Performer: Simone Schröder

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

The plot thickens as "episode two" of Bayreuth's new Ring muddies the waters of Siegfried’s paternity and Wotan comes to regret his actions.

The Bayreuth Festival's new Ring gets off to a promising start with a tautly directed Rheingold, but will we find out what it all means?

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.

With a plethora of theatre seats, stools and benches it was as if Willy Decker and Wolfgang Gussman had been elected ‘Chair-men of the bored”.

Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden orchestra are let down by sub-optimal singers in Willy Deckers chair-laden production of  Die Walküre.