On 12 November 1880, Cosima Wagner noted in her diaries what Richard had said about the Hermann Levi: “as a Jew—all he has to do is to learn how to die.” Having repeatedly praised the “goodness” of the conductor who had been a champion of his music and would lead the 1882 Bayreuth premiere of Parsifal, the composer appears to have been speaking about death metaphorically. Less so, however, a year later,[...]
The Met’s last new staging before 2020’s pandemic shutdown–François Girard’s Der fliegende Holländer–disappointingly staged and cast and poorly conducted by Valery Gergiev–returned to port more enjoyably for four end-of-season shows. Girard […]
Lohengrin returned to the Met on February 26 for the first time since 2006 in a new production by François Girard. After Robert Wilson’s starkly abstract 1998 production, the Canadian […]
Rare is the chance to experience the first public performances of Tristan und Isolde led by a conductor as experienced as Gustavo Dudamel. When Esa-Pekka Salonen launched the Tristan Project […]