Opera
CD and Other Review

Review: Wagner & Dietsch: The Flying Dutchman

Here’s a curiosity. It seems that the Paris Opera didn’t entirely turn down the young Richard Wagner’s Flying Dutchman in 1840. Instead they bought the subject from the ever strapped-for-cash composer for 500 francs and gave it to a chum of the director, a former double bass player- cum-composer, Pierre-Louis Dietsch. For the Wagner birthday celebrations, Marc Minkowski came up with the ingeneous idea to perform both the rare original ‘Paris’ version of Wagner’s opera as well as Dietch’s jauntier bel canto confection, Le Vaisseau Fantôme (the Ghost Ship). The Wagner receives a fine performance with excellent soloists. Russian baritone Evgeny Nikitin makes a spirited Holländer with plenty of textual nuance and lashings of angst, if lighter in tonal weight than is sometimes the case. He is well matched by his Senta, Ingela Brimberg, occasionally under pressure but often exciting and always committed. The period instruments feel a little thin at times (Wagner was perhaps already demanding more of the orchestras of the day) and Minkowski doesn’t always allow enough breathing space for the drama to land, but when it does, it’s an exciting enough affair. For the explorer, though, it’s the curiosity of the Dietsch that will draw… Continue…

January 23, 2014
Opera
CD and Other Review

Review: Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Glyndebourne Festival Opera)

For the past year the music, life and character of Richard Wagner have been put under the microscope, assessed and reassessed, but no bicentenary survey would be complete without a superlative recording of Tristan und Isolde. Four years ago, Glyndebourne staged it with a predominantly German cast – Torsten Kerl and Anja Kampe as the doomed lovers and baritone Andrzej Dobber as Kurwenal and bass Georg Zeppenfeld as King Mark. Now Glyndebourne Music has released the live performance in a hard cover booklet set and it’s been worth the waiting for. With the London Philharmonic as your house orchestra and the exciting Vladimir Jurowski at the helm you know you are going to be in for a treat and this recording produced, engineered, mixed and edited by Sebastian Chonion will sweep you away. Jurowski’s attention to balance is spot-on and the magnificent sound of the LPO – a band with no discernible weak spots – ensures that the soloists are heard to their full advantage. Kerl’s tenor has a lighter, slightly nasal quality at times but that doesn’t detract at all and the vocal chemistry with the Italian- German Kampe is outstanding. The pair performed Tristan coming off a triumphant season in Fidelio. There…

January 16, 2014