Bayreuth Festival: Thorliefur Örn Arnarsson’s interpretation of 'Tristan und Isolde' is a well-planned and thoughtful affair.

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Act 1) - Ekaterina Gubanova (Brangäne), Andreas Schager (Tristan), Jordan Shanahan (Kurwenal), Camilla Nylund (Isolde), Günther Groissböck (Marke) - Bayreuth Festival, 2025 (Photo: Bayreuther Festspiele / Enrico Nawrath)

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde: Andreas Schager, Günther Groissböck, Camilla Nylund, Jordan Shanahan, Alexander Grassauer, Ekaterina Gubanova; dir: Thorliefur Örn Arnarsson, cond: Semyon Bychkov; Bayreuth Festival
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 3 August 2025 

A fine deuce! Camilla Nylund and Andreas Schager shine in the roles of Tristan and Isolde at the Bayreuth Festival

Based largely on the 12th-century romance, Tristan and Iseult, by Gottfried von Strassburg, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde - widely regarded as the greatest paean to pure erotic love recalling the legendary days of King Arthur - is notable for the composer’s unprecedented use of chromaticism, tonal ambiguity, orchestral colour and harmonic suspension. Wagner’s inspiration for writing it was greatly influenced by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer as well as by his love affair with Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of the successful silk merchant, Otto Wesendonck.

While Wagner was working on Der Ring des Nibelungen he was intrigued by the legend of Tristan and Isolde, a tragic tale of forbidden love between Tristan, a Cornish knight and sea captain, and Isolde, an Irish princess. The scenario follows Tristan’s voyage to Ireland returning with Isolde to marry his uncle King Marke of Cornwall against her will. On their journey, Tristan and Isolde consume a love potion - being a daughter of a witch, I guess Isolde was used to potions and suchlike - which ultimately leads to an uncontrollable and passionate love affair leading to tragedy.

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Act 2) - Andreas Schager (Tristan), Camilla Nylund (Isolde) - Bayreuth Festival, 2025 (Photo: Bayreuther Festspiele / Enrico Nawrath)

The opera proved difficult to bring to the stage. Lots do, of course. Alois Ander, employed to sing Tristan, proved incapable of learning the part while parallel attempts to stage it in Dresden, Weimar and Prague came to nothing winning the opera a reputation as unperformable. Even the planned première on 15 May 1865 had to be postponed until Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld had recovered from a throat infection. The opera finally received it première on 10 June 1865 at the Königliches Hoftheater und Nationaltheater, Munich, with Hans von Bülow conducting and Malvina’s husband, Ludwig, partnering her as Tristan.

Having sung the role only four times, Ludwig died suddenly prompting speculation that the exertion involved in singing the part of Tristan had killed him. The stress of performing Tristan may have also claimed the lives of conductors Felix Mottl in 1911 and Joseph Keilberth in 1968. Both men died after collapsing while conducting the second act which, incidentally, Wagner finished at his home in Venice at Palazzo Giustinian overlooking the Grand Canal.

Eventually, Tristan found ground and was enormously influential to such distinguished composers as Alban Berg, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, Richard Strauss and, indeed, Benjamin Britten. In fact, during the playing of the Prelude, my thoughts wandered and caught up with the opening scene of Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier.

Enjoying 32 productions at Bayreuth between 1886 and 2022, this current production of Tristan, which first saw the light of day at last year’s festival thereby marking the 149th anniversary of its world première, fell to Icelandic-born director, Thorliefur Örn Arnarsson, making his début on the Green Hill.

So, too, is Lithuanian set designer and visual artist, Vytautas Narbutas, who created three impressive and imaginative sets fitting so well the overall scenario of such a fine and intriguing production. The conductor for this revival was Semyon Bychkov.

Tony Cooper revisits Valentin Schwarz’ Ring cycle at Bayreuth and relishes it second time around.

Wagner: Die Walkure - Act Three - Claire Barnett-Jones, Elisabeth Teige, Catherine Foster, Christa Mayer, Stephanie Houtzeel - Bayreuth Festival 2023
(Photo: Bayreuther Festspiele / Enrico Nawrath)

Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen; Aile Asszonyi, Hailey Clark, Okka von der Damerau, Markus Eiche, Catherine Foster, Mika Kares, Daniel Kirch, Daniela Köhler, Tomasz Konieczny, Christa Mayer, Andreas Schager, Olafur Sigurdarson, Elisabeth Teige,  Klaus Florian Vogt, Georg Zeppenfeld, dir: Valentin Schwarz; cond: Pietari Inkinen; Bayreuth Festival.
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 28 August 2023

Finnish-born conductor, Pietari Inkinen, proudly walked the Grüner Hügel this year to conduct the complete Ring following his 2021 festival début with Die Walküre. 

Austrian stage director, Valentin Schwarz - who came to prominence in tandem with set designer Andrea Cozzi after winning the 2017 Ring Award - made his Bayreuth Festival début with this Ring cycle last year which received a mixed reception although it’s faring much better this year, conducted by Pietari Inkinen. An interesting, thoughtful and innovative production, hopefully it will probably be viewed in a better light as time go by. 

An international competition for stage direction and stage design in musical theatre held on a triennial basis in the Austrian city of Graz, the Ring Award enables and encourages a critical reflection of current trends and developments in musical theatre offering a platform to young artists in getting international resonance for their ideas of what contemporary musical theatre should be like. 

Therefore, a director going places, Schwarz has worked in some prestigious houses over the past few years. For instance, he directed Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte at Theater an der Wien, Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at Staatstheater Darmstadt, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale at Opéra National de Montpellier and York Holler’s Der Meister und Margarita at Oper Köln. 

Without question, directing Wagner, especially the Ring, poses a tremendous artistic challenge for any director but Schwarz took that task head on conjuring up a good and interesting (but bizarre) production. However, I like directors who push boundaries and as with Frank Castorf’s controversial Ring at Bayreuth staged for Wagner’s bicentennial in 2013, Schwarz surely follows in his wake. 

Change is necessary, I feel, at Bayreuth to ensure a healthy future for the festival and, indeed, elsewhere, too. And change certainly came with Wieland Wagner who ushered in a new dawn on the Grüner Hügel when he dumped the elaborate naturalistic sets and grand productions common in his grandfather’s day replacing them by minimalist affairs - all against forceful opposition. 

