Tobias Kratzer's provocative Tannhäuser opens at Bayreuth

By Zoltán Szabó, 26 July 2019

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Reviewed at Bayreuther Festspielhaus, Bayreuth on 25 July 2019

Wagner, Tannhäuser

Valery Gergiev, Conductor

Tobias Kratzer, Director

Rainer Sellmaier, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Stephen Gould, Tannhäuser

Markus Eiche, Wolfram von Eschenbach

Lise Davidsen, Elisabeth

Elena Zhidkova, Venus

Stephen Milling, Landgraf Hermann

Daniel Behle, Walther von der Vogelweide

Jorge Rodríguez-Norton, Heinrich der Schreiber

Kay Stiefermann, Biterolf

Wilhelm Schwinghammer, Reinmar von Zweter

Katharina Konradi, Shepherd Boy

Reinhard Traub, Lighting Designer

Manuel Braun, Video

Konrad Kuhn, Dramaturgy

Bayreuth Festival Chorus

Bayreuth Festival Orchestra

Le Gateau Chocolat

Weinberg’s The Passenger at Dutch National Opera

Clare Varney, 17th April

Tobias Kratzer's 2024 Munich production makes its way to Amsterdam, proving that Weinberg's opera has the power to transfix.

****1

Frauenliebe und -sterben: Kratzer’s triple bill at Staatsoper Hamburg

Mengguang Huang, 15th April

Director Tobias Kratzer engineers a haunting pasticcio of Schumann, Bartók and Zemlinsky, tracing the domestic sphere’s shift from romantic surrender to the blood-soaked secrets of a century-spanning house.

****1

Vampires, Disney and Donald Trump: Monster’s Paradise in Hamburg

Kevin W Ng, 1st February

Olga Neuwirth and Elfriede Jelinek take on Donald Trump in their latest operatic collaboration.

****1

Upstairs, downstairs: Die Frau ohne Schatten at Deutsche Oper

Zenaida des Aubris, 26th January

Tobias Kratzer gives his third Strauss production in three seasons at Deutsche Oper Berlin another contemporary spin.

****1

And they were the most divine gods: Das Rheingold in Munich

Phillip Richter, 3rd November

Tobias Kratzer's prelude to this new Ring cycle exceeds all expectations and scores a musical-theatrical success.

*****

Revolutionary zeal gives way to tyranny in The Royal Opera’s Fidelio

Dominic Lowe, 9th October

This revival of Kratzer’s production forces the audience to confront where personal responsibility starts and stops for acting under a tyrannical regime, while bringing Beethoven’s only opera to life – with a few twists.

****1

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Zoltán Szabó

Zoltán Szabó is a cellist and musicologist. Having migrated from his native Hungary to Australia in 1985, he worked with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Sydney until 1991, when he became Principal Cello with Opera Australia. In 2017, he was awarded with a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD). Currently, he is teaching music history and musicology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.