The week in classical: Salome; Siegfried/Götterdämmerung; Bournemouth SO/Karabits – review

Blood and guts meet a kinky Santa in Adena Jacobs’s provocative new ENO production of Strauss’s opera. And Royal Opera’s Ring ends on a high

Götterdämmerung review – Warner joins the dots as voices and orchestra weave a formidable spell

The final part of Keith Warner’s Ring cycle saw the elements coalesce to create a compelling climax, with Antonio Pappano’s orchestra on glorious form

Siegfried review – blunt hero is hard to like in a cluttered production

Stefan Vinke brought impressive stamina and Nina Stemme was magnificent, but the third part of Keith Warner’s Ring cycle is a patchy evening

Das Rheingold review – thrilling start to Warner’s steampunk surreal Ring

High drama and slapstick comedy blend perfectly under Antonio Pappano’s pacey conducting for the first instalment of Wagner’s epic cycle

Das Rheingold review – superb Jurowski hits awesome anvils

Vladimir Jurowski and the LPO were superb in this anniversary semi-staging that marks the start of a new Ring Cycle

The Wagner Project CD review – velvet and jolts from Matthias Goerne

Other singers have Wagner discs, Matthias Goerne has a Wagner Project – which is typical of his probing approach to whatever he sings. This double CD teams him with conductor Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in key … Continue reading →

Wagner: Siegfried CD review – Van Zweden brings lustre even if singing doesn’t reach the heights

The latest instalment of Naxos’s Ring cycle is another recommendable bargain, notable for the conducting and excellent Hong Kong Philharmonic

Wagner: Concert Overtures CD review – a nimble account of the composer’s early works

Even if the Bayreuth festival persists in ignoring everything Wagner composed before The Flying Dutchman, Wagnerians generally acknowledge that his career began with his first two completed operas, Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot. But even those works are not the … Continue reading →

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg review – riveting restaging puts Wagner on trial

Barrie Kosky’s mind-boggling production uses a giant puppet and the Nuremberg trials as a backdrop to ask: how far does the composer’s antisemitism taint his art?

Wagner: Parsifal CD review – Elder brings a measured approach but a glorious final act

Cleveman/Dalayman/Tomlinson/Roth/Hallé/Elder(Hallé, four CDs)

Wagner: Lohengrin CD review – perfectly paced drama from Mark Elder & the Concertgebouw

Over the last decade, Mark Elder has been making slow but steady progress through Wagner’s operas in concert with the Hallé in Manchester. The results are also appearing on disc: Die Walküre and Götterdammerung have already been released, Parsifal is … Continue reading →

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg review – Kasper Holten stages elaborate farewell

The director throws everything and Bryn Terfel at a vivid Covent Garden finale, set in a gilded gentlemen’s club of song, that sometimes sits at odds with the drama

Siegfried review – Saffron Opera Group impress with vivid and meticulous Wagner

This concert performance, part of the new opera group’s Ring Cycle, made the lack of any theatrical setting cease to matter with a strong cast and sure-footed conductor Michael Thorne

Das Rheingold review – the Hallé prove you don’t need a theatre for vivid Wagner

Samuel Youn’s Alberich and Iain Paterson’s Wotan were among the highlights of the Hallé’s revelatory concert performance of Wagner’s Rheingold under Mark Elder

Wagner: Die Walküre CD review – Van Zweden’s thrillingly vivid concert recording

Recorded in concert in Hong Kong at the beginning of this year, the second part of Jaap van Zweden’s Ring Cycle for Naxos easily maintains the high standard and promise of Das Rheingold, 12 months ago. Related: Wagner: Das Rheingold … Continue reading →