Where it all began – Fairies in Leipzig: Mark Berry is enchanted by both Wagner’s first opera and Oper Leipzig’s new production

Review of Die Feen, directed Doucet, conducted Schirmer, Leipzig, 2013. 

November 2013, Volume 7, Number 3, 57–60.

Wagner’s attempts to have his first completed opera staged were to no avail. It would eventually be staged in Munich in 1888, five years after the composer’s death, a production that received numerous repeat performances; thereafter, stagings and concert performances alike have proved at best sporadic. Angelo Neumann staged the work in Prague in 1893, as part of his cycle to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of Wagner’s birth and the tenth of his death. The first Leipzig performance took place in 1938, conducted by Paul Schmitz and directed by Hans Schüler, with designs by Max Elten, forming part of another cycle, in this case the Geburtstadt’s celebrations for Wagner’s 125th birthday.