The Met Opera opened its season with a new production of Tristan und Isolde Sein Vater, using Wagner’s score (if not his story) in a sumptuously, even thrillingly rendered performance. Simon Rattle was true to his name and shook both the score and the audience of preconceptions. It felt a bit long and all the […]
A useful and robust, if perhaps not mainstream, group of review of the Bayreuth season’s offerings is available at and well worth a visit.
One of the many rewards of attending Francesca Zambello’s production of the “American Ring” for the second time recently in Washington, DC, is the chance to admire, and chew on, the insights that she offers. It is one thing to set the action of the Ring in the American mythological past – for example, to […]
The new production of Tristan at the English National Opera (seen June 15, 2016) is very good indeed, and I’m sure a relief to all fans of this wonderful institution. It was in this auditorium that I first experienced the Ring under Goodall – and, ironically, this performance of Tristan was dedicated to Alberto Remedios, […]
It’s one thing to impose an external “konzept” onto a dramatic work and shove the piece unwillingly through it. American audiences refer to the results as “Eurotrash,” and I would choose the recent, unlamented Bayreuth production of Tannhäuser – staging the work as a divertissement for the workers of a biogas factory in order to investigate […]
The Wagner Blog is a forum for discussion of contemporary themes arising from the works of Richard Wagner. Discussions relating to Wagner’s musical, literary, theatrical, philosophical, political and theoretic work are all appropriate for this forum.
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