There have, and continue to be, attempts to make productions of the Ring "manageable" for smaller opera groups (and more "accessible" to people new to the Ring in performance)
In 1990 Jonathan Dove and Graham Vick' made one of the more famous attempts in their "Ring Saga" reducing the entire cycle to approximately 9 hours and reducing Wagner's orchestra of 110 musicians to 18. Originally, if my memory serves, written for Birmingham City Touring Opera, it has been performed by a number of different groups (including Longborough Festival Opera where it was performed as their first Ring Cycle). Presently, it is on tour in a production by Peter Rundel and Antoine Gindt across Europe. You can, should so wish, catch it this week at Grand Théâtre, Luxembourg beginning this Friday with Rheingold (more, including tickets here)
However, should you be unable to catch it this run you can watch the entire cycle below courtesy of ARTE.TV (Available for the next four months). While I have not had chance to watch all of it - in my haste to get it to you - I can say, having viewed snippets, that I have been pleasantly surprised with what I have seen and head so far. Recommended. Enjoy.
Ken Russell has died - age 84. His Mahler movie seemed appropriate, especially the funeral scene below - plus a little of his Debussy for the BBC in 1965
From the Guardian:
Ken Russell: Sex, nuns and rock'n'roll
Naked wrestling, religious mania and The Who's Tommy: director Ken Russell transformed British cinema. His closest collaborators recall a fierce, funny and groundbreaking talent
Glenda Jackson
I worked with Ken on six films. Women in Love was the first time I'd worked with a director of that genius, and on a film of that size. What I remember most was the creative and productive atmosphere on set: he was open to ideas from everyone, from the clapperboard operator upwards. Like any great director, he knew what he didn't want – but was open to everything else.
As a director he never said anything very specific. He'd say, "It needs to be a bit more … urrrgh, or a bit less hmmm", and you knew exactly what he meant. I used to ask him why he never said "Cut", and he said, "Because it means you always do something different." They gave me an Oscar [for her performance as Gudrun Brangwen], but I couldn't collect itas I was working. I haven't seen the film since the initial screening for cast and crew.
Working with Ken was one of the great joys of my life. My whole memory of him is infused with laughter. His imagination grew and developed over the course of the films we made together [The Music Lovers, The Boy Friend, Salome's Last Dance, The Rainbow, The Secret Life of Arnold Bax]. I think it's a great disgrace to the film industry that he has been ignored for so long, that people have not respected the barriers he broke down.
'A Dangerous Method,' 'Melancholia' take cues from Richard Wagner: David Ng
A Dangerous Method
Filmmakers have been borrowing and adapting the music of Richard Wagner since the dawn of cinema. The 19th century German composer's lush, dramatic music often serves as a kind of emotional hormone for the screen, providing an adrenaline rush in action sequences and surges of romantic feeling for scenes of passion.
But sometimes a soundtrack is more than just a soundtrack. In the case of two recent films -- David Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method" and Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" -- Wagner pervades the scores as well as the story lines, informing the psychology of the characters while adding crucial sonic subtext. To fully understand both films requires an immersion in Wagner's music and ideas.
In Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method," the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) enters into an adulterous affair with Sabina Spielrien (Keira Knightley), a young Russian patient suffering from hysteria. Their relationship takes root in a shared fixation on Wagner's "Ring" cycle operas. While they both prefer "Das Rheingold," the first opera in the cycle, it is the third opera, "Siegfried," that plays a key role in the movie.
Update 30/11/11): We have been informed that Alwyn Mellor has had to withdraw from this event. More news as we get it.
A fine cast of up and coming and internationally recognized Wagnerians (Seattle Operas up and coming Brunnhilde, and LFO's Hagan to name two - and all for only £25!
Date: 03/12/2011
As part of the Bayrueth Bursary Competition, singing the role of 'Hagen' in "Scenes from Gotterdammerung" for the Mastersingers and Wagner Society.
