Tag Archives: Wiener Staatsoper

Sinking into Parsifal: Jonas Kaufmann

Interview: Jonas Kaufmann Another month, another Gramophone cover story! (still pinching myself…) “As you can imagine, it was far from normal!” Jonas Kaufmann is no stranger to the role of Parsifal, but the tenor can have had few stranger experiences … Continue reading

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In Vienna, a Turandot without the clichés

Puccini: Turandot Wiener Staatsoper, 7th December 2023 Who is Turandot? An ice princess from Chinese fairytale? Forget that in Claus Guth’s outstanding new staging for the Wiener Staatsoper. Never one to deal in kitsch or cliché, Guth has no place … Continue reading

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Beethoven’s “problem child”: staging Fidelio in 2020

Interview: Amélie Niermeyer, Tobias Kratzer, Frederic Wake-Walker 31st January 2020 Beethoven referred to Fidelio, his sole opera, as his “Sorgenkind” (problem child). It was a work that cost him much heartache, especially when the first version – Leonore – failed … Continue reading

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Softly awakes my cold, cold heart: a tepid Samson et Dalila in Vienna

Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila *** Wiener Staatsoper, 12th May 2018 Strip Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila of its biblical setting and what have you got left? An individual who succumbs to temptation and forfeits his life to kill hundreds of his religious enemies. … Continue reading

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A superb live Don Carlo from Karajan in Vienna

Verdi: Don Carlo Herbert von Karajan/Wiener Staatsoper (Orfeo) When comparing all the interpretations of Verdi’s Don Carlo(s) on disc (November 2011), I awarded Herbert von Karajan’s 1978 EMI set the title ‘most frustrating studio account’. Wonderfully cast, it suffered at … Continue reading

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