#Georg Zeppenfeld

[derring-do]

"average opera singer performs 3 Wagner roles in their career" factoid actualy just statistical error. average opera singer performs 0 Wagner roles in their career. Georg Zeppenfeld, who lives in Dresden and sings 10,000 Wagner roles every day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

[mozart2006]

Impressioni da Bayreuth 2023 - Parsifal

Foto ©Enrico Nawrath Il motivo principale della mia visita di quest’ anno ai Bayreuther Festspiele era il desiderio di assistere alla nuova produzione del Parsifal, Continue reading Untitled

[joaquimblog]

BAYREUTH 2023: DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER ( Zeppenfeld-Teige-Mužek-Volle;Lyniv)

Michael Volle (Der Holländer), Nadine Weissmann (Mary), Georg Zeppenfeld (Daland) und Elisabeth Teige (Senta) im 2. Aufzug der Oper “Der fliegende Holländer” in Bayreuth. (© Enrico Nawrath/Festspiele Bayreuth/dpa) Avui us parlaré de la transmissió radiofònica (meravellós treball de la��BR–Klassik, transmès al món) de Der Fliegende Holländer. La producció que no veiem, és la signada per…

[princesssarisa]

The Top 40 Most Popular Operas, Part 1 (#1 through #10)

A quick guide for newcomers to the genre, with links to online video recordings of complete performances with English subtitles.

Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)

The most frequently performed opera worldwide: Mozart's fascinating, philosophical fairy tale opera, which appeals to both children and adults.

San Francisco Opera, 2010 (Piotr Beczala, Dina Kuznetsoca, Christopher Maltman, Erika Miklosa, Georg Zeppenfeld; conducted by Donald Runnicles)

Verdi's La Traviata

Tragic romance with social commentary, based on Alexandre Dumas fils' novel The Lady of the Camellias, which was also the basis for the classic 1936 Greta Garbo film Camille.

Los Angeles Opera, 2006 (Renée Fleming, Rolando Villazon, Renato Bruson; conducted by James Conlon)

Bizet's Carmen

The fiery tragedy of a seductive, free-spirited Spanish Romani woman and her loves, with some of opera's most iconic music.

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 2006 (Anna Caterina Antonacci, Jonas Kaufmann, Ildebrando d'Arcancelo, Norah Ansellem; conducted by Antonio Pappano)

Puccini's La Bohéme

Relatable slice-of-life romance that blends comedy and tragedy. The inspiration for the popular musical RENT.

Studio film, 1965 (Mirella Freni, Gianni Raimondi, Rolando Panerai, Adriana Martino; conducted by Herbert von Karajan)

Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)

The best loved of Mozart's Italian operas, a great comedy of class conflict and sexual intrigue.

Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 1994 (Gerald Finley, Alison Hagley, Renée Fleming, Andreas Schmidt, Marie-Ange Todorovich; conducted by Bernard Haitink)

Puccini's Tosca

Political intrigue, lust, and bloodshed amid the splendor of Rome – some call it a "shabby little shocker," others call it thrilling.

Vienna State Opera, 2019 (Sondra Radvanovsky, Piotr Beczala, Thomas Hampson; conducted by Marco Armiliato)

Mozart's Don Giovanni

Arguably the greatest retelling of the legend of Don Juan, with comedy, drama, and Mozart's glorious music.

Salzburg Festival, 1954 (Cesare Siepi, Otto Edelmann, Elisabeth Grümmer, Anton Dermota, Lisa della Casa, Erna Berger, Walter Berry Deszö Ernster; conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler)

Puccini's Madama Butterfly

Puccini's iconic "Japanese tragedy." Controversial from a racial standpoint, but a tearjerker nonetheless, and the inspiration for the musical Miss Saigon.

Feature film, 1995 (Ying Huang, Richard Troxell, Ning Liang, Richard Cowan; conducted by James Conlon)

Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)

The lighter and more madcap prequel to The Marriage of Figaro, known as the quintessential comic opera.