CAST INCLUDES:
Alwyn Mellor - Brunnhilde
Stuart Pendred - Hagen (Longborough Festival Opera's Hagan in 2012)
“The lad himself is played by Sena Jurinac, who has one of the most beautiful voices at the Vienna State Opera. She is charmingly natural both as the youthfully bewildered lover and as a rogue. The Cherubino-like nature of the character finds particularly delightful expression when playful amorousness turns to the tongue-tied awkwardness of the first real feeling of love.”
Karl Heinz Ruppel describing her Octavian, Süddeutsche Zeitung 1960
WNO have announced their Spring 2012 season today - details below. Of especial interest are Beatrice and Benedict whose cast includes Sara Fulgoni as Beatrice. Sara of course, performed Grange Parks fine, if idiosyncratic, Brangäne (as Isolde's PA) in their first Wagner production this year. We have been meaning to catch-up with her performances and this seems like a good occasion as any - and it is Berlioz after all.
Of equal interest to any Wagnerian will be the revival of Lluis Pasqual’s The Marriage of Figaro which next year will be conducted by Longborough Opera Festivals wagnerian conductor Anthony Negus - just before he gets ready for the premiere of LFO's Gotterdammerung in the summer. We are expecting a very interesting night in the theater. Full details of all productions below.
Welsh National Opera Spring 2012
Our new season focuses on matters of the heart, seen from a women’s perspective. Rebecca Evans, Sara Fulgoni and Joyce El-Khoury, a rising star from the New York Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artists Development Programme, take centre stage….
·Elijah Moshinsky’s Beatrice and Benedict features Sara Fulgoni, Robin Tritschler, Anna Burford and Donald Maxwell and will be conducted by Michael Hofstetter.
·David McVicar’sLa traviata features Joyce El-Khoury, Jason Howard and Carlos Osuna and will be conducted by Julia Jones.
·Lluis Pasqual’s The Marriage of Figaro features Rebecca Evans, Elizabeth Watts, David Soar and Dario Solari and will be conducted by Anthony Negus
·Frederic Chaslinwill also conduct WNO Orchestra in concert at St David’s Hall in Cardiff on 27th January 2012, featuring Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Adams, The Chairman Dances and Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 2.
WNO’s Spring Season 2012 can be seen in Cardiff, Birmingham, Llandudno, Milton Keynes, Southampton, Plymouth, Bristol and Swansea.
Welsh National Opera Spring 2012
CAST LISTS
Le Nozze di Figaro - Mozart
Revival
Sung in Italian
With English surtitles and Welsh surtitles at Wales Millennium Centre, Venue Cymru and Swansea Grand Theatre
First night 25 February
Figaro David Soar
Countess Almaviva Rebecca Evans (ex 22, 24, 29, 31 March & 3 April)
Camilla Roberts (22, 24, 29, 31 March & 3 April)
Count Almaviva Dario Solari
Susanna Elizabeth Watts
Cherubino Cora Burggraaf (until 17 March)
Patricia Orr (from 22 March)
Doctor Bartolo Henry Waddington
Marcellina Sarah Pring
Barbarina Joanne Boag
Don Basilio Timothy Robinson
Don Curzio Timothy Robinson
Antonio Julian Boyce
Conductor Anthony Negus
Director Lluis Pasqual
Revival Director Caroline Chaney
Designer Paco Azorín
Costume Designer Franca Squarciapino
Lighting Designer Albert Faura
Choreographer Montse Colome
Co-production with Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona
Supported by WNO Sponsors’ Group
La traviata - Verdi
Revival
Sung in Italian
With English surtitles and Welsh surtitles at Wales Millennium Centre, Venue Cymru and Swansea Grand Theatre
First night 11 February
Violetta Joyce El-Khoury
Alfredo Carlos Osuna
Giorgio Germont Jason Howard
Baron Douphol Eddie Wade
Doctor Grenvil Martin Lloyd
Annina Sian Meinir
Flora Amanda Baldwin
Marquis of Obigny Philip Lloyd Evans
Giuseppe Simon Buttle
Conductor Julia Jones (until 5 April)
Simon Phillippo (from 7 April)
Director David McVicar
Revival Director Marie Lambert
Designer Tanya McCallin
Lighting Designer Jennifer Tipton
Choreographer Andrew George
Co-production with Scottish Opera and Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona
Beatrice and Benedict - Berlioz
Revival
With English surtitles and Welsh surtitles at Wales Millennium Centre, Venue Cymru and Swansea Grand Theatre
The first time I heard Amber Wagner sing was on a warm summer night in 2008 atMillennium Park. The young soprano, then beginning her second year in Lyric Opera's young artist development program, the Ryan Opera Center, was performing in the annual "Stars of Lyric Opera" concert. I remember being blown away by the creamy beauty and rich amplitude of her voice as she sustained the arching cantilena of Leonora's aria, "Tacea la notte," from Verdi's "Il Trovatore."
I turned to my companion and exclaimed, "She's got the goods!"
And her singing still carries an astonishing impact, allied to an artistry that has grown considerably in the intervening years. At 31, Wagner is one of Lyric's proudest success stories, and she's standing on the brink of what surely will be an extraordinary international career.
Having triumphed in her first Elsa in Richard Wagner's "Lohengrin" at Lyric in March, the soprano is back in Chicago where she is enjoying another triumph in another big role – or, rather, two of them -- the Prima Donna and Ariadne in Richard Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos." The music is a perfect fit for her voice, which can turn on a dime from full-throttle dramatic singing to melting lyricism that soars into the Straussian stratosphere.
"I'm having great fun with this part and this production," Wagner told me during a recent rehearsal break. "I don't feel tired when I come out of singing Ariadne. It's a nice relief to sing that role, compared to singing Elsa, when you're programmed to be on stage for five hours!"
The singer comes across in conversation as direct and open, an artist whose feet are firmly planted on level ground and who's refreshingly realistic about herself and what she hopes to achieve professionally..
Although Lyric keeps the identity of its understudies ("covers," as they're known in the business) a secret, Wagner is known to be the cover Aida in the Verdi work here, beginning in January. From Chicago she will fly to Frankfurt for her role debut as Sieglinde in Richard Wagner's "Die Walkure."
But the big revelation is she's also set to make her Chicago role debut as another Verdi heroine, Leonora, in "Trovatore," for the opening of Lyric's 2014-15 season. And there's talk of her taking on another Wagnerian heroine, Elisabeth in "Tannhauser," in early 2013, theater to be announced.
Hugely demanding roles, all. But Lyric music director Andrew Davis, who conducted her in "Lohengrin" here in March and is also pacing the current run of "Ariadne auf Naxos," says each of these formidable roles lies comfortably within the singer's capabilities.
"I'm always astonished by Amber," he says. "She has tremendous stamina and she's very hard-working. She has a great appetite to learn and to grow. And she's sort of fearless! Hers is one of those voices you hear a very few of in your lifetime. Seldom can you say, 'Wow, this is a great Wagner and Strauss singer who's also a great Verdi singer.' With Amber you can. I predict the biggest possible future for her."
Determined to take things at her own slow and careful pace, Wagner already is having to turn down extravagant offers from European opera houses. "I have chosen longevity over a career over making money," she declares. She credits her manager, Matthew Horner of IMG Artists, with mapping out a realistic trajectory of roles for her through the end of the decade.
Wagner knew little enough about the art of singing, let alone the business of singing, in 2007 when, fresh out of college in Arizona, she began her three seasons as a member of the Ryan Center young artists ensemble.
"They benched me my first year so I could work on my technique and explore repertory," Wagner recalls. "(Ryan Center director) Gianna Rolandi said she didn't want anyone on the outside to hear me because they would just get crazy ideas about me. It was super-wise advice."
