The Barenboim/Cassiers Production of Die Walküre to open at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin, 17 April. See this review of the La Scala Version as a preview.
Teatro alla Scala, 2 January 2011
Die Walküre
by Richard Wagner
Conductor - Daniel Barenboim
Stage Director - Guy Cassiers
Scene Design - Guy Cassiers e Enrico Bagnoli
Costumes - Tim van Steenbergen
Lighting - Enrico Bagnoli
Video design - Arjen Klerkx e Kurt D’Haeseleer
Choreography - Csilla Lakatos
Cast:
Siegmund - Simon O’Neill
Hunding - John Tomlinson
Wotan - Vitalij Kowaljow
Sieglinde - Waltraud Meier
Brünnhilde - Nina Stemme
Fricka - Ekaterina Gubanova
Gerhilde - Danielle Halbwachs
Ortlinde - Carola Höhn
Waltraute - Ivonne Fuchs
Schwertleite - Anaik Morel
Helmwige - Susan Foster
Siegrune - Leann Sandel-Pantaleo
Gringerde - Nicole Piccolomini
Rossweisse - Simone Schröder
Danzatori - Guro Schia, Vebjørn Sundby
In co-production with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlinand in collaboration with Toneelhuis (Antwerpen)
It is a curiosity of our times that I write this review of La Scala’s sixth and last performance of their new production of Die Walküre several weeks after audiences around the world have seen high definition video projections of earlier performances of the same production. A friend of mine residing in the Midwest has already seen it twice, but questions remain: seeing a broadcast through the eyes of video cameras is not the same as sitting in the house, with the interventions of the television director and the videographers standing between the audience and the event at La Scala. I haven't seen a La Scala broadcast, and I have no idea of their particular style, which is hopefully more straightforward than the extremely mannered — no, gimmicky — Met broadcasts.
