Excerpts from Tristan/Walküre at Staatsoper Berlin

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🎭 Excerpts from Tristan/Walküre
🎶 Richard Wagner
🏛️ Staatsoper Berlin
🗓️ 25.11.2024

What a treat on a Monday evening! I actually had a spinning classed locked in but got a ticket to this concert last-minute, and boy am I glad that I went. The selection of music was wonderful, the singing phenomenal, seeing the Staatsoper stage transformed into a concert hall for the first time was very cool, and there was a “guest of honor” too.

The Vorspiel and Liebestod of TRISTAN UND ISOLDE are some of the most wonderful pieces of music ever composed, and it was quite interesting to see Philippe Jordan from the Wiener Staatsoper (in lieu of Daniel Barenboim—gute Besserung!) conduct: I found his hand gestures to be incredibly precise, always choosing from 4-5 specific ones; his arm movements to be very fluid and his posture to be extremely upright; his face to be highly expressive. Quite a sight!

I actually heard Act I of DIE WALKÜRE for the first time last night, though recognizing the most famous motifs (I saw a concert of DER RING OHNE WORTE in Beijing in 2013, conducted by Lorin Maazel himself—a very memorable experience). Andreas Schager, Anja Kampe, and René Pape gave a POWERFUL performance which, while not fully staged, was emotionally entirely convincing.

Finally, imagine my surprise when, leaving the hall for intermission, I turned around to see Angela Merkel herself get up from the first balcony. Starstruck! Good for her for treating herself to some Wagner after dropping her iconic 700-page memoir (on sale today!). While she and I might not entirely align politically, her character, sense of duty, down-to-earthness, and general respectability and decency are sorely missed in today’s political arena. Now that’s something to miss a spinning class for!

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