Wagner first came to attention of New York opera audiences that same year when she emerged as one of six winners of the prestigious Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Grand Finals. The concert and the preparations leading up to it were documented in Susan Froemke's film, "The Audition," now available on home video.
Born in California and raised in Oregon, Wagner switched from sociology to music as an undergrad at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix (where she currently lives with her husband, Gabriel Salazar, a voice teacher) after a music teacher, Sheila Corley, said she heard something special in her voice. Corley later became her voice teacher.
But Renee Fleming was what really inspired her to pursue a career in opera. "I became obsessed with Renee after I heard her in recital," Wagner confesses. "That voice, and the way she communicates when she's singing – no one encapsulates the art with such grace and kindness."
In fact, Wagner's first assignment at the center, in 2008, was covering the small role of the maid Annina in Verdi's "La Traviata" -- starring Fleming as Violetta. When Marjorie Owens, the singer who was scheduled to perform Annina, fell ill, Wagner got to be Fleming's maid for the night.
"I had never sung on a professional stage before, and this was my Lyric stage debut. Renee couldn't have been nicer. I was in heaven! Days later I would get gag e-mails from the Lyric administration – 'You need to bring back Renee's gown – she needs it for her performance!' ''
We noticed a few companies on amazon selling this (long in the pubic domain) book for kindle. With that in mind we provide the curious a free electronic copy - courtesy of Project Gutenberg. The HTML version will simply open a webpage with the full book. Clicking on Epub or Kindle link will download a copy in the respective format.
PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE:
A GUIDE TO THE OPERA WITH MUSICAL EXAMPLES FROM THE SCORE
Out at last and with some especially interesting content to boot :
The November 2011 issue (vol.5, no.3), now available, contains the following feature articles:
• in 'Monsalvat's Magnetic Wand', Edward A. Bortnichak and Paula M. Bortnichak examine Wagner's works through the lens of mesmerism and paranormal experience generally, suggesting that these hugely popular activities left their mark on both Wagner and his early audiences.
• in 'Sea, Mirror, Woman, Love: Some Recurrent Imagery in "Opera and Drama" ', Michael Dyson finds a seductive series of images in Wagner's major theoretical essay by means of which his aesthetic programme is articulated and clarified.
• in 'Craft and Magic: Forges and Forging in Wagner's Ring', Werner Breig looks at the craft of forging in Siegfried, drawing the distinction that Siegfried himself draws between the learnt technique of a smith and the natural talent of a genius.
plus reviews of:
all this year's productions at Bayreuth, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Glyndebourne, Tristan und Isolde at Grange Park, the Ring in San Francisco, Paris and Milan/Berlin
two of Tony Palmer's key films on Wagner
a DVD recording of Der fliegende Holländer from Amsterdam.
CDs of classic performances from the Met under Schippers, Böhm and Klobucar
new guides to Parsifal and Tristan und Isolde
A dramaturgical analysis of the 2010 Bayreuth Lohengrin by Edward A. Bortnichak and Paula M. Bortnichak appears on the website only. Click here.
Sorry this is late but see what happens when you vanish for a little while. This production features what seems like half of LFOs Siegfried. However, I think tickets are still available for the 26th. See here for more.
21 and 24 November, 6 pm, Grieghallen
The stage is set for a big operatic event when star conductor Kent Nagano arrives to Den Nye Opera to conduct Wagner's Siegfried in concert version, the first ever performance of the entire opera in Bergen.
Kent Nagano has established himself as one of the most visionary and insightful interpreters of both opera and symphonic music. He has been artistic director for several leading orchestras and opera houses, including the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Hallé-orchestra in England.
Siegfried is performed by Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and a handpicked team of singers. Among them we find the great Wagner tenor Christian Franz, and rising star Alwyn Mellor, who has been praised for her interpretations of Brünnhilde.
"Christian Franz was a perfect Siegfried."
- San Francisco Chronicle
"Possessing the amplitude and genuine vocal resources of a Wagnerian soprano, [Alwyn Mellor] soars strongly all evening and is moving as the ultimately transfigured lover."
