Nowhere are the contradictions between Wagner’s small-mindedness, his meanness of spirit, and his human insight on clearer display than in Hans Sachs monologue Wahn, Wahn überall Wahn in the third Act of Mesitersinger.
Dame Gwyneth Jones as Brünnhilde pretty much started it all for me.
Tobias Kratzer‘s Das Rheingold in Munich kicks off a Ring for the post-secular age
Valentin Schwarz‘s and Simone Young‘s Ring, in its final outing at Bayreuth, is dramaturgically messy and musically excellent.
This summer’s festival, taking place amid record high temperatures and in the wake of its artistic director, Pierre Audi, featured a disquietingly zeigeisty focus on sexual violence.
In Lohengrin, populism comes to an apocalyptic end on the Bavarian stage
I suppose Der fliegende Holländer is my favorite Wagner opera — a riveting masterpiece from start to finish, dramatically and musically.
Claus Guth mines urgent and contemporary commentary from Die Liebe der Danae in Munich.
The final installment of the 2025 Ring from Bayreuth
A revival of the furious I masnadieri at the Bayerische Staatsoper falls short of perfection – and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Pénélope at the Bayerische Staatsoper’s summer festival spotlights the crossroads between the nostalgic and the progressive.
Matthias Davids‘s reactionary new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg might be fun, but no one comes to Bayreuth for fun.
A slightly delayed broadcast of the second installment of this year’s Ring from Bayreuth
A live broadcast of the first installment of this summer’s Ring from Bayreuth
A live broadcast of the opening of the 2025 Bayreuth Festival
Christian Thielemann conducts a live broadcast from Berlin
Jacquelyn Stucker talks to Kevin Ng about repertoire, tearing down the Fach system, and what it takes to make music from baroque to George Benjamin her own.
Les Brigands at the Paris Opera is an expensive joke that never lands
Daniele Rustioni leads a verismo double bill recorded in Munich last month
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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