Day for knight
The premiere of Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival (starring, of course, Jonas Kaufmann) has just started.
You can listen to the live broadcast here.
Conductor: Andris Nelsons
Director: Hans Neuenfels
Stage design: Reinhard von der Thannen
Costumes: Reinhard von der Thannen
Lighting: Franck Evin
Video: Björn Verloh
Dramaturgy: Henry Arnold
Lohengrin: Jonas Kaufmann
Heinrich der Vogler : Georg Zeppenfeld
Elsa von Brabant: Annette Dasch
Friedrich von Telramund: Hans-Joachim Ketelsen
Ortrud: Evelyn Herlitzius
Der Heerrufer des Königs: Samuel Youn
1. Edler: Stefan Heibach
2. Edler: Willem Van der Heyden
3. Edler: Rainer Zaun
4. Edler: Christian Tschelebiew
apparently he and Herlitzius are only singing this year and Vogt will be taking over next year. Don’t know who Ortrud will be next summer. I wish Dasch were replaced instead.
Dasch sounds pretty good to me.
I like the urgency of the fast tempi.
HOLY CRAP that’s fast!
Thanks, La Cieca, for posting this link!!!
La Casa della Cieca
Maybe you can speak with more authority about why singers choose or do not choose to sing at Bayreuth. There is some talk about the honor of performing there, which I am sure applies somewhat. But it seems to me that the times when the greatest singers were attracted to the Festival were those when they were offered the most interesting and challenging artistic experiences: i.e., working with great conductors and directors. So it would seem to me that if the Wagner sisters really want to restore the artistic integrity of Bayreuth, they will need to attract these artists on an ongoing basis. (And even there there is no guarantee: even with Thielemann conducting Bayreuth fielded only a second-rate cast for the RING over the past few years.)
Or what do you think?
I’ll bite–I think that there are multiple reasons singers are staying away. One, is simply because they aren’t asked. I don’t think James Morris was ever asked for his signature roles. Bayreuth seems to have a “family” of singers that they often use over and over and over. Second, indeed, the productions are demanding, strange, and very time consuming (as far as rehearsals). Third, the pay for singing at Bayreuth is so much lower than in many if not most other venues. They have a fixed pay scale system that means singers’ fees are greatly reduced compared to other places. The taxes in Germany are high as well. Fourth, the great “honor” of singing at Bayreuth has faded over the years due to all the controversies and some of the productions. Finally, and as you’ve already noted, many of the great singers and directors are not working there. Singers work with them elsewhere and also have had more opportunities to sing the Wagnerian repertoire elsewhere. Wagner is performed more often and in more places than it once was and the singers can fulfill there diet of the rep. without having to come to Bayreuth to work with “lesser known” conductors and directors.
Just my 2 cents (or maybe a nickle).
I seem to recall an ON interview with Morris in which he said that Bayreuth asked him for Wotan but it had been a particularly hectic season for him and he needed to rest. I think he assumed they would offer it again but apparently you don’t ever turn Bayreuth down because he was never approached again.
I believe the main reasons for staying away are:
1) Holidays. Many of the “hotter” great singers (not that there were soooo many of them) prefer not to spend mid-June thru end-August in Oberfranken. E.g. Bryn Terfel. He has been asked!
2) Time/Calendar. Bayreuth are not asking very much in advance. When they come up 2 or three years in advance, not everybody nowadays feels anymore he might get away with clearing his calendar for the festival. The competition (not only Salzburg, Munich and Bregenz, but also many southern European houses and Covent Garden play well into the summer) does not like that at all.
3) Money. The fees are linked to the roles. This is good. There are no discussions. Take it or leave it. The top fees are not that small. You do not get much more at the Met or in Vienna.
Let me note that some things are certainly not true: The conductors are not second rate. There might be the odd Peter Schneider in the crowd, but generally Bayreuth provides interesting conducting artists to their customers and their singers. The fact that a conductor does not work a lot in the US does not necessarely make him an odd conductor, right?
The money/tax issue is none: Placido Domingo has not found it beneath him to sing several summers at the Festival and he did rehearse! Johan Botha is appearing this year and he does not sing for free, usually. Also, the tax deduction for foreigners in Germany is around 23% right now. Most countries, including the US, UK, Italy and Spain are harder.
I think the real problem is to determine who is a truly outstanding Wagner singer nowadays. Let’s have hope and trust in Eva Wagner, maybe she will sort it out.
This year’s tenor list with Kaufmann, Botha, Ryan, Ventris and Voigt does not seem to be much inferior to anybody. Also the oldest of them should be Voigt at around 45. Not bad, I think.
no chat room for this I assume?
“…a new production of Lohengrin, in which, Katharina Wagner has let slip, rats will be let loose on a set designed to resemble an animal research laboratory.” [via]
Well, all chorus members are dressed up as rats… the men are black rats, the women are white rats… oh, and then there are a couple of baby rats, they are pink. I predict a storm of boos already after Act I.
“Der Regisseur gab den Sängern schlechte Rat.”
As always, it is a pleasure to listen to a live broadcast from Bayreuth where the orchestra accompanies so well and the singing is heard so easily and clearly. I wish there were more places where the acoustic and design of the theater (and pit) allowed for this wonderful effect. I hear no strain at all in the singers to have to project into the hall and over the orchestra.
…and Herlitzius is sensational. Wait until you hear her in Act II. She also looks incredible. Dasch sounds a lot better on the radio than in the house. She’s the weak link in the cast.
Wait, Billy, were you at the Generalprobe, or what?
The Telramund is another weak link.
Dasch always seems to be the weak link in the cast. Well singers get asked all the time to sing at Bayreuth but that doesn’t mean they accept. Salzburg and Muenchen pay more with less hassle of long rehearsals. I know a soprano who was asked for the Elsa before Dasch but she had other commitments already and wants to take some time off in August since she has had a busy year with many new productions. Perhaps another soprano was asked as well and turned them down and then they end up with people like Dasch, Merbeth and Schneider-Hofstetter, Watson etc. The honor of singing at Bayreuth was annodazumal which means in years past. Look at how Valencia cast the Ring. That was a lot better than the Bayreuth Ring if you ask me. Except for Thielemann.
there were 2000 people at the Generalprobe
Yes, but the other 1999 are not chatting right now!
I wouldn’t be so sure…
I think you know what I am asking for!
that I don’t participate in this chat?
On the contrary.
Also, Met’s Encore of Hamlet is now showing on PBS (WTTW) in Chicago for all local viewers. (11:00 am until 2:00 pm)