Performer: Iwona Sobotka

Contemplation and reflection should ideally form a counterpoint to jollity and merry-making in the festive season: an object-lesson from Sir Simon Rattle and his supporting forces.

The Queen of the Night appeared as a malevolent giant spider, complete with exoskeleton, threatening Tamino with her stabbing limbs and summoning hordes of smaller spiders to writhe over Pamina when the latter hesitated to commit to Sarastro's murder.

After staged performances in Baden Baden, the Berlin Phil's Parsifal is presented in concert at the Philharmonie, with a couple of key cast changes. 

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

Under Sir Simon Rattle’s baton, Andrew Norman’s children’s opera struggles to find either terrene or otherworldly land.