Views & Reviews
A tale of two rings 2022: Scenography at Bayreuth and Berlin

By Esteban Insausti
Reactions and Observations: The Bayreuth Ring 2022

By Robert Mitchell
Bayreuth 2022: Notes, Made Immediately After Each Performance

By Ross Whitelaw
Lohengrin 21 August, 2022
Reflections on the Leipzig Wagner Festival, 20 June - 14 July 2022

By Terry and Julie Clarke
Report: Leipzig's Wagner 22 Festival, June-July 2022

By Terence Watson
Review: 'Lohengrin', Opera Australia, Melbourne, 21 & 24 May 2022

By Terence Watson
Conductor: Tahu Matheson; Opera Australia Chorus; Orchestra Victoria; Director: Olivier Py; Revival Director: Shane Placentino; Set & Costume Designer: Pierre-André Weitz; Lighting Designer: Bertrand Killy.
Brett Johnson recollects Bayreuth 2009

Bayreuth Thursday 20 August 2009
Thirty years after my first, and until now my only Bayreuth Festival, thanks to the Wagner Society, I’m typing this in my room at the Hotel Goldener Hirsch a few hours before Rheingold begins.
Reflections on Melbourne Opera's 'Die Walküre', February 2022

By Esteban Insausti
Some very personal comments on the outstanding production of 'Die Walküre' by Melbourne Opera, February 2022

By Minnie Biggs
Everyone’s reaction is different, and we all largely agree on the brilliance of this production. Just some few personal observations and feelings.
Review: zoom interview with Lise Lindstrom, 3 February 2021
By Ross Whitelaw
Was it worth getting up at 5am to log into a zoom set up by the London Wagner Society with prominent BBC broadcaster, Christopher Cook interviewing Norwegian soprano, Lise Davidsen? Yes, it was!
Event: The Opera Foundation for Young Australians 2020 Winners Concert

By Leona Geeves
I attended the concert given by the Opera Foundation for Young Australians on Sunday 15 November at the Art Gallery of NSW.
View: When a dozen Wagners in a quarter (Feb - May 2019) is barely enough

By Esteban Insausti and Agnes Brejzek
Ruminations on almost a full cycle of the oeuvre
Reflections
By Cameron Menzies
Introduction
“Theatre Genius”, “Melbourne’s Enfant Terrible”, “Artistic Leader”, “Visionary”, “Perfectionist”, are
a few quotes that have been used to describe Cameron Menzies. He has taken on many roles in his career some of which are Artistic Director, Creative Director, Writer, Designer, Associate Artist and Stage Director of Opera, Music Theatre, Cabaret and Theatre.
Review: The Ring on a Lap, Opera North

By Minnie Biggs
Actually the Ring Cycle took place on my laptop - unaccustomed to watching it in that fashion I could not have imagined such a thing. But when needs must......
View: Too big to fail
By Antony Ernst
So here we are, either in isolation, or in preparation for isolation, or, in some cases, compulsively buying toilet paper for when the – respiratory - virus hits. All over the world, normality has been suspended. Governments are trying to deal with a phenomenon which is threatening the foundations of society.
Review: 'Die Walküre', Singapore, 5 January 2020

By Ross Whitelaw
Review: Bayreuth 2019

By Rhodri Bradley Jones and Dr Lourdes st George
“This was my first time at Bayreuth and it didn’t disappoint. The beauty of the theatre itself, the exquisite sound of the orchestra, the intensity of the audience and the class and style of everything were exceptional. And such a very powerful sense of history too. (Not all of it by any means good.)
Review: My August 2019 trip

By John Banner
Just back from my August trip where I attended the Munich and Salzburg festivals. Here are some of the points of interest.
Review: 'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg', at Munchner Opernfestspiele - 27 July 2019

By Jenny Ferns
Conductor: Kirill Petrenko | Inszenierung: David Bosch | Hans Sachs: Wolfgang Koch | Sixtus Beckmesser: Martin Gantner | Walther von Stolzing: Daniel Kirch | David: Allan Clayton | Eva: Sara Jakubiak | Magdalene: Okka von der Damerau
Review: Four days in Budapest, June 2019

