Klaus Florian Vogt

German composer Richard Wagner wrote Parsifal, which is a three-act opera that tells the story of the title character's quest to save the Knights of the Holy Grail by returning the Holy Spear, healing King Amfortas, and carrying out the sacred ceremony of uncovering the Holy Grail.

The high-point of the 2017 Bayreuth Festival, Barrie Kosky’s astonishingly entertaining and convincing new Meistersinger is a triumph: a production of enormous insight and great quality... that plumbs the depths of both the opera and its composer.

On an open-air stage in the castle courtyard, Klaus Florian Vogt and the Munich Symphony Orchestra present a varied program featuring works by Mozart, Wagner, and Strauss.

A tribute to marriage coming from a bachelor is a tad suspicious. But for Beethoven the idealization of the woman-bride was heartfelt and sincere. It has always been a unique opera starring a courageous wife who wows audiences. Fidelio is a moral title, associated with the ideals of liberty of the French Enlightenment. Nobility and commoners are united in their thirst for justice against the oppression of power. For once the faithful consort of a desaparecido wins her battle against a treacherous tyrant, and the collective joy truly is “nameless”, as is sung on the stage. Especially because the “our heroes to the rescue” finale is recounted by the triumphant symphonic flair of the quintessential musician. Beethoven really does bring the world to collapse at the conclusion of this opera, which begins like a delightful little comedy, but which scales and transcends all the summits of the dramatic-musical art.

New peoduction, 2009. Filmed by the Royal Opera House in co-production with Opus Arte, June 13/17.