Watch Now: 30 Minutes Of Bayreuth's New Lohengrin. 2018. Recommended

We have been enjoying, greatly, new productions from Bayreuth these last few years and Yuval Sharon's Lohengrin is no exception. If you were unable to get to Bayreuth or were sadly unable to watch the geographically restricted broadcast from BR Klassik - or the similarly restricted 3sat broadcast tonight - the following  25 minutes, taken from act three, may give you some idea of the production.

The entire production will be released on DVD/Bluray, shortly. We, for one, will be putting in our preorder as soon as it is possible.

1:11:00 pm | 0 comments | Read More

Mini Documentary:Tristan Und Isolde. ENO 1981

Fascinating! Includes an interview with the extraordinary Linda Esther Gray.

Broadcast as part of Newsnight August 1981: Sir Reginald Goodall and the English National Opera prepare for a new production of Tristan and Isolde. Features interviews with Alberto Remedios (Tristan) and Linda Esther Gray (Isolde).

6:19:00 pm | 0 comments | Read More

If you Missed It, Listen To The New Bayreuth Lohengrin Here

Lest you missed it or would like to listen again. Click the link, a new page will appear and then click the play icon. We include some images of the production also.  

Listen To Act One By Clicking Here

Listen To Act Two By Clicking Here

Listen To Act Three By Clicking Here

2:51:00 am | 0 comments | Read More

What's So Special About The Bayreuth Festival

To get you "in the mood" for the first day of the Festival tomorrow, 25 July, a little video overview from DW

10:15:00 pm | 0 comments | Read More

How & When To Watch Bayreuth's New Production Of Lohengrin Online - For Free

Edit: We have been informed that this year's live broadcast may be geo-restricted to viewers in Germany. If so, shame and bad form. It may be that the on-demand version, which should remain in place for a few days is not geo-restricted. 

If it is, of course, one could use a VPN or proxy to circumnavigate it - not that we would suggest such a thing of course. And we certainly wouldn't recommend googling VPN and any of the following trustworthy VPN suppliers - in our experience - such as "Strong VPN. NordVPN, Express VPN  or IPVanish (other VPN suppliers are available) to do such a thing. Not at all. We equally would not suggest that in the case that you did sign up for any one of these, then download their client, selecting a German server would allow you to watch at your leisure. Never would we suggest such a thing, 

Should you not be able to get to Bayreuth, for the premiere of Yuval Sharon's new production of Lohengrin this year, fear not. You can still see it live, albeit on the internet, the 25 of July. The entire performance will be broadcast live by BR Klassik Full detail below. Clicking the link below will take to the video page, with a very useful timer, counting down.

Lohengrin. Time: 1600 (CEST). Date: 25/07/18

Cast:

At Bayreuth, as with any opera company, cast details can change at the last minute. Indeed, the production has seen a new Lohengrin just a few weeks ago. So, for full cast details please visit the Festival's webpage for this production by CLICKING HERE

7:19:00 pm | 0 comments | Read More

Where To Listen To This Years Bayreuth Festival Online: 2018

It's nearly that time; festival "madness" from Bayreuth. If you are unsure where or when to listen, to the individual, productions we have done our best to provide you with the times and links below. This year, it appears that BR Klassik and Bartok will, apart from Lohengrin, be broadcasting on different days, with BR Klassik broadcasting the recorded live broadcast after Bartok - in many cases. So, for example, both will broadcast the premiere of Lohengrin on the 25th July, BR's next broadcast will be the 30th July while Bartok's next broadcast will be Parsifal on the 26th July. With that in mind, we have listed both stations and provided links. We hope this is not too confusing. As always, we suggest you click the link in advance and make sure it works for you. A pop-up should appear and whatever is streaming at the time you click should be audible. If you have any difficulties, please get in touch via mail or Twitter and we will do our best to help. On a similar note if you spot an error here, please do let us know.

Times noted are in CEST, Dates are in European, not, American format. Please adjust to your local time if needed. Click the performance to launch the player

11:01:00 pm | 0 comments | Read More

Piotr Beczala Rides In On A Swan To Rescue A Distressed Bayreuth

It was less than a week ago when Roberto Alagna's manager informed the Bayreuth festival that the tenor would not be able to perform as Lohengrin in the new Bayreuth production of said opera later this month. According to reports, Alagna's manager informed the Wagner's that he simply had not been "... able to sufficiently study the part due to work overload (sic).”

This, of course, would have lead to something of a panic, for Bayreuth and Yuval Sharon's new productions of Lohengrin. Thankfully, a much better prepared Lohengrin has been found at short notice, in the form of the very fine Piotr Beczala. Beczala made his role debut as Lohengrin in 2016 at Dresden, see video below. Besczala is having something of a good year having only this year being announced as the recipient of the  International Opera Awards "Best Male Singer" award.  The Bayreuth production will see him once again, reunited with conductor Christian Thielemann.

4:01:00 pm | 0 comments | Read More