Blu-ray
Wagner: Die Walküre (Bayreuth Festival)
Linda Watson (Brünnhilde); Albert Dohmen (Wotan); Edith Haller (Sieglinde); Johan Botha (Siegmund);
"Thielemann and the Bayreuth Orchestra create a ravishing wall of sound and not a moment is less that aurally stunning: one listens, agape." (International Record Review)
Wagner: Die Walküre (The Royal Opera)
Stuart Skelton (Siegmund); Emily Magee (Sieglinde); John Lundgren (Wotan); Nina Stemme (Brünhilde); Sarah Connolly (Fricka); Ain Anger (Hunding); Alwyn Mellor (Gerhilde); Lise Davidsen (Ortlinde); Kai Ruutel (Waltraute); Claudia Huckle (Schwertleite); Maida Hundeling (Helmwige); Catherine Carby (Siegrune);
"With Die Walküre, in Keith Warner’s enthralling Covent Garden production of Wagner’s Ring, you can really sense the tectonic plates beginning to shift. Sarah Connolly’s Fricka has become one of the production’s highpoints: she conveys the bitter anger of marital betrayal in every phrase and every stiffened joint. Nina Stemme’s Brünnhilde is also tremendously accomplished, reflecting the gamut of emotions in facial expression and vocal line alike. John Lundgren deploys his lean, virile tone intelligently as Wotan. Antonio Pappano continues to complement this outstanding staging with his wonderfully fluid conducting. The Ride of the Valkyries, here a boisterous brood, was for once visceral and thrilling." (The Evening Standard ★★★★)
Wagner: Lohengrin (Baden-Baden Festspielhaus)
Klaus Florian Vogt (Lohengrin); Solveig Kringelborn (Elsa); Hans-Peter König (Vogler); Waltraud Meier (Ortrud); Tom Fox (Telramund); Roman Trekel (King's Herald);
"Whoever believes to already know all nuances ofLohengrin should go to Baden-Baden: soloists, chorus and orchestra are brilliant - and the production leaves barbed afterthoughts in your mind...There has not been aLohengrin like Klaus Florian Vogt, the young tenor fromHamburg, for many years...his voice is pure, clean,whiter than snow. Not of this world. Ideal for this role." (Frankfurter Algemeine)
Wagner: Lohengrin (Bayreuth Festival)
Georg Zeppenfeld (König Heinrich); Klaus Florian Vogt (Lohengrin); Annette Dasch (Elsa ); Jukka Rasilainen (Telramund); Petra Lang (Ortrud); Samuel Youn (Der Heerrufer des Königs);
"KFV has been singing the role of Lohengrin for 10 years, but he never before sang it so painfully truthful, so beautiful and pleadingly, powerfully and inspired. Vogt is the miracle of this production." (www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de)
Wagner: Parsifal (Baden-Baden Festspielhaus)
Christopher Ventris (Parsifal); Waltraud Meier (Kundry); Matti Salminen (Gurnemanz); Thomas Hampson (Amfortas); Tom Fox (Klingsor);
"It is by a long way the most thoughtful, positive and penetrating view of Parsifal that I have encountered." (The Times)
Wagner: Parsifal (The Royal Opera)
Simon O'Neill (Parsifal); Angela Denoke (Kundry / Voice from Above); René Pape (Gurnemanz); Gerald Finley (Amfortas); Robert Lloyd (Titurel); Willard W. White (Klingsor); David Burr Philip (First Knight of the Grail); Charbel Mattar (Second Knight of the Grail); Dušica Bijeli (First Esquire); Rachel Kelly (Second Esquire); Sipho Fubesi (Third Esquire); Luis Gomes (Fourth Esquire);
"... instead of ignoring or sidestepping the more unsavoury aspects of the libretto, Langridge does attempt to tackle many of them, sometimes in lurid detail, so that the disjunction between them and Wagner's sublime music is often disturbingly clear. There's no doubt of that sublimity in this performance either. Antonio Pappano's approach is both diaphanous and radiant, wrapping the vocal lines in veils of string tone and investing the brass statements with unshakeable authority... Vocally the standard is set by René Pape's immaculate, intense Gurnemanz, who makes every syllable in his narrations matter; O'Neill's shambling Parsifal, his tone slightly raw-edged, is perfectly suited to the production, while Finley manages to bring a dimension of nobility to Amfortas's sufferings, and Angela Denoke's tirelessly sung Kundry is the perfect mixture of the chilly and the unattainably seductive. Every one of them is a fully rounded, fully imagined character, and part of a totally involving, if sometimes problematic unity." (The Guardian)