Mainly Opera and Ballet
Christian Thielemann conducted this performance in Vienna on 10 October 2019, 100 years to the day after its premiere in the same location. The superb cast was headed by Camilla Nylund, Nina Stemme, Mihoko Fujimura, Stephen Gould and Tomasz Konieczny. See my review in The Article.
This is a copy of my review in the Sunday Telegraph on 29th July 2018. The Wagner Festival in Bayreuth dates from 1876 when the composer’s extraordinary new opera house, with its recessed orchestra pit invisible to the audience, hosted the first complete performance of his four-part Ring cycle. After Wagner died in 1883, his …
At the end of Petra Lang’s beautifully sung Liebestod following her glorious performance of Isolde, a loud lonely boo broke the magic of this sublimely sung performance under the baton of Christian Thielemann. This was no criticism of Ms Lang nor Mr Thielemann, but a clearly premeditated, and hugely ill-mannered, expression of one person’s anger …
Stakes were high for this 150th anniversary production of Tristan und Isolde, so little wonder that with her contract up for renewal, Festival director Katharina Wagner took the task of shaping it upon herself. My review appeared in the Telegraph, 27 July 2015
The 2012 Wagner festival at Bayreuth started in dramatic fashion when the singer in the title role for a new production of The Flying Dutchman suddenly pulled out. Evgeny Nikitin, covered in body-tattoos from his former career as a heavy-metal singer, found himself the focus of attention, and although claims of a swastika seem unfounded, his …