By Terry Clarke
Review: The Metropolitan Ring Cycle, April - May 2019

By Minnie Biggs
Postscript to Review (issue 153) - Die Walküre
Clearly two performances at the Met were not enough. How lucky are we in AU to have the Met HD cinema version arrive a month later?
Review: 'Parsifal', Victorian Opera, 20 February 2019

By Christopher McCabe
Review: 'Parsifal', Victorian Opera, 20, 22 & 24 February 2019

By Terence Watson
Creative Team: Director - Roger Hodgman; Set Designer - Richard Roberts; Costume Designer - Christina Smith; Lighting Designer - Matt Scott; Assistant Director - Brock Roberts; Choreographer - Elizabeth Hill
Reviews: 'Der Fliegende Holländer', Melbourne Opera, 3, 5 & 7 February 2019

Excerpts from reviews by music critics
Opera review: A (very) personal report on the San Francisco Ring Cycle, 2018

By Minnie Biggs
Not a ‘review’. Not a ‘critique’. Not a musical analysis. Just a personal love letter. From a modest, relatively young Ring virgin. Adelaide, Melbourne, Bayreuth, Met on HD.
Theatre review: 'Dresden', Sydney, June 2018

By Terence Watson
World Premiere of Justin Fleming’s Dresden at The King’s Cross Theatre, Sydney
Director: Suzanne Millar
Reviews: WASO's 'Tristan und Isolde', August 2018

By various members:
Thursday, August 16, 2018:
Pattie Benjamin (who lived in Perth before moving to Sydney):
Review: 'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg' in Beijing: A great experience marred by political correctness, 2018

By Colin Mackerras
The Production and Conception
The whole concept of the work has been adjusted for this production. The story is set in the twentieth or twenty-first century, not the sixteenth. The focus is not the Mastersingers of Nuremberg but a contemporary club of Mastersingers.
My trip to Germany, 2018

By Mailis Wakeham
Review: 'Wahnfried', the opera, May 2018

By Terry and Julie Clarke
Review: The Ring in Karlsruhe, May 2018

By Terry and Julie Clarke
When the curtain opens during the prelude to Gotterdammerung and you see three men on stage sitting on cinema director’s chairs you can be assured that you are about to witness another example of German regietheatre. This we duly did in Karlsruhe in May 2018.
Review: 'Parsifal' at the Bastille, May 2018

By Michael Chesterman
On 23 May, Colleen and I went without much foreknowledge to a new production of Parsifal by the National Opera of Paris at the Bastille Opera House. We are very glad that we managed to include it during our relatively short time in Paris.
Film reviews: 'The Wagner Family', 2018

Some reviews in brief
Observations: Hitler at the heart of Wagner by Jessica Duchen
The Wagner Family by David J Baker
Wagner: A Film by Tony Palmer
Reviews: The Wagner version of 'Iphigenia in Aulis' and the original Gluck version, 2018

Gluck/Wagner: Iphigenia in Aulis
CD Review by Tim Ashley
Gluck: Iphigénie en Aulide
DVD Review by John operaramblings.wordpress. com
Christoph Willibald Gluck: the composer who deserves better
By Rupert Christiansen
Film reviews: 'Wagner's Jews' by Hilan Warshaw, 2018

Wagner’s Jews: A Fascinating Perspective on Wagner’s Attitude to the Jews
By Jim Pritchard
Wagner’s Complicated Relationship with the Jews, now on Film
By Judy Maltz
Richard Wagner was a great composer - but also a virulent anti-Semite
By Adrian Mourbyasks
Review: The challenges of 'Tristan und Isolde', Melbourne, February 2018

By Terence Watson
Conductor: Anthony Negus; Melbourne Opera Orchestra
Cast: Tristan: Neal Cooper; Isolde: Lee Abrahmsen; Brangäne: Sarah Sweeting; King Marke: Steven Gallop; Kurnewal: Michael Lampard; Michael Dimovski: Shepherd; Henry Choo: Sailor
Review: 'You will not play Wagner' by Victor Gordon, Sydney, May 2017

By Terence Watson
Director, Moira Blumenthal; Michael Misrachi and Michael Shur, Producers; Set & Costume Design, Hugh O’Connor; Video Design, Mic Gruchy; Lighting Design, Emma Lockhart-Wilson; Sound Design, Katelyn Shaw.
Review: 'Lohengrin', Melbourne Opera, August 2017

