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Despite many perceptive details, Bayreuth's new Ring culminates in a rather damp squib of an ending.

Orchestra and singers reached great heights in this highly lyrical and dramatically flowing Frau ohne Schatten conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Things went from good to great in the course of the Götterdämmerung highlights.

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.

The outstanding trio of Nylund, Stemme and Herlitzius soars above a Vienna State Opera Orchestra in thunderous form, led by Christian Thielemann to celebrate the Staatsoper's 150th birthday in style.

Christian Thielemann led a memorable performance of Strauss's chamber opera Ariadne auf Naxos with a strong cast in a new straightforward production by David Hermann.

Stephen Gould is less than convincing in the lead role of Tannhäuser, but excellent ensemble work under Ádám Fischer's inspired direction offers compensations.

The most talked about new production in the New National Theatre Tokyo’s 20th anniversary season undercuts Beethoven’s idealism.

Dieter Dorn’s staging robbed Wagner’s final masterwork of magic and mystery while Simon Rattle set new speed records.

The third installment of Semperoper Dresden’s Ring des Nibelungen cycle ups the ante with an outstanding ensemble performance.

A strong cast, a lyrically simmering orchestra and lucid staging make this a Tristan und Isolde to treasure.

James Conlon led the CSO in Schubert’s Unfinished symphony and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Lied.  Mixed fortunes were had for the singers in the latter, but Conlon and the orchestra provided probing performances throughout.

Sir David McVicar's production of Tristan und Isolde premiered at the Wiener Staatsoper in 2013, and was then recognized as a friendly platform for singers. Here it is freshly revived with a new cast.

Visually inconsistant but some mesmerising perfromances in Kirsten Harms' production. 

Christian Thielemann, the Staatskapelle Dresden and a star-studded cast compress Wagner's Ring cycle into a tale of Siegmund, Sieglinde, Hunding and Brünnhilde.

Despite a miscast Isolde, Wagner's operatic monument to love makes its mark in the production by the composer's great-grandaughter.

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.

Sir Simon Rattle concludes the Ring Cycle in Vienna with a detailed and intricate reading of the opera with an excellent cast.

The evening clearly belonged to Stephen Gould’s Siegfried and Sir Simon Rattle and Vienna Orchestra.

The Bayerische Staatsoper's Ring cycle has been full of ups and downs. It ended on an up, thanks to Petrenko's brilliant conducting, a strong cast, and a fun staging.

At the Bayerische Staatsoper, director Andreas Kriegenberg's concept for Siegfried works well, but the cast members aren't all up to the opera's challenges.

Nina Stemme's domination of the heaviest dramatic soprano repertoire continues with an outstanding Isolde at the Zurich Opera House, ably assisted by Stephen Gould, Matti Salminen, and other notable performers under John Fiore.

First class performances from Stephen Gould and Nina Stemme are backed by a magnificent orchestral performance in the Royal Opera's revival of Christof Loy's spartan production.

Nina Stemmes' glorious Brünnhilde crowns a towering performance of Götterdämmerung at the Vienna State Opera. 

As the year of Wagner’s bicentennial approaches its end, De Nederlandse Opera concludes its latest revival of Pierre Audi’s Ring cycle with his 1998 production of Götterdämmerung.

A new production of Ariadne auf Naxos is a major draw in itself, but a queue for standing room whose end is on the other side of the opera house is news even in Vienna, especially when the performance is not the première, but the fourth in a run of five and also the one that Franz Welser-Möst left to Jeffrey Tate, who has conducted the piece to positive reviews before.

Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal began their collaboration on Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman Without a Shadow) with utopian ambitions. Unfortunately they weren’t the same ones. For Hofmannsthal, this would finally be the opera where his poetry would be illuminated by rather than buried under the music.

It is customary in German-speaking countries to perform Wagner’s Parsifal on Good Friday, so it was quite a bold move for the Semperoper in Dresden to put on Tannhäuser instead, especially in Peter Konwitschny’s strongly anti-Christian production.

Àlex Ollé ofrece un buen espectáculo visual para una producción que falla en construir el imprescindible nivel de tensión musical.  

Le metteur en scène franco-allemand transpose l'ouvrage wagnérien dans un univers à la croisée de Mad Max et Star Wars. Johanni van Oostrum se distingue dans le rôle d'Elisabeth.

Mis en scène par Kirsten Harms, Tannhäuser s'avère inégal. Se distinguent Ante Jerkunica (en Landgrave royal) et Camilla Nylund, formidable dans sa double interprétation de Venus/Elisabeth.

Der konzertante Parsifal ist 2021 die einzige Vorstellung unter Leitung Christian Thielemanns. Er schaffte es, den Abend zu etwas ganz besonderen zu machen.

Retrouvant ses musiciens de Rotterdam, Yannick Nézet-Séguin triomphe de la redoutable Femme sans ombre de Strauss, aidé par un plateau de toute première classe.

Stephen Gould und Krassimira Stoyanova triumphieren in einer unaufregenden Wohlfühlinszenierung von Adrian Noble.

Strauss-Versteher Christian Thielemann lädt am hundertsten Jahrestag der Welturaufführung zum musikalischen Träumen ein.

Selbst für ein verwöhntes Wiener Wagner-Publikum ist diese Götterdämmerung ein grandioses Erlebnis.

Bei ihrem Jubiläum setzen die Münchner Philharmoniker unter der Leitung von Valery Gergiev Mahlers monumentale Achte Symphonie aufs Programm.

Ein Siegfried von musikalischer Qualität wie dieser ist immer ein Ereignis und das Diktum, wonach Musik eine heilige Kunst ist, sah sich eindrucksvoll bestätigt.

Stephen Gould brilliert bei seinem Rollendebüt an der Wiener Staatsoper mit einem stupenden Peter Grimes.

Wien an Ostern ist ohne das Bühnenweihfestspiel Richard Wagners nicht denkbar, und die langjährige Produktion kann auch in diesem Jahr begeistern.