Metropolitan Opera 2017-18 Preview: Get to Meet Klaus Florian Vogt & Evelyn Herlitzius, the New Stars of ‘Parsifal’
By David SalazarWagner’s “Parsifal” opens on Feb. 5, 2018, at the Metropolitan Opera in a revival of the successful production by François Girard with Yannick Nézet-Séguin in the pit.
René Pape and Peter Mattei reprise the roles that they dominated the last time this production came to the Met, but the other two singers to take on major roles are perhaps less known at the Met. Here is a chance to get to know them a bit better.
Klaus Florian Vogt
The tenor is one of the best-known Wagnerians of the modern world, taking on almost every single major lead role by the German master. With the exceptions of Siegfried and Tristan, he’s done “Lohengrin” to great acclaim, “Tannhäuser,” “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” “Die Walküre,” and, of course, “Parsifal.”
Since 2014, he has taken on the title role in Wagner’s final work five times with such companies as the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bayreuth Festival, and the Turku Music Festival. He made his Met debut in “Lohengrin” in 2006” and took on the role of Florestan in “Fidelio” last season to great acclaim.
“His delivery of the opening ‘Gott,’ a sublime crescendo on a single note that expressed the entirety of Florestan’s character arc, was riveting,” said OperaWire’s review of his performance last season at the Met.
Evelyn Herlitzius
The German soprano is one of the most-hailed Wagnerians in Europe. She is an acclaimed Brünhilde and has taken on the role of Isolde and Elektra. She has never performed at the Met or in North America in general, making her arrival on the scene as Kundry a momentous occasion.
After her “Parsifal” performances, she heads to San Francisco to take on the Ring Cycle as “Brünhilde.”
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