Richard Wagner and Robert Schumann (born 1810) knew each other from the early 1830s and, in Mein Leben Wagner says that they met from time to time for walks and to exchange ideas about music. Both were Saxons by birth and protestants by upbringing. Schumann was, said Wagner a “profound and productive musician whose work I much admired … but beyond that I didn’t get any real stimulation from his company … and he was too unreceptive to benefit from any serious views of mine.”

Wagner, Opera, Stage Directors and the Future

A lecture for the Richard Wagner Society (Victoria)

Greg Eldridge (stage director)

recipient of 2018 Young Artist Award – Bayreuth Scholarship

Recently, whilst driving through the town of Winchelsea, I noticed a large roadside sign, “Marjorie Lawrence Drive, 1907-1979,” and, in the middle of the town, The Globe Theatre, bore the sign “The home of Marjorie Lawrence.” Did these signs refer to the Marjorie Lawrence who was a Wagnerian dramatic soprano who reached fame in the 1930s?