Chairman: Mr. Heikki Virri
President: Mr. Peter Häggblom
Members: 725 (31.12.2002)

EVENTS

Turku:

29.1.   Lecture by dramaturge Mr. Jussi Törnwall on Lohengrin.

10.2. Annual General Meeting and Mrs Marjukka Lulli-Seppälä's lecture on Parsifal: "Parsifal in everyday life"

19.3. Ph, Dr. Matti Kamppinen's lecture: "About time models in Wagner's operas"

16.4. Prof. Hannu Salmi's lecture: "About the Cultural Histoy of Die Meisteringer von Nürnberg"

15.5. Composer Martti Parkkari's lecture: "Listening to two Richards" (Wagner and Strauss).

10.9.   A visit to the editorial office of the cultural pages of the Turku daily paper Turun Sanomat.

15.10.  Mrs Saila Luoma's lecture on Tristan: "Venetia - the City of Tristan"

9.11.   Movie afternoon: Visconti's "Ludwig" (1972) on DVD, incl. Carlo Lizzani's documentary on Visconti.

13.12. The Turku Philharmonic Orchestra's "50-years anniversary in the House"concert featuring The Tannhäuser-prelude and Beethoven's 9th, , conductor Paavo Berglund. After the concert our Christmas party, with performance by Pia Pajala (sopr) & Mr. Pasi Helin (piano).

Helsinki:

5.2. Prof. Mrs Anne Sivuoja-Gunaratnam's lecture: "Kundry, or the reverse other Side of Parsifal"

12.3.   The editor-in-chief of Rondo (Finnish music magazine) Harri Kuusisaari's lecture: "Harry Kupfer as Wagner-director".

14.3.   Study circle: Wesendonck-lieder, introduced for discussion by singer, Mrs Cristina Andersson

11.4.   Study circle: "Report from Berlin 2002 Staatsoper's Wagner Festival. where 10 of Wagner operas were given, conducted by Barenboim and staged by Kupfer", by Mr Matti Luukkainen and Mr Jukka von Boem.

16.4.   Prof. H.K.Riikonen's lecture on Tristan: "Tristan and Isolde in literature and in Wagner's opera."

21.5.   The National Opera's correpetitor Pekka Asikainen's lecture on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

23.5. Study circle: Mr Jack Leo introduced a subject "Wagner and Bellini" for discussion .

1.10. M.A. Martti Parkkari's lecture on Tristan and Isolde.

17.10.  Study circle summarized experiences from Savonlinna, München and Bayreuth.

21.11.  Lecture by Mr Erkki Korhonen's, General Director of The Finnish National Opera: "Wagner in Switzerland" incl. discussion with Mr Korhonen on actual and coming productions in Helsinki.

28.11. Study circle on the new book "Elämäni" (Mein Leben) translated into Finnish by Mrs Saila Luoma and partly sponsored by our society.

OPERA TOURS

11.-15.2. An opera tour to Oslo: Lohengrin and Malmö: Holländer

26.-29.4. A tour to Stockholm: Tannhäuser, including lecture on the ship on Tannhäuser by Mr. Jussi Törnwall. After the performance we met with our friends of the Swedish WS. On the 28th we were invited to a members' meeting of The Swedish Wagner Society in Stockholm, where we met and had interesting discussions with some of the soloists in the Tannhäuser production. On the way back: DVD-Viewing of Die Meistersinger on the ship to Helsinki.

2.-4.8. A tour to The Savonlinna Festival: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Rosenkavalier including introductions to the operas by Mr Jopi Harri. On the way back a visit to Annukka Talvela's (Martti Talvelas's widow) house in Juva (not far from Savonlinna).

2.-5.8. Bayreuth: Lohengrin, Tannhäuser and Meistersinger

15.-18.8. Bayreuth: Lohengrin, Tannhäuser and Meistersinger along with the holder of our scholarship Niklas Spångberg

SCHOLARSHIPS

Bayreuth scholarship 2002 to bass Niklas Spångberg, who was in Bayreuth 15.-18.8.2002.

21.5. Scholarship to Mrs Saila Luoma for her translation of Wagners "Mein Leben" (Elämäni) into Finnish.

PUBLICATIONS, BOOKS

Our biannual members' magazine Wagneriaani (The Wagnerian) numbers 19 (72 pages, May) and 20 (76 p. October) was distributed to all members and to many of our international friends. Along with Finnish there are also articles in English, and sometimes in German and Swedish. Subscriptions: 21 euro/year.

Saila Luoma's translation of Richard Wagner's "Mein Leben" ("Elämäni" in Finnish) was published in May, publisher Faros, Turku. The Finnish Wagner Society was pleased to grant a subsidy for the translation.

HONORARY MEMBERS AND HONORARY CHAIRMAN

HONORARY MEMBERS

In chronological order:

Ms. Anne Evans (soprano), 1997
Mr. Frank Shipway (conductor), 1997
Mr. Jorma Hynninen (baritone), 1998
Herr Wolfgang Wagner (festival director), 1998
Mr. Peter Bassett (writer), 2000
Mrs. Cecilia Rydinger-Alin, (conductor), 2001
Mr. Pentti Perksalo, (tenor) 2001

HONORARY CHAIRMAN

Mr. Uolevi Karrakoski, founder (1991) of our society, 2001.

WEB-SITE

Our Society has had an own web-site since 1996: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/mluukkai/sws/sws.html
It is he oldest Richard Wagner Society site on the web (along with the Hannover Society).
In 2002 we opened a discussion SWS forum, where you are welcome to take part in the discussions on Wagner. We also have some articles published in Wagneriaani and lots of interesting Wagner links, incl.the email addresses to all other RWS-web-sites.