For instance, his Brechtian-influenced Parsifal in 1951 (the first Bayreuth Festival after the Second World War) was booed to bits while Patrice Chéreau’s politically motivated centenary Ring in 1976 received the same kind of reception. Surprisingly, today, they’re now hailed as masterpieces.  

Wagner: Das Rheingold - Evelin Nowak, Olafur Sigurdarason, Simone Schroder, Stephanie Houtzeel - Bayreuth Festival 2023
(Photo: Bayreuther Festspiele / Enrico Nawrath)

Klaus Florian Vogt is exemplary in the title-role of Tannhäuser at the Bayreuth Festival

Wagner: Tannhäuser - Le Gateau Chocolat - Bayreuth Festival (Photo: Bayreuther Festspiele / Enrico Nawrath)

Wagner: Tannhäuser; Jens-Erik Aasbø, Markus Eiche, Günther Groissböck, Julia Grüter, Ekaterina Gubanova, Siyabonga Maqungo, Jorge Rodríguez-Norton, Olafur Sigurdarson, Elisabeth Teige, Klaus Florian Vogt; dir: Tobias Kratzer; cond: Nathalie Stutzmann; Bayreuth Festival  
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 23 August 2023

Katharina Wagner puts in a Hitchcock-style appearance in this compelling and telling production of Tannhäuser. 

This current production of Tannhäuser by Tobias Kratzer (which, incidentally, received its première in Dresden on 19th October 1845) chalks up the opera’s ninth staging at the Bayreuth Festival and was first seen in 2019. It’s now making its final bow following a four-year tenure on the Grüner Hügel. Surprisingly, no other work in the Wagner canon has received such few productions.  

By the way, Kratzer made his Bayreuth début with this production which, I feel, has lost none of its shine or momentum since I attended its première. And I’m pleased to say that it was well received by the cognoscenti of the Grüner Hügel as opposed to Sebastian Baumgarten’s realization which received a chorus of disapproval from the army of traditionally-minded Wagnerites. 

Wagner: Tannhäuser - Klaus Floria Vogt, Ekaterina Gubanova - Bayreuth Festival (Photo: Bayreuther Festspiele / Enrico Nawrath)

Primarily based on the Pilgrims’ Chorus and partly on the contrasting music of the orgies in the court of Venus, the overture - summarising the theme of the whole story focusing on the struggle between sacred and profane love and redemption through love, a theme running through many of Wagner’s later works - was brilliantly played with Nathalie Stutzmann driving the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra to a stirring conclusion.  

The Bayreuth Festival is thrust into a new age, the digital age, by the application of Augmented Reality in a ground-breaking new production of Wagner's Parsifal

Wagner: Parsifal - Georg Zeppenfeld - Bayreuth Festival (Photo: Bayreuther Festspiele / Enrico Nawrath)

Wagner: Parsifal; Ekaterina Gubanova, Tobias Kehrer, Andreas Schager, Jordan Shanahan, Derek Welton, Georg Zeppenfeld; dir: Jay Scheib; cond: Pablo Heras-Casado; Bayreuth Festival
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 23 August 2023

Through my 3D glasses I found myself wrapped up and entwined in an abundance of floating objects that seemingly one could touch! 

The 2023 season at the Bayreuth Festival opened with a ground-breaking new production of Parsifal directed by 53-year-old Jay Scheib, an American of international standing in the hi-tech world and a technological wizard like no other! A couple of his credits include Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Face (New York City Opera) and the Jim Steinman/Meat Loaf musical, Bat Out of Hell (Capitol Theatre, Düsseldorf).  The production also feature conductor Pablo Heras-Casado's debut at the festival.

Wagner: Parsifal - Andreas Schager, Elina Garanca - Bayreuth Festival (Photo: Bayreuther Festspiele / Enrico Nawrath)

A professor of music and theatre arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jay Scheib’s well known for his genre-defying works of daring physicality and the integration of new (and used) technologies in live performance. Therefore, in his realization of Parsifal for Bayreuth he has thrust this iconic festival into the digital age by engaging in Augmented Reality.   

Revenge is the name of the Dutchman’s game: Dmitri Tcherniakov’s Holländer at the Bayreuth Festival

Wagner: Der Fliegende Holländer - Tomislav Muzek, Elisabeth Teige, Nadine Weissmann - Bayreuth Festival (Photo: Bayreuther Festspiele/Enrico Nawrath)

Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer; Attilio Glaser, Tomislav Mužek, Elisabeth Teige, Michael Volle, Nadine Weissmann, Georg Zeppenfeld; dir: Dmitri Tcherniakov; cond: Oksana Lyniv; Bayreuth Festival
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 23 August 2023

A creative and imaginative force, Dmitri Tcherniakov’s Holländer is a masterful production and one to chalk up

The myth of the Dutchman is thought to have come from an episode in Heinrich Heine’s satirical novel of 1833, Memoirs of Herr von Schnabelewopski, in which a character attends a theatrical performance of The Flying Dutchman in Amsterdam. Nevertheless, it could have also originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dutch East India Company. However, the opera’s première took place in Dresden on 2nd January 1843 but was pulled from the repertoire after just four performances and shelved for a couple of decades. 

The inspiration for Wagner to write Der fliegende Holländer came about by a stormy crossing he made from East Prussia to England in 1839. Normally a week-long trip, it took over three weeks and the ship’s crew, superstitious as befitting old seadogs, oddly thought that Wagner, travelling with his first wife Christine Wilhelmine ‘Minna’ Planer, was bad news and responsible for the bad weather.  

At one point the ship (named after the Greek sea goddess ‘Thetis’ who married Peleus and became the mother of Achilles) put in for safety at the Norwegian fishing village of Sandvika, located on the southern coast of the island of Borøya, which, in turn, Wagner used as the setting for the opera. 

Wagner: Der Fliegende Holländer - Tomislav Muzek, Elisabeth Teige, Michael Volle - Bayreuth Festival (Photo: Bayreuther Festspiele/Enrico Nawrath)

This year's Bayreuth Festival features Der fliegende Holländer directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov and conducted by Oksana Lyniv. But Dmitri Tcherniakov - a deconstructionist in practically every libretto he touches - drifts miles away from Wagner’s setting focusing on the town where the Dutchman grew up while examining the psychological aspects of his unsettling and disturbing persona. As such, it offers a unique and different approach to the composer’s first mature opera. 

