I saw today's matinee and had mixed feelings.
The new production is only partially thought-through and the pervasive darkness that directors deem necessary for Wagner productions these days was present if hardly correct. There was a cliched attempt to make the Swan into a kind of swastika emblem in Act 3 but the politics of the production remained obscure. I'm long past the stage of buying programmes, so maybe a note there 'explained' the concept.
Andris Nelsons is a conductor I struggle to warm to: I still carry the memory a self-indulgent Bruckner 4 he condcuted in Birmingham at the beginning of last year and Act 1 seemed to bear out most of my fears: his conducting lacked drama, failed to disguise the squareness of the score and proceeded at the same leaden and unvarying pace. I found it hard to stay awake. A pox on reflective 'pictorial' Wagner conducting: there is no excuse for it in this day and age! However, things improved in the final two acts and the chorus (it must be said) was magnificent.
As to the casting: I'd never knowingly heard Klaus Florian Vogt before and I can't say I felt an immediate affinity with his blanched, almost asexual tenor. I also felt Nelsons was pulilng the orchestra right back out of consideration for him (he sang his arrival acapella, I swear!). I was annoyed at Kristine Opolais' indisposal but Jennifer Davis certainly seized her opportunity as Elsa and was a worthy substitute. I am a fan of Christine Goerke and she did not disappoint. The other principals were solid but unmemorable. Why did the Herald have a prosthetic leg?
Anyone else seen it?
The new production is only partially thought-through and the pervasive darkness that directors deem necessary for Wagner productions these days was present if hardly correct. There was a cliched attempt to make the Swan into a kind of swastika emblem in Act 3 but the politics of the production remained obscure. I'm long past the stage of buying programmes, so maybe a note there 'explained' the concept.
Andris Nelsons is a conductor I struggle to warm to: I still carry the memory a self-indulgent Bruckner 4 he condcuted in Birmingham at the beginning of last year and Act 1 seemed to bear out most of my fears: his conducting lacked drama, failed to disguise the squareness of the score and proceeded at the same leaden and unvarying pace. I found it hard to stay awake. A pox on reflective 'pictorial' Wagner conducting: there is no excuse for it in this day and age! However, things improved in the final two acts and the chorus (it must be said) was magnificent.
As to the casting: I'd never knowingly heard Klaus Florian Vogt before and I can't say I felt an immediate affinity with his blanched, almost asexual tenor. I also felt Nelsons was pulilng the orchestra right back out of consideration for him (he sang his arrival acapella, I swear!). I was annoyed at Kristine Opolais' indisposal but Jennifer Davis certainly seized her opportunity as Elsa and was a worthy substitute. I am a fan of Christine Goerke and she did not disappoint. The other principals were solid but unmemorable. Why did the Herald have a prosthetic leg?
Anyone else seen it?
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