A new CD set of Der Ring des Nibelungen, recorded live at the Bayreuth Festival in 2008, is slim on superstar casting, but basks in the reflected glory of conductor Christian Thielemann, a controversial artist with a passionate following. So how does the music measure up?

By on December 02, 2009 at 11:57 PM
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They want it. The career. They want it really bad. So we learn from Susan Froemke’s Metropolitan Opera-commissioned documentary about the participants in the final round of the 2007 MetNational Council Auditions, which is out on DVD this month. Our own doyenne reviewed the film when it was screened as an HD theatrical event, and…

By on November 16, 2009 at 11:37 AM
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Squirrel is using his Parterre Pulpit to make a pitch. If the Met wants to produce a work that has never been seen in New York, they could do worse than a new production of Carl Nielsen‘s excellent comic opera Maskarade. It’s easy listening for sure, melodically akin to La boheme or Lehar, but marked…

By on November 13, 2009 at 7:34 PM
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Siegfried Wagner ‘s 1903 opera Der Kobold  (The Goblin) is a fascinating yet infuriating work. It often seems as if both music and libretto were written by a committee that couldn’t come to agreement.   The plot structure careens wildly from realism to mysticism to symbolism; the music hops from style to style and influence to…

By on November 12, 2009 at 3:46 PM
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There are several reasons to purchase the new DVD of Die Meistersinger from Vienna (EuroArts EUA 2072488), but the main one is Christian Thielemann. This production will most likely come to be known as “Thielemann’s Meistersinger,” because his sense of the overall architecture of the work is, pardon the pun, masterful.

By on November 09, 2009 at 10:07 PM
8 comments