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Showing posts from 2010

Tannhäuser at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Tannhäuser has returned to the Royal Opera House , Covent Garden, in a new production by Tim Albery. On Wagneropera.net Mark Berry reviews the premiere, being especially positive towards the conductor and the cast: "Above all," Mark Berry writes, "this return to the Royal Opera House of Tannhäuser proved a musical triumph. Semyon Bychkov’s conducting was superior even to that of his Lohengrin last year. He generally took his time, but the score never dragged, given that Wagner’s long line was ever secure – bar the odd occasion when abruptness cannot quite be ironed out of the score. Climaxes were sparing and therefore all the more powerful when they came. Perhaps most importantly of all, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House was on superlative form. Brass onstage and off were weightily impressive without brashness. The woodwind choir evoked a Middle Ages that may never actually have existed, but certainly did in Wagner’s imagination. As for the strings, one might well

Cosima Wagner: Diaries, 9 December 1879

"There is no pleasure in looking at the outside world, and my constant prayer is that I may succeed in keeping R. in his element by concealing the realities of life from him as much as possible." Cosima Wagner: Diaries, 9 December 1879

New production of Parsifal at the Royal Theatre La Monnaie in Brussels

A new production of Parsifal will premiere at the Royal Theatre La Monnaie in Brussels 27 January 2011. Hartmut Haenchen , who conducted the infamous Paris production by Krysztof Warlikowski (the one using a clip from Rosselini's film ”Germany Year Zero” ), will conduct a cast led by Swedish superstar Anna Larsson making her role debut as Kundry. According to some commentators, Haenchen's Parsifal reading in Paris was the fastest ever. Stage director is Romeo Castellucci. Principal singers Amfortas Thomas Johannes Mayer Titurel Victor von Halem Gurnemanz Jan-Hendrik Rootering Parsifal Andrew Richards Klingsor Tómas Tómasson Kundry Anna Larsson Royal Theatre La Monnaie See Wagner Calendar 2011 for more Wagner productions

The Wagner Journal on Lohengrin and Wagner's anti-semitism

The Wagner Journal has two important features currently on its website: a dramaturgical analysis by Edward A. Bortnichak and Paula M. Bortnichak of the new Bayreuth Festival production of Lohengrin by Hans Neuenfels , addressing the production from a sociological perspective, and an online debate between Barry Emslie and Mark Berry on the thorny issue of anti-semitism in Wagner's works . Also available via the website is a free introductory copy of The Wagner Journal .

Moshinsky's ROH Lohengrin moves to Chicago

The dusty Lohengrin production by Elijah Moshinsky from Royal Opera House Covent Garden is now moving to Chicago Lyric Opera . Wagnerian superstars like Johan Botha (one of the best singing Lohengrins today), Emily Magee (see Peter Konwitschny's Lohengrin production on DVD), Michaela Schuster (Ortrud) and Georg Zeppenfeld (Herald - last seen in this role at Bayreuth this summer in Hans Neuenfels' Lohengrin "rat production" ) join forces with Sir Andrew Davis and the Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus. 2011 February 11, 16, 20, 25 March 1, 5, 8 Read Mark Berry's review of the production at ROH, with comments from the director below Chicago Lyric Opera

Mark Elder / Hallé Orchestra: concert version of Die Walküre 15 & 16 July 2011

Manchester International Festival presents a new collaboration with the Hallé and The Bridgewater Hall; Wagner's Die Walküre supported by a specially commissioned dramatic prologue 'The Madness of An Extraordinary Plan: A Guide to Wagner's Ring Cycle'. Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé return to Wagner's Ring Cycle with a concert version of Die Walküre. This follows their 2009 presentation of Götterdämmerung , which won the 2010 Gramophone Opera Award. This most enduring of operas will be performed at The Bridgewater Hall, which has arguably the UK's finest orchestral acoustic. Friday 15 July 2011, 7.30pm (with a 20 minute interval) The Madness of an Extraordinary Plan and Act I Saturday 16 July 2011, 3.30pm (with a 75 minute interval) Act II and Act III Cast and more on Wagneropera.net Mark Elder photo by Sheila Rock

Parsifal in Tallinn, August 2011

Tickets for the performances of Richard Wagner’s opera Parsifal on 25–28 August 2011, performed within the frameworks of European Capital of Culture Tallinn 2011 and Nargen Festival, are now available. The opera, staged in Noblessner Foundry, is performed for the first time in Estonia. The music director is Arvo Volmer , stage director Nicola Raab (Germany), designer Robert Innes Hopkins (England) and lighting designer David Cunningham (Scotland). Soloists: Richard Decker (U.S.A), Roman Sadnik (Austria), Manfred Hemm (Germany), Irmgard Vilsmaier (Germany), Eike Wilm Schulte (Germany), Rauno Elp, Martin Winkler (Austria), Mart Laur, Priit Volmer, etc. The enlarged size of the orchestra and chorus, altogether more than two hundred people, makes it one of the grandest classical music projects within the past years. The ticket price range is 290–790 EEK. In addition, a limited number of exclusive tickets are available that ensure you the best place in the venue and a catering service

