Katharina Wagner’s new production of Lohengrin that premiered on March 17 in Barcelona upends the story of the swan knight in shining armor from distant land to rescue an innocent maiden Elsa, who has been accused of murdering her brother Gottfried. A few years ago, I had seen a production of Lohengrin in Salzburg and Vienna (a co-production) in which Elsa is the villain who kills her brother, witnessed by Ortrud.[...]

Ako Imamura
April 2025

An epic new series of Ring operas came to its conclusion at Brussels’ Theatre de la Monnaie on February 4 with the premiere of Götterdämmerung. All eight performances were sold […]

Bryan Gilliam
January 2025

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO), under the music directorship of Fabio Luisi, performed Der Ring des Nibelungen between October 13 and 20, 2024. The closer one is able to hear […]

Griffin Kaiser
November 2024

The 2024 Bayreuth Festival season marked the third and penultimate year of Valentin Schwarz’s staging of Der Ring des Nibelungen. Like many current productions, Schwarz’s version opts for a contemporary setting, […]

Susan Brodie
September 2024

Wagner would have the world believe that his particular art sprang solely from his own creative soul, but as usual he bent facts to fit his personal mythology. Like all […]