By Michael Chesterman
Report from Bayreuth, August 2017

By Jenny Ferns
Tristan und Isolde - Bayreuth 20 August 2017
Parsifal - Bayreuth, 22 August 2017
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Bayreuth, 27 August 2017
Review: Wagner operas in the US and Germany, May 2016

By Colleen and Michael Chesterton
Ring of the Nibelungen - Washington
Die Meistersinger - Munich
Tristan und Isolde - Berlin
Review: 'Tristan und Isolde', Hobart, November 2016

By Colleen Chesterton
Review: The Melbourne Ring Cycle, the 2016 Revival

By Douglas Sturkey
Reviews: Wagner in England, May & June 2016

By June Donsworth
Review: Triumphant reprise of the Stemme/Skelton 'Tristan und Isolde' in Hobart, Tasmania, November 2016

By Colleen Chesterman
On the night of 19 November 2016, a packed audience in the Federation Concert Hall in Hobart heard Swedish soprano Nina Stemme and Australian tenor Stuart Skelton perform an abridged concert version of Wagner’s magnificent Tristan und Isolde under the baton of Marko Letonja, conducting the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
The Leipzig Ring Cycle, 2016 - Some thoughts

By Alviro Olave
Review: Wagner's moments in Germany, 2015

By Colleen and Michael Chesterman
Review: The Ring in Bucolic Austrian Tyrol, July 2015

By June Donsworth
Book review: 'Christian Thielemann, My life with Wagner', 2015

By Colin Baskerville
Christian Thielemann, My Life With Wagner
London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2015, isbn 978 0 297 60855 4. Translated from the German by Anthea Bell.
Review: 'Tristan und Isolde', Berlin Staatsoper, Schiller Theatre, Berlin, December 2014

By David May
The Berlin Staatsoper staged an unforgettable performance of Tristan und Isolde at the Schiller Theatre in Berlin on 28 December last year, which I was lucky enough to see.
Review: The Sophia Ring, July 2014

By Terry and Julie Clarke
Review: The Ring, Opera Australia, Melbourne, 2013

By Richard Mason
Review: The follies of Gods in decline, 2013

By Katie French
Review; 'Parsifal', Metropolitan Opera, March 2013

By Max Grubb
I attended the last three performances of a new production of Parsifal on 2, 5 and 8 March, 2013. The first performance on Saturday 2 was a live relay to the Ziegfield Cinema on W 53rd Street and the final two performances in the ‘house’.
Review: The Longborough Ring, 2013

By Terry and Julie Clarke
I have written before about performances of Wagner’s works in small private opera houses in the English countryside. For the past ten years Lizzie and Martin Graham have pursued the almost impossible dream of mounting a full Ring Cycle at their home in Longborough in the beautiful Cotswolds Hills west of Oxford.
Review: Ring Cycle in Riga, Latvia, June 2013

By Roger Cruickshank
Review: The Ring at La Scala, June 2013

By Liz Jacka, Colleen and Michael Chesterman, and Lyn Longfoot
Book Review: 'Music in 1853 - The biography of a year' by Hugh Macdonald, 2013

By Colleen Chesterman
This Boydell Press 1912 book is one of two books on music found by our older son at a Blue Mountains book shop and given to Michael and me as Xmas presents.
Review: 'Die Feen', Leipzig Opera, May 2013

By Barbara Brady
Book Review: 'Wagner and Venice Fictionalised' by John W Barker, 2013

By Terence Watson
Eastman Studies in Music, University of Rochester Press & Boydell & Brewer Ltd, Woodbridge 2012
Two book reviews, 2013

By Terence Watson
Wagner and the Erotic Impulse - Laurence Dreyfus
The Centrality of Love - Barry Emslie
Book Reviews: Investigating Wagner and Women: Two significant contributions, 2013

By Colleen Chesterman
Eva Rieger: Richard Wagner’s Women, Boydell & Brewer, 2011
Nila Parly: Vocal Victories: Wagner’s Female Characters from Senta to Kundry, Museum Tusculanum Press, 2011
Book review: 'Great, grand & famous opera houses ... where art and drama meet', 2013