The Wagner series kicks off with Der fliegende Holländer in Berlin

With Richard Wagner’s opera Der Fliegende Holländer , the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) and Marek Janowski begin their series featuring concert performances of the ten most important of Wagner’s works for the stage on November 13, 2010. An international elite of Wagner singers including, among others, Matti Salminen , Nina Stemme, Albert Dohmen, Christian Elsner, Ricarda Merbeth, Robert Dean Smith and Stephen Gould will be performing at the Berlin Philharmonie between November 2010 and May 2013. Under the direction of Marek Janowski, the RSB will also perform the operatic works Parsifal (April 8, 2011) and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (June 3, 2011) together with the Rundfunkchor Berlin during the 2010/11 season. It is the objective of the RSB’s principal conductor and artistic director, Marek Janowski, to convey to the audience the high musical quality of Wagner’s compositions in the absence of scenic interpretation, focusing on the music alone. Season 2011/12 The

Opera Australia - Ring cycle in Melbourne in 2013

Opera Australia has officially announced details of its Ring cycle in Melbourne in 2013, Opera Magazine reports. Three complete cycles will be given in November and December, before the co-producing Houston Grand Opera takes over the production for its first-ever Ring; it plans to present the operas over the course of four seasons, beginning in 2014. The Melbourne production team will be led by the conductor Richard Mills and director Neil Armfield, and the cast will include Susan Bullock as Brünnhilde, Juha Uusitalo as Wotan, Gary Lehman as Siegfried and John Wegner as Alberich. This will be the biggest production in Opera Australia’s history. The project has already won the company the largest donation in its history; $5 million has been pledged by one of the city’s leading philanthropists, the Lonely Planet co-founder Maureen Wheeler.

New Metropolitan Ring: Das Rheingold Premieres 27 September

James Levine and director Robert Lepage join forces to create what The Metropolitan Opera describes as a "groundbreaking new Ring". Das Rheingold will premiere on Monday 27 September. Robert Lepage brings cutting-edge technology to the new Ring, using spectacular optical effects. Time will show if the effects enhance the experience or lives its own life and distracts the public, like the circus Ring in Valencia. Bryn Terfel is singing his first Wotan at the Met. He is leading a cast that includes Gerhard Siegel as Mime and Hans-Peter König (both well known from Bayreuth). Levine, who has conducted every complete Ring cycle performed by the Met since 1989, has been sidelined in recent years due to health problems. The lates reports says thet he is fit for fight now. According to Levine, “The Ring  is one of those works of art that you think you know, but every time you return to it, you find all kinds of brilliant moments that hadn’t struck you with the same force b

Tankred Dorst's Ring exits - being vociferously booed

Tankred Dorst's production of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival is now history. The last Götterdämmerung was performed on 25 August 2010 with a marvellous Lance Ryan as Siegfried and a Festival orchestra I have never heard better. From day 1 this has been Christian Thielemann's Ring , and the orchestra has responded with better playing for each year. The quality of the singer-actors (to the extent that acting was necessary in this Ring), on the other hand, has varied. For me the highlights has been Eva-Maria Westbroek's Sieglinde, Arnold Bezuyen's Loge, Gerhard Siegel's Mime, Lance Ryan's Götterdämmerung-Siegfried, Johan Botha's Siegmund (best enjoyed with closed eyes), Kwangchul Youn's Hunding and - of course - Andrew Shore's outstanding Alberich. The director, Tankred Dorst, has received massive criticism, both from the press and the merciless Bayreuth audience. It's not even a secret that some of the principle singers has had

Penelope Turing dies aged 85

Penelope Turing, Bayreuth Festival expert, traveller, author, critic and lecturer died this morning in London, 85 years old. Opera, especially Richard Wagner, has been a major influence in her life. Turing is the author of New Bayreuth ", first published in 1969. This book is an important source to the post war productions at the Bayreuth Festival. Her biography on Hans Hotter was first published in 1983, and each year she gave courses in Britain on Wagner’s operas and on the new post war style at Bayreuth. Turing is one of the very few persons that has seen every single production at the Bayreuth Festival since the Second World War, and she has reported from the Bayreuth Festival almost every year since 1952. Her last Bayreuth visit was in 2009, which she was covering for The Stage . Although faltering health has restricted her travelling lately, she had planned to see the new Lohengrin production, and she was perfectly aware that this visit would have been her last. I

San Francisco: Richard Wagner's "The Ring of the Nibelung" in Summer 2011

In June and July of 2011, San Francisco Opera will present three complete cycles of Wagner's "The Ring of the Nibelung" ("Das Rheingold," "Die Walküre," "Siegfried," "Götterdämmerung"). While the cycles are only available by subscription as a four-opera series, single tickets are available for the production-premiere performances of "Siegfried" (Sunday, May 29, 1pm) and "Götterdämmerung" (Sunday, June 5, 1pm). "Ring" Director Francesca Zambello was recently appointed general and artistic director at Glimmerglass Opera , the summer opera festival in Cooperstown, N.Y. Zambello has worked at many of the world's major opera houses. Her staging of this past summer's "Die Walküre" received raves from critics and audiences, according to the San Francisco Opera press release. "Ring" Festival 2011 Beginning this September, a diverse array of cultural and educational instituti

To what extent does Wagner’s anti-semitism impinge on his music dramas?

