Professor Nicholas Vazsonyi – "What is Isolde Inhaling?"

Yes, you read correctly – this program will be on a Sunday.  The Wagner Society is delighted to welcome back Professor Nicholas Vazsonyi to our program schedule.  At his last talk in October 2010, Vazsonyi talked about Wagner as an icon – a brand name.   Unfortunately, because the talk was scheduled for the same day as the Met HD of Das Rheingold and so the attendance wasn’t as good as we had expected.

You might be asking, “WHY Sunday?”.   When preparing the schedule we could find no other available dates during the month of November.  The JCC-SF was booked solid.  And since the Professor will be in town for the American Musicological Association Convention, we decided to seize the opportunity to present a talk from this dynamic speaker.

In his talk “What is Isolde Inhaling?”,  Professor Vazsonyi will take a closer look at the concluding moments of Tristan und Isolde and offer a new interpretation of the text. This will be based on a discussion of Wagner’s writings on music as well as a look at clues offered earlier in the opera. Vazsonyi’s talk last year was extremely interesting and provocative.  The Wagner Society is excited to have the opportunity to hear him again.