Vienna State Opera, 2019 (Rafael Fingerlos, Juan Diego Flórez, Margarita Gritskova, Paolo Rumetz, Sorin Coliban; conducted by Evelino Pidò)

Verdi's Rigoletto

A richly melodic tragedy of a hunchbacked jester, his daughter, a lecherous duke, and a self-fulfilling curse.

Studio film, 1982 (Ingvar Wixell, Luciano Pavarotti, Edita Gruberova; conducted by Riccardo Chailly)

[sonyclasica]

JONAS KAUFMANN

PARSIFAL

Jonas Kaufmann canta el papel principal en una nueva grabación en directo de Parsifal de Wagner que Sony Classical publicará el 1 de marzo. Procede de las representaciones en la Ópera Estatal de Viena bajo la dirección de Philippe Jordan con Elīna Garanča como Kundry, Georg Zeppenfeld como Gurnemanz y Ludovic Tézier como Amfortas.

Resérvalo AQUÍ

Las reacciones de la prensa tras la primera noche en la primavera de 2021 fueron unánimemente positivas. Der Standard habló de "un festín de buen canto" e incluso de "un reparto sensacional", mientras que Die Zeit alabó los logros de "un conjunto de lujo". Una y otra vez, los críticos mencionaron la riqueza de matices de la interpretación musical. Como el "inocente" Parsifal, Jonas Kaufmann fue elogiado por su capacidad para modular entre una mezza voce hechizante y los arrebatos dramáticos más estremecedores. Dos cantantes interpretaban sus papeles por primera vez: Elīna Garanča hacía su esperado debut como Kundry, al que aportó una soberana autoridad, mientras que Ludovic Tézier cantaba su primer Amfortas. Tanto Tézier como Georg Zeppenfeld como Gurnemanz aportaron a sus papeles una belleza bel canto con el espíritu que el propio Wagner siempre había apreciado. Aclamado internacionalmente como Hans Sachs en Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg de Wagner, Wolfgang Koch ofreció una interpretación fascinante como Klingsor.

La producción se había esperado con impaciencia, pero tuvo que presentarse -y grabarse- sin público cuando finalmente se presentó en abril de 2021, en plena pandemia de coronavirus. El director Kirill Serebrennikov se inspiró en la frase "Aquí el tiempo se convierte en espacio" y ambientó la obra en una prisión. Serebrennikov había pasado varios años bajo arresto domiciliario y en libertad condicional, y en la época en cuestión tenía prohibido salir de su patria, por lo que tuvo que dirigir su nueva producción a distancia, mientras un equipo de colaboradores trabajaba en la puesta en escena en Viena. Su concepción de la obra que el Süddeutsche Zeitung llamó una "ópera sobre el tema de la liberación" y que el Der Standard describió como "un drama de múltiples capas sobre las relaciones humanas" resultó convincente. Die Welt habló de una fascinante "distopía futurista".

No es de extrañar que el último drama musical de Wagner siga fascinando al público hasta nuestros días gracias a su misticismo relacionado con el Grial, su simbolismo cristiano y sus cuestiones subyacentes sobre la culpa y la expiación. Tampoco debemos olvidar su vena narrativa de gran densidad armónica, su complejo uso de la tonalidad y los colores tonales, su avance psicoanalítico sobre las obras anteriores de Wagner, su simbolismo altamente metafórico y detallado y, por último, pero no por ello menos importante, su duración. Todos estos elementos representan un tremendo desafío musical tanto para la orquesta como para los solistas.

Philippe Jordan ya había dirigido toda una serie de otras producciones de la obra en otros lugares, incluido el Festival de Bayreuth de 2012, por lo que estaba íntimamente familiarizado con las exigencias musicales de la partitura. Pero, como ha observado el director de orquesta de origen suizo, "Todo director de Parsifal debe hacer algo más que limitarse a guiar la interpretación, también debe dejar que ciertos aspectos sigan su propio curso si quiere hacer justicia a una obra de proporciones tan monumentales".

El Parsifal de Wagner con Jonas Kaufmann, Elīna Garanča, Georg Zeppenfeld, Ludovic Tézier, Wolfgang Koch, el Coro y la Orquesta de la Ópera Estatal de Viena bajo la dirección de Philippe Jordan será editado por Sony Classical en CD y formatos digitales el 1 de marzo de 2024.

