The Flying Dutchman, which premiered in Dresden in 1843, is the fourth of Richard Wagner’s thirteen operas, and considered to be his first mature one. This is because it is the first still to be regularly staged, with Wagner himself having ruled that the three that preceded it should never be performed at his Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. The composer had been inspired to write the opera following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in 1839, and the story is taken from...

The London Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski, is currently in the midst of presenting Richard Wagner’s tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen over a three-year period. The first opera Das Rheingold was performed in January 2018, with the second Die Walküre appearing now. While in the initial instalment, the chief god Wotan manages to retain his status and magnificent castle Valhalla, albeit at a terrible price, in this one things unravel at an alarming rate...

Many Wagner fans will rank Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg as one of their favourite works of all time, but the real measure of its strength is that many an opera-goer who normally avoids Wagner like the plague will make a special exception for Die Meistersinger. Unlike virtually all of the composer’s other mature works, it is not about gods, grails, rings and potions, but rather flesh and blood human beings. By exposing all of the foibles and frailties of this strangest of...

Following Der fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser of 1845 is acclaimed as Richard Wagner’s second mature opera and, set in thirteenth century Germany, tells of the eponymous minstrel-knight. Feeling that the world does not understand his art as a singer, he has fled to Venusberg where he enjoys the love of Venus. After being there for a while, however, he longs for his former life and thinks about the sweet, innocent Elisabeth who he left behind. Venus reluctantly releases...

Teatro San Carlo and Napels are linked closely to the opera and its history over centuries. It has been here that this genre has been created and where the tradition and the education has been kept high. Only lately, the theater was effected by an economic crisis and has suffered from political influences.However, this architectural jewel still attracts attention. Maestro Zubin Mehta is appearing for his first time here and conducts his personally beloved opera Tristan and Isolde by...

The moon risies, a Nordic style ships sails on fine foaming and stiring music out of the orchstra pit. David MacVicar is the Director of this new production of Wanger's drama of love, medieval mystery and human friendship. He tells us the story in a very tradtional modest setting with beautiful natural images by designer Robert Jones, avoiding technical gimmicks and action. The shining full moon observes the disastrous fate of the loving coulple. The stage remians mostly dark and slightly...