Post by john on May 2, 2017 12:19:04 GMT 1
Recently I was fortunate enough to attend the Salzburg Easter Festival, a friend in France who is a patron very kindly got me a ticket for the performance of Die Walkure on Easter Monday.
As you may know the production was based on Karajan’s original concept which was the first Opera performed at the Easter Festival back in 1967, the whole event was centered around the 50th anniversary.
Christian Thielemann conducted The Dresden Staatskapelle which was wonderful.
There was a strong cast including Anja Harteros as Sieglinde who was superb and without doubt one of the finest singers I have ever heard.
The overall production was impressive however as with most Opera productions these days the costumes left a lot to be desired, apart from the Valkyries who looked good the remaining costumes probably cost no more than the price of my ticket.
The photos below show the cast taking their curtain calls, a nice touch was to see the orchestra come on stage, I have never seen this before.
To coincide with the production the Karajan Institute arranged an exhibition at the Salzburg Museum outlining both the original and the new productions. It included an excellent display of photographs, sketches and models from 1967 plus original documents relating to Karajan’s vision and requirements etc.
There was also a continuous showing on a wide screen TV of the original Video of Karajan’s film ‘The Making of an Opera’ Die Walkure made in 1967 alongside preparations and rehearsals for the original event.
This appeared to be a full length version covering the whole opera, I have copy on DVD but this only really covers up to the end of the first act, the Museum video had extensive scenes of act 1 & 2 with Vickers & Janowitz plus the Ride of the Valkyries and the final Magic Fire Music.
I understand that the rights to this film are owned by the French media company INA.
If anyone has a full length copy of this film please let me know as it is a fascinating document.
Below are some photos from the exhibition including a signed copy of the libretto by Karajan, apologies for the poor quality.
Karajan’s grave in Anif is looking particularly good at the moment, due to the anniversary and to mark the occasion the various orchestras etc placed huge bouquets their as shown in the photos below.
John
As you may know the production was based on Karajan’s original concept which was the first Opera performed at the Easter Festival back in 1967, the whole event was centered around the 50th anniversary.
Christian Thielemann conducted The Dresden Staatskapelle which was wonderful.
There was a strong cast including Anja Harteros as Sieglinde who was superb and without doubt one of the finest singers I have ever heard.
The overall production was impressive however as with most Opera productions these days the costumes left a lot to be desired, apart from the Valkyries who looked good the remaining costumes probably cost no more than the price of my ticket.
The photos below show the cast taking their curtain calls, a nice touch was to see the orchestra come on stage, I have never seen this before.
To coincide with the production the Karajan Institute arranged an exhibition at the Salzburg Museum outlining both the original and the new productions. It included an excellent display of photographs, sketches and models from 1967 plus original documents relating to Karajan’s vision and requirements etc.
There was also a continuous showing on a wide screen TV of the original Video of Karajan’s film ‘The Making of an Opera’ Die Walkure made in 1967 alongside preparations and rehearsals for the original event.
This appeared to be a full length version covering the whole opera, I have copy on DVD but this only really covers up to the end of the first act, the Museum video had extensive scenes of act 1 & 2 with Vickers & Janowitz plus the Ride of the Valkyries and the final Magic Fire Music.
I understand that the rights to this film are owned by the French media company INA.
If anyone has a full length copy of this film please let me know as it is a fascinating document.
Below are some photos from the exhibition including a signed copy of the libretto by Karajan, apologies for the poor quality.
Karajan’s grave in Anif is looking particularly good at the moment, due to the anniversary and to mark the occasion the various orchestras etc placed huge bouquets their as shown in the photos below.
John