[demoura]

DIA 27 DE JULHO DE 2023: BAYREUTH EM COLARES -. TRANSMISSÃO VÍDEO DA ESTREIA DE PARSIFAL NO STAGE + - ALTA QUALIDADE DO ELENCO E DO MAESTRO, IMAGENS IMPACTANTES : foi bastante bem recebida pelo público do Festspielhaus a nova produção de Parsifal (mesmo pelos que não tiveram óculos de realidade aumentada ). Eu tive oportunidade de ver o streaming na plataforma da DG.Como é o novo Parsifal ? O novo Parsifal é sumptuoso decorativo, infantil, lúdico e desprovido de ideias profundas. .O impacto visual é a arma essencial do estreante americano Jay Scheib, No terceiro acto as imagens abrem uma perspectiva narrativa,- o mundo é áspero e enferrujado. Além de esqueletos de árvores apocalípticas uma enorme escavadora ladeia a cratera com líquido verde bilioso, a fonte sagrada. Atmosfera apocalíptica sob o signo da destruição ambiental?.Na dramaturgia surpreende o encontro intensamente erótico entre um Gurnemanz sem gravitas e a personagem feminina dupla de Kundry . O meu amigo argentino Pablo González Aguilar director da Lírica Libre interpreta como podendo acontecer no sonho de um ou ambos, ou pelo menos nas suas fantasias ou desejos, e que culpam o velho e piedoso cavaleiro. Serviria como um aviso para a consciência de Gurnemanz, ou para todos os homens que buscam - e ostentam santidade? .Excelente desempenho de Eliana Garanca, Andreas Schager, Georg Zeppenfeld, Derek Walton e Jordan Shanahan. (Garanca já tinha sido uma excelente Kundry em Viena em 2021). Uma surpresa foi, sem dúvida, Pablo Heras-Casado filmado dentro do fosso sem batuta e em T-shirt dirigindo o primeiro prelúdio . Que me lembre nunca um maestro tinha sido filmado durante uma apresentação. dentro do poço de Bayreuth. Foi bela a direção do espanhol com tempos rápidos ( 1,37 no primeiro acto )mas nunca perdendo a melodia ou os detalhes. O famoso Achim Freyer disse sobre Parsifal: "Esta obra continua a ser um mistério absoluto e deve permanecer assim, caso contrário, a imaginação do espectador será destruída". Por outras palavras: o espectador deve criar sua própria "realidade aumentada". Assim é, pelo menos na visão de um protegido de Brecht .

[opera-shitpost]

Georg Zeppenfeld isn’t cast, directors are in need of a bass and he just appears

[fashionpaperch]

Das Gedenkkonzert für NELLO SANTI im Opernhaus Zürich 🎼

. Am 6. Februar 2020 verstarb Nello Santi im Alter von 88 Jahren in Zürich. Das Opernhaus Zürich verlor mit ihm eine herausragende Künstlerpersönlichkeit, die über 60 Jahre mit dem Opernhaus zutiefst verbunden war. In einem Konzert am Samstag, 28. März, 19 Uhr wird den zahlreichen Freunden und Wegbegleitern die Gelegenheit gegeben, dem Maestro zu gedenken. . 👍Jetzt den ganzen Artikel auf Fashionpaper lesen: https://www.fashionpaper.ch/music-kino/das-gedenkkonzert-fuer-nello-santi-im-opernhaus-zuerich/

[8unginfo]

♫ Bayreuther Festspiele 2017: Tristan und Isolde - (unfreiwillig) komisch

Tristan und Isolde 2017: Neben aller Tragik dieser Liebesgeschichte gibt es Momente (unfreiwilliger) Komik, die das Drama abmildern. Tristan und Isolde fassen sich an den Händen wie Kinder zum Ringelreihen, halten an einer Seite in den Händen den Gift(becher)flachmann, gießen ihn gemeinsam mit Schwung in die ausgehöhlten Hände der anderen Seite und ... Read the full article

[derring-do]

Really hope when the Met does Parsifal again that we get Georg Zeppenfeld as Gurnemanz. He's brilliant and the world has progressed beyond the need for RP as Gurnemanz.

