Brave New Worlds: Matthew Rye reviews a small selection of last season’s German Wagner productions

Reviews of Parsifal, directed Reinhardt, conducted Kamioka, Wuppertal, 2015; Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, directed Jakubaschk, conducted Bäumer, Mainz, 2015; Lohengrin, directed Widder, conducted Huber, Pforzheim, 2015.

November 2015, Volume 9, Number 3, 77–81.

Enthused by the experience of exploring Wagner performances in Germany away from the big, international houses in the anniversary season of 2013 (see review in TWJ, November 2013), I ventured back earlier this year and, by coincidence, alighted upon two of the dramas that share the idea of an outsider transforming the status quo. It’s a theme that the directors of both Wuppertal Opera’s Parsifal and Staatstheater Mainz’s Die Meistersinger made central to their concepts, emphasising the role of both Parsifal and Walther as agents of change in deeply conservative, rule-obsessed societies.