Blogging Shakespeare

Richard Wagner’s engagement with his creative predecessor William Shakespeare began around age 13. At this time, Wagner pronounced Shakespeare’s name “Shicksper,” which triggered for him associations of fate (Shicksal = fate/destiny) and battle (Speer = spear). Wagner related this detail from the distant past to his second wife Cosima in 1874, who wrote it in […]

At the end of the conference on ‘Die Sonette’ in Weimar I spoke with Professor Tobias Doring of the University of Munich, who is also President of The German Shakespeare Society. Here he reflects on what were a Sonnet-full couple of days… (Incidentally, the reference Tobias makes to the Sonnets as ‘pillow talk’ is something […]

After leaving Goethe’s Garden House, Dympna Callaghan and I found the famous statue of Shakespeare by Otto Lessing (covered over for much of the year for conservation, but on display for Shakespeare’s Birthday). There we happened to meet two members of The German Shakespeare Society who spoke to us about what Shakespeare means to Weimar. […]

Last weekend I had the pleasure of speaking to The German Shakespeare Society in Weimar. Their conference was on the Sonnets. Professor Dympna Callaghan of Syracuse University, New York was also among the specially invited speakers. Weimar is an extraordinary place and exudes literature, art, philosophy and music from its very fabric. There was a […]

On Sunday 26 June, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust was honoured to receive His Excellency Premier Wen Jiabao of China. Shakespeare’s Birthplace was the only place he visited in Stratford. It was a highly significant moment and was a clear statement that we should both like to develop and nurture contacts, partnerships, and projects. I thought […]