Remembrance of Things Past: Hermann Grampp compares the Deutsche Oper’s recent Wagner productions to their predecessors, and finds some wanting

Reviews of Der fliegende Holländer, directed Spuck, conducted Repušić, Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2023; Tannhäuser, directed Harms, conducted Inkinen, Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2023; Lohengrin, directed Holten, conducted Conlon, Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2023; Der Ring des Nibelungen, directed Herheim, conducted Carter, Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2024; Tristan und Isolde, directed Vick, conducted Valčuha, Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2024, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, directed Wieler, conducted Schirmer, Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2023; Parsifal, directed Stölzl, conducted Runnicles, Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2024. 

November 2024, Volume 18, Number 3, 76–8.

All ten operas, the whole ‘Bayreuth Wagner’: this was the ambitious project of the Deutsche Oper Berlin in the 2023–4 season. This presentation also equals a sort of balance sheet of Deutsche Oper’s Wagner productions in the era after Götz Friedrich, the dominant intendant and director at this opera between 1980 and 2000. Friedrich left a strong and lasting imprint on the house on West Berlin’s Bismarckstraße, especially in terms of Wagner.