[mozart2006]

Impressioni da Bayreuth 2023 - Der fliegende Holländer

Foto ©Enrico Nawrath Per uno come me, innamorato della musica di Wagner sin da quando ero un ragazzino, il viaggio a Bayreuth costituisce ogni anno una tappa estiva obbligatoria. Continue reading Untitled

[joaquimblog]

BAYREUTH 2023: DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN

Pietari Inkinen Sense “la tortura” del visionament de la producció de Valentin Schwarz, amb la direcció musical de Pietari Inkinen, que l’estiu passat va haver de renunciar a l’estrena de la nova producció va haver de ser substituït a darrera hora per Cornelius Meister i amb alguns canvis significatius en rols fonamentals en cadascun dels quatre títols, he escoltat per ràdio aquesta tetralogia…

[princesssarisa]

Opera on YouTube

I've shared links to complete opera performances before, but I love to share them, so I thought I'd make a few masterposts.

These list are by no means the only complete filmed performances of these operas on YouTube, but I decided that ten links for each opera was enough for now.

By the way, some of the subtitles are just a part of the video, while others require you to click CC to see them.

Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)

Hamburg Philharmonic State Opera, 1971 (Nicolai Gedda, Edith Mathis, William Workman, Christina Deutekom, Hans Sotin; conducted by Horst Stein; English subtitles)

Ingmar Bergman film, 1975 (Josef Köstlinger, Irma Urrila, Håkan Hagegård, Birgit Nordin, Ulrik Cold; conducted by Eric Ericson; sung in Swedish; English subtitles)

Salzburg Festival, 1982 (Peter Schreier, Ileana Cotrubas, Christian Bösch, Edita Gruberova, Martti Talvela; conducted by James Levine; Japanese subtitles)

Bavarian State Opera, 1983 (Francisco Araiza, Lucia Popp, Wolfgang Brendel, Edita Gruberova, Kurt Moll; conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch; English subtitles)

Metropolitan Opera, 1991 (Francisco Araiza, Kathleen Battle, Manfred Hemm, Luciana Serra, Kurt Moll; conducted by James Levine; English subtitles)

Paris Opera, 2001 (Piotr Beczala, Dorothea Röschmann, Detlef Roth, Desirée Rancatore, Matti Salminen; conducted by Ivan Fischer; no subtitles)

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 2003 (Will Hartman, Dorothea Röschmann, Simon Keenlyside, Diana Damrau, Franz Josef Selig; conducted by Colin Davis; no subtitles) – Act I, Act II

La Monnaie, Brussels, 2005 (Topi Lehtipuu, Sophie Karthäuser, Stephan Loger, Ana Camelia Stefanescu, Harry Peeters; conducted by René Jacobs; French subtitles)

Kenneth Branagh film, 2006 (Joseph Kaiser, Amy Carson, Benjamin Jay Davis, Lyubov Petrova, René Pape; conducted by James Conlon; sung in English)

San Francisco Opera, 2010 (Piotr Beczala, Dina Kuznetsoca, Christopher Maltman, Erika Miklósa, Georg Zeppenfeld; conducted by Donald Runnicles; English subtitles)

La Traviata

Mario Lanfrachi studio film, 1968 (Anna Moffo, Franco Bonisolli, Gino Bechi; conducted by Giuseppe Patané; English subtitles)

Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 1987 (Marie McLaughlin, Walter MacNeil, Brent Ellis; conducted by Bernard Haitink; Italian and Portuguese subtitles)

Teatro alla Scala, 1992 (Tiziana Fabbricini, Roberto Alagna, Paolo Coni; conducted by Riccardo Muti; English subtitles)

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1994 (Angela Gheorghiu, Frank Lopardo, Leo Nucci; conducted by Georg Solti; Spanish subtitles)

Teatro Giuseppe Verdi, 2003 (Stefania Bonfadelli, Scott Piper, Renato Bruson; conducted by Plácido Domingo; Spanish subtitles)