- The Sunday Telegraph
You don't get the opportunity to hear the Faust that often, plus the Dutch premiere of Torstensson's Polarhavet. To listen and for more information click here: Radio Netherlands Worldwide
As predicted back in August (read more here) LFO have today announced that Rachel Nicholls will take over from Alywn Mellor as their Brunnhilde for the premiere of Götterdämmerung in 2012. LFO said today:
"We are delighted that Rachel Nicholls will be making her debut as Brünnhilde in Götterdämmerung here at Longborough in July 2012. Rachel is one of the most versatile sopranos of her generation. She sang Fiordiligi at Longborough in 2007 and Helmwige in Die Walküre in 2010 to great acclaim"
It seems that Erda may have had a word in certain reviewers ears also, said the Times last year:
“…Rachel Nicholls’s gleaming Helmwige — a future Brünnhilde? — stood out from a gutsy band of Valkyries.”Helmwige: Die Walküre / Longborough Festival Opera / The Sunday Times
Although known mainly for her highly regarded baroque performances , Rachel made her debut at ROH in Parsifal and recently performed to much acclaim as Sieglinde alongside Richard Berkeley-Steele, Susan Bullock, and Sir John Tomlinson at The St Endellion Summer Festival.
The Wagnerian recently had the opportunity to catch up with Rachel where we managed to discuss her successful background in baroque, her developmeent into an hochdramatischer sopran, working with her vocal coach the legendary Dame Anne Evans, the unique challenges of performing Wagner, along with many other things. Look out for it in the next few days - including an exclusive sample of her Helmwige.
Also today, LFO released the dates for the first entire (and self funded) country house ring cycle in the UK. The dates, which consist of two full cycles, are:
16, 18, 20, 22 June 2013 28, 30 June 2, 4 July 2013
For more information on LFO, ticket requests and more, visit the official website: Longborough Festival Opera
For more about Rachel, including, reviews and audio samples, visit her website: Rachel Nicholls
I am presently listening to Levine's recording with the BSO. Alas, I couldn't find an extract of that online but found this during my search and thought it might be of interest:
Tannhäuser has returned to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in a new production by Tim Albery. On Wagneropera.net Mark Berry reviews the premiere, being especially positive towards the conductor and the cast:
"Above all," Mark Berry writes, "this return to the Royal Opera House of Tannhäuser proved a musical triumph. Semyon Bychkov’s conducting was superior even to that of his Lohengrin last year. He generally took his time, but the score never dragged, given that Wagner’s long line was ever secure – bar the odd occasion when abruptness cannot quite be ironed out of the score. Climaxes were sparing and therefore all the more powerful when they came. Perhaps most importantly of all, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House was on superlative form. Brass onstage and off were weightily impressive without brashness. The woodwind choir evoked a Middle Ages that may never actually have existed, but certainly did in Wagner’s imagination. As for the strings, one might well have thought them from Vienna, so beautiful was their sheen. Equally fine was the chorus and extra chorus, properly weighty of tone without undue sacrifice to verbal meaning; Renato Balsadonna had trained them very well."
Tannhäuser – Johan Botha
Elisabeth – Eva-Maria Westbroek
Venus – Michaela Schuster
Wolfram von Eschenbach – Christian Gerhaher
Hermann, Landgrave of Thuringia – Christof Fischesser
Biterolf – Clive Bayley
Walther von der Vogelweide – Timothy Robinson
Heinrich der Schreiber – Steven Ebel
Reimar von Zweter – Jeremy White
Shepherd Boy – Alexander Lee
Tim Albery (director)
Michael Levine (set designs)
Jon Morrell (costumes)
David Finn (lighting)
Jasmin Vardimon (choreography)
Maxine Braham (movement)
Dancers
Royal Opera Chorus and Extra Chorus (chorus master: Renato Balsadonna)
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Semyon Bychkov (conductor)
"The auditorium of the old Stadttheater ...was a pretty gloomy place. A native of Riga (who later) compared it to a "barn" (while in) conversation with Wagner asked him how he had been able to conduct there. Wagner replied there were three things about this "barn" (that) had stayed in his mind: First was the steeply rising stalls, rather like an amphitheatre; the second was the darkness of the auditorium; and the third was the surprisingly deep orchestra pit. If ever he succeded in building a theatre to his own designs, he added, he would keep these three features in mind" C.F. Glasenapp: Das Leben Richard Wagner (1894-1911)
EDIT: Sorry, I have now updated the archive link so that it now works!