Adventures on the Green Hill: Tony Cooper explores Richard Wagner's villa Wahnfried at Bayreuth

Engraving of Wagner's motto over the front portal to Wahnfried (Photo Wikipedia)

Richard Wagner’s beloved villa at Bayreuth, Wahnfried, provided the perfect home for him and his family as Wagner aficionado, Tony Cooper, found out

The Wagner Family and friends in front of Villa Wahnfried in 1881. Above, from left to right:
Blandine von Bülow, Heinrich von Stein (Siegfried's teacher), Cosima & Richard Wagner, Paul von Joukowsky (friend)
below, from l to r: Isolde, Daniela von Bülow, Eva and Siegfried (Photo Public Domain: Wikipedia)

I simply love Bayreuth and so did Richard Wagner, by all accounts, as he eventually made his home here while establishing the famous Bayreuth Festival in 1876. And by selecting Bayreuth, Wagner made it abundantly clear that his summer opera festival would be far removed from the routine and complacency of urban cultural life.

Wagner made his first visit to Bayreuth in April 1870 because he had read about the Margravial Opera House, an ornate and beautifully-designed baroque theatre which he thought would be ideal for hosting the Bayreuth Festival. But it was not to be. For a start the orchestra pit was inadequate and so, too, was the size of the stage while the auditorium was far too small with seating for only 500.

Always a thinker - and a free-thinker, too! - Wagner then toyed with the idea of building his own Festival Hall (Festspielhaus) in Bayreuth. This idea fitted perfectly the thinking of the town’s burgher-master who fully supported Wagner in his endeavours and set aside a piece of land for him to build his ‘dream’ theatre on the edge of the town but close to the railway-station on top of the Grüner Hügel (Green Hill).

An alternative to the theatres of Wagner’s day, the construction of the Festspielhaus began on the composer’s 59th birthday (22nd May 1872) - the same year in which he located to the picturesque town of Bayreuth in Upper Franconia now part of the Federal State of Bavaria. Planning and construction were in the capable hands of Leipzig architect, Otto Brückwald, who had already made a name for himself in building theatres in Leipzig and Altenburg.

Four years after the start of construction on 13th August 1876 the Bayreuth Festspielhaus was ready for performance officially hosting the first Bayreuth Festival. Sadly, it turned out to be a financial disaster thereby forcing a six-year closure of the theatre.

Bayreuth’s Tristan und Isolde was grand and convincing in every conceivable way harbouring a sting in its tail

Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Bayreuth Festival 2019 (Photo Enric Nawrath)

Richard Wagner Tristan und Isolde; Petra Lang, Stefan Vinke, Georg Zeppenfeld, Greer Grimsley, Christa Mayer, dir: Katharina Wagner, cond: Christian Thielemann
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 5 July 2019 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
The cast included a formidable trio of Wagner heavyweights: Stefan Vinke, Petra Lang and Georg Zeppenfeld

Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
Bayreuth Festival 2019 (Photo Enric Nawrath)

Arguably, one of the greatest works ever written to pure erotic love echoing the legendary days of King Arthur, this thoughtful and enlightening production of Tristan und Isolde directed by Katharina Wagner first came to the stage in 2015 therefore, sadly, this is its last outing on the Green Hill.

Katharina Wagner's production of Tristan und Isolde at the 2019 Bayreuth Festival (seen 16 August 2019), featured Stefan Vinke as Tristan, Petra Lang as Isolde, Georg Zeppenfeld as King Mark, Greer Grimsley as Kurwenal and Christa Mayer as Brangäne, with Christian Thielemann conducting.

A highly-impressive first act - not just musically speaking but visually speaking, too - focused on Tristan and Isolde frantically searching for each other against all the odds with Kurwenal and Brangäne struggling to keep them apart. When they eventually meet it proved a powerful and emotive scene. The lovers just stared longingly and lovingly at each other in total silence while the love potion that Brangäne prepared for Isolde is immediately discarded by her as the couple’s love was already vacuumed sealed.

What makes this act so highly impressive, engaging and so full of mystery is greatly helped by Frank Philipp Schlößmann and Matthias Lippert’s brilliantly-designed set comprising a three-dimensional labyrinth of stairs evaporating into thin air influenced, no doubt, by the work of Giovanni Piranesi or MC Escher but it was Piranesi’s engraving - Il ponte levatoio: Le Carceri d’Invenzione (The drawbridge: the Imaginary Prison) - cited in the programme.

A provocative production in so many ways, Uwe Eric Laufenberg’s Parsifal was sensitively directed and performed by a brilliant cast

Wagner: Parsifal - Ryan McKinny - Bayreuth Festival 2019 (photo Enrico Nawrath)

Wagner Parsifal: Günther Groissböck, Ryan McKinny, Elena Pankratova, Andreas Schager, Wilhelm Schwinghammer, Derek Welton, dir: Uwe Eric Laufenberg, cond: Semyon Bychkov; Bayreuth Festival, Germany
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 5 July 2019 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Gérard Naziri’s stardust ride through the Galaxy to the Land of the Grail proved a remarkable and visually-exciting video sequence

Wagner: Parsifal
Elena Pankratova, Andreas Schager
Bayreuth Festival 2019 (photo Enrico Nawrath)

Specifically written for the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, Wagner described Parsifal as ‘ein Bühnenweihfestspiel’ (A Festival Play for the Consecration of the Stage) not an opera thereby underlying the work’s deeply-religious overtones. The philosophical ideas of the libretto, however, fuses Christianity and Buddhism but the trappings of Wolfram von Eschenbach’s 13th-century poem - focusing on the Arthurian hero Parzival and his long quest for the Holy Grail - are essentially Christian based.

The 2019 revival of Uwe Eric Laufenberg's production of Wagner's Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival (seen 15 August 2019) featured Ryan McKinny as Amfortas, Wilhelm Schwinghammer as Titurel, Günther Groissböck as Gurnemanz, Andreas Schager as Parsifal, Derek Welton as Klingsor and Elena Pankratova as Kundry, conducted by Semyon Bychkov.

