Tag Archives: Stefan Vinke

Tannhäuser, Royal Opera, ROH, January 2023

Under the baton of Sebastian Weigle this was a terrific performance, after a slightly hesitant start, and the final chorus was sheer magic. It was the second revival of Tim Albery’s 2010 production, which portrays the entrance to the Venusberg as an on-stage replica of the Royal Opera’s proscenium arch complete with ROH curtains. See …

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Der Ring des Nibelungen, Budapest Wagner Days, June 2019

This was a revelation: first the acoustic, where singers can be heard clearly wherever they stand on stage; second the wonderfully subtle conducting of Ádám Fischer, who produced a funeral march in Götterdämmerung that sang with unforgettable emotion, helped by a well-controlled brass section; and third the semi-staging. See my review in The Daily Telegraph, which …

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Der Ring des Nibelungen, Royal Opera, ROH, Covent Garden, September 2018

Keith Warner’s production of the Ring  alludes to connections with modern physics: in Rheingold  the tarnhelm deforms the gridlines of Cartesian space to the curved space-time of Einstein’s General Relativity, and in Götterdämmerung,  Siegfried’s Rhine journey traverses both space and time. In Siegfried  Act 1, Mime adds mathematical symbols to those already written and in …

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Götterdämmerung, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, September 2012

Under Antonio Pappano’s direction the orchestra gave us a lyrical and multi-layered interpretation of Wagner’s score, ranging from soft moments to huge power. After the prologue with the Norns, followed by Brünnhilde and Siegfried, things really opened out in Act I with John Tomlinson as Hagen in the hall of the Gibichungs. He was riveting …

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Siegfried, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, September 2012

Wotan’s meeting with Erda that starts Act III of Siegfried is a focal point in his demise.  After awakening her for advice she tells him to ask Brünnhilde, their daughter bold and wise, but learning Wotan has cast her aside, she asks why he who taught defiance punished defiance, why he who ruled by vows now …

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