A Conversation with Andrew Whitfield: Wagner, The Revolutionary

*** Due to an unexpected conflict, we have had to cancel this event.

Central to this year's Art vs. Artist programming theme is the question:

How do we reconcile the work of an artist with a life and legacy that includes elements which sometimes profoundly challenge our contemporary values? 

Please join us as Minnesota Opera's Associate Conductor and Chorus Master, Andrew Whitfield, takes us on an exploration of Wagner's political legacy as a revolutionary.

Although Wagners' operas have been coopted by various ideologies, from the Bolsheviks to the Nazis, for their political gain, his personal politics were often self-contradictory and didn't embrace the existing dogmas of political thought that were circulating in the 19th century. However, early writings, as well has his involvement in the Dresden uprising, paint a picture of a young Wagner who, like the rest of Europe, was becoming more conscious of the vast inequality between the elite and the working classes. In this lecture, we will examine Wagner the revolutionary, and how his politics manifested in the Ring Cycle.