Live from Riga (a city that may be responsible for the design of Bayreuth (see here) the final part of Latvian National Opera's Ring Cycle will finally be premiered. You can catch it both live and on demand there after on Latvijas Radio 3 Klasika starting at 14:55 GMT (ish. Check timezone differences). It will then be available in LE3 Klasika's archives for sometime. To access the archive for this (after the 19th) go here and scroll down to the show at 14:55.
Götterdämmerung
New production
Dates:
19, 27 November 2011, 29 April, 10, 17 June 2012
Siegfried
Lars Cleveman (who sang a very fine Siegfried at the Royal
Due to his continuing illness, the MET has announced that James Levine will not be conducting the premiere of Gotterdamermerung on January the 27 or indeed any part of the first run there of. It will probably be of little surprise that he will be replaced by Fabio Luisi
On Friday, Peter Gelb, the METs general manager said:
‘He’s feeling good. He’s in rehab and he continues to make improvements. He agrees and feels strongly that he wouldn’t want to return until he’s fully recovered. ‘‘I know that his doctors are optimistic that he will be able to eventually return, but there is no specific timetable.’’
Whether he will return for the full cycle in April is as yet unknown. Continued Gelb:
‘‘I’ve discussed it with Jim and we’ve agreed that within the next month or two we’re going to have to make a decision about the rest of the season,’’
Interestingly, Gelb did inadvertently provide some information on what has now been confirmed as the DVD release of the Cycle. Due to be released in Autumn 2012, if and when Levine returns, they will not re-record Levine conducting either Siegfried or Goetterdammerung’. Said Gelb:
‘‘We have put enormous resources into producing these, and from a schedule point of view, from a financial resource point of view, for all those reasons, it’s absolutely impossible.
This will leave us with the unusual position of having a Ring Cycle on DVD where two parts are lead by one conductor (Levine - Rheingold and Walkure) and the latter two by someone else.
Found lying around on youtube As far as I am aware, given its age, this now lies in the public domain: There are many CD remasters out there. If you don't have already, you might want to have a look at the Pristine or Naxos remasters
Performer: Lauritz Melchior, Lotte Lehmann, Emanuel List, Alfred Jerger, Ella Flesch
This recording sometimes appears on “essential” and “desert island” lists and, while I think some tenors come within belting distance of Melchior and I like some Sieglindes just as much as I admire Lehmann, and even prefer some of the recorded Hundings to Emanuel List, I will concede that it may, nevertheless, deserve its apparent consensus status as the best recording of this music. Certainly, Bruno Walter’s impassioned, powerful conducting has a lot to do with the performance’s effect. He was actually supposed to conduct a complete recording of the opera and “therein,” as the saying goes, “lies a tale.” The notion of recording the first complete Die Walküre was hatched at EMI sometime in the early 1930s. It was to be done in Berlin with Bruno Walter presiding over some of the outstanding Wagner singers of the day. By the time they got around to making the arrangements in 1935, the Nazi regime had made Walter persona non grata, so the recording site was shifted to Vienna. Along with the first act, both of the act II scenes involving Melchior and Lehmann and the one that includes List were also recorded. Since the Hunding appearance in the closing scene of the act also requires a Wotan and Brünnhilde, Alfred Jerger, not one of nature’s Wotans, and Ella Flesch made brief appearances. By the time EMI was ready for act II in 1938, the German takeover of Austria meant that Walter was unavailable in Vienna, so the recording scene shifted back to Berlin and a new conductor, Bruno Seidler-Winkler. Melchior was on hand for the “Todesverkundigung,” and he was joined by Marta Fuchs (Brünnhilde), Margarete Klose (Fricka), and Hans Hotter (Wotan). A slightly edited version of act II, with a few cuts, was recorded. The scenes that had already been recorded under Walter were slipped into the performance later on, how smoothly, I don’t know, since I never heard the 78s. I might point out that, when this act was put on CD, an additional cut was made by EMI so that it would fit on a single disc. The onset of World War II interrupted the project. In 1945, American Columbia finished the job when Helen Traubel, Herbert Janssen, and Artur Rodzinski recorded the third act. Thus, in 1946, you could purchase a nearly complete Die Walküre on 26 breakable shellac 78s, recorded by two companies, in three cities, on two continents, with three conductors, three orchestras (the Vienna and New York Philharmonics and the Berlin State Opera Orchestra), three Wotans, three Brünnhildes, and two Sieglindes (Irene Jessner, doubling as Ortlinde, was the other).
