Yesterday, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, where devotees of Richard Wagner converge annually from all over the world, opened its doors again for this year’s festival. Traditionally presented on the first evening, the new production for this season was Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg (to use the opera’s full name), presented to a capacity audience.
Orchestra and chorus reach great Wagnerian heights in this new production by Christof Loy, a study of an artist in revolt against hypocritical sexual mores.
Baritone Kay Stiefermann steals hearts at the eponymous Count of Luxembourg, in an operetta so charming that neither musical missteps nor a mixed-up staging can sink it.
A conceptually diffuse production of Tristan from Katharina Wagner is partially redeemed by stirring orchestral playing under the direction of Christian Thielemann and some fine singing at the opening of the Wagner Festival at Bayreuth.
A ring of invisibility found in a giant fish. A voyeuristic king. A fisherman’s burning house and unfaithful wife. Alexander Zemlinsky’s Der König Kandaules is an exceptionally strange opera. Based on André Gide’s 1899 play of the same title, it is a heady mix of sex, violence, and remarkably beautiful music.
