Wahn for a day
Die Meistersinger is a bold stroke of programming, in a not particularly exciting way.
Martin Gantner
7 pieces since 2011 — in 7 roles, at 5 companies, most often at Opernhaus Zürich.
7
pieces
7
roles
5
companies
16
years
Role Beckmesser
Role Faninal
Sweetness and light
This was a Rosenkavalier that aspired to excellence and almost achieved it.
Role Gunther
Cards on the table
The Canadian Opera Company scored a coup when they secured Christine Goerke for the revival of their Ring productions over the last three seasons
Role Hoopoe
Cloud nein
Although Walter Braunfels was among those German composers whose music was banned in their home country after 1933, and whose political rehabilitiation in 1945 was not accompanied by a commensurate revival of his music, his 1920 opera Die Vögel should need no special pleading on musical or dramatic grounds. Though Braunfels is traditionally described as […]
Role Kothner
Sachs appeal
Last night’s cast of Die Meistersinger at the Met, dominated by the irascible, unbeatable duo of Michael Volle and Johannes Martin Kränzle as Sachs and Beckmesser, did much to enliven Otto Schenk’s creaky, nearly 30-year-old production.
Role Pizzaro
I wake up screaming
Töt erst sein Weib!” shrieks Anja Kampe as Leonore during the very first moments of Andreas Homoki’s ingenious production of Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, at Opernhaus Zürich.
Role Wolfram
The Minnesanger of Seville
Seville bills itself as the “City of 150 operas,” and celebrated this fact at the Exposition of 1992 by erecting a magnificent new opera house, the Teatro de la Maestranza, right beside the Plaza de Toros.