Columbia University New York, N.Y. 10027 Office of Public Information (212) 854-5573
Richard Wagner, one this century's most controversial cultural figures, will be the focus of discussion at Columbia University this weekend when international scholars gather on the Morningside campus for a three-day symposium beginning Friday titled "Wagner and the Consequences."
Participants will include the conductor Daniel Barenboim, music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the State Opera of Berlin, and Columbia Professor Edward Said, the renowned scholar of modern literature and theory and a noted music critic, in a public discussion on the symposium topic in Miller Theatre Saturday, October 7, from 4 to 6 P.M. (Ticket information: (212) 854-7799.)
Among speakers at other sessions, which will all be held in the Kellogg Center, 15th floor, of the International Affairs Building, 420 W. 118th St. at Amsterdam Avenue, will be Joseph Horowitz, executive director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, and Leon Botstein, president of Bard College and conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra. Distinguished scholars from around the world will address a variety of topics, including the composer's musical legacy, his role in the development of anti-Semitism in Germany, and the reception of his works during the Nazi era.
Conference participants and members of the Wagner Society of New York will view an exhibition in Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library in Butler Library Friday evening of 52 items related to Richard Wagner, all from the University's holdings. The exhibition, on public view through November 3, features selections from the library's major collections of the papers of Anton Seidl, musical secretary to Wagner and later conductor at Bayreuth and the New York Metropolitan Opera; artist and illustrator Arthur Rackham; architect and stage designer Joseph Urban and theatrical artist Robert Wilson. It will be open this Saturday from 1 to 3 P.M. Regular hours are Monday from 12 to 7:45 P.M. and Tuesday through Friday from 9 A.M. to 4:45 P.M.
Professor Mark M. Anderson of Columbia's Department of Germanic Languages, will welcome symposium participants at the opening session at 9:15 Friday. Some of the speakers and their topics over the three-day event: Michael P. Steinberg of Cornell University on "Music Drama and the End of History," Christina von Braun of Humboldt University, Berlin, on "Richard Wagner as Precursor of Modern Mass Media: Sexual Phantasies in Secular Religion," Elisabeth Bronfen of the University of Zurich on "Wagner's Hysteria," Linda Hutcheon and Michael Hutcheon of the University of Toronto on "'Parsifal'/Parsyphilization," Ernst Piper, a Munich publisher, on "Bayreuth-the 'Perfection of the Aryan Mystery': Wagner in Nazi Cultural Politics" and Andreas Huyssen of Columbia on "Monumental Seductions."
Attendance at the symposium is by registration, which may be made at the Kellogg Center, and payment of a $30 fee for all three days, $15 per day (half price for members of the Wagner Society of New York). There will be a separate charge for the Barenboim-Said discussion.
Organizers of the conference are Professor Anderson and David J. Levin of the Department of Germanic Languages, Professor Said, Professor Walter Frisch of the Department of Music, Deutsches House at Columbia, and the German Academic Exchange Service. The Barenboim-Said discussion is co-sponsored by Goethe House-New York, Deutsches Haus and the Miller Theatre.
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