Wagner, Richard. (1813–1883)
Der Ring des Nibelungen - 1882 London Broadside Playbill
Her Majesty’s Theatre. Haymarket ... Season 1882. Richard Wagner‘s Der Ring des Nibelungen. A Festival Play for four Nights. Director, Mr. Angelo Neumann, who has been entrusted by Herr Richard Wagner with the sole right of its Performance, and under whose management the brilliant renderings of this unique work were lately given in Berlin and other German Cities with extraordinary success ... First Cycle: May 5, 6, 8, 9 ... [London:] Mallett, Printer ... [1882]. Playbill, 21 x 25.5 cm.The Austrian impresario Angelo Neumann secured the performing rights for the Ring (and the original Bayreuth sets) from Wagner himself, and set out to perform an astonishing 36 cycles in nine months. Wagner‘s health prevented his attending either rehearsals or performance, but Neumann was nevertheless very successful with his first production of the Ring in London, which opening in May of 1882. "Even English royalty helped the Wagnerian cause, as recorded by Ernest Newman: 'Neumann was very successful with this first production of the Ring in London. Thanks to an introduction from the German Crown Prince he managed to get the Prince ow Wales (afterwards King Edward VII) to attend no fewer than eleven of the performances. The Prince had been so charmed by the swimming Rhine Maidens that one performance of the Rhinegold he went behind the scenes to see the apparatus work.'" (John Louis DiGaetani, "Richard Wagner and the Modern British Novel," p. 14-15) Neumann‘s company featured some of the greatest singers of the age, including Hedwig Reicher-Kindermann, Scaria, Schelper, the two Vogls, and Reichmann, with Anton Seidl as conductor. (9833)
Printed Music Opera