In this compelling and rewarding production by German director, Uwe Eric Laufenberg, he sensitively portrayed the religious aspect of the work especially at the end of Act I where one witnesses the Christ-like figure of Amfortas (magnificently portrayed by the gifted American bass-baritone, Ryan McKinny) wearing a crown of thorns covered only by a loin-cloth re-enacting the Crucifixion with members of the Brotherhood - now seen as a community of Christian monks - gathered closely round him receiving Holy Communion partaking of the Blood of Christ.

Working in partnership with dramaturg Richard Lorber, Mr Laufenberg also rethought the traditional scenario of the work by dumping the setting of Montsalvat - the revered castle of the knights of the Holy Grail in medieval Spain - and switching it to Islamic State’s Middle Eastern-held territory of northern Iraq.

A bomb-scarred church provided the setting for Act I (for the mosque featured in Act II a decorative blue-tile wall sufficed) while its sanctuary lamp, used in Christian and Jewish centres of worship, remained intact. Here the monks go about their day-to-day business of serving the needs of the weak and homeless brought about by the ravages of war with families of mixed faiths sleeping on makeshift canvas beds and kept under tight surveillance by a small group of armed soldiers.

Wagner: Parsifal - Derek Welton - Bayreuth Festival 2019 (photo Enrico Nawrath)

Central to Yuval Sharon’s production of Lohengrin is its dramaturgical concept based on Wagner’s critiques on science and technology

Wagner: Lohengrin - Bayreuth Festival 2019 (Photo Enrico Nawrath)

Wagner Lohengrin; Piotr Beczała, Annette Dasch, Tomasz Konieczny, Elena Pankratova, Egils Silins, Georg Zeppenfeld, dir: Yuval Sharon, cond: Christian Thielemann; Bayreuth Festival, Germany
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 14 August 2019 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
An electrically-charged production that sparked the imagination and ignited the audience to a thunderous curtain-call

This masterful production of Wagner’s Lohengrin by Yuval Sharon - born in Chicago in 1979 to Israeli parents and Bayreuth’s first American director - first saw the light of day at the 2018 Bayreuth Festival [see Tony's review]. An electrically-charged and imaginative production, Mr Sharon’s concept mirrors Wagner’s strong views and concerns about the consequences of scientific advancement and how new technologies such as electricity - and even the steam-engine - could upset the balance between the natural world and the steady world of progress.

The 2019 revival of Yuval Sharon's production of Wagner's Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival (seen 14 August 2019) featured Piotr Beczała as Lohengrin, Annette Dasch as Elsa, Tomasz Konieczny as Telramund, Elena Pankratova as Ortrud, and Georg Zeppenfeld as Heinrich der Vogler. Christian Thielemann conducted.

A recipient of the Götz Friedrich Prize for Best Opera Direction for his production of John Adams’ Dr Atomic at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Mr Sharon teamed up with a couple of creative geniuses: the celebrated husband-and-wife team of Neo Rauch (set designer) and Rosa Loy (costume designer) who delivered a visual feast of an amazing and intricate set shrouded in blue (a colour favoured by Wagner) plus an electric power generating plant that could have jumped straight out of Fritz Lang’s 1927 expressionist film, Metropolis.

Born in Leipzig in the 1960s, Rauch - whose work focuses on a bold subject-matter probably reflecting the influence that Socialist Realism had on him as a young man - gathered his thoughts together and inspiration for the sets from actually listening to the score of Lohengrin while working in his studio.

Based on a well-loved German legend the actual story of Lohengrin relates to other traditional and fairy-like stories that belong to the ‘Knight of the Swan’ tradition, a medieval tale about a mysterious rescuer who comes in a swan-drawn boat in defence of a damsel in distress, his only condition being that he must never be asked his name. Therefore, the fairy-tale elements in Lohengrin are strong with the Good represented by Lohengrin and Elsa of Brabant and the Bad by Ortrud and Frederick of Telramund.

I felt a nod was given to the fairy-tale element by Mr Sharon inasmuch as the central characters were adorned with diaphanous wings (made of thin semi-transparent gossamer cloth) but here they represented flying insects - and like all insects, attracted to the light. There was a lot of electricity and light in this production to bug them.

The original scenario of Lohengrin - centred upon the Flemish city of Antwerp on the banks of the river Scheldt in the 10th century - was cleverly reinterpreted by Mr Sharon. For instance, the city’s Gothic-built cathedral became a cathedral of modern technology: in this case an electric power generating plant set in the midst of a vast mountainous waterfall landscape. However, traditionally-designed Flemish dress clothed the peasantry while ruff collars (as worn by 17th-century Flemish aristocrats) adorned the nobility apropos an Anthony van Dyck painting.

Wagner: Lohengrin - Elena Pankratova - Bayreuth Festival 2019 (Photo Enrico Nawrath)

Surprisingly, Tannhäuser has received only a handful of productions at the Bayreuth Festival and this new production by Tobias Kratzer chalks up its ninth outing

Wagner: Tannhäuser - Bayreuth Festival (Photo Enrico Nawrath)

Wagner Tannhäuser; Lise Davidsen, Elena Zhidkova, Stephen Gould, Markus Eiche, dir: Tobias Kratzer, cond: Christian Thielemann; Bayreuth Festival
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 13 August 2019 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
The cognoscenti of the Green Hill adored Tannhäuser and equally adored Norwegian-born soprano, Lise Davidsen, who set the Green Hill alight in the pivotal role of Elisabeth while making her Bayreuth Festival début

Wagner: Tannhäuser
Bayreuth Festival (Photo Enrico Nawrath)

As in past years, the great and the good turned out for the opening of the Bayreuth Festival with Chancellor Angela Merkel heading up the celeb list accompanied by her husband, Joachim Sauer, who very rarely make a public appearance but Bayreuth’s so special. Indeed, so special, that the opening performance of this year’s new production, Tannhäuser, directed by German director, Tobias Kratzer, a Bayreuth first-timer, was broadcast live on national television and also beamed live to around 100 cinemas in German-speaking countries, an idea inaugurated by Katharina Wagner when she took over the artistic reins of Bayreuth 11 years ago.

Tobias Kratzer's new production of Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser at the Bayreuth Festival (seen 13 August 2019) featured Stephen Gould as Tannhäuser, Markus Eiche as Wolfram, Lise Davidsen as Elisabeth and Elena Zhidkova as Venus, conducted by Christian Thielemann.

