'Wagner Magic I', Palace of Arts Budapest, 13 June

classical

'Wagner Magic I', Palace of Arts Budapest, 13 June
Any encounter with Wagner's artistic output is always a festive experience.

This is true regardless of whether one is watching one of these works of total art in an exciting production with sets and costumes or if it is memorable excerpts from the composer's great works that we are bringing to life, like on this occasion.

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Lohengrin and Tristan und Isolde: it will be the early and late chapters of his oeuvre being presented this evening by the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and world-famous singers under the baton of Ádám Fischer, the spiritual rector of the Budapest Wagner Days festival.

Two lengthy excerpts from Lohengrin, the first and second scenes from both Acts 2 and 3. will be bookended by two favourites of tireless beauty - the overture to Meistersinger and a pair of passages of Tristan und Isolde with their own cult following woven together and transformed into a concert piece.

Most of the singers are artists who have given us many unforgettable moments already. Portraying Elza, the innocent-souled heroine of Lohengrin, will be the German soprano Annette Dasch, with the dark magician Ortrud being sung by Sweden's Iréne Theorin.

As her wicked companion Telramund will be Polish bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny, while Danish tenor Magnus Vigilius will take the stage in the title role of Parsifal's son, the Grail knight Lohengrin.

It is not only as Ortrud that Iréne Theorin will be appearing tonight: she will also portray Isolde, as the Liebestod will not be presented merely as an orchestral piece this time, with the enthusiastically lauded Brünnhilde from Müpa Budapest's Ring cycle loaning her vocal chords to the music drama's female lead.

The poetic quality, power and sweeping flow of Ádám Fischer's conducting of Wagner's works has so far always captivated listeners in the context of a single work on a given night - now he will guide us on an excursion through three different ones at a single concert.
Place: Live broadcast from Palace of Arts
Address: 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell utca 1.
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