Salzburg Festival, 2005 (Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón, Thomas Hampson; conducted by Carlo Rizzi; no subtitles)

Los Angeles Opera, 2006 (Renée Fleming, Rolando Villazón, Renato Bruson; conducted by James Conlon; English subtitles)

Opera Festival St. Margarethen, 2008 (Kristiane Kaiser, Jean-Francois Borras, Georg Tichy; conducted by Ernst Märzendorfer; English subtitles)

Teatro Real di Madrid, 2015 (Ermonela Jaho, Francesco Demuro, Juan Jesús Rodríguez; conducted by Renato Palumbo; English subtitles)

Teatro Massimo, 2023 (Nino Machiadze, Saimir Pirgu, Roberto Frontali; conducted by Carlo Goldstein; no subtitles)

Carmen

Herbert von Karajan studio film, 1967 (Grace Bumbry, Jon Vickers; conducted by Herbert von Karajan; English subtitles)

Vienna State Opera, 1978 (Elena Obraztsova, Plácido Domingo; conducted by Carlos Kleiber; English Subtitles)

Francisco Rosi film, 1982 (Julia Migenes, Plácido Domingo; conducted by Lorin Maazel; English subtitles)

Metropolitan Opera, 1987 (Agnes Baltsa, José Carreras; conducted by James Levine; English subtitles)

London Earls Court Arena, 1989 (Maria Ewing, Jacque Trussel; conducted by Jaques Delacote; English subtitles)

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1991 (Maria Ewing, Luis Lima; conducted by Zubin Mehta; English subtitles) – Acts I and II, Acts III and IV

Arena di Verona, 2003 (Marina Domashenko, Marco Berti; conducted by Alain Lombard; Italian subtitles)

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 2006 (Anna Caterina Antonacci, Jonas Kaufmann; conducted by Antonio Pappano; English subtitles) – Acts I and II, Acts III and IV

Metropolitan Opera, 2010 (Elina Garanca, Roberto Alagna; conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; English subtitles) – Acts I and II, Acts III and IV

Opéra-Comique, 2023 (Gaëlle Arquez, Frédéric Antoun; conducted by Louis Langrée; English subtitles)

La Bohéme

Franco Zeffirelli studio film, 1965 (Mirella Freni, Gianni Raimondi; conducted by Herbert von Karajan; English subtitles)

Metropolitan Opera, 1977 (Renata Scotto, Luciano Pavarotti; conducted by James Levine; no subtitles)

Teatro alla Scala, 1979 (Ileana Cotrubas, Luciano Pavarotti; conducted by Carlos Kleiber; no subtitles)

Opera Australia, 1993 (Cheryl Barker, David Hobson; conducted by Julian Smith; Brazilian Portuguese subtitles)

Teatro Regio di Torino, 1996 (Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti; conducted by Daniel Oren; Italian subtitles)

Teatro alla Scala, 2003 (Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, Marcelo Alvarez; conducted by Bruno Bartoletti; Spanish subtitles)

Zürich Opera House, 2005 (Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, Marcello Giordani; conducted by Franz Welser-Möst; no subtitles)

Robert Dornhelm film, 2009 (Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón; conducted by Bertrand de Billy; no subtitles)

Opera Australia, 2011 (Takesha Meshé Kizart, Ji-Min Park; Shao-Chia Lü; no subtitles)

Sigulda Opera Festival, 2022 (Maija Kovalevska, Mihail Mihaylov; conducted by Vladimir Kiradjiev; English subtitles)

[sonyclasica]

JONAS KAUFMANN

PARSIFAL

Jonas Kaufmann canta el papel principal en una nueva grabación en directo de Parsifal de Wagner que Sony Classical publicará el 1 de marzo.

Resérvalo AQUÍ

La grabación procede de las representaciones en la Ópera Estatal de Viena bajo la dirección de Philippe Jordan con Elīna Garanča como Kundry, Georg Zeppenfeld como Gurnemanz y Ludovic Tézier como Amfortas.

Las reacciones de la prensa tras la primera noche en la primavera de 2021 fueron unánimemente positivas. Der Standard habló de "un festín de buen canto" e incluso de "un reparto sensacional", mientras que Die Zeit alabó los logros de "un conjunto de lujo". Una y otra vez, los críticos mencionaron la riqueza de matices de la interpretación musical.

