Johan Botha

Aida (2009) Metropolitan Opera. Verdi / Italian. Live from the Met 2009.

Wagner: Die Walküre

In Verdi’s retelling of Shakespeare’s towering tragedy, Renée Fleming gives a captivating performance as the innocent Desdemona, a role long considered one of her calling cards. Johan Botha as the title hero delivers an imposing portrayal of a proud warrior brought down by jealousy, and Falk Struckmann is thrilling as the villainous Iago. James Morris sings Lodovico. Elijah Moshinsky’s production is conducted by Semyon Bychkov.

Christian Thielemann conducts the Staatskapelle Dresden in this performance of Wagner's opera recorded live in 2013. The performance was held for the Salzburg Easter Festival and featured vocalists including Johan Botha, Michaela Schuster, Stephen Milling and Wolfgang Koch.

James Levine leads a stirring performance of Wagner’s epic comedy, seen in Otto Schenk’s classic production. Baritone Michael Volle stars as Hans Sachs, the cobbler-poet at the heart of this story of love, art, and youth vs. age. Leading Wagnerian tenor Johan Botha is Walther von Stolzing, the young knight whose new ideas upset the traditional ways of the mastersingers, and Annette Dasch sings Eva, the girl he loves, whose hand has been promised to the winner of a singing contest. Johannes Martin Kränzle as the pedantic town clerk Beckmesser, Hans-Peter König as Pogner, Eva’s father, and Paul Appleby as David, Sachs’s apprentice complete the stellar cast.

Met Music Director James Levine leads this Live in HD presentation of Wagner’s early Romantic opera, starring Johan Botha in the title role of the minnesinger torn between earthly passion and true love. Eva-Maria Westbroek is Elisabeth, whose unswerving devotion redeems Tannhäuser’s soul, and Peter Mattei sings Wolfram, his faithful friend. Michelle DeYoung as the love goddess Venus and Günther Groissböck as Landgraf Hermann complete the cast. Otto Schenk’s classic production was the first of his acclaimed Wagner stagings at the Met.

This movie was recorded during the 2002 Salzburg Festival. Valery Gergiev provides a quite good performance, as he uses to do, and the stage presents very brilliant moments, for example, the impressive image of Turandot, especially when filmed from the bottom of the scene by the expert Brian Large. Cristina Gallardo Domas as Liu clearly outcomes in this cast although I cannot help mentioning my favourite Liu, Monserrat Caballé. She did set a so high standard for this role that further performances slightly get to approach her. Good Calaf and Turandot and perhaps a not very remarkable Ping, Pang, Pong trio.

Daphne is based on the Greek myth of the nymph and her transformation into a laurel tree to escape the god Apollo.

A performance of Strauss' opera performed/streamed in Vienna on the 23rd October 2014