Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Michael Thalheimer

A musically strong revival of an austere production still leaves one feeling short-changed.

A fascinating, psychologically penetrating reading of Verdi’s penultimate opera, performed to the highest standards, promises much for the new season at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. 

The unclear ideas and the excessive blackness in Thalheimer’s concept failed to convince, but Stoyanov and Joel’s presentation of Verdi’s score made up for those problems.

Director Michael Thalheimer staging Weber’s Der Freischütz entirely in the Wolf’s Glen, albeit relocated from a “fearsome forest gorge” to what looks like a badger’s sett.