High Life

根据瓦格纳遗孀柯西玛的日记记载，他曾说：“莫扎特某些成就，是 后世所永远不能比拟的。”然而，瓦格纳的铁杆支持者们，尤其是 听过《尼伯龙根的指环》的人，却可能会有其他见解。 Quoted from his wife Cosima’s diaries, Richard Wagner said that “certain things in Mozart will and can never be excelled.” The most ardent Wagnerites, especially those who have listened to his Der Ring des Nibelungen , however, may have other ideas. PLAY 在 芸芸众多作曲家中，只有极少数人享有姓氏衍生出名祖形容词的殊荣，德 国作曲家兼剧作家理查德·瓦格纳是其中之一。《牛津英语辞典》对「瓦 格纳式/ 的」一词之定义为「拥有如瓦格纳歌剧般巨大的戏剧性规模和强度」。 通过作品和写作，瓦格纳新创了不少德语音乐术语，它们甚至进入了其他众多语 言的词汇中。「瓦格纳式/ 的」一词向来是畏怯微小的反义词，以及宏伟激烈的 同义词。 在荷兰籍音乐总监梵志登的指挥下，香港管弦乐团于2015年起，以音乐会 形式逐年演出瓦格纳的史诗式歌剧巨著《尼伯龙根的指环》，并由拿索斯唱片进 行现场录音及公开发行。2018年初，随着《诸神的黄昏》的成功演出，长达四 年的瓦格纳之旅亦告一段落。对任何乐团而言，无论以歌剧或音乐会形式演出整 部《尼伯龙根的指环》，均是不可磨灭的艺术成就。踏入21世纪以来，完成此壮 举的无一不是世界一流乐团，如俄罗斯圣彼得堡马林斯基歌剧院、丹麦哥本哈根 皇家歌剧院、美国纽约大都会歌剧院和德国法兰克福歌剧院等。 P recious few composers had the privilege of their surnames being immortalized as eponymous adjectives, RichardWagner being one of them, and the Oxford English Dictionary defines the word “Wagnerian” as “having the enormous dramatic scale and intensity of a Wagner opera.” Through his work and writing, Wagner coined a number of German musical terms that entered the lexicon of numerous languages. The word “Wagnerian” is the antonym of meek and minute, the synonym of immensity and intensity. Under the baton of Dutch maestro Jaap van Zweden, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra embarked on an ambitious four-year project in 2015 to performWagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (the Ring Cycle) as concert operas, one per year, with live recordings made for release on the Naxos label. In 2018, the epic journey ended with a commendable rendition of Götterdämmerung . For any orchestra to complete the Ring Cycle , whether in the form of opera or concert opera, is an indelible achievement. Since the beginning of the 21st century, this has been achieved by first-rate ensembles such as the Mariinsky Opera, Royal Danish Opera, Metropolitan Opera and Frankfurt Opera.