Richard Wagner’s 200th birthday has been
celebrated by most opera companies around the world. It is rather extraordinary
that one of Berlin’s finest orchestras started a project called Wagnerzyklus.
During last couple of years Runfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin with maestro Marek Janowski has performed all
Wagner operas on stage of The Berlin Philharmonic with world famous Wagnerian singers. All concert performances are to be
released on CD sets (some performances have already been released).
In March, I
was fortunate to hear the concert performance of Tristan
und Isolde. I was impressed by the great sound of the orchestra, superb singing and most of all really wonderful and friendly atmosphere. Saturday's performance of Die Walküre was very special...
Petra Lang and Tomasz Konieczny (photo Kai Bienert)
(photo Kai Bienert)
I always wondered how different and perhaps even difficult it is for operatic basses to sing a bass-baritone role. Wagnerian specialist Tomasz Konieczny sounded very comfortable as Wotan. Petra Lang's voice was controlled, yet very powerful. I believe her Brünnhilde is one of the finest of our time. I was very impressed by Iris Vermillion's Fricka, an ancompromising lady with ginger voice. Even though it was a concert performances, the chemistry was evident on stage. Melanie Diener's Sieglinde and Robert Dean Smith's Siegmund made such a lovely pair.
There are no small roles in Wagner's operas, especially in The Ring cycle. That was clear during The Ride of the Valkyries, perhaps the most magnificent part of the performance. Maestro Marek Janowski together with the orchestra presented Wagner's masterpiece very gracefully, in rather faster tempos with great sense for details.
maestro Marek Janowski (photo Kai Bienert)
Don’t miss other two parts of Wagner’s Ring, the concert perfomances of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung are scheduled for March 2013. More informantion about upcoming performances and tickets can be found HERE.
Conductor: Marek Janowski
Wotan: Tomasz Konieczny
Fricka: Iris Vermillion
Siegmund: Robert Dean Smith
Sieglinde: Melanie Diener
Hunding: Timo Riihonen
Brünnhilde: Petra Lang
Gerlinde: Anja Fidelia Ulrich
Ortlinde: Fionnula McCarthy
Waltraute: Heike Wessels
Schwertleite: Kismara Pessatti
Helmwige: Carola Höhn
Siegrune: Wilke te Brummelstroete
Grimgerde: Nicole Piccolomini
Rossweisse: Renate Springler