Como el "inocente" Parsifal, Jonas Kaufmann fue elogiado por su capacidad para modular entre una mezza voce hechizante y los arrebatos dramáticos más estremecedores. Dos cantantes interpretaban sus papeles por primera vez: Elīna Garanča hacía su esperado debut como Kundry, al que aportó una soberana autoridad, mientras que Ludovic Tézier cantaba su primer Amfortas.

Tanto Tézier como Georg Zeppenfeld como Gurnemanz aportaron a sus papeles una belleza bel canto con el espíritu que el propio Wagner siempre había apreciado. Aclamado internacionalmente como Hans Sachs en Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg de Wagner, Wolfgang Koch ofreció una interpretación fascinante como Klingsor.

La producción se había esperado con impaciencia, pero tuvo que presentarse -y grabarse- sin público cuando finalmente se presentó en abril de 2021, en plena pandemia de coronavirus. El director Kirill Serebrennikov se inspiró en la frase "Aquí el tiempo se convierte en espacio" y ambientó la obra en una prisión. Serebrennikov había pasado varios años bajo arresto domiciliario y en libertad condicional, y en la época en cuestión tenía prohibido salir de su patria, por lo que tuvo que dirigir su nueva producción a distancia, mientras un equipo de colaboradores trabajaba en la puesta en escena en Viena. Su concepción de la obra que el Süddeutsche Zeitung llamó una "ópera sobre el tema de la liberación" y que el Der Standard describió como "un drama de múltiples capas sobre las relaciones humanas" resultó convincente. Die Welt habló de una fascinante "distopía futurista".

No es de extrañar que el último drama musical de Wagner siga fascinando al público hasta nuestros días gracias a su misticismo relacionado con el Grial, su simbolismo cristiano y sus cuestiones subyacentes sobre la culpa y la expiación. Tampoco debemos olvidar su vena narrativa de gran densidad armónica, su complejo uso de la tonalidad y los colores tonales, su avance psicoanalítico sobre las obras anteriores de Wagner, su simbolismo altamente metafórico y detallado y, por último, pero no por ello menos importante, su duración. Todos estos elementos representan un tremendo desafío musical tanto para la orquesta como para los solistas.

Philippe Jordan ya había dirigido toda una serie de otras producciones de la obra en otros lugares, incluido el Festival de Bayreuth de 2012, por lo que estaba íntimamente familiarizado con las exigencias musicales de la partitura. Pero, como ha observado el director de orquesta de origen suizo, "Todo director de Parsifal debe hacer algo más que limitarse a guiar la interpretación, también debe dejar que ciertos aspectos sigan su propio curso si quiere hacer justicia a una obra de proporciones tan monumentales".

El Parsifal de Wagner con Jonas Kaufmann, Elīna Garanča, Georg Zeppenfeld, Ludovic Tézier, Wolfgang Koch, el Coro y la Orquesta de la Ópera Estatal de Viena bajo la dirección de Philippe Jordan será editado por Sony Classical en CD y formatos digitales el 1 de marzo de 2024.

Sony Music Masterworks se compone de los sellos Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records y Masterworks Broadway. www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/.

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

Traversing the Verdi Canon #3: Nabucco

At last I have arrived at the opera that really made Verdi’s name, Nabucodonosor (more commonly billed as Nabucco)!

I don’t have a lot to say about Verdi’s music that hasn’t already been said. This is probably his first fully quintessentially own voice. This is what made him an icon and hero of the Risorgimento. It’s beautiful, bombastic dramatic dynamite. 

Experience: this came pretty early in my Verdi discovery process and I really liked it, although after about 2018 I didn’t really watch, listen to, or think about it so much again until the spring of 2021, when I watched the Arena di Verona’s marvelous metatheatrical 2017 staging and fell in love with this opera all over again.

