Dutch National Opera starts new season with 'Die Zauberflöte'
Simon McBurney's production is a roller coaster that revamps the magic in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte . And six years after its premiere, at its third installment, it's still capable to make new converts, amongst them this reviewer. >>
PARSIFAL IN BAYREUTH
Laufenberg's production is a bit of a bumpy ride but Parsifal in Bayreuth is an experience like few other opera-experiences
Heavy Summer (the road to Bayreuth)With Günther Groissböck, Judas Priest and the divine qualities of heavy music. Countdown to Parsifal in Bayreuth. Lessons in Love and Violence
George Benjamin's latest opera is like a dark crystal that harbours many colours. It was composed with the intended singers in mind and it shows. Barbara Hannigan excels, she brings depth to her character, and always has an ear for the belcanto aspect, even in the most challenging of vocal lines.>>
Berlin/Blog: Faust & the claws of time
A trip to Berlin. To the heart of the German (and European) canon with Gounod's Faust at Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Russian roulette with Prokofiev
Opera Vlaanderen brings The Gambler of Sergej Prokofiev. Director Karin Henkel turns that opera (based on Dostoyevsky's novel) into an ingenious piece of music theater.
BACH/BLOG
After Der Ring des Nibelungen and Tristan und Isolde, De Nederlandse Reisopera takes up Wagner again with the story of a man doomed to sail the world seas forever. The review comes with the epiloque "Wagner & Vampires".
Peter Sellars and Teodor Currentzis join forces to remake Mozart's last opera in their own image. The recitatives are cut and the score is adapted with other pieces from Mozart's oeuvre. Currentzis: "Everything we add to the music here, we do with the greatest respect and with the greatest possible love towards the composer".
In 2014, The Dutch National Opera was the first to fully stage Schönberg's Late-Romantic mega cantata. The 2017/2018 season saw the second coming of that production.
MORE REVIEWS >>Parsifal in Flanders: Reign in Blood
Tatjana Gürbaca - who had already taken care of Der Fliegende Holländer in Antwerp, Lohengrin in Essen and an abridged Ring des Nibelingen in Vienna (Die Ring-Trilogie!) - returns to Opera Vlaanderen with her Parsifal production from 2013 (Wagner's bicentennial). Both praised and controversial - it all sounds very much as a recommendation.
Tristan & Isolde and the impossible embracePierre Audi's production of Tristan und Isolde is out of this world.
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ABOUTThis website wants to be a musical journey from the blues-based hardrock I grew up with to the 19th century music dramas of Richard Wagner I became so enarmored with later in my life.
The music of Wagner feels, more than the music of any other (classical) composer I know, like a natural extension of the hardrock and heavy metal I grew up with. His music can be a place for the metal aficionado who might have reached a point of arrival in his or her listening experience and is receptive for something that goes beyond the sound of double bass drums and howling guitarsolos. Something else, but something that is equally, if not more, satisfying to ears and soul. For me Richard Wagner was the door to new worlds of sound. A guide on a journey through a musical landscape that is still ongoing. Join in and enjoy the ride ... 
Recensies en blogs in het Nederlands Met de start van het nieuwe operaseizoen in Amsterdam, Parsifal in Bayreuth en nog veel meer waaronder: een Vliegende Hollander die Dracula ontmoet, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Aleksandr Scriabin, Gustavo Dudamel, Bernard Haitink en Henry Rollins. |
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