Avert your AIs
Bayreuth’s AI-powered “Ring 100010110” marred a first-rate cast and orchestra with nightmarish visuals and horrid dramaturgy.
Wagner
Vox populi
In Bayreuth, a confident Magnus Vigilius and luminous Jennifer Holloway attempt to elevate Wagner’s populist Rienzi.
In my end is my beginning
Die Walküre heralds the end of an era for the Los Angeles Philharmonic — and the arrival of a new generation of Wagnerians.
Nature boy
With Siegfried, the directorial vision of the Paris Opera‘s Ring cycle finally takes root.
Sissy that Walküre
The tiny but mighty Divas In Drag Italian Opera Company returns with a true Gaysamtkunstwerk.
What’s my motivation?
Wagner must intrude at some point because he invented film music.
World of Wunders
For an ecstatic outburst lasting less than a minute I swiftly gathered up an exaltation of Sieglindes from live performances spanning nearly 80 years. In fact, there were so many I decided to split up the quiz into three parts.
A dark drab dud
I never imagined I’d see such a rote park-and-bark Wagner production created in 2020!
Bleak house
Karita Mattila’s Ortrud, taut conducting, and a remarkable debut emerge from Richard Jones’s dreary Lohengrin Konzept.
Winterstorms that go bump in the night
A hefty thunderclap shook Tanglewood’s Koussevitzky Shed just as Andris Nelsons raised his baton for the third act of the weekend’s concert Die Walküre.
It’s the Minnesinger not the song
Tannhäuser pales beside the other great Wagnerian operas in the degree to which it has innovated the Regisseur’s vocabulary for set design and dramaturgy.
Tales of the Golden Motel
The gods get their kicks on Route 66.
Get in the ‘Ring’
Wagner’s Ring is an artistic masterpiece that is peerless in its ability to continually reveal layers of musical, theatrical, and philosophical insight
Ohne Meiden, ohne Scheiden
Yusif Eyvazov just let slip what we must assume is a very long-term project indeed for himself and Anna Netrebko: the title roles in Tristan und Isolde.
The rich are different from you and me
Whether you love the 2018 Berlin Staatsoper Tristan and Isolde depends on what you think the opera is about.
Broadcast: Lohengrin
Live video stream from the Staatsoper Stuttgart starting at 11:00 AM.
Burning woman
I count myself as privileged to have witnessed Götterdämmerungat the Royal Opera House during this season’s revival of Keith Warner’s Ring.
Tristan up close
Sunday, August 26, marked the inaugural performance for the newly-created The Claude Heater Foundation with a concert performance of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in the Herbst Theatre.
Broadcast: Tristan und Isolde
Act Two of Wagner’s music drama with the Boston Symphony.
Fifty shades of Grail
The Met’s magnificent revival which opened on Monday night with a superb cast under the mesmerizing leadership of Yannick Nézet-Séguin nearly converted me into a devoted Parsifal disciple.
Phone rings, door chimes, in comes Sängerkrieg!
“Heinrich, come on over for dinner! / We’ll be so glad to see you!”
Tragedy tonight
In May of last year tenor Piotr Beczala and soprano Anna Netrebko sang in Lohengrin for the first time under the baton of Christian Thielemann in his home house at the Staatskapelle Dresden.
Sausendes, brausendes Rad der Zeit
At long last, cher public, a finale to our Senta’s Ballad quiz, nearly a month late! The name of the winner and the complete lists of sopranos after the jump.
Ein Wolf war er feigen Füchsen!
Here’s Matt Baume enjoying Der Fluch Des Engelhart,
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).