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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

All-Wagner Gala

November 2, 2019
Federation Concert Hall, 1 Davey St, Hobart TAS 7000, Australia

Among current avatars of Wagner’s Isolde, Strauss’s Elektra and other such superhuman assignments, the Swedish soprano Nina Stemme enjoys unique cachet as the first woman to receive the million-dollar prize established by her compatriot and peerless predecessor Birgit Nilsson. (The three previous winners were Plácido Domingo, who was the diva’s personal choice; Riccardo Muti; and the Vienna Philharmonic.) Following up on her pre-prize triumph with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in 2016, Stemme returns with her fellow Swede John Lundren in a program of excerpts from Der Ring des Nibelungen, concluding with the climactic Immolation Scene from Götterdämmerung, in which the Valkyrie Brünnhilde rides into Siegfried’s funeral pyre, setting the whole world on fire. —M.G.

Marko Letonja conducts the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s 2016 performance of performing Tristan und Isolde © Alastair Bett