Although Melchior could outbelt any tenor of his time (and ours), his contribution to the recording goes beyond mere power—he actually creates a character—first exhausted, then intrigued by his hostess, rueful about his tribulations, and finally, passionately in love. Lehmann’s ability to go beyond the notes was never questioned, and List is certainly a strong, menacing Hunding. The sound won’t blow you away but it has ample power and clarity for 1935. At this stage of his career Walter was more virile and energetic than the kindly old philosopher promoted by Columbia toward the end of his career and one can only regret that EMI’s project languished—a 1930s Bruno Walter Ring would have been something to hear, but I would have settled for a Bruno Walter Die Walküre if this recording is an indication of what could have transpired.
I did say I would try to keep you updated. However, given that it is 12 months to first night, news is not "coming thick and fast" - as would be expected. Nevertheless, WNO have very kindly provided a little more detailed information, together with some images of the 2006 revival. I have also included some reviews of the production from 2006.
Sung in German with English surtitles (Welsh in Wales Millennium Centre) First night 19 May 2012.
Photo: Bill Cooper
TristanBen Heppner
King Marke Matthew Best
Isolde Ann Petersen
Kurwenal Phillip Joll
Melot Simon Thorpe
Brangaene Susan Bickley
Shepherd Chorus
Helmsman Chorus
Sailor Chorus
Conductor Lothar Koenigs
Original Director Yannis Kokkos
Revival Director Peter Watson
Designer Yannis Kokkos
Lighting Designer Guido Levi
Original Movement Director Kate Flatt
Assistant Designer Muriel Trembleau
Staff Director Carmen Jakobi
Co-production with Scottish Opera
Reviews (2006 revival):
Rian Evans
The Guardian, Monday 2 October 2006
"Yannis Kokkos's 1993 staging of Tristan und Isolde for Welsh National Opera suggested an integrity of concept that would not date - and so it has proved. In Peter Watson's revival, its classic lines retained all their clarity while allowing Wagner's ecstatic poem to pervade and invade the senses."
Photo: Bill Cooper
George Hall: The Stage, Tuesday 3 October 2006
"Welsh National Opera revives Yannis Kokkos’ 1993 production of Wagner’s transcendent exploration of love and death in a distinguished performance. Kokkos’ self-designed staging is visually highly effective, presenting the opera’s narrative line with exceptional clarity and truth, and the semi-abstract sets have an aptly timeless quality.
This is another show that displays the world-class credentials of the Welsh company. Wagner fans should move heaven and earth to see this outstanding production as it tours over the next few weeks"
Neil Fisher: The Times, October 2006
"Yannis Kokkos’s production is more about suggestive abstraction. At times, the effect is striking — Tristan’s death, on a giant, protruding slab and lit by an eerie green glow, makes for a striking tableau."
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