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The Arts Intel Report

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

Wagnerians in Concert

Two years after the Metropolitan Opera’s most recent “Ring” cycles, the Wotan, the Brünnhilde, and one of the Siegfrieds regroup in the much-fêted persons of Michael Volle, Christine Goerke, and Andreas Schager. This time, they come bearing greatest hits—some solos, some duets—tracing the arc from The Flying Dutchman to Parsifal. Add to their number the resplendent Elza van der Heever, whose reign as a Wagnerienne is just beginning. The pianist Craig Terry deputizes for Wagner’s supersize-me instrumental forces but is heard as well in some of the rare pages the composer conceived with no orchestra in mind. Yes, we are speaking of the five rhapsodic Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91, intended for a single female voice but parceled out here among the quartet of stars on call—surely a first. To close, all hands hit the deck for the ecstatic finale of Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, a fairy tale to which none but full-blooded Wagnerians can do justice. —M.G.

Soprano Christine Goerke. Photo: Arielle Doneson.