Easter Offerings: Mark Berry reports on a pair of contrasting productions in Berlin

Reviews of Tannhäuser, directed Waltz, conducted Barenboim, Schillertheater, Berlin, 2012; Parsifal, directed Stölzl, conducted Kober, Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2014.

July 2014, Volume 8, Number 2, 64–7.

Upon the premiere of the Berlin State Opera’s new Tannhäuser, Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin fulfilled even this writer’s heightened expectations, playing and conducting matching their peerless Proms Ring last summer. If proof were needed that Barenboim has passed from excellence to greatness, drawing upon years of experience both as pianist and conductor, as well as inspiration from musicians of his youth such as Furtwängler and Klemperer, it was here in abundance. Barenboim’s ability to have the music ‘speak for itself’ should not be taken to imply ‘neutrality’, whatever that might be.