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Ulf Schirmer bows out as General Music Director as the last of Wagner's 13 operas completes a successful Festival Wagner 22 in Leipzig.

Despite some weakness in the main singers, the overall level of musical performances was consistently high in Leipzig, with a stark and effective production.

Siegfried in Leipzig succeeds on all fronts: an engaging production, a great ensemble of singers and a well-conducted orchestra.

Die Walküre in Leipzig turns the family drama into a tragedy of fear and anxiety, with glimpse of hope at the end.

Oper Leipzig's Das Rheingold unfolds with no set changes, giving Wagner's music plenty of opportunities to fuel the imagination.

In a state of almost child-like transfiguration and fulfilment, Strid's voice fully encompassed the extremes of the last scene.

Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos amuses in a concert version put on by the Deutsche Oper at the Philharmonie in Berlin, with good performances from Meagan Miller (Ariadne) and Susanne Elmark (Zerbinetta).

For an inventive production, fine singing and magnificent orchestral playing, this new Leipzig Die Frau ohne Schatten deserves every success.

Leipzig routinely honours its native son with performances of Parsifal scheduled on and around Good Friday, which tempts a state of ritualized enactment best confined to the opera itself. (Vienna maintains the same tradition and is a magnet for self-appointed enforcers of the Bayreuth applause customs and their confrontational silencing of the ‘transgressors’.

Calixto Bieitos eigenwillige Sichtweise rundete sich mit Ulf Schirmers Dirigat zu einem Epos zwischen Melancholie und Apokalypse.

David Pountneys Meistersinger enttäuschen mit einer an Geschichtsverständnis mangelnden und trägen Inszenierung, die aber immerhin stimmliche Glanzmomente liefert.

Elisabet Strid schockiert, verzaubert und begeistert als Salome. Wahnsinn in all seinen Formen!

Richard Strauss' Komödie wird in Leipzig im besten Sinn klassisch und doch herrlich lustvoll und ohne umdeutende Modernisierung wieder aufgenommen.

Dirigé par Ulf Schirmer, le Chœur de la Radio Bavaroise, l’Orchestre de la Radio de Munich et les solistes ont donné une très belle soirée. Il est regrettable cependant que les longueurs du texte aient pu parfois distraire le spectateur.