By Mike Day
Presented by Fritz Gubler with a Forward by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa; An imprint of Arbon Publishing Pty Ltd, Crows Nest, Australia 2012
Afterthoughts from the Armfield Ring, Melbourne, 2013

By Roger Cruickshank
Review: Teatro Colón Ring, 2012

By Lourdes St George
I had the great privilege of attending the 7-hour Teatro Colón Ring on 30/11/2012 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The world premiere was held on 27/11/2012. It was a unique and wonderful occasion despite all the dramas on & offstage,
Review: 'Götterdämmerung' In The Cotswolds, 2012

By Terry Clarke
Review: Simone Young’s Brisbane-Hamburg Opera Festival, 2012

By Colleen Chesterman and Terence Watson
Response: '1813 Wagner & Verdi: A Celebration' By Peter Bassett, 2012

By Katie French
What follows is a commentary: it is neither a deep musicological nor historical investigation, nor a review. It is a very personal response to a book which describes itself as ‘A celebration’.
Review: 'Siegfried' - Metropolitan Opera, 1 December 2011 -“This Ring Is Cursed”

By Richard Mason
Conductor: Derrick Inouye [replacing Fabio Luisi, replacing James Levine]; Producer: Robert Lepage; Sets: Carl Fillion; Costumes: François St-Aubin
Review: 'Die Meistersinger' at Glyndebourne, June 2011

By Colleen and Michael Chesterman, Charles Manning
Reviews: 'Das Rheingold', Metropolitan Opera - Live, & Sydney Screening, 2010

Live, New York, Thursday, 30 September 2010
By Richard Mason
Live, New York, Tuesday, 5 October 2010
By John Collis
Dendy Cinema Screening, Canberra
By Ian Cowan
Review: Redemption In Ten Dimensions, Stefan Herheim’s Bayreuth 'Parsifal', 2010

By Jim Leigh
A three part exposition and introduction for audience members of the current Bayreuth production
Review: 'Tannhäuser' Und Der Sängerkrieg Auf Wartburg, June 2010
By Richard Mason
Vienna Staatsoper – 16th June 2010 [opening night of a new production]
Johan Botha [Tannhäuser], Anja Kampe [Elisabeth], Michaela Schuster [Venus], Christian Gerhaher [Wolfram], Ain Anger [Landgraf], Gergely Németi [Walther], Alexandru Moisiuc [Biterolf], Marcus Pelz [Reinmar], Alois Mühlbacher [Shepherd]; Production: Claus Guth, Christian Schmidt; Lighting: Olaf Freese; Movement: Konrad Kuhn; Conducted by Franz Welser-Möst
Review: 'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg', Bayreuth, 2009

By Terence Watson
My first performance at the 2009 Bayreuther Festspiele was the notorious debut production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by the new Festival Director, Katherina Wagner (premiered 2007), but I found it in parts interesting, with a serious point of view, and in parts stupid and crass.
Review: The 'Baptism of Fire' documentary about Katherina Wagner’s 'Die Meistersinger', 2009

By Robert Lloy
Katherina Wagner’s 'Die Meistersinger' - The Final Wrap!
Review: 'Der Fliegende Holländer', Adelaide, 2009

By Terence Watson
Review: A Polished Vienna Ring, 2009
By Jan Bowen
Given the current global financial crisis, Wotan’s difficulties in coming up with the ready to pay for Valhalla almost certainly struck a chord with many modern day cash- strapped members of the audience. The enduring relevance of Wagner’s magnum opus was strikingly evident in the Vienna Staatsoper’s recent Ring Cycle if for no other reason than its timing.
Book Review: 'Winnie and Wolf' by A.N. Wilson, 2009

By Colleen Chesterman
'Parsifal' - A personal view, 1984
By Trevor O'Brien
[Trevor O’Brien’s meditation on the music-drama is a sensitive introduction to ways of responding to this somewhat enigmatic work - Editor]
Is it that Wagner is hard to comprehend, or is it that only at times when one can relate personally to the emotions and experiences of which Wagner wrote that a clear understanding of his work evolves? Personal interaction with Wagner’s operas at various moments in our own development seem to expand the understanding and give a clear insight into our own lives.