The production I watched was from the Opernhaus Zurich in 2019, directed by Andreas Homoki, conducted by Fabio Luisi (beloved), and with an excellent principal quintet: Michael Volle (Nabucco), Anna Smirnova (Abigaille, also I was extremely surprised to discover that she’s only 39, which would have made her TWENTY-EIGHT in the iconic Met 2010 Don Carlo. I thought she was older), Georg Zeppenfeld (Zaccaria), Veronica Simeoni (Fenena), and Benjamin Bernheim (Ismaele). Really, cast from strength. The musical forces for this were wonderful.

Now, the production. I have mixed feelings about it, but overall I really liked it. The production can’t really decide what time period it’s in, and normally I absolutely hate that, but it wasn’t super-strident here: the Assyrians here are dressed like it’s the 1840s while the Hebrews are dressed like it’s the 1940s. Make of that what you will. 

What I really liked about this production was the emphasis on the relationship and differences between Abigaille and Fenena. In this production, we see them grow from childhood to (spoiler if you’ve never seen the opera) the end of Abigaille’s life and we see how their dynamic changes, particularly in the face of trauma.

Trauma? Yes. The production opens with a staged overture during which Nabucco’s wife/Fenena’s mother/Abigaille’s supposed mother dies of a heart attack when the girls are both very young. Shortly thereafter, Nabucco begins having seizures. The girls, playful up to this point, begin to develop distinct and diverging traits: Fenena shoulders the burden of supporting those around her while Abigaille begins focusing on the crown and shutting out those around her. This disparity grows over the course of the opera, and we get the sense that Fenena is desperate to find emotional connection with anyone and everyone around her while Abigaille also desperately wants emotional connection but out of fear and trauma is unable to let herself be open to such connection. The decision to frequently have both of the women onstage when only one of them is supposed to be onstage worked surprisingly well for this, although other instances of “having characters onstage when they shouldn’t” were less effective, most notably the decision to have Nabucco and Abigaille onstage during “Va, pensiero”. (Why?)

Other things that didn’t really work or vibe: Fenena being stripped down to her undergarments by the Hebrews at the end of Zaccaria’s Act I aria, Nabucco shooting the High Priest in lieu of the “idol being destroyed”, I have mixed feelings about the dancing courtiers during Abigaille’s big scene, also upset that there were some cuts (but this is mainly “not doing cabalettas twice”).

However, overall this was excellent and played to the best of this work.

[officialwagnerrant]

Wagnerrant Review #5 - Not enough Holländer

Work: Der Fliegende Holländer Bayreuther Festspiele Date of performance: 25.07.2021

Team Director: Dmitri Tcherniakov Conductor: Oksana Lyniv With: Georg Zeppenfeld, Asmik Grigorian, Eric Cutler, Marina Prudenskaya, Attilio Glaser, John Lundgren

Trigger warning: S*icide mention, mass m*rder mention.

Review: @dichterfuerstin

Dmitri Tcherniakov’s Der Fliegende Holländer looks more like the latest episode of Netflix Germany’s Dark than like an old sailor’s tale. The audience is presented with the foggy image of a small town. Grey brick buildings, grey pavement, grey streetlight. Just the rubber boots that are part of most of the costumes pay a small tribute to the original setting. Maybe the small town is a fishing village. And just like the sets, the story told on stage has little to do with what’s written in Wagner’s libretto.

It’s a crime story, rather than a mystery. Instead of being a sea captain, the Holländer appears as a man referred to as “H” who according to the writings on stage has a “strange, returning dream”. This dream, or rather memory, is shown during the overture. “H” is shown as a little boy whose mother has an affair with no one less than Daland himself. When her affair is discovered, the village shuns H’s mother to the point where she commits suicide in front of her son. The set is a little too calm for how booming and fast Oksana Lyniv’s overture is, and it’s radically different to what Wagner wrote in his libretto, but it works with the music pretty well during the first two acts. He remembers Daland, Daland has a vague idea who the stranger is. And Mary, excellently sung by Marina Prudenskaya and in this production upgraded to Daland’s wife and Senta’s (Step-)mother, seems to know exactly. She carries the Holländer’s picture around and is visibly scared of him. Add to this the perfectly spooky and mysterious atmosphere. It takes a while for the audience to realise that the “dream” is in fact a memory that the wondering of how much of it is true and what’s going to happen is always prevalent, especially every time the Holländer walks past the house where his mother died.

