Bayreuth's “closed system” of Tannhäuser production

By Ako Imamura, 19 August 2014

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Reviewed at Bayreuther Festspielhaus, Bayreuth on 18 August 2014

Wagner, Tannhäuser

Axel Kober, Conductor

Sebastian Baumgarten, Director

Nina von Mechow, Costume Designer

Joep van Lieshout, Set Designer

Camilla Nylund, Elisabeth

Michelle Breedt, Venus

Torsten Kerl, Tannhäuser

Markus Eiche, Wolfram von Eschenbach

Katja Stuber, Shepherd Boy

Stefan Heibach, Heinrich der Schreiber

Lothar Odinius, Walther von der Vogelweide

Thomas Jesatko, Biterolf

Kwangchul Youn, Landgraf Hermann

Rainer Zaun, Reinmar von Zweter

Bayreuth Festival Orchestra

Bayreuth Festival Chorus

Eberhard Friedrich, Choirmaster / chorus director

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Lawrence Cummings conducts Zurich’s Orchestra La Scintilla in Handel’s oratorio-cum-opera, Belshazzar. The music was celestial; the staging was a bombastic mix of excess and vaudeville.

***11

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The backstory doesn’t bode well: three fugitive criminals decide to found a city that will pander to society’s most vital needs: food, sex, warfare, and alcohol.

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Thomas Schacher, 3rd March

Die 1966 entstandene avantgardistische Oper erlebt in Zürich erst ihre vierte Aufführung. Der Dirigent Gabriel Feltz, der Regisseur Sebastian Baumgarten und ein spielfreudiges Sängerensemble bereiten dem monströsen Werk einen Triumph.

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Ako Imamura

Atsuko (Ako) Imamura is a retired investment banker in New York City. Born in Japan, she trained as cultural anthropologist in the US before turning to ﬁnance. She now spends her time attending opera and classical music concerts in New York and in Europe. Wagner is her favorite opera composer.

A “closed system” of Tannhäuser production implodes in Bayreuth