Wagner: Siegfried

In the words of one critic, The Wagner in Budapest Opera Festival has established a new style of performing opera that builds on the characteristics and outstanding acoustics of the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall to extend far beyond the realm of the semi-staged production. Sprawled across four consecutive evenings in accordance with the composer's intentions, the Ring of the Nibelung tetralogy is directed by Hartmut Schörghofer, whom Adam Fischer selected because he needed a director c...apable of expressing the concepts contained in the work in the form of images. Over the course of more than a decade now, the Bayreuth on the Danube has staged the entire Bayreuth canon, namely all ten operas performed on the green hill during the composer's lifetime, making the best possible use of the unique properties of Müpa Budapest, and thereby casting new light on these timeless masterpieces and their infinite interpretations.
Almost exactly 160 years will have passed between the original première of Siegfried and this performance in June of 2016: the third piece in the Ring cycle was first heard at the inaugural Bayreuth Festival in August 1876, along with the entire tetralogy, under the baton of Győr-born conductor János Richter.
According to the critic from The Guardian, the American singer portraying the title character, Daniel Brenna, depicts the primordially powerful youth raised to adulthood by the Nibelung Mime with explosive physical and vocal energy. Gerhard Siegel is a member of the Wiener Staatsoper, and has sung one of his principal roles, Mime in Das Rheingold, at New York's Met, the Bayreuth Festival, London's Covent Garden, and in Tokyo. In spite of his young age, Poland's Tomasz Konieczny portrays the "great old ones” - Sarastro, King Marke, Amfortas, Wotan - with tremendous success, and made his début in the role of Alberich at the Wiener Staatsoper in a production conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. Walter Fink, bearer of the Wiener Staatsoper's prestigious "Kammersänger” title, has portrayed some 70 characters in 650 performances at the renowned opera house.
Erika Gál first sang the low-tessitura role of the earth goddess, Erda, in 2001, winning the scholarship of the Wagner Society. This enabled her to visit Bayreuth, the citadel of Wagner's music. Continuing the line of great Swedish sopranos, Elisabet Strid, who only launched her international career a few years ago, primarily sings Wagnerian roles: in 2013 and 2014, she took the stage as Freia in Bayreuth productions conducted by Kirill Petrenko.
Oskar Hillebrandt is a returning guest to the Wagner in Budapest Opera Festival. Ever since making his début at Opera Stuttgart, he has been regularly invited to leading opera houses both in Europe and also further afield (Chile, Tokyo, New Zealand, Canada, New York/Carnegie Hall), and he is a regular collaborator at the most eminent international festivals (Bayreuth, Glyndenbourne, Bregenz). Distinguished with the title of "Kammersänger”, the heldenbariton boasts a repertoire of more than 150 roles, with his greatest successes coming from his portrayals of Wagnerian roles such as Telramund, Alberich, Klingsor, Wotan, Kurwenal, Wolfram, Hans Sachs and the Dutchman.

More information about the Wagner in Budapest Opera Festival here.