Wagner in the Swiss Alps

A potentially great concert in Verbier will be live broadcast on medici.tv today, Saturday July 30, starting from 7 p.m. (cet). In the first part Valery Gergiev will conduct the Verbier Festival Orchestra in a performance of Métabole pour orchestre by Henri Dutilleux. They will be then joined by the phenomenal Denis Matsuev to play Burlesque for piano and orchestra by Richard Strauss. In the second part we may enjoy the first act of Die Walküre with the real Dutch deal singing the roles of Sieglinde and Siegmund [Eva-Maria Westbroek and Frank van Aken] together with Matti Salminen as Hunding.

Here is your link.

Medici.tv make a fantastic job by providing many live broadcast concerts and make them available for free viewing to the audience worldwide. If you can afford to subscribe for a month or more to see concerts/operas/documentaries of your choice from their rich archive, please do! It would help them to keep doing what they do. 

OK, not to make this entry too dry, here is a good quote by R.Wagner

Three different types of people take interest in me, if I am correct: those who know my music (and they are rare), those who do not know it but love it and those who hate without knowing it.

Parsifal in Zurich: Interesting and Guth

Parsifal, Opernhaus Zürich, June 29 2011

Claus Guth ..... director

Daniele Gatti ..... conductor

Matti Salminen ..... Gurnemanz

Stuart Skelton ..... Parisfal

Thomas Hampson ..... Amfortas

Yvonne Naeff ..... Kundry

Pavel Daniluk ..... Titurel

Egils Silins ..... Klingsor

Eva Liebau, Teresa Sedlmair, Katharina Peetz,

Sen Guo, Viktorija Stanelyté, Irène Friedli ..... Blumenmädchen

Zurich Opera Chorus and Orchestra

The Dutchman took off at Opéra Bastille

Der fliegende Holländer/The Flying Dutchman/Le vaisseau fantôme, Opéra Bastille, September 9 2010

Angel on the top of the Bastille obelisk seen from Opéra Bastille 

Peter Schneider ..... Conductor

Willy Decker ..... Stage Director

Matti Salminen ..... Daland

Adrianne Pieczonka ..... Senta

Klaus Florian Vogt ..... Erik

Marie-Ange Todorovitch ..... Mary

Bernard Richter .....  Steuermann

James Morris ..... Holländer

Senta stuck at Bastille

Der fliegende Holländer/The Flying Dutchman/Le vaisseau fantôme, Opéra Bastille, September 6th 2010

Peter Schneider ..... Conductor

Willy Decker ..... Stage Director

Matti Salminen ..... Daland

Adrianne Pieczonka ..... Senta

Klaus Florian Vogt ..... Erik

Marie-Ange Todorovitch ..... Mary

Bernard Richter .....  Steuermann

James Morris ..... Holländer

Hojotoho! Heiahaha! - Wonderfully sung Walkure

It is hard to live by your own highest standard.

After their magnificent production of Das Rheingold, Carlos Padrissa and  La Fura dels Baus do not convince in Die Walkure [also released on DVD at the end of 2009].

Hadn't I seen Das Rheingold I guess I'd have liked this DVD far more than I actually do. In any case, this still remains a very good production; certainly worth your 4 hours (actually 4h30 if you count  "Making of" in).  This DVD will not be remembered for what La Fura did, but rather for a smashing performance of all the singers  [Peter Seiffert and Juha Uusitalo, in particular].

Gesamtkunstwerkish Rheingold of Fura dels Baus

As far as I can tell, this double DVD is the best release since the Copenhagen Ring (OK that Khovanshchina is close too).  La Fura dels Baus deftly crafted an outstanding piece of work: it is inventive, it is filled with brilliant ideas, it cleverly uses technology... In short, they managed to make  the Gesamtkunstwerk of our time. Moreover they did what seemed hardly possible, i.e. to shade a new light on this giant masterpiece. For that I am grateful to all the crew involved in making this production happen.

EXTRA-FREAKING-ORDINARY!