Nelsons and Kaufmann take hold of Salzburg’s Easter
NewsThe new eggs at Salzburg’s Easter Festival – Nikolaus Bachler and his team – have shaken things up.
The Leipzig Gewandhaus with Andris Nelsons will replace the Dresden-Thielemann residency.
There will be a new Tannhäuser production with Jonas Kaufmann singing the title role for the first time.
And there will be an unprecedented dance component – Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder danced by Israel’s Emanuel Gat Company.
but the orchestras will rotate each year under the new model, right?
Yes
Lucky for those who can get to the Salzburg Easter Festival.
Andris Nelsons is a supremely gifted Wagnerian conductor, probably now the finest young conductor for Wagner in the 21st Century. Bayreuth made a terrible mistake in not securing his services on a permanent basis. His Tannhauser will be something very special indeed.
Barenboim, Gatti, Thielemann and Salonen (not forgetting Simone Young) are the best Wagner conductors today IMHO.If you want only young conductors , Yannick can join the last three mentionned above.
Thielemann for sure the rest I disagree – you forgot Petrenko and you must be joking re Gatti
Agree absolutely concerning Gatti.
The very best is Petrenko! Saw 4 Wagner-Operas conducted by him and each were from heaven!
His recent concerts (erratic Sacre du Printemps in Berlin) and recordings (appalling Bruckner Eighth on DG) reveal an artist in significant crisis.
As in Berlioz Sym. Fant. at Carnegie the other night, with BSO. It was strangely fussy and the big man just seemed to be holding the orchestra back. Some embarrassing ensemble issues in the waltz and bad transitions throughout the piece. I’m really over it with Nelsons. Given him several chances, live and on recordings. Always completely buried in the score. His Shostokovich Sym. 1 actually pissed me off. It’s awful.
Nelsons is burned by his agent (and himself of course). He is a cash cow for the agency, but he urgently needs to change his life.
Take half the gigs, and prepare twice as much for each, would be a start. Also get professional help about getting in physical shape. Otherwise his carreer is a health accident in waiting. He needs to reclaim his life.
I agree with both this and the comment above. After a really promising start, he’s spreading himself far too thin professionally and conducting everything in sight without the first thought for whether he’s ready or not.
Physically, yes – he’s going to have major problems unless he gets a grip on his health. He must be just about twice the size he was ten years ago.
I don’t mean to denigrate him, as he’s clearly a talented chap and by all accounts orchestras like him a lot. But somebody urgently needs to tell him less is more, before all that ability goes to waste; and in health terms, he needs to think what he wants long term. I wish him well.
Dresden, Munich, LA Phil, Vienna; you don’t need me to tell you, just listen to the hot mess on the recordings. Pure egomania.
Good enough reasons to avoid the Salzburg Fest. Not least that 1200 miles away people are being slaughtered.
I‘m an extraterrestrial, and I agree, I stay away from this bloody planet. These humans are an annoying species. Particularly their double standards, also called hypocrisy, what is right and what is wrong, are appalling.
Maybe after all we should build this intergalactic highway through their solar system. Silly creatures.
Interesting how some people know in advance that a performance will be very special just because of the presence of a certain conductor. I propose opera houses should stage operas without singers from now on. Saves a buck too. The managers could rise the conductor’s fee from the savings.
Kaufmann who had his annual festival in june july every year at the Bavarian opera+ some premiere every year, suddenly isn t there after Bachler left.
But he appears much more at Vienna state Opera and now at Salzburg Festival where Bachler moved…
After all, it seems even the opera world is more about human relations and personal cooperation
Kaufmann was scheduled for the opening conzert and following 3 (?) performances of Forza; but had a bad cold in September….. Next at BSO will be a Liederabend in July. So what?
Castellucci already produced Tannhäuser in Munich in 2017.
Salzburg will be a modified version of the München Tannhäuser.
I just received an e-mail which lists Tannhäuser as a “Neueinstudierung”, so it will basically be a copy of the Munich production. And this for € 490!
From where do You know the price?
Best cast should be worth 1000 € ……….
why should anyone pay 1000 € or even 10 € for a baritone who is trying to imitate a tenor?
“Best cast should be worth 1000 €”
– only if the cast was formed by Windgassen, Rysanek, Bumbry, Wächter, Greindl and Cluytens conducting, or at least Sawallisch – Not this current market-stock and agency-cows (!)…
I like the Sawallisch reference… 😉
I guess at this stage of his career J.Kaufmann can sing whatever he wants and however he wants and he can have the most favourable press and the highest income . His best artistic years are certainly long gone, but his top position in the business has strengthened . He is reigning supremely in the opera kingdom . This can be called success.
Thank god…Not just Bruckner 7 and Beethoven 7 each year.
Best place to be at Easter 2023 will be Dresden for their Richard Strauss Festival where the Staatskapelle , fired from Salzburg by Bachler, will perform Rosenkavalier and Arabella under Thielemann and play a Strauss concert under Jakub Hrusa
Sounds great. Hopefully the cynics and snipers won’t be buying tickets, so there might be room for me!
“….Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder danced by Israel’s Emanuel Gat Company.”
Now THAT should be interesting.