Study Group Details


515: Wagner’s Parsifal and Some Authors in the Master’s Shadow

Tuesday
11:45 - 1:15
Starting September 22
Online

Jim Holman will take on Wagner’s final opera, Parsifal. Jim will present four lectures, one on each act, leading the class through the opera with audio and visual excerpts and discussing the controversies surrounding the opera for the past 135 years. Bruce Eisen will discuss three twentieth century works whose authors were influenced by Wagner. These will include T.S. Eliot ("The Waste Land"), Thomas Mann (The Blood of the Walsungs), and Herman Hesse (Peter Camenzind). Class members will be expected to have read the three works, each of which is quite short. This study group has a high class size capacity.


This study group is new
Class Type: Lecture and Discussion
Class Format: TBA
Hours of Reading: 1-2 hrs/week

Study Group Leader(s):

Bruce Eisen

Bruce Eisen has been an OLLI study group leader for a number of semesters and has served as Washington National Opera general counsel.

James Holman

Jim Holman has written and edited various books on the life and music of Richard Wagner. Jim has lectured throughout the country and has conducted OLLI classes on Wagner for several years. 


Reading List

Death in Venice and Seven Other Stories (Thomas Mann ) | Required

Peter Camenzind (Hermann Hesse) | Required