Dresdner Musikfestspiele: Staatsstreicher & Thomas de Maizière

About the Event

An inspiring performance by the Staatsstreich Bratschenquartett with a reading by Thomas de Maizière (former interior minister of the Federal Republic of Germany).
All of them violists at the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Staatsstreicher like to poach on paths away from their usual repertoire. In doing so, they also work together with well‐known reciters, who in turn enter unfamiliar terrain for this. Tonight's concert focuses on the main work of the fictitious author Ernst von Pidde (1877‐1966), who was once a district judge in real life. His posthumously published book Richard Wagner's 'Ring of the Nibelung' in the Light of German Criminal Law is a relentless reappraisal of Wagner's tetralogy, which the author exposes as a conglomeration of the most serious crimes. Whether murder or manslaughter, abduction or theft, arson or animal cruelty: Wagner's gods, heroes and giants are capable of any outrage. The unusual viola quartet has now come together as the “Comedian Violists” to humorously comment on Richard Wagner and his “Ring”. They accompany Pidde's text, spoken by the experienced lawyer and former German minister of the interior Thomas de Maizière, with musical collages from, among others, the “Ring”, the “Flying Dutchman”, “Lohengrin”, “Parsifal”, but also from “Rosenkavalier” and “Don Giovanni”.
A tongue‐in‐cheek legal discussion of “Richard Wagner's ‘Ring of the Nibelung’ in the light of German criminal law” combined with opera summaries for viola quartet that have gone astray into the world of entertainment music.