By the way, this production of Tannhäuser (which received its première in Dresden on 19th October 1845) is only the ninth to be staged at the Bayreuth Festival and, surprisingly, no other work in the Bayreuth canon has received such fewer productions.

Following in the footsteps of Sebastian Baumgarten’s controversial production of Tannhäuser which received a chorus of disapproval from traditionally-minded Wagnerites, Mr Kratzer’s offering seemed just as biting but has found more acceptability among the cognoscenti of the Green Hill with a few boos here and there. But that’s to be expected at Bayreuth.

Primarily based on the Pilgrims’ Chorus and partly on the contrasting music of the orgies in the court of Venus, the overture - summarising the theme of the whole story focusing on the struggle between sacred and profane love and redemption through love, a theme running through many of Wagner’s later works - was brilliantly played with Christian Thielemann (replacing at short notice Russian conductor, Valery Gergiev) driving the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra (hand-picked from some of the finest musicians to be found in Germany) to a stirring conclusion.

Employed by so many theatre directors nowadays, video technology was at the heart of Mr Kratzer’s thinking as much as it was Frank Castorf's (in Bayreuth's bicentennial Ring). For example, the medieval Wartburg castle in Act I was fleetingly represented by an aerial video sequence conjured up by Manuel Braun whose work, incidentally, will be seen in London next year in a new production of Beethoven’s Fidelio at the Royal Opera House in March directed by the ‘man-of-the-moment’, it seems, Tobias Kratzer, whose Leonora happens to be Lise Davidsen (Elisabeth in Tannhäuser) while Florestan will be sung by Jonas Kaufmann.

I’m following in father’s footsteps, I’m following dear old dad

Wolfgang Wagner

This year marks the 100th anniversary of former Bayreuth director, Wolfgang Wagner(1919-2010), son of Siegfried Wagner and Richard Wagner’s grandson, who directed the Bayreuth Festival alongside his elder brother Wieland from 1951 until the latter’s death in 1966 and then assumed total control until he retired in 2008. He prophetically exclaimed: ‘There’s only one star in Bayreuth and his name is Richard Wagner.’ That profound statement still holds true today.

Therefore, to mark Wolfgang’s centenary (whose anniversary actually falls on 30th August) a commemorative opening concert took place on the eve of this year’s Bayreuth Festival in which conductor, Christian Thielemann, remarked on how he had to thoroughly relearn conducting techniques to fit the requirements of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus about which Wolfgang Wagner knew every detail. Appropriately, the area in front of the Festspielhaus is now named after Wolfgang.

A fabulous concert by all accounts, the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra was joined by such Wagner heavyweights as Günter Groissböck, Stephen Gould and Waltraud Meier, the latter giving a moving rendition of the ‘Liebestod’ from Tristan und Isolde. And to add to the centenary celebrations, an exhibition entitled ‘The Principal’ - chronicling Wolfgang Wagner’s professional life as artistic director, stage designer and director - is running at the Richard Wagner Museum (Villa Wahnfried) to Sunday 3rd November.

Naturally, the anniversary concert was hosted by Wolfgang’s daughter, Katharina - great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner and, indeed, great-great granddaughter of Franz Liszt - who now, of course, gloriously follows in her father’s footsteps.

Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Bayreuth Festival

Wagner: Die Meistersinger - Johannes Martin Kränzle, Michale Volle, Günther Groissböck
Bayreuth Festival 2019 (Photo Enrico Nawrath)

Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; Daniel Behle, Günther Groissböck, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Camilla Nylund, Klaus Florian Vogt, Michael Volle, dir: Barrie Kosky, cond: Philippe Jordan; Bayreuth Festival, Germany
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 10 August 2019 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Bayreuth Festival’s production of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg offered a strong message on anti-Semitism

You soon get a feeling for the style of Barrie Kosky’s innovative and entertaining production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, first seen at Bayreuth in 2017 [see Tony's review of the 2018 revival of this production]. For one thing, he dumps the traditional setting of St Catherine’s Church in Act I for Villa Wahnfried where we meet Wagner and his wife Cosima entertaining bosom friends in a ‘read-through’ of Meistersinger in which the Jewish-born conductor, Hermann Levi, is portrayed and greatly humiliated as Sixtus Beckmesser, the role so magnificently sung and so well acted by Johannes Martin Kränzle.

The date of this well-heeled gathering (13th August 1875) was projected in large lettering on a gauze-covered curtain whilst the names of Wagner’s beloved dogs (Molly and Marke) were also flashed up and, oddly enough, the temperature of the day - 23C. Bayreuth’s usually hot often in more ways than one!


Barrie Kosky's production of Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was again at the Bayreuth Festival this year (seen 10 August 2019). Philippe Jordan conducted with Klaus Florian Vogt as Walther, Camilla Nylund as Eva, Michael Volle as Hans Sachs, Daniel Behle as David and Johannes Martin Kränzle as Beckmesser.

The pivotal role of Walther von Stolzing (seen as Young Wagner) fell to Klaus Florian Vogt, a big ‘favourite’ of the Green Hill and his entrance into Wahnfried’s elegantly-furnished, book-lined drawing-room came by way of a precarious route tumbling from Wagner’s Steinway Grand directly into the arms of Cosima (seen as Eva) powerfully sung by Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund while Günther Groissböck as Veit Pogner (Eva’s father, later appearing as Franz Liszt) showed his muscle equating to his wealthy position.

The Master Singers arrive by the same circuitous route (plus a few Wagner look-alikes, too) with their chains of office denoting their trade dangling heavily from their necks. Robed in traditional processional gowns - inspired, perhaps, by the Nuremberg Renaissance printmaker, Albrecht Dürer - they could easily have passed off as the Lord Chamberlain’s Men from the pantomime, Dick Whittington.

But Mr Kosky’s production was far from ‘pantomime’ and, as always, he keeps plenty of tricks up his sleeve offering a dramatic and stylish ending to Act I inasmuch as Wahnfried was seen slowly retracting to reveal a replica of Room 600 of Nuremberg’s Palace of Justice used by the International Military Tribunal for the War Trials of 1945-46 with a lonely GI on duty, a timely reminder of things to come.