The characterisations in Tcherniakov’s production are on point. Mary is just strict enough, Georg Zeppenfeld’s Daland is not only audibly full in character, his facial expressions are on point throughout the entire opera. Of course, the modern setting does make him basically trading away Senta more awkward and actually less understandable. Especially since Senta is very young. Daland’s daughter doesn’t seem much older than sixteen thanks to Asmik Grigorian’s brilliant acting. She’s way younger than the Holländer, even Erik seems too old for her. But she’s sassy. She’s impudent, she smokes, she dyes her hair. She isn’t that dreamy girl carried away by the tale of the mysterious dutchman, she rather seems to mock him, and yet falls in love when she meets him in at dinner. Asmik Grigorian conveys all of this not only in her acting but also in her voice. Of course, she sounds older, but it doesn’t matter. The sound is clear, the diction well, and the Festpiel-debut successful. John Lundgren’s Holländer is equally well-acted. Though he doesn’t do much. The Holländer’s a very passive character, spending most of his time watching, and being strange. He constantly seems out of place thanks to his white sweater in contrast to the rather brown costumes everyone else, including Senta, wears. Making the Holländer stand out is a standard decision, but it is very well executed by costume designer Elena Zaytseva. Lundgren’s voice fits as well, apart from becoming audibly strained in act three. He isn’t as booming as most Holländer’s, rather pretty, but that is perfect for this characterisation, where the Holländer isn’t punished for cursing on God but traumatised because he saw his mother getting hounded until she killed herself. He isn’t even a captain, he’s alone. To the end of the opera, a handful of men he met at the pub who listened to him telling his story become his crew and get spared when the Holländer shoots into the crowd gathered on the town square to celebrate. For two hours the audience wonders where the production will lead. Will Senta die where the Holländer’s mother died? Will they die together as it’s written in the libretto? And in the end, it’s a mass shooting and arson committed by the Holländer. Although this ending makes perfect sense for the Holländer the way he’s set up in Tcherniakov’s production, it’s a somewhat disappointing ending. Daland doesn’t even appear on stage. Shouldn’t he have some kind of reaction to the Holländer’s doing? For the first time Grigorian’s acting isn’t sufficient enough for the audience to understand what she’s feeling, the production doesn’t really provide good answers. And while making Mary Daland’s wife made her more important, the character didn’t have enough to do to explain why it’s her who eventually shoots the Holländer and then has to be cared for by Senta. The ending is an ending for a crime story. It’s a thriller, but not the one Wagner intended. For the Holländer, the focus should be a little more on the bond between Senta and the Dutchman. But on it’s own, the story told by Dmitri Tcherniakov is interesting and thought-through.

At least Oksana Lyniv’s conducting stays consistently emotional. The 43-years-old Ukranian conductor makes her Festspieldebut in this production, as the first ever woman to conduct an opera at the Bayreuther Festspiele, and she does it well. She manages to remain unfazed by the many interruptive noises in this production. Be it chairs or tables collapsing in act one, or gunshots in act three, and she’s singer-friendly. Maybe a little too singer-friendly, sometimes the orchestra does seem too much in the background. But overall, she does an amazing job. Her overture stands out the most, but the entirety of her Holländer is nothing short of beautiful. And fulfils the most admirable task of holding orchestra, soloists and chorus together, which is especially difficult this year: Due to the pandemic, half of the chorus acts on stage, the other half sings in the chorus-hall and their singing gets transmitted into the audience via speakers. And somehow this needs to sound natural – and be on time. Lyniv and chorus master Eberhard Friedrich work together well, so the audience doesn’t hear that something’s different this year.

This by the way also isn’t noticeable in the production. Neither does the stage seem empty nor are there six feet distance between every two singers. It’s a standarf production, and just as it’s standard for Bayreuth, director Dmitri Tcherniakov got booed by the audience. Undeserved, it’s a captivating and interesting to watch production, but it won’t make history as one of the strongest Bayreuth-productions either - it just isn’t enough Holländer.