In anticipation of the 150th anniversary in 2026, Pegasus Books is set to release “Wagner and the Creation of the Ring” by Michael Downes on July 1, 2025. In his book, the writer and conductor explores the journey of creating one of the most crucial works of art of all Western culture. “Bringing The Ring to successful completion demanded a {…}
The Bayreuth Festival has unveiled its 2025 season. The season opens with “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” starring Michael Spyres, Georg Zeppenfeld, Christina Nilsson, Christa Mayer, and Matthias Stier. Daniele Gatti conducts and Matthias Davids directs. Performance Dates: July 25 – August 22, 2025 Valentin Schwarz’s “Das Rheingold” will be conducted by Simone Young and features Tomas Konieczny, Olafur Sigurdarson, Daniele Behle, {…}
The Metropolitan Opera has announced that Yuval Sharon will be directing new productions of “Tristan und Isolde” and “Der Ring des Nibelungen.” Sharon will make his Met debut during the 2025−26 season with a new production of “Tristan und Isolde” (conducted by Nézet-Séguin, with Lise Davidsen as Isolde). Then in 2026-27, he debuts his new Ring cycle with Davidsen as {…}
(Photo Credit: Bernd Uhlig) There is something unique about waiting for the curtain to rise on “Götterdämmerung.” Anyone who has followed a “Ring” in the theatre, may take their seat in sadness as this evening will end the journey through the most fabled, mythical and symbolic landscape of all. Though the images and sentiments confronted in any given production condition {…}
(Photo: Bernd Uhlig) “Siegfried” is a deceptively complicated opera, perhaps one of the most difficult in all “Der Ring” to pull off both musically and scenically. The main reason is that much of Wagner’s storytelling brings its characters to realizations within themselves, with inner drives and motivations lashing out often in vehemence and violence. What’s more, the once-recognizable leitmotifs are {…}
(Credit: Fotos von Bernd Uhlig, Kontakt: [email protected]) Often after watching a perplexing rendition of “Das Rheingold“, critics and public alike might proclaim: “Let’s see what will happen tomorrow night. Let us hold our judgement until then, to see where all of this is going.” And then, Herheim’s “Die Walküre” began, proving to be the worst of the cycle. The First {…}
(Fotos von Bernd Uhlig, Kontakt: [email protected]) It does seem that the 2021 Deutsche Oper Berlin’s Ring has been somewhat of a success over the last few years. And this is good for opera. A major achievement, this as other cycles, after the centennial Patrice Chéreau staging have created negative stirrings, indeed vivid contestations largely due to mistaken stage-director conceptions ingrained {…}
(Photo credit: Bernd Uhlig) The man who gave the opera world its most dazzling 21st century “Parsifal,” Stefan Herheim, continues his quest to interrogate the Romantic text that is Richard Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungen.” Inspired refreshing of a 150-year-old work of art can provide new insights and flashes of illumination. But conceptual pyrotechnics can just as easily destroy its {…}
(Photo: © Enrico Nawrath) As the final cycle of Bayreuth’s 2023 “Ring des Nibelungen” came to a close, the air remained electric with the sounds of Wagner’s apocalyptic horns and the swirling raptures of the Rhine. Camps came away divided into those either outraged or captivated by director Valentin Schwarz‘s reinvention of the Walsung’s messy journey into oblivion. To be {…}
The Bayreuth Festival has announced upcoming productions for 2024 and 2025. The company announced that in 2025 it will present Matthias Davids’ new production of “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” under Daniele Gatti. Georg Zeppenfeld will sing the title role with Michael Spyres as Walter von Stolzing. Tobias Kratzers directs “Tannhäuser” in 2024 under music director Nathalie Stutzmann, while “Tristan und {…}
Professor Paul Goldmark of Case Western Reserve University is set to present “Oh, Bwunhilde you’re so lovely:” Wagner’s Music in Classic Hollywood Cartoons. The showcase will take place on Feb. 17, 2023, between 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the National Opera Center in New York City. During the program, Goldmark, the Head of Popular Music Studies at Case Western {…}