In the original production the same set was cleverly adapted for Act II but here the courtroom floor was free of furniture and completely grassed over finding Wagner and Cosima tucked up one corner enjoying an al fresco lunch. Kosky’s new thinking now depicts Room 600 completely bare apart from a big heap of goods and chattels from Wahnfried bunged up one corner which, I guess, would not look out of place as an ‘installation’ in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall.

Wagner: Die Meistersinger - Johannes Martin Kränzle, Klaus Florian Vogt, Camilla Nylund
Bayreuth Festival 2019 (Photo Enrico Nawrath)

Bayreuth’s Die Walküre is pulled from the pack and given another airing conducted by Plácido Domingo

Richard Wagner Die Walküre: Catherine Foster, Stephen Gould, Regine Hangler, Anja Kampe, Mika Kaneko, Tobias Kehrer, Christiane Kohl, John Lundgren, Mareike Morr, Alexandra Petersamer, Marina Prudenskaya, Simone Schröder, Caroline Wenborne, dir: Frank Castorf, cond: Plácido Domingo; Bayreuth Festival, Germany
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 18 August 2018 Star rating: 5.0
Frank Castorf’s Ring proved controversial at first but found its feet over its five-year run

The Bayreth Festival presented Wagner's Die Walküre as a stand-alone production (seen 18 August 2018) conducted by Plácido Domingo with Catherine Foster, John Lundgren, Anja Kampe, Stephen Gould, Tobias Kehrer and Marina Prudenskaya.

In the second part of Wagner’s Ring cycle, Die Walküre (in repertoire from 2013 to 2017 as part of the complete cycle to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner’s birth), Berlin-based, avant-garde, theatre director, Frank Castorf, unconventionally dumped the opera’s traditional romantic Rhineland setting for the rough-and-tumble world of oil prospecting transporting the scenario to the city of Baku on the Caspian Sea in pre-Revolutionary Russia. Therefore, ‘Black Gold’ became the treasured Nibelung hoard, a political tool like no other.

And oil, of course, is a great bargaining tool in world politics and was a big influence on Soviet foreign policy during the Cold War (an era which Castorf grew up in) and in Putin-powered Russia today, energy and oil is still high on the agenda.

It was high on the agenda, too, for Wotan who travelled Route 66 to his new job as boss of the Baku oil-field from his old job as boss of the Golden Motel in Das Rheingold. A switch of jobs, too, from Scottish bass-baritone, Iain Paterson (Wotan in Das Rheingold) to Swedish bass-baritone, John Lundgren (Wotan in Die Walküre), who arrived on the scene sporting a long Russian Orthodox-style beard which, for one reason or other, was later shaved off. However, Lundgren proved an excellent choice for the role delivering a strong and authoritative performance in an interesting and detailed production that employed and merged stagecraft and video work skilfully created by Andreas Deinert and Jens Crull.

One good example came in the scene in which Sieglinde’s caught on camera preparing a sleeping-draught for her husband Hunding so she could slip off for a secret rendezvous with her long-lost Wälsung brother, Siegmund. Scenes like this, combining ‘live’ and ‘video’ action, worked well most of the time but, occasionally, cluttered up and confused the overall stage picture.

Legendary opera star, Plácido Domingo, worked well, too, finding himself in the pit of the famed Richard-Wagner-Festspielhaus but causing a furore in many quarters because of his limited experience of conducting Wagner - and for the first time at Bayreuth. Heavens above!

Bayreuth’s Tristan und Isolde was grand and convincing in every conceivable way harbouring a sting in its tail

Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Bayreuth Festival (Photo Enrico Nawrath)

Richard Wagner Tristan und Isolde; Tansel Akzeybek, Stephen Gould, Petra Lang, Christa Mayer, Raimund Nolte, Iain Paterson, Kay Stiefermann, Georg Zeppenfeld, dir: Katharina Wagner, cond: Christian Thielemann; Bayreuth Festival, Germany Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 16 August 2018 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
A stellar cast was gathered together and they delivered a powerful five-star performance

This thoughtful and enlightening production of Tristan und Isolde by Katharina Wagner came to the Bayreuth Festival's stage in 2015 (how times flies!) immediately finding favour with the cognoscenti of the Green Hill whilst also marking the 150th anniversary of its world première at Munich. For the 2018 revival of the production (seen 16 August 2018), Christian Thielemann conducted with Stephen Gould as Tristan, Petra Lang as Isolde, Georg Zeppenfeld as King Marke, Iain Paterson as Kurwenal, Raimund Nolte as Melot and Christa Mayer as Brangäne.

One of the greatest works ever written to pure erotic love echoing the legendary days of King Arthur, Tristan - which Wagner rated as one of his ‘favourites’ - is an emotional work to say the least and Katharina Wagner - artistic director of the Bayreuth Festival, daughter of Wolfgang Wagner and great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner - tapped into the opera’s emotional strength delivering a brilliant, powerful and compelling production that drifted at times from its traditional staging especially at the end. However, she doesn’t mind taking risks and engaging in new ideas in which to explore the works of her great-grandfather who, I’m sure, would greatly approve.

A highly-impressive first act - not just musically speaking but visually speaking, too - focused on Tristan and Isolde frantically searching for each other against all the odds with Kurwenal and Brangäne struggling to keep them apart but, of course, to no avail. When they eventually meet it proved a powerful, emotive and telling scene. The lovers just stared longingly and lovingly at each other in total silence while the love potion that Brangäne prepared for Isolde is immediately discarded by her and Tristan in a romantically-charged joint ceremony as the couple’s love was vacuumed sealed right from the start.

Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Bayreuth Festival (Photo Enrico Nawrath)

What makes this act so highly impressive, engaging and so full of mystery is greatly helped by Frank Philipp Schlößmann and Matthias Lippert’s brilliantly-designed set comprising a three-dimensional labyrinth of stairs evaporating into thin air influenced, no doubt, by the work of Giovanni Piranesi or MC Escher but it was Piranesi’s engraving - Il ponte levatoio: Le Carceri d’Invenzione (The drawbridge: the Imaginary Prison) - cited in the programme.

