Directory of Members
Ayrshire Arts Network is developing an online directory of established artist and
practitioner members.
The directory provides images of the artist's
activities, a brief introduction to their work and links to their individual web sites. To see a list of directory entries please click on the Directory tab in this column.
Where the artist has an open studio or workshop,
we provide information on the location of the workshop and telephone or email contact
details.
The directory entries are displayed according to artform or activity.
A selected artist or event will be featured on this page each month. Some events will be current, others may be of historic interest, reflecting the diversity of activities in the district.
Please contact the web site team with suggestions for this feature.
For further information about
eligibility for inclusion in the online directory, members should
contact our web site team by email.
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Directory Specification
Der Fliegende Hollander
During the first twenty years of the Maclaurin
Art Gallery, some of the staff had a particular interest in theatre design
and, over the years between 1978 and 1997, there were a series of exhibitions
highlighting the work of particular theatre designers. Most of
these exhibitions centred on scenic designs and costume designs for the
operatic stage.
The
first touring exhibition planned by the gallery staff was based on the work
of Ralph Koltai CBE RDI, then Britain’s senior and most
celebrated Theatre Designer. This exhibition was shown in Ayr and St.
Andrews. Other
theatre projects during this period included collaboration with Scottish
Opera in a series of costume exhibitions and performances in the Gallery
by The Anthologists and Heads Together Physical Theatre.
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Catalogue Cover, The Flying Dutchman, Maclaurin Art Gallery, May 1990
In the Spring of 1991 the gallery collaborated
with the Bayerische Vereins Bank (Munich) in an exhibition based on productions
of Der Fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman) at the Bayreuth
Festival Theatre. This exhibition had been shown in Bayreuth the previous
season to mark the new production of the Opera under the direction of Guiseppe
Sinopoli and Dieter Dorn, Director of the Munchen Kammerspile with designs
by his colleague Jurgen Rose.
The new production
had particularly striking designs, based on strong primary colours of
red and blue, offset with a measure of yellow and greens in the costumes. These colours had a particular resonance
with the colour theories of the early 20th century German artists.
The exhibition looked at the history of
the opera and the designs of earlier productions, including
reproductions of designs by Max Bruckner for the first performance at
Bayreuth in 1901. The literary origins of the opera were also explored.
One novel feature in the exhibition was the projector lantern,
designed by
Wolfgang Wagner to represent the Dutchman's ghostly ship in his 1970
production. By
turning a small handle, visitors could vary the size of the projected
image, reproducing in the gallery one of the many outstanding visual
effects in his 1955 production of the opera.
The catalogue, translated from the original
German text, outlined the history of the opera and it's origins in the
writings of Heinrich Heine (From the memoirs of Herr
von Schnabelewopski). Sailing
from Riga to London in the summer of 1840, Wagner was inspired by the
stormy weather and a brief respite on the island of Buröya in the Skägerrak,
where the ship sheltered from the storms. He
completed the opera while in France during the autumn of 1841 with
the first performance at the Dresden Court Opera in January 1843.
Interestingly,
in Wagner's early drafts of the opera, the action is set on the East
Coast of Scotland (as was Heine's original story). In the weeks
between musical revision completed in December 1842 and the opening in
Dresden, Wagner changed the setting to Norway and renamed the characters
male characters Erik (George) and Daland (Donald).
Like Wagner's own life, the presentation
of this exhibition in Ayr faced a number of vicissitudes. The exhibition
was opened by Provost Danniel McNeill but there was relatively little
to view; it was limited to a small number of prints that had been carried
from Bayreuth by a staff member who travelled to assist in the installation.
The bulk of the the exhibition had been shipped by British
Airways freight and
was languishing somewhere between Munich and Ayr. It transpired
that air freight travelled by road in Europe and the British Isles and
had only limited contact with an aircraft between the Channel Ports and
Heathrow. The bulk of the exhibition arrived five days after the
official opening.
Der Fliegende Hollander, 1990, Act One, ©Bayreuther Festspiele
In the 1990 production of Hollander, the
role of Senta was sung by Elizabeth Connell who provided an Opera Master
class for the recent network event "Creative Spaces".
For further information please follow thess links
The Flying Dutchman
Guiseppe
Sinopoli ~ Dieter
Dorn ~ Jurgen
Rose ~ Elizabeth
Connell
Bayreuth
Festspiele ~ Richard
Wagner ~ Wolfgang Wagner
Münchener
Kammerspiele