We are delighted to welcome back both Patrick Carnegy and Christopher Cook to the Wagner Society.  In Wagner’s Theatre, Patrick Carnegy presents the turbulent story of Wagner and his interpreters over the course of the twentieth century. Carnegy gives vivid accounts of Gustav Mahler’s radical reinvention of the Wagnerian stage, and of the post-war rehabilitation of Wagner and his work after Hitler’s appropriation. He also offers sharply written reappraisals of those great Wagnerian conductors Klemperer, Toscanini, Karajan and Solti.

Carnegy provides revealing accounts of the inside-workings of the Royal Opera House and of English National Opera at troubled points in their recent history. In a fascinating conversation with Sir Michael Tippett, the composer talks with unique authority about the problems facing would-be musical dramatists today. Wagner’s Theatre is an essential insight into how interpretations of Wagner have developed, and how we can respond to them.

Since 1967 and his first visit to Bayreuth for The Times, Patrick Carnegy’s principal research interest has been the stage history of Wagner’s works. He was the first person to be appointed Dramaturg (literary and production adviser) at the Royal Opera House and was Stratford-upon-Avon theatre critic for The Spectator, 1998 – 2013. Dr Carnegy’s books include Faust as Musician: a study of Thomas Mann’s “Doktor Faustus” (1973), and the critically acclaimed Wagner and the Art of the Theatre (2006), which won a Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award, and, in the USA, a George Freedley Memorial Award for its ‘outstanding contribution to the history of the theatre’.

Christopher Cook began his career in television, producing for BBC 2 and Channel 4. He broadcasts regularly on BBC Radios 3, 4, and 5. He is a regular contributor to BBC Music Magazine and has written for Gramophone and International Record Review.  He teaches for the University of Syracuse on their London Programme and for the British American Drama Academy, and was a Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts, London. He has chaired pre-concert events for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Hallé Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Study Days at Glyndebourne and at the Royal Opera House, where he also interviews for their ‘In Conversation with …‘ programmes. He has chaired English National Opera’s pre-opera series for eight years. Christopher was the Director of the Cheltenham Festival of Literature in 2004 and Chair of the Cheltenham International Music Festival until 2013.