Bayreuth’s Parsifal provided a sensitive portrayal of humanity overcoming adversity

Richard Wagner Parsifal: Günther Groissböck, Tobias Kehrer, Thomas J Mayer, Elena Pankratova, Andreas Schager, Derek Welton, dir: Uwe Eric Laufenberg, cond: Semyon Bychkov; Bayreuth Festival, Germany Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 14 August 2018 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
A production that underlined and delivered a strong message of unity through a trio of mixed faiths

Specifically written for Bayreuth’s Festspielhaus, Parsifal became Wagner’s final and farewell work to the world completed in January 1882 and first seen in that year. Therefore, this production by German director, Uwe Eric Laufenberg (new in 2016) marks its ninth outing at Bayreuth since its première. On 14 August 2018, Semyon Bychkov conducted, with Thomas J Mayer as Amfortas, Günther Groissböck as Gurnemanz, Andreas Schager as Parsifal and Elena Pankratova as Kundry

Working in partnership with dramaturg Richard Lorber, Mr Laufenberg switched the opera’s traditional setting of Montsalvat (the revered castle of the knights of the Holy Grail in medieval Spain) to the Middle Eastern territory of northern Iraq and Syria under the tight control of Islamic State where Christianity finds itself severely under threat as never before.

The philosophical ideas of the libretto fuses Christianity and Buddhism, but the trappings of Wolfram von Eschenbach’s 13th-century poem - focusing on the Arthurian hero Parzival and his long quest for the Holy Grail - are essentially Christian based. The composer actually described Parsifal as ‘ein Bühnenweihfestspiel’ (A Festival Play for the Consecration of the Stage) not an opera thereby underlying the deep-religious overtones the work harbours.

Laufenberg, therefore, sensitively brought this pivotal issue to the fore especially at the end of the first act where one witnesses Amfortas, wearing a crown of thorns and covered only by a loin-cloth, re-enacts the Crucifixion with members of the Brotherhood (now seen as a community of Christian monks) gathered round him receiving Holy Communion and partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ. It was a powerful and moving scene while the Christ-like figure of Amfortas (king of Monsalvat) was magnificently portrayed by the gifted and talented German bass-baritone, Thomas J Mayer.

Bayreuth’s new production of Lohengrin has taken the Green Hill by storm

Wagner Lohengrin: Piotr Beczała, Michael Gniffke, Anja Harteros, Tomasz Konieczny, Eric Laporte, Waltraud Meier, Timo Riihonen, Egils Salinas, Kay Stiefermann, Georg Zeppenfeld, dir: Yuval Sharon, cond: Christian Thielemann; Bayreuth Festival, Germany Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 14 August 2018 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
An electrically-charged production that sparked the imagination and ignited the audience to a thunderous and most deserving curtain-call

In this brand-new production of Wagner’s Lohengrin directed by Yuval Sharon - born in Chicago in 1979 to Israeli parents and the Bayreuth Festival’s first American director - he delivered an electrically-charged and imaginative production that - like Hans Neuenfels’ rat-infested one - challenged the traditional boundaries of opera direction which, hopefully, is now finding favour with Bayreuth’s traditionally-minded audience. (Seen 14 August 2018). Christian Thielemann conducted with Piotr Beczała in the title role, Anja Harteros as Elsa, Tomasz Konieczny as Telramund, Waltraud Meier as Ortrud and Georg Zeppenfeld as Heinrich der Vogler.

A recipient of the Götz Friedrich Prize for ‘best opera direction’ for his production of John Adams’ Dr Atomic seen at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe three years ago, Mr Sharon replaced Latvian-born Alvis Hermanis as director a couple of years ago while the celebrated husband-and-wife team of Neo Rauch (set designer) and Rosa Loy (costume designer) - who had been working on sets and costumes well before the switch of directors - delivered a visual feast that was interesting but equally disturbing as the plot itself.

Born in Leipzig, East Germany, in the 1960s, Rauch - whose work focuses on a bold subject-matter probably reflecting the influence that Socialist Realism had on him as a young man - gathered his thoughts together and inspiration for the sets from actually listening to the score of Lohengrin while working in his studio.

Based on a well-loved German legend written by an unknown German author, the actual story of Lohengrin relates to other traditional and fairy-like stories that belong to the ‘Knight of the Swan’ tradition, a medieval tale about a mysterious rescuer who comes in a swan-drawn boat in defence of a damsel in distress, his only condition being that he must never be asked his name. Therefore, the fairy-tale elements in Lohengrin are strong with the Good represented by Lohengrin and Elsa of Brabant and the Bad by Ortrud and Frederick of Telramund.

I felt a nod was given to the fairy-tale legend by Mr Sharon inasmuch as the central characters were adorned with diaphanous wings (made of thin semi-transparent cloth) but here they represented flying insects - and like all insects, attracted to the light. There was a lot of light in this production to bug them. Those worn by Elsa, though, would have perfectly fitted the part of the Fairy Queen Iolanthe in Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta of the same name.

The original scenario of Lohengrin - centred upon the Flemish city of Antwerp on the banks of the river Scheldt in the 10th century - was reinterpreted by Mr Sharon who swapped things round a bit. The city’s Gothic-built cathedral became a cathedral of modern technology: in this case an electric power generating plant set in the midst of a vast mountainous waterfall landscape. However, traditional Flemish dress clothed the peasantry while ruff collars (as worn by 17th-century Flemish aristocrats) adorned the nobility with some of the characters looking if they had just jumped from a painting by Anthony van Dyck.

Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer at the Bayreuth Festival

Richard Wagner Der fliegende Holländer; John Lundgren, Ricarda Merbeth, Tomislav Mužek, Peter Rose, Rainer Trost dir:Jan Philipp Gloger, cond: Axel Kober; Bayreuth Festival, German Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 12 August 2018 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Bayreuth Festival’s stunning production of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer leaves the Green Hill on a high

Wagner’s first mature opera written in 1841, Der fliegende Holländer - directed with great flair and imagination by the German theatre director, Jan Philipp Gloger - received its final showing at this year’s Bayreuth Festival (seen 12 August 2018) having debuted in 2012 [the 2013 revival is available on DVD]. Conducted by Axel Kober the production featured John Lundgren as the Dutchman, Ricarda Merbeth as Senta, Tomislav Mužek as Erik and Peter Rose as Daland.

Mr Gloger’s quite daring in his approach to the work and I found not only his production to be dramatically convincing but also totally convincing within Wagner’s world, too. Not frightened to take chances, Mr Gloger boldly shifted the scenario from a ‘nautical’ setting to a ‘business’ environment and also took on board Wagner’s socialist dislike of money, materialism and basic greed as the keynote of his production which turned the opera into a critique of capitalism.