Nobody denies that Wagner was an anti-semite. But was his anti-semitism expressed in the works themselves? The issue has been much debated over the past two decades, but has resurfaced once again recently, not least with the new production by Richard Jones of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Welsh National Opera , performed also at the BBC Proms. The Wagner Journal asked Barry Emslie , author of Richard Wagner and the Centrality of Love  (Boydell & Brewer, 2010) and Mark Berry , who reviewed Emslie's book in the latest issue of the journal, to debate the subject. To what extent does Wagner’s anti-semitism impinge on his music dramas? Read their discussion on thewagnerjournal.co.uk

Hans Neuenfels: Lohengrin at the Bayreuther Festspiele

The 99th Bayreuth Festival was opened on Sunday 25 July with the usual unwagnerische procession of so-called prominent people. A completely disgusting circus. The Festival opened with a new production of Lohengrin by German music theatre's enfant terrible, Hans Neuenfels. Judging from the radio broadcast, there were two names that deserve a special  mentioning: Jonas Kaufmann as the near perfect Lohengrin and the conductor Andris Nelsons. Reviews (to be updated) Avant-Garde Director Gathers Rats Into a Wagnerian Maze ( New York Times ) The subtleties of a rat-infested Lohengrin were lost on the starry first-night audience ( Fiona Maddocks, The Observer ) Neuenfels hat sich mit seiner zentralen Frage, ob der Mensch noch zu retten sei, einfach zuviel vorgenommen. Märkische Allgemeine Ein merkwürdiges Déjà-vu ( taz.de ): "Der Tenor Jonas Kaufmann und die Sopranistin Annette Dasch sind ein wunderbares Paar: Beide geben ihren Rollen, die mit viel mystifizierendem Ballast b

John Treleaven and Linda Watson criticize Achim Freyer's L.A. Ring

John Treleaven (Siegfried) and Linda Watson (Brünnhilde) have criticized director Achim Freyer's production of Der Ring des Nibelungen in Los Angeles as artistically flawed and physically dangerous, Los Angeles Times reports . They also have spoken up about their backstage skirmishes with the idiosyncratic auteur. John Treleaven has been hurt twice during stand-alone productions of "Siegfried" and "Götterdämmerung". The culprit is the severely raked, or angled, stage that forces singers to perform as if on the side of a slope. The rake is among the steepest ever used by the company. Linda Watson, who will sing Brünnhilde in the Dorst / Thielemann Ring at Bayreuth this summer, called the set the "most dangerous stage I've been on in my entire career." Los Angeles Timesa article

Die Feen at Lyric Opera of Los Angeles

Lyric Opera of Los Angeles (LOLA) , a non-profit performing arts organization, will present the rare and first-completed opera by Wagner entitled “Die Feen” (The Fairies) during five performances starting on June 11, 2010. The performances will take place at the Pasadena Playhouse as part of the Ring Festival LA’s scheduled events. The Ring Festival features the participation of more than 50 arts institutions around Los Angeles that will produce exhibitions, concerts, and educational programming related to Wagner and his music. Laura Sage, Executive Director and founder of Lyric Opera of Los Angeles expressed her enthusiasm for the upcoming production, “We are honored to be chosen as an official Partner with Los Angeles Opera in the Ring Festival. Through this partnership and our dedication to producing quality performances, we will continue to fulfill our mission to bring lesser-known operatic works to the stage. Die Feen will be an outstanding production that all attendees of the R

Lohengrin in Tampere, Finland

Wagner's Lohengrin in a production by Danish director Kasper Holten will soon be performed at Tampere Opera, Finland. The premiere in Tampere Hall will be 10 March 2010. Musical director Jan Latham-König Stage director Kasper Holten Set and costume designer Steffen Aarfing Light designer Jesper Garde Kongshaug Chorus master Heikki Liimola Kirsi Tiihonen , soprano (Elsa von Brabant) Helen Lokuta , mezzo soprano (Ortrud) Endrik Wottrich , tenor (Lohengrin) Jukka Rasilainen , baritone (Friedrich von Telramund) Jaakko Ryhänen , bass (Heinrich der Vogler) Jaakko Kortekangas , baritone (The King's Herald) Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra Tampere Opera Choir Wed 10 March at 6.30 pm Premiere Fri 12 March at 6.30 pm Sun 14 March at 3 pm Tue 16 March at 6.30 pm Thu 18 March at 6.30 pm Sat 20 March at 3 pm Sung in German, subtitles in Finnish Duration of the performance c. 3 hours 40 min. including two intermissions Tickets 65/92/105 € senior citizens 60/87/100 € students 50/77/90 € Groups