A Rheingold that works on every level in Minnesota

By Phillip Nones, 20 November 2016

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“For once, I was able to hear every note in a Wagnerian production”

Reviewed at Ordway Center for the Performing Arts: Music Theater, Saint Paul on 20 November 2016

Wagner, Das Rheingold

Minnesota Opera

Michael Christie, Conductor

Brian Staufenbiel, Director

Karin Wolverton, Freia

Alexandra Razskazoff, Wellgunde

Mary Evelyn Hangley, Woglinde

Denyce Graves, Erda

Nadia Fayad, Flosshilde

Katharine Goeldner, Fricka

Christopher Colmenero, Froh

Richard Cox, Loge

Dennis Petersen, Mime

Nathan Berg, Alberich

Kyle Albertson, Donner

Greer Grimsley, Wotan

Julian Close, Fafner

Jeremy Galyon, Fasolt

Minnesota Opera's Thaïs: a bright star in Massenet’s galaxy of women

Phillip Nones, 20th May

In a highly effective stage presentation, the Minnesota Opera tells Jules Massenet’s story of two personalities whose spiritual journeys are like two ships passing in the night.

****1

Arrestingly effective: Dead Man Walking at Minnesota Opera

Katherine Syer, 27th January

Dead Man Walking is currently the most frequently performed contemporary American opera. Joel Ivany's staging, first mounted in Vancouver, opened recently at Minnesota Opera just days after the opera's Spanish première in Madrid.

****1

Minnesota Opera Don Pasquale “goes Hollywood”

Phillip Nones, 15th October

Don Pasquale is updated to 1950s Hollywood, delivering clever staging and slapstick humor while sacrificing none of Donizetti's musical artistry.

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Nabucco launches Opera Philadelphia's season with power

Gale Martin, 6th October

During Verdi’s bicentenary month and year, it’s fitting that Opera Philadelphia kicked off its 2013/14 season with the work that Verdi himself considers as having launched his own career – Nabucco. Written at a time when Italy longed to be free of foreign rule, Verdi’s name and the expression “Viva Verdi” became synonymous with Italian nationalism and unification.

****1

Frederick Ballentine’s Loge shines in Das Rheingold

Rosie Rogers, 12th August

Despite some confused visual elements, an excellent musical performance makes Seattle Opera's production well worth watching.

****1

Seattle Opera delivers Dove's Flight with panache

David Karlin, 3rd April

Seattle Opera do full justice to Dove and De Angelis's comic opera with a dark twist, filming it in the city's Museum of Flight.

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Phillip Nones

Phillip Nones studied piano from age six, also playing percussion in educational and civic groups before moving to a rural area of the USA in 1990, where performance opportunities were few. Recently he has started performing again, participating in “side-by-side” orchestra performances and playing percussion in the World Doctors' Orchestra. His personal collection of music includes over 5,000 classical albums in all formats (CDs, LPs, 78s), plus downloads. In his professional life, he heads up a marketing communications firm in the state of Maryland. He blogs about the French composer Florent Schmitt here.

Minnesota Opera presents a Rheingold that works on every level