This year Christian Thielemann and the Dresden Staatskapelle saved the day at the Salzburg Easter Festival after Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic decided another location was more to their taste. And so it was that Thielemann and the Dresden Staatskapelle took over musical duties for a production of Parsifal, originally designed with another conductor and orchestra in mind. And all to fine reviews - at least for the music.
However, should you have not been able to make it to Salzburg this year you will still able to see and hear it in your living room. It seems the production was captured on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon and will see a release at the end of May.
But wait. This is not the only Thielemann Wagner that you can buy this year, as his reading of Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle at the Wiener Staatsoper in 2011 is being released in June as a box set containing 14 CDs plus 2 DVDs featuring four introductory films to each opera.
Das Rheingold:
Albert Dohmen (Wotan), Markus Eiche (Donner), Herbert Lippert (Froh), Adrian Eröd (Loge), Janina Baechle (Fricka), Alexandra Reinprecht (Freia), Anna Larsson (Erda), Tomasz Konieczny (Alberich), Wolfgang Schmidt (Mime)
Die Walküre:
Christopher Ventris (Siegmund), Eric Halfvarson (Hunding), Albert Dohmen (Wotan), Waltraud Meier (Sieglinde), Katarina Dalayman (Brünnhilde), Janina Baechle (Fricka)
Siegfried:
Stephen Gould (Siegfried), Linda Watson (Brünnhilde), Albert Dohmen (Der Wanderer), Tomasz Konieczny (Alberich), Anna Larsson (Erda), Wolfgang Schmidt (Mime), Ain Anger (Fafner) und Chen Reiss (Stimme des Waldvogels)
Götterdämmerung:
Stephen Gould (Siegfried), Markus Eiche (Gunther), Eric Halfvarson (Hagen), Linda Watson (Brünnhilde) Caroline Wenborne (Gutrune), Janina Baechle (Waltraute)
The 4 documentary films were directed by Eric Schulz, complementing the audio recordings, providing an introduction, commentary and analysis by experts, including conductor Christian Thielemann. They will also be broadcast by the German/Austrian TV channel 3Sat in April – one feature per week starting on 4th April.
Booklet contains synopses in German, English and French and libretti in German and English.
