2013-Ring in a gulag?

Festspiele 2010

Besides Thielemann… the vacuum.

Fafner's death

May he rest in peace... with uncle-Wolf.

A much (de)served prize

Would DonaldDuck be Bayreuth’s Festspielleiter, he would certainly be awarded this prize.

Christmas breaking-news

So it appears that in 2013 – in Bayreuth - we’ll have around just marzipan-Wagner-busts, t-shirts and beer-cans carrying Richard’s image.

Well deserved?

Festival’s false start

Last weekend was really bad for Bayreuth: an opening Tristan, that only the VIPs have appreciated (but, you know, they’re there for free, can show their toilettes and smokings, talk to the TVs, but in the end are perfect ignorants). Witnesses tell us that the Tristan performed in Stuttgart three days before was by far of a higher level.

Sunday’s Meistersinger wasn’t so bad from the musical standpoint. Pity that the Regisseurin was a Kathi Wagner (incidentally, co-Festspielleiterin from this edition). Apparently, her Regietheater (aka Eurotrash) staging, albeit revised from the 2007 original, has just brought the audience to exasperation and millions of people in the world could hear by radio the much deserved boohs and insults for that crazy havoc of one of Richard’s masterpieces.

Unions’ Festival uphill

2009 – a transitional year for the Festival, with no new stagings – will be remembered for a pretty new performance: the Verdi (no, not Giuseppe’s fans) revolt against low wages and long working hours. Up to the last moment a strike that could block the festival’s opening is not to be discarded.

Add to this the problems that Kathi is having in Spain, and the announcement of the farewell between Thielemann and the Münchner Philharmoniker (that will not put the Kapellmeister in the best mood…) and you have the picture of a rather shaky start of the new KW-EWP management.

Why Wagner was wrong

He didn’t foresee this (kind of) Service!

Bad news

Errare humanum est, perseverare autem diabolicum.