SUNDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2026
TALK BY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ROSS ANDERSON
ON HIS BOOK “THE APPIAN WAY”
Sunday 13 September 2026
12.00 noon: DVD – Tony Palmer’s Wagner Part 5
2.00pm: Talk by Associate Professor Ross Anderson
on his book “The Appian Way”
followed by afternoon tea
Venue:
Goethe Institut
Event Hall (upstairs)
90 Ocean Street (cnr Jersey Road)
Woollahra NSW
Tickets:
Members $35, Non-members $45, full-time students $15
BUY TICKETS HERE
ABOUT THE TALK
Adolphe Appia (1862–1928) is an enigmatic figure in the history of modern theatre, best known for his writings on the mise-en-scène and stage designs for the music dramas of Richard Wagner. Appia challenged the naturalistic conventions of nineteenth-century stage design and developed a new vision founded on light, space, music and movement. Drawing on his recent book The Appian Way: Adolphe Appia and the Scenography of Architecture, Ross Anderson explores Appia’s lifelong engagement with Wagner, from his early scenographic studies for Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifalto his unrealised ambitions for Bayreuth. The talk will also reveal how Appia’s ideas – embodied in his remarkable austere yet atmospheric drawings and in his writings – extended beyond the stage, exerting a profound influence on twentieth-century architecture and aesthetics.
ABOUT ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ROSS ANDERSON
Ross Anderson is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Sydney. Having practiced as an architect in the offices of Daniel Libeskind and Zvi Hecker, both in Berlin, he completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge with a dissertation entitled ‘From the Bauhütte to the Bauhaus’. His research on modern European architecture, scenography and aesthetics has been published in journals including AA Files, The Bauhaus Annual, Architectural Histories, Drawing Matter Journal and Art Bulletin. His co-edited book Modern Architecture and the Sacred was published by Bloomsbury in 2020, and hisy major monograph The Appian Way: Adolphe Appia and the Scenography of Modern Architecture was published by Park Books in 2025. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
ABOUT THE DVD – TONY PALMER’S WAGNER PART 5
After moving to Munich in 1864, Wagner enjoys a prosperous time under the patronage of the young King of Bavaria, Ludwig II. Most of his debts are settled and several of his operas are staged to great success. Meanwhile, Wagner has an affair with Cosima, wife of his good friend Hans von Bülow, much to the dismay of Cosima’s father, Franz Liszt. Although Wagner and Ludwig have become close friends, the King’s ministers and the people of Bavaria are weary of Wagner. Wagner eventually has a falling-out with the King when he asks Ludwig to pay for a portrait of Wagner which is painted as a gift to Ludwig himself.