". There are roughly 140 active Wagner Societies worldwide who support artists and also those who are interested in Wagner on Wagner’s terms. They spread Wagner’s legacy and wishes for a better understanding of his music and support the upcoming musical Wagner talents.

The State Orchestra on its way to the Middle East

For the first time in the renowned orchestra’s history, the musicians will find themselves traveling to the Middle East. A Wagner concert is scheduled for March 8th in the luxurious ambience of the Emirates Palace. The invited guests, including 400 Wagnerians from Germany, will enjoy a performance by the entire ensemble of the Dresden State Orchestra. All of the 110 musicians will come from the homeland for this concert. Concertgoers will be able to enjoy the powerful music in the totally filled auditorium. The string-section will be sixty members strong that evening and will raise the roof of the concert hall. Powerful excerpts from “Rienzi”, “Tristan & Isolde” and “Tannhäuser” will please the audience.
The concert will be transmitted live to Germany, Japan and China. A DVD will be recorded during this performance as it will be the first ever documented Wagner concert with this magnitude of performers.
Ronald Perlwitz, General Secretary of the Arab Wagner Society, sees this performance as only the beginning for annual concerts. Perlwitz wants to bring Wagner to the Gulf and plans to organize regular opera evenings in the future: "It may seem paradoxical at first to have an artist who is considered very German, Richard Wagner, stir so much excitement in the Emirates. But this is the wrong paradox. First and foremost, Wagner is a romantic; he continues the traditions of Novalis, Friedrich Schlegel, and E.T.A. Hoffmann. With the same purpose in mind he tries to reach the point where the generally humane feelings are, thus bringing all people to the common denominator. His art reached a universality which in Germany was strongly intertwined in war and post-war clichés, but often overlooked.
When students without any classical music training come to my office to check out Wagner operas and listen to Tannhäuser or Tristan for an evening, I believe the romantic side of Wagner’s music is working. Wagner’s stories are universal. They are about artistic and social revolutions, about breaking the mold, love, heroism and religion. These are themes that should address any young person. I emphasize “should”, because in Germany we have adopted the lethargic American “Fast Food Culture” so deeply that most young people run from the downward spiral that comes with Wagner’s music. Whoever continues to sail in shallow waters will never venture out to the open seas, even though their forefathers may have explored them.
What impresses me when I look at the youth in this country is that they are not afraid to set sail for the open seas and don’t resign themselves to drowning out their own ghosts with Hip-Hop or Techno drones. Maybe it’s because they are surrounded by those norms that penetrate Wagner’s music. We have not thrown out all social norms in Europe either, but sadly we have made ourselves wonderfully comfortable within them. Romance is international. Romance was at home in Germany during the 19th century, today it is returning to the Middle East with all its fascinations.
The Dresden State Orchestra concert in Abu Dhabi is financially backed almost entirely by Emiratis, a fact which offers additional proof that Wagner has found a new and true home on the Gulf. The master from Bayreuth would have liked it."