Christiane Kohl

The Zurich Opera presents a stunning new production of Verdi’s most popular, most spectacular work. Responding superbly to the role, Swedish soprano Nina Stemme – she of the richly clear voice – offers an Aida vibrant with love and emotion. Heading a magnificent cast, she makes a poignant couple with talented tenor Salvatore Licitra as Radamès. Luciana d’Intino is nothing less than brilliant in the role of Aida’s rival Amneris and Juan Pons imbues his Amonasro with enormous humanity. Conducting the Zurich Opera orchestra and chorus, Adam Fischer brings out all the score’s musical and dramatic majesty.

Frank Castorf’s staging of the Ring, premiered in 2013 and filmed in 2016, provoked controversy right from the beginning. For Castorf, the Rheingold of our days is oil; thus he places the first part of the tetralogy at a gas station on Route 66. Die Walküre is situated in Baku, Azerbaijan, which was seized by the Bolsheviks in 1920 for its oil, whereas Siegfried takes place in a socialist equivalent of Mount Rushmore and at Berlin’s Alexanderplatz. Götterdämmerung is set somewhere in the GDR, ending up at New York’s stock exchange. Whilst Castorf’s staging polarized, Marek Janowski’s musical reading was unanimously praised, as was the excellent cast including in this opera Iain Paterson (Wotan), Nadine Weissmann (Erda), Albert Dohmen (Alberich) and Roberto Saccà (Loge)

The Ring of the Nibelung: Twilight of the Gods

Richard Wagner: Die Walküre - Aus der Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin