Yajie Zhang (Wellgunde), Jess Dandy (Floßhilde) & Louise Foor (Woglinde) in Salzburg Easter Festival’s staging of Das Rheingold. Photo: Frol Podlesnyi
Friday, April 10, 2026
Berliner Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, Berlin
Returning to the Salzburg Easter Festival after a break of thirteen years, the annual event that Herbert von Karajan founded in 1967 and launched with the Berliner Phiharmoniker brought the orchestra back, now with Kirill Petrenko, to begin a four-year Ring project directed by Kirill Serebrennikov who is also the designer of the Rheingold sets and costumes, with lighting handled by Sergey Kucher. However, this from Berlin was a concert performance, of singers entering and exiting, standing and delivering, all dressed formally for the evening.
Relayed in excellent sound – tangible, well-balanced – the Berliner Philharmoniker was in magnificent form based on detailed rehearsals and several staged performances: presumably the Salzburg theatre’s pit is capacious enough to accommodate a large orchestra, here with antiphonal violins, left-positioned basses, and the six harps also split, two groups of three, one behind the basses, the other across the platform complementing the second violins. Given Petrenko’s penchant for forensic preparation, this was chamber music writ large yet with no lack of impact when required, the more so when variations of dynamics were evident (without contrivance) albeit cue heavy stomping, ground-shaking trombones and timpani to leave in no doubt that Fasolt and Fafner are giants (timpani becoming venomous when one brother kills the other); and when tempers are threatened and devious stratagems outlined there was a quickening of pace and increase in intensity that was thrilling. Two hours and fifteen minutes is quite fleet for Rheingold, although nothing was suggested as rushed; rather there was a corresponding rightness to tempo and action, or characters’ thoughts, circumstances and machinations, that bound the score and synopsis as one.
Of considerable interest was the Wotan of Christian Gerhaher – it was his role debut for the Salzburg run – his Lieder-singing expertise, intelligence and sensibility paying many dividends, nothing overdone yet remaining the boss, the composer’s libretto enjoying a range of expression and subtlety, and not just from Gerhaher – this was a marvellous cast of singers fully attuned to their respective roles and their interaction, such acting carried forward from the Salzburg production to enhance the storytelling, further aided by non-intrusive presentation of the German text and an English translation.
Come the concluding entrance into Valhalla, the tale (so far) had been told vibrantly through vocal variety and commanding characterisation – gripping listening – leaving the Berliners and Petrenko to stride to the finish sonorously (hornists now playing Wagner tubas) and grandly if without false rhetoric – the natural corollary to what had gone before. The ovation was long, appreciative, and standing.
“Only those who renounce love can make use of the power of the golden ring – Das Rheingold, the prelude to Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle, sets in motion a dark story of power and intrigue. Wagner’s music vividly depicts both the dramatic plot and the inner conflicts of the characters.” [DCH]
Christian Gerhaher baritone (Wotan)
Gihoon Kim baritone (Donner)
Thomas Atkins tenor (Froh)
Brenton Ryan tenor (Loge)
Leigh Melrose baritone (Alberich)
Thomas Cilluffo tenor (Mime)
Patrick Guetti bass (Fafner)
Le Bu bass (Fasolt)
Catriona Morison mezzo-soprano (Fricka)
Sarah Brady soprano (Freia)
Jasmin White contralto (Erda)
Louise Foor soprano (Woglinde)
Yajie Zhang mezzo-soprano (Wellgunde)
Jess Dandy contralto (Floßhilde)
From the Salzburg staging – Kirill Petrenko and Christian Gerhaher.
