Monday 26 August 2013

Wagner Marathon Checklist

Mark Elder conducted Wagner Parsifal, Prom 57. My review is HERE. It was the seventh and last major Wagner opera in this year's BBC Proms season (overtures and songs don't count in quite the same way). What a bumpy ride it's been, from the erratic but exciting Barenboim Ring to the dreadful Tannhäuser to the unidiomatic but imaginative Tristan und Isolde. Tonight's Parsifal was a very mixed bag. When Titurel sounds in better vocal health than Gurnemanz, we've got a problem. On the other hand, John Tomlinson is more than a singer, he's a phenomenom. Even if he sounded rough, he filled the part.

I've heard all seven Proms operas PLUS ALSO five Bayreuth  Wagners and Salzburg Der Meistersinger von Nürnberg (excellent Herheim production) and  will write about Herheim's Bayreuth Parsifal and Christian Thielemann's divine Der fliegende Hollander. Time willing! Plus numerous other Wagner events, like the 1924 Fritz Lang Siegfried, and the  100 year old Wagner biopic. So here's a checklist of this summer so far.

Prom Die Walküre 
Prom Siegfried 
Prom  Gotterdammerung
Andreas Schager
Prom Tristan und Isolde 
Prom Tannhauser
Prom Parsifal (to come) 

Bayreuth Siegfried 
Bayreuth Tannhauser
Bayreuth Gotterdammerung

Salzburg Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg

plus Salzburg Don Carlo, Glyndebourne, Mahler, Britten, Stockhausen, Coleridge-Taylor and much more.


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