Family saga: Bayreuth's new Rheingold presents a story of today

Elisabeth Teige (Freia), Attilio Glaser (Froh) and Christa Mayer (Fricka)

Das Rheingold

Arnold Bezuyen (Mime)

By Matthew Rye, 11 August 2022

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“Schwarz is aware that he is directing for the most knowledgeable Wagner audience anywhere”

Reviewed at Bayreuther Festspielhaus, Bayreuth on 10 August 2022

Wagner, Das Rheingold

Cornelius Meister, Conductor

Valentin Schwarz, Director

Andrea Cozzi, Set Designer

Andy Besuch, Costume Designer

Reinhard Traub, Lighting Designer

Bayreuth Festival Orchestra

Konrad Kuhn, Dramaturgy

Egils Siliņš, Wotan

Raimund Nolte, Donner

Attilio Glaser, Froh

Daniel Kirch, Loge

Ólafur Sigurdarson, Alberich

Arnold Bezuyen, Mime

Jens-Erik Aasbø, Fasolt

Wilhelm Schwinghammer, Fafner

Christa Mayer, Fricka

Elisabeth Teige, Freia

Okka von der Damerau, Erda

Lea-ann Dunbar, Woglinde

Stephanie Houtzeel, Wellgunde

Simone Schröder, Flosshilde

Season finale: a disappointing ending to Bayreuth's Götterdämmerung

Matthew Rye, 15th August

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

***11

Drunk on ambition: Siegfried takes us deeper into a forest of ideas

Matthew Rye, 13th August

Will Siegfried get his girl? Will she turn out to be his sister? And has the ultimate prize already got into the wrong hands? More posers from Bayreuth's intriguing new Ring.

****1

From birth to death: Die Walküre gets some interesting plot twists

Matthew Rye, 11th August

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.

*****

Gebrochene Liebe, zerbrochner Krug: Opern-Einakter in Weimar

Michael Vieth, 20th September

Archaisches Liebesdrama ohne Happy End und ein pralles Lustspiel über einen Richter, der Unrecht spricht: zwei vorzügliche Vertonungen nach Texten von Heinrich von Kleist.

****1

Happy end pour le Ring de Bayreuth selon Valentin Schwarz

Pierre Liscia-Beaurenaut, 25th August

Dernier opus de la Tétralogie, le Crépuscule des dieux s'avère plutôt convaincant scéniquement. Vocalement, les chanteurs rendent justice à la musique de Wagner, malgré des signes de fatigue.

****1

Des sitcoms au blockbuster : Siegfried s'émancipe à Bayreuth

Pierre Liscia-Beaurenaut, 23rd August

La mise en scène du troisième volet de la Tétralogie déçoit cette fois-ci franchement, malgré de splendides décors. Musicalement cependant, il est difficile de rêver mieux !

***11

More reviews...

Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).