For instance, the ‘sea’ is represented as a worldwide web of international money markets and the Dutchman - a Master of the Universe, to borrow a Tom Wolfe phrase - is happy as Larry making money off the backs of others but cursed in sailing the High Seas eternally while hooked into the money markets that control him. He can only redeem himself by a woman’s love, something that’s non-material.

The arrival of the Dutchman on land projected an haunting image as he emerged as if coming from the bowels of an ocean-liner but was, in fact, making his way through a city’s financial district dressed as a smart booted-and-suited businessman pulling a black-wheelie suitcase stashed full of bank notes (hopefully euros!) steering an uneven course through an ‘ocean’ of greed, corruption and opportunism. Surrounded by people on the make, a scantily-dressed whore tried her luck but to no advantage. She was not on his agenda!

But Daland - no longer a sea-captain but an ambitious small-time factory-owner producing ‘ready-to-use’ table-top desk-fans - was. That well-loved British bass, Peter Rose, delivered a strong and entertaining reading of this pivotal role while Rainer Trost in the role of the Steersman (now a fussy-minded management accountant) delivered a masterful account of the sailor's love-song while on watch holed up with Daland in a small dinghy ‘beached’ in an urban landscape, the only hint of any nautical life.

Never one to miss a trick, Daland - whose business interests were a mere spit in the ocean compared to the global dealings of the Dutchman - is quick off the mark in tantalising and baiting the stranger to the attractiveness of his daughter Senta who wants for something better in life than slaving away in her father’s factory.

The Dutchman was well portrayed by John Lundgren (he’s no stranger to the role, though) while Ricarda Merbeth triumphed as Senta, her voice employing an extraordinary range of vocal and dramatic colour to produce a glowing and moving account of The Ballad, a highlight of the opera.

And in another highlight, The Monologue, one witnesses the Dutchman cutting into his arm but, of course, doesn’t bleed thus illustrating his immortality while his body scars hint, perhaps, at attempted suicide. Interestingly, Mr Gloger recorded his scars ‘black’ while Senta - sexually repressed, unsettled and dissatisfied - fills her time building from cardboard boxes from her father’s factory an effigy of the Dutchman (daubed with ‘black’ blood) hoping for release from the boredom that imprisons here.

And the moving scene in which Senta and the Dutchman meet - Daland’s seen prancing about like an oriental marriage-broker - was breathtaking to the extreme and met by total silence and nervous excitement that only a live performance can possibly yield.

The love between them eventually releases the Dutchman from his dreaded curse enabling him to bleed normally. It also gave Senta - who portrayed the great ‘socialist hope’ inasmuch as society can only be built on love rather than from cold money-grabbing practices - the inspiration (the life-blood as it were) to ditch her current woeful position. And the wings she adorns is symbolic of that new-found freedom.

A robotic-type workforce replaced the usual team of pretty traditional spinners in Daland’s factory and were tastefully attired in light-blue trouser uniforms with matching caps tastefully designed by Karin Jud. It added a new dimension to their big number, The Spinning Chorus, as they worked systematically under the careful eye of Mary (Senta’s nurse - but now the factory-floor supervisor) the role sung with esteemed authority by Christa Mayer while Croatian-born tenor, Tomislav Mužek, proved a strong and stubborn Erik and his confrontation with Senta about her infatuation with the Dutchman was so powerfully sung and acted by Mr Mužek that it underlined his deep love and affection for her but to no avail, of course.

As in all of Wagner's operas the chorus - the backbone of the whole show - plays such an important and pivotal role and one has to shout out loud the praises of chorus-master, Eberhard Friedrich, while Axel Kober was equally impressive in the pit energising his players with all the necessary fire and power needed to capture the mood and passion of Wagner’s compelling score.

Martin Eidenberger also conjured up some excellent video sequences and Christof Hetzer created a complicated set heavily laced with strips of bright-white neon lighting highlighting a digitalised-number board continually on the go echoing, perhaps, a traders’ floor of a stock exchange or a time-clock counting the days, hours and seconds left for the Dutchman before his seven-year exile of solitude comes to an end.

But when the end comes for the chosen couple, true Wagnerian redemption manifests itself into a memento of them in an original fan-based china-coated statuette. Such is their fame! And yet another business initiative of Daland.

DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER
Conductor: Axel Kober
Director: Jan Philipp Gloger
Stage design: Christof Hetzer
Costumes: Karin Jud
Lighting: Urs Schönebaum
Video: Martin Eidenberger
Dramaturg: Sophie Becker
Chorus Master: Eberhard Friedrich
Daland: Peter Rose
Senta: Ricarda Merbeth
Erik: Tomislav Mužek
Mary: Christa Mayer
Der Steuermann: Rainer Trost
Der Holländer: John Lundgren

Elsewhere on this blog:

• Prom 42: the first Estonian orchestra at the Proms - Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra (★★★★½)  - concert review
• A strong message on anti-semitism: Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Bayreuth Festival  (★★★★★) - opera review
• Edward Lambert's new Lorca-inspired chamber opera at Tête à Tête (★★½)  - Opera review
• Still relevant & still controversial: Alex Mills' Dear Marie Stopes at the Wellcome Collection (★★★★½)  - Opera review
• Politics, music and tonality: Keith Burstein and The Prometheus Revolution - interview
• Small scale challenge: studio performance of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor from Fulham Opera (★★★½)  - opera review
• Calen-O: songs from the North of Ireland from Carolyn Dobbin & Iain Burnside (★★★★½) - CD review
• Prom 34: rare Barber & Copland in Juanjo Mena's leave-taking at the BBC Proms (★★★★) - concert review
• Musical memoir: Tom Smail's Blue Electric at Tête à Tête  (★★★) - opera review
• An uneasy mix: politics, spirituality and melody in Keith Burstein's new opera at Grimeborn  (★★★) - opera review
• Jonas Kaufmann as Wagner’s Parsifal at the Munich Opera Festival (★★★★) - opera review
• Piecing together the new opera Dear Marie Stopes  - guest post from composer Alex Mills
• The classical saxophone: Huw Wiggin's Reflections (★★★★★) - CD review
• Home