Photo Credit: Megan Westelmajer
WOLF ON THE RINGSTRASSE
SUMMARY
In Austria, 1895, the caustic composer Hugo Wolf pens his famous opera, Der Corregidor. It is a new dawn. The fin du siècle is breaking over Europe with the chilly clarity of a wet spring morning. Plagued by the spectre of his adolescent rivalry with school fellow Gustav Mahler, and manically consumed by a need to generate a work equal to those of the dead master Wagner, Wolf retreats, penniless and wretched, to the mountains and the childhood home of the wife of his most devoted patron, Herr Heinrich Köchert. But Melanie Köchert has no time for ghosts. She would rather bury the remnants of the relationship she’d kindled so long ago with Hugo Wolf - scorch the earth - than permit that life to engulf her again.
Wolf on the Ringstrasse is a ferocious, evocative exhumation of artistic life that challenges the romance of the singular, egoist ‘auteur,’ and the enduring music of monstrous men.
DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCTION HISTORY
Wolf on the Ringstrasse was developed and produced by Spirit Fire Theatre, and premiered in Calgary, Alberta in April of 2019.
IN THE MEDIA
"REVIEW: Wolf On the Ringstrasse No Tame Piece of Local Theatre..." (Calgary Herald)
ARTISTS
CALGARY(2019): David Haysom (HUGO WOLF), Val Duncan (MELANIE KOCHERT), Luigi Riscaldino (MAHLER), Chris Enright (WAGNER/PHILIP WOLF), and Thomas Craig (THE BOY). Directed by Alexandra Prichard.
IN THE MEDIA...
"A gorgeous historical play of epic depth and beauty. If Chekhov wrote "Amadeus" about Hugo Wolf, it would have felt like this. The dialog and story are so rich and complex, my brain chewed on them like a Michelin star five-course meal."
- Kate Danley, USA TODAY Bestselling Author of The Wodcutter
"...riveting..."
"...shattering in its intensity..."
"Starting with Michaela Jeffery's compelling script, Spirit Fire Theatre's premiere of Wolf on the Ringstrasse is a triumph... (FOUR STARS)"
- The Calgary Herald