It`s Bayreuth time again

[ARBurton]

Just a quick reminder - today`s opening Hollander is on BR 4 Klassik (and loads of other Euro stattions) at 5pm today. TV recording apparently on either Arte or 3Sat on 31st July. BR4K also broadcasting Meistersinger tomorrow (5pm), Tannhauser on Tuesday (5pm), Walkure on Thursday (5pm), but I can`t yet see a scheduling for the concert Parsifal.

[ARBurton]

BR4 inform me they are not broadcasting Parsifal. Must be a very long time since a scheduled opera at Bayreuth has NOT been broadcast. They are however doing the Munich Tristan (not sure of the date)>

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Holländer is streamed live on BR-Klassik (geo-restricted to Germany, so you'd need to deploy a VPN.

Alternatively, you can view the stream on DG on Tuesday: https://www.dg-premium.com/dg_stage_...-oksana-lyniv/

[gurnemanz]

Significant day on the Hill today with Oksana Lyniv as Bayreuth's first female conductor.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Oksana Lyniv did a great job with the orchestra and the ovation for Asmik Grigorian's Senta was huge!

[Ein Heldenleben]

I see this weeks Bayreuth Wotan Gunther Groissbock has pulled out of planned Ring performances as he is unhappy with his performance. Commendable honesty but it leaves Bayreuth with a bit of a problem .He is singing in this afternoon’s Meistersinger , presumably Pogner * (can’t be Sachs that’s even trickier than Wotan ) . I can’t recollect a singer ever being quite so honest before .

* just checked - today he’s the night watchman. A walk in the park - if I had any sort of Bass voice I reckon I could have a shot at it….
They’ve found a replacement as well . A shame as my Leb’ Wohl from Act 3 Walküre has to be heard to be believed….

[kernelbogey]

Bayreuth 2022 review from the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/aug/01/das-rheingold-review-bayreuth-festival-valentin-schwarz

[Ein Heldenleben]

Bayreuth 2022 review from the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...lentin-schwarz

Thanks for this . You couldn’t make it up. Though Wotan putting his daughter to sleep and surrounding her with a Ring of fire would def attract the attention of Valhalla social services . The incestuous relationship between Siegmund and Sieglinde would also probably result in intervention . I do remember an ENO Peter Grimes where Aunties nieces were obviously child abuse victims and that sort of worked.

[RichardB]

A shame as my Leb’ Wohl from Act 3 Walküre has to be heard to be believed….

With productions going the way they are, surely it's only a matter of time before you get the call!

No but seriously, I would in some ways love to go to Bayreuth and see and hear the whole phenomenon for myself, but if I'd gone to all that trouble only to see the kind of thing described in that Guardian review I would feel as if I'd been cheated. I don't particularly need horned helmets everywhere, but I would want Wagner's dramatic concept to be given as much respect as the notes.

[Ein Heldenleben]

With productions going the way they are, surely it's only a matter of time before you get the call!

No but seriously, I would in some ways love to go to Bayreuth and see and hear the whole phenomenon for myself, but if I'd gone to all that trouble only to see the kind of thing described in that Guardian review I would feel as if I'd been cheated. I don't particularly need horned helmets everywhere, but I would want Wagner's dramatic concept to be given as much respect as the notes.

Thing is the really revolutionary thing would be to follow Wagner’s copious stage instructions to the letter. Like Mozart and Verdi he was a master of the theatre and indeed a massively important technical and artistic innovator in stage craft. One day a director will go mad and actually do it . Though I won’t be singing…..

[kernelbogey]

Thing is the really revolutionary thing would be to follow Wagner’s copious stage instructions to the letter.

I've often thought that could be readily achieved in film - but it would cost a lot and unlikely to be commercially successful.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I've often thought that could be readily achieved in film - but it would cost a lot and unlikely to be commercially successful.

If only we could get Spielberg interested.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

... if I'd gone to all that trouble only to see the kind of thing described in that Guardian review I would feel as if I'd been cheated. I don't particularly need horned helmets everywhere, but I would want Wagner's dramatic concept to be given as much respect as the notes.

I'm with you there RB. Having read this review I'm glad I forgot to apply for tickets.

[gurnemanz]

We went in 2014, the first year you could book on line. We saw an eccentrically staged Tannhäuser but lapped up the whole experience generally and wouldn't have missed it. There was a Wine Festival on the Market Place in Bayreuth and other sights well worth investigating are the Hermitage house and gardens, the recently restored Baroque Margrave Opera, Wahnfried with nearby Liszt Museum and, surprisingly, Germany's only Museum of Freemasonry. We took the car and made a longer summer round trip of it, going via Cologne and Leipzig, where my wife has family and staying with a friend in Luxembourg on the way home.

[Ein Heldenleben]

We went in 2014, the first year you could book on line. We saw an eccentrically staged Tannhäuser but lapped up the whole experience generally and wouldn't have missed it. There was a Wine Festival on the Market Place in Bayreuth and other sights well worth investigating are the Hermitage house and gardens, the recently restored Baroque Margrave Opera, Wahnfried with nearby Liszt Museum and, surprisingly, Germany's only Museum of Freemasonry. We took the car and made a longer summer round trip of it, going via Cologne and Leipzig, where my wife has family and staying with a friend in Luxembourg on the way home.

I think the German Freemasons were ruthlessly suppressed by the Nazis. Presumably post war they are a pale shadow of their numbers in the 19th century. One of the many strands in German cultural life that has never really recovered.