Exploring Wagner

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The music of Richard Wagner is beautiful and dramatic in a peculiar way. Scholars have talked about how Wagner has a way of tapping into your subconscious, awakening emotions deep within you in ways you can’t quite understand. That could explain why, when Wagner’s great love story “Tristan and Isolde” premiered, husbands would not let their wives see it. And why “The Ride of the Valkyries” winds up in action movies, because of its sheer excitement. Next weekend, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director JoAnn Falletta will be exploring powerful excerpts from some of Wagner’s greatest music dramas. The concert includes the overture to “The Flying Dutchman,” with its gripping images of ghosts and cascading waves, and the smoldering Prelude and Liebestod from “Tristan and Isolde.” Also on the program are excerpts from “The Ring of the Nibelungs.” From “Die Walkuere,” the BPO will play “Wotan’s Farewell” and the dancing, glimmering “Magic Fire Music.” This is from the opera’s heartbreaking closing scene, when Wotan, the king of the gods, punishes his daughter Brunnhilde by putting her to sleep, surrounded by magic fire. From “Goetterdaemmerung,” the audience will hear the poetic, tender “Siegfried’s Rhine Journey” as well as the wrenching “Siegfried’s Funeral Music,” which should sound amazing with the acoustics of Kleinhans Music Hall. Rounding out the program are the mighty “Entrance of the Gods Into Valhalla” from “Das Rheingold” and the famous “Ride of the Valkyries.” Three performances are scheduled. The first takes place at 10:30 a. m. next Friday (one of the BPO’s Coffee Concerts). The concert then repeats at 8 p. m. April 18 and at 2:30 p. m. April 19. Admission is $25 to $57. For information, call 885-5000. —Mary Kunz Goldman

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