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WORLD STAGES: Wagner, Max! Wagner! (United States)
Friday, September 25, 2015 - Saturday, September 26, 2015
World premiere! This new song cycle created by Tony and Obie Award winners Stew & Heidi Rodewald (Passing Strange) irreverently explores the surprising connection between the music-myths of composer Richard Wagner and the blues.
About
World premiere
Wagner, Max! Wagner!
Stew and the Wagner Problem (United States)
Part of the Kennedy Center WORLD STAGES series
In honor of the recent 200th anniversary year of composer Richard Wagner's birth, the Kennedy Center presents a new co-commissioned song cycle created by Tony and Obie Award winners Stew & Heidi Rodewald (Passing Strange, the Tony-nominated Broadway production made into a film by Spike Lee). Through music, poetry, text by Berlin author Freya Stewart, and video, the work irreverently creates and explores the surprising connection between the music-myths of both Wagner and the blues, blending Wagner's best-known melodies within the acclaimed creators' eclectic mix of rock and cabaret music.
"Both [Wagner and the blues] have been said to directly and indirectly reflect aspects of their respective cultures that many would like to forget," says Stew, referring to the Nazis' propagandistic use of Wagner as well as the blues' painful echoes of slavery. "The show examines our fear of both."
Explore the Arts
Free post-performance discussion on Sep. 25 at 7 p.m.
Recommended for age 15 and up.
Performance Timing: 90 minutes, with no intermission.
Note: Heidi and Stew Rodewald will sign CDs following the performance, in the States Gallery outside the Terrace Theater.
Wagner, Max! Wagner!
Stew and the Wagner Problem (United States)
Part of the Kennedy Center WORLD STAGES series
In honor of the recent 200th anniversary year of composer Richard Wagner's birth, the Kennedy Center presents a new co-commissioned song cycle created by Tony and Obie Award winners Stew & Heidi Rodewald (Passing Strange, the Tony-nominated Broadway production made into a film by Spike Lee). Through music, poetry, text by Berlin author Freya Stewart, and video, the work irreverently creates and explores the surprising connection between the music-myths of both Wagner and the blues, blending Wagner's best-known melodies within the acclaimed creators' eclectic mix of rock and cabaret music.
"Both [Wagner and the blues] have been said to directly and indirectly reflect aspects of their respective cultures that many would like to forget," says Stew, referring to the Nazis' propagandistic use of Wagner as well as the blues' painful echoes of slavery. "The show examines our fear of both."
Explore the Arts
Free post-performance discussion on Sep. 25 at 7 p.m.
Recommended for age 15 and up.
Performance Timing: 90 minutes, with no intermission.
Note: Heidi and Stew Rodewald will sign CDs following the performance, in the States Gallery outside the Terrace Theater.
Goethe-Institut
Commissioned by the Kennedy Center with the support of the Goethe-Institut Washington DC.Laura Pels Foundation
Additional support is provided by the Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater.Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts
International Programming at the Kennedy Center is made possible through the generosity of the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts.