Polish bass saves Bayreuth’s soggy bacon
NewsIt has been announced that the Polish singer Tomasz Konieczny has jumped in at three days’ notice to sing Wotan in this week’s Die Walküre, after the Austrian Günther Groissböck pulled out.
‘The festival management thanks Mr. Konieczny very warmly for the short-term takeover!,’ it says here, but they have specifically not named the Wotan for next summer’s full Ring cycle.
Konieczny means ‘necessary’ in Polish.
His fine Wotan was on streaming view from Vienna a few months back.
“A wondrous necessary man…”
He is one of the finest performers (particularly Wagnerian performers) today and other than Michael Volle the best interpreter of the role today. Bayreuth is extremely lucky to get him at such short notice – if only the Met had been able to do so for the pre-covid Flying Dutchmans in 2020 when Bryn Terfel yet again left them in the lurch.
“Bryn Terfel yet again left them in the lurch”? Huh? In the premiere staging of LePage’s Ring (2010-12), Terfel sang every single Wotan, didn’t miss a night. While other performers canceled like clockwork, Terfel suited up and showed up. Even so, he was underappreciated then and still is now. What gives?
He has engaged in multitudes of cancellations with the Met over the past decade and a half – including – but not limited to – the Flying Dutchmans in 2020, Tosca new production in 2017-18, L’Elisir D’Amore in 2009 and others I’ve forgotten. In fact (not counting his streamed recital, he has not appeared on the Met stage since 2012: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/11/arts/music/bryn-terfel-met-opera.html
Not surprising since their treatment of him earlier.
What on earth are you talking about? Terfel has been treated like royalty at the Met ever since his 1994 debut, been scheduled for multiple new productions, provided with much TV, HD and radio broadcast exposure (at least for the performances to which he actually deigns to show up), given multiple CD/DVD signing promotions at the Met Opera Shop etc. and regularly promoted each time he has appeared.