“Opera Meets Film” is a feature dedicated to exploring the way that opera has been employed in cinema. We will select a section or a film in its entirety, highlighting the impact that utilizing the operatic form or sections from an opera can alter our perception of a film that we are viewing. This week’s installment features Netflix’s “The Crown, {…}
(Photo: Rocco Casaluci) Of all the operas ever written possibly none explores the unconscious drive of love with such a stark and uncompromising vision as Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde.” It is not a love tainted by the individual psychologies of its participants, their behavior is not an outcome of a deeper pathology, or molded by the past events which have {…}
(Credit: Bill Cooper/Royal Opera) Christof Loy’s Olivier Award-winning production of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” returns to The Royal Opera, Covent Garden on April 27, 2020. The revival production is set to star Wagnerian Swedish tenor Michael Weinius and German soprano Ricarda Merbeth making their Royal Opera debuts. The two will be joined by German bass Franz-Josef Selig as King Marke {…}
Catherine Foster is known as one of the great of Brünnhildes of our time. She has performed the role six consecutive times at the Bayreuth Festival and continues to be in-demand for her interpretation. And while there is no denying that this might be her signature role, it is impossible to discount three other operas that she is also dominating {…}
In simplified terms, Wagner’s music, especially in “Tristan und Isolde,” can be visually compared to a continuous stream of waves coming and going, each growing in size and power, exploding, and then receding back to where they came from. In the best performances, a singer rides these orchestral waves of sound, the voice standing above the music, but also impossible {…}
Waltraud Meier, born on Jan. 9, 1956, would become one of the most successful German artists of the late 20th century and beyond. Meier was born in Würzberg and sang in choral groups throughout her youth. Despite starting her graduate studies in English and Romance languages, in 1976, she shifted her focus to singing and made her debut at the {…}
Karita Mattila has announced that she will sing in Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde.” The Finnish soprano announced via Twitter that she had signed a contract to do her first Isolde. The tweet stated, “I LOVE it! I love these imaginative thoughts. I completely had an ‘awakening’ with Ring in San Fran last summer, meaning: WAGNER. The ‘complicated relationship’ was over {…}
“Opera Meets Film” is a feature dedicated to exploring the way that opera has been employed in cinema. We will select a section or a film in its entirety, highlighting the impact that utilizing the operatic form or sections from an opera can alter our perception of a film that we are viewing. This week’s installment features Adam McKay’s “Anchorman {…}
“Tristan und Isolde,” which had its world premiere on June 10, 1865, might be the greatest opera of all time. Or it might simply be the most revolutionary. Its entire musical philosophy was so unique that it revolutionized classical music forever. Wagner wrote the work after falling in love with the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. He also was involved in {…}
Siegfried Jerusalem could not have been better named. The Oberhausen native, born on April 17, 1940, would grow up to be one of the great 20th century interpreters of his namesake in Wagner’s famed “Der Ring des Nibelungen.” The tenor actually studied piano, violin, and bassoon in his formative years and started his career as a bassoon player. Eventually, at {…}
Anticipation. Expectancy. The pulse of Act two of “Tristan und Isolde” in concert performance at Carnegie Hall. Under the baton of Andris Nelsons, Ray and Maria Stata Music Director of the Boston Symphony, everything was set in motion – the lover galloping to his beloved, heralded by the offstage brass . The woman waiting with rapid heart-beat for his arrival. The {…}
