Practice makes perfect and the extra rehearsal time since Wednesday proved most positive to the last item in the first cycle of the Deutsche Oper’s Ring. Although the Gibichungen scene in act I had its longueurs (always a tricky scene for the conductor), this evening’s performance had everything a Wagnerian should expect: the orchestral sound [...]
Archive for April, 2010
Götterdämmerung, Deutsche Oper Berlin, 25.04.2010
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Alfons Eberz, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Evelyn Herlitzius, Heidi Melton, Tomasz Konieczny, Wagner's Götterdämmerung on April 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Siegfried, Deutsche Oper Berlin, 21.04.2010
Posted in Reviews, tagged Deutsche Oper Berlin, Egils Sillins, Ewa Wolak, Tomasz Konieczny, Wagner's Siegfried on April 21, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Third time lucky – even if luck probably has little to do with that. The name of the trick is “more rehearsal time”, and the result is that Donald Runnicles could finally show his credentials in this cycle. The audience was treated to top class orchestral playing – strings zipped adeptly through passagework, brass offered [...]
Die Walküre, Deutsche Oper Berlin, 18.04.2010
Posted in Reviews, tagged Clifton Forbis, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Evelyn Herlitzius, Reinhard Hagen, Violeta Urmana, Wagner's Die Walküre on April 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I do not know if the Deutsche Oper used the bad-news-first strategy, but it seems that their Ring has finally found the right track. Regardless of how intrinsically good today’s Walküre was, it is a significant improvement from yesterday’s Rheingold. To start with, Götz Friedrich’s production here is far more efficient than in the tetralogy’s [...]
Das Rheingold, Deutsche Oper Berlin, 17.04.2010
Posted in Reviews, tagged Andrea Silvestrelli, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Ewa Wolak, Judit Németh, Tomasz Konieczny, Wagner's Das Rheingold on April 18, 2010 | 3 Comments »
After the Wagner Wochen, I have to confess my expectations about the Deutsche Oper Ring have been kept low. This is probably why I am not terribly upset by the frankly unsatisfactory Rheingold presented today as I was when I left the theatre after that dreadful Lohengrin. To start with, Götz Friedrich’s 1984 production belongs [...]
Les Troyens, De Nederlandse Opera, 04.04.2010
Posted in Reviews, tagged Berlioz's Les Troyens, Bryan Hymel, De Nederlandse Opera, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Jean-François Lapointe, John Nelson, Yvonne Naef on April 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Berlioz’s Les Troyens is one of the largest-scale operas in the repertoire – it has five acts, two parts with only one large role in common, not to mention it requires a large orchestra, large-voiced soloists and grandiose settings. The change of mood between the Trojan and the Carthaginian settings is particularly tricky for conductor [...]
Der Rosenkavalier, Oper Köln, 03.04.2010
Posted in Reviews, tagged Bjrni Thor Kristinsson, Claudia Mahnke, Jutta Böhnert, Kiri Te Kanawa, Oper Köln, R. Strauss's Rosenkavalier on April 3, 2010 | 3 Comments »
I like Kiri Te Kanawa. Those who do not say she lacks substance – for me, she embodies the ideal of spontaneous art, the beauty of which has nothing calculated and convinces in its sheer artlessness. She also embodies an ideal of Mozartian and Straussian operatic performance who involves not only exquisite tonal quality and [...]
