Bernd Weikl

TANNHÄUSER UND DER SÄNGERKRIEG AUF WARTBURG is a grand opera by Richard Wagner in three acts. After experiencing boundless sensuality and freedom with the fun-loving Venus (soprano), the singer Tannhäuser (Tenor) finds it impossible to conform to the cultured setting of his betrothed Elizabeth (soprano), who loves him. During a singing contest, Tannhäuser describes the affair with Venus as the ultimate love experience and because of that, he is cast out from the established society. Thanks to Elizabeth's intervention, he is allowed to undertake a pilgrimage to the Pope to ask for the Holy Father's pardon. If the Pope accepts to forgive him, he would be allowed to take back his place in society. Tannhäuser accepts. But fate will not allow him to meet with his beloved Elizabeth again in this life. This is a recording of the legendary staging by Götz Friedrich for the 1978 Bayreuth Festival conducted by Sir Colin Davis.

Parsifal est un « festival scénique sacré » (en allemand : Bühnenweihfestspiel, selon l'appellation de Wagner) en trois actes de Richard Wagner créé le 26 juillet 18821 lors du second festival de Bayreuth. Il se fonde sur l’épopée médiévale Parzival de Wolfram von Eschenbach et sur Perceval ou le Conte du Graal de Chrétien de Troyes.

As renowned for its harmonious overture as for its romantic storybook characters, this three-act masterwork features some of the composer’s most groundbreaking and unforgettable music, as well as a theme the young Wagner would revisit again and again later in his career—the redemptive and transcendent power of a woman’s love. The enchanting plot harks back to medieval history: Wolfram is a lovesick troubadour who desires the virtuous Elisabeth. She, however, has eyes for another: the rebellious knight Tannhäuser, who in turn cannot get over an overwhelming sensual experience in the realm of the goddess Venus, and is banished for singing her praises at court. Only saintly Elisabeth’s death can atone for his misdeeds.

The nearest Wagner ever got to religion was worshiping himself. Using opulent music he delivers his audience to an easy, pseudo-mystical experience. In this, one of his earlier operas, he is already showing signs of the mastery of the superlative that later would blossom fully together with his egomania.

Peter Konwitschny's new production on the première stage in Munich gives it a new, optimistic interpretation. At the opening of the Munich Opera Festival 1998, Tristan und Isolde was staged in what is now the ninth new production at the Bavarian State Opera since its world première. Director Peter Konwitschny worked together with stage and costume designer Johannes Leiacker a team already well known in Munich for its much-respected Parsifal. Zubin Mehta conducted, shortly before being called to be General Music Director at the Bavarian State Opera. The title parts were interpreted by the American tenor Jon Frederic West, widely known for his Wagner-roles and Waltraud Meier, one of the greatest Isoldes of our time.

Theodor Guschlbauer conducts the Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera in this lavish staging of Johann Strauss's operetta. Recorded in 1980, the production features some of the leading performers of their day, including Lucia Popp, Edita Gruberova, Bernd Weikl, Walter Berry and Brigitte Fassbaender.

Sir Georg Solti leads the Wiener Philharmoniker in this intimate film of Strauss's comedy of manners. Using traditional sets and costumes, this is the only film version available of this opera. A talented cast includes Gundula Janowitz, Edita Gruberova, Bernd Weikl and Rene Kollo.

This filmed version of Strauss' shocker features Teresa Stratas as opera's most depraved teenager, and she's as perfect a Salome as one would ever hope to see or hear. Stratas inhabits the role, exploring the character's sensuousness as she vainly woos Jochanaan, her venomous hatred when she's rejected, the crazed look in her eyes when she demands his head--on a silver platter, no less. Such complete identification with a role, especially of a character so malignant helps make this 1974 Salome stand out among the many fine DVDs of the opera.

Wolfgang Wagner's Bayreuth production of his grandfather's 'farewell to the world'has 'an unusual beauty and logic of its own ... with a double stress - on nature undefiled and on a form of religious symbolism ... There is an air of magic and mystery about the staging ... The performance was excellent ... Horst Stein conducted a beautifully proportioned Parsifal'. New York Times

Richard Wagner's grandson, Wolfgang Wagner, staged and directed this performance of the legendary composer's most human of musical dramas at the 1984 Bayreuth Festival. Horst Stein directs the Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra and an all-star cast that includes Hermann Prey (as Beckmesser), Bernd Weikl (as Sachs), Siegfried Jerusalem (as Walter), Graham Clark (as David) and MariAnne Haggander (as Eva).

David Alden's production of Wagner's grand romantic opera was recorded at the National Theatre in Munich, with Bayerische Staatsoper, in September 1994. Shot over three days by leading opera director Brian Large, this recording benefits from the ideal technical conditions made possible by a closed session. Alden, one of the most iconoclastic interpreters of classical opera, stirs up the visionary, erotic, and archetypal elements in Wagner's work. The cold, forbidding aspect of the stylized and predominantly monochrome sets and costumes by Roni Toren and Buki Shiff manifests the strait-jacket of tradition from which Tannhäuser seeks to free himself in this powerful opera.

A filmed version of Tchaikovsky's opera. Onegin visits a friend, his fiancee and her sister Tatiana, who believes Onegin is her fated love. She writes a note telling him so, but he rejects her. Years later he returns, finding her married, but now he's smitten with her.

A Mantoue et dans ses environs, au XVIème siècle. Rigoletto, bouffon du Duc de Mantoue, séducteur dépravé, protège secrètement sa fille Gilda à l’abri des regards et des dangers. Aussi la malédiction du Comte Monterone à son égard terrifie-t-elle Rigoletto, dont le costume de bouffon de cour cache un père aimant et protecteur. Séduite par le Duc de Mantoue, puis enlevée par les courtisans qui la mènent jusqu’à la chambre de leur maître, Gilda s’enflamme pour son amant volage, son premier amour. Rigoletto s’estime déshonoré et entreprend de se venger du Duc, qui court se gaver d’autres femmes sitôt Gilda séduite : le bouffon engage le spadassin Sparafucile pour qu’il tue le Duc en pleine nuit. Mais Gilda, éprise jusqu’au bout de l’homme qui l’a conquise, se glisse secrètement à sa place au moment où l’assassin doit frapper, et tombe sous ses coups : c’est le corps de sa fille que Rigoletto récupère, effondré : c’est là l’ultime volet de la malédiction de Monterone.