Neil Peart (September 12, 1952 - January 7, 2020)
The new year starts with some very bad news. The demise of one of your all-time heroes, responsible for the soundtrack of your life, is sad for all obvious reasons and especially shocking because one tends to extend the timelessness of great art to that of the lifespan of its makers.
From Rush to Lohengrin was one of the first pieces written for this website; a succinct account of a musical journey. With Mahler and Stravinsky into the new year
In the concert hall where he conducted a crushing Walküre three months earlier, Jaap van Zweden kicked off 2020 in the Concertgebouw in an impressive way. Read about it here >>
NL: Met Mahler en Stravinsky het nieuwe jaar in The return of Die Walküre
It's the last time that it returns at the Dutch National Opera. Pierre Audi's take on Die Walküre; the opera production that turned me into a Wagner-aficionado nearly 20 years ago. Read the review here >>
NL: De terugkeer van Die Walküre Pagliacci / Cavalleria Rusticana
The Dutch National Opera opens the 2019/2020 season with Pagliacci / Cavalleria Rusticana. In this Italian double hit, Robert Carsen plays an ingenious game with reality. Read the review here >>
NL: Pagliacci / Cavalleria Rusticana: een spel met de werkelijkheid in Italiaans verismo (No) BAYREUTH (Summer blog)
No Bayreuther Festspiele for me this year, at least not in the flesh. A blog about the virtues of streaming services, this year's Tannhäuser and some thoughts about pictures and opera. TANNHÄUSER: WHAT'S ON A MAN'S MIND
After more than ten years Tannhäuser returns to Amsterdam. The Dutch National Opera brings a new production of the opera that is about the classic struggle between heart and mind, lust and love and what it means to be a man (or human being for that matter).
Tannhäuser in a staging by Christof Loy goes back to the Paris premiere of 1861 - to the Jockey club. Hypocrisy embedded in the male perspective on women finds an explicit yet thoughtful depiction on stage when the members of the Jockey Club go from sexual excess to strict prudent behaviour. Read the review here >> NL: Tannhäuser, tussen lust en liefde About extreme music
A declaration of love to one of the most extreme music genres on the planet: DEATHCORE
Bringing DIE TOTE STADT to life
De Nederlandse Reisopera brings Die Tote Stadt to life. The theatrical potential that lies in Korngold's late-romantic opera is articulated with skill in another inventive production of the opera nomads from Holland.
NL: De Nederlandse Reisopera brengt Die Tote Stadt van Korngold tot leven One More ...
In the Ring from Hong Kong, Jaap van Zweden leads orchestra and cast in a captivating journey through Wagner's Nibelungen world. Van Zweden doesn’t ride the fast lane but in a good Ring it isn't of any importance how long it takes to make it to the end of Götterdämmerung. In a good performance that end will always come too soon ... >>
Marnie: opera & pictures
From composer Nico Muhly and librettist Nicholas Wright comes MARNIE, an opera with a story based on the book by Winston Graham but best known by the movie of Alfred Hitchcock. Read about it here >>
My Parsifal conductor: a Wagnerian Comedy
The Directors Company in New York stages with My Parsifal Conductor a comedic spin-off of real-life events in which Richard Wagner finds himself in a moral, political and musical dilemma when King Ludwig of Bavaria insists that the son of a rabbi, Hermann Levi conduct the premiere of Wagner’s sacred final opera, Parsifal.
An interview with playwright Allan Leicht, Eddie Korbich (Richard Wagner), Geoffrey Cantor (Hermann Levi) and Carlo Bosticco (King Ludwig) >> Lohengrin: Swasti-swans in Brabant
The knight of the Swan in a world of Swasti-swans and war. Opera Vlaanderen starts the new season with David Alden's take on Lohengrin.
NL: Lohengrin: in het Rijk van de Zwaan MORE REVIEWS >>
A gateway from the world of HEAVY METAL to OPERA >> |
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 ... - Wouter de Moor 
Recensies en blogs in het Nederlands Met Pagliacci / Cavalleria Rusticana en Tannhäuser van De Nationale Opera, Die Tote Stadt van De Nederlandse Reisopera, Lohengrin in Vlaanderen en Parsifal in Bayreuth. Verder een Vliegende Hollander die Dracula ontmoet, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Aleksandr Scriabin, Gustavo Dudamel, Bernard Haitink en Henry Rollins. |
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