TCBO: WAGNER’S FIRST ‘RING’ DIRECTED BY OKSANA LYNIV

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by Opera Charm Team

June 9, 2024

Das Rheingold kicks off the complete two-year performance of the Tetralogy in concert form.

For the first time, Oksana Lyniv, the first woman on the podium in Bayreuth in the history of the festival dedicated to the German composer’s operas and Music Director of the theatre that has become a temple of the Wagnerian cult in Italy: the Comunale di Bologna, will be tackling Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). The complete performance of the Tetralogy – scheduled in concert form over two years – kicks off at the Auditorium Manzoni on Wednesday 12th June at 8.00 p.m., and again on Thursday 13th June at the same time, with the prologue Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold). The first day of the cycle, Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), will then be performed on 17 and 19 October; the second day, Siegfried (Siegfried), and the third day, Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods) will follow in 2025.

‘Rhinegold is the beginning of a journey in which Wagner expounds his philosophy,’ comments Oksana Lyniv. With this monumental cycle, the composer wanted to show mankind what happens when love is sacrificed for the lust for power. From the moment when Alberich steals the gold from its natural environment, forever renouncing love, he begins a journey of discovery of the deepest human nature, which ends with the collapse of Walhalla and the return of gold to its original state. With this utopia Wagner hoped to change humanity…’.

Cast alongside them are Liviu Holender (Donner), Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke (Loge), Cornel Frey (Mime), Sorin Coliban (Fasolt), Wilhelm Schwinghammer (Fafner), Atala Schöck (Fricka), Sonja Šarić (Freia), Paolo Antognetti (Froh), Bernadett Fodor (Erda), Yuliya Tkachenko (Woglinde), Marina Ogii (Wellgunde) and Egle Wyss (Flosshilde). The orchestra is that of the TCBO.

Das Rheingold constitutes the antecedent or – in the words of the author – the eve of the ‘scenic sagra’ in four dramas inspired by the German epic poem ‘Nibelungenlied’ and the ancient sagas of the Edda, already encapsulating – in its four scenes – the overall structure of the cycle. Even though this opera was the first to be composed between 1853 and 1854, Wagner ‘thought’ of it last, as he elaborated the Ring backwards from the Götterdämmerung. The premiere of the Rhinegold was held at the National Theatre in Munich in 1869 at the behest of King Ludwig of Bavaria and not of the composer, who considered its subsequent performance as part of the entire Tetralogy that opened the new Festspielhaus in Bayreuth in 1876 as the opera’s real christening. In April 1883, two months after Wagner’s death in Venice, the Teatro Comunale in Bologna staged the Ring in its original language and with the sets and costumes used in Bayreuth; the German composer’s bond with the city of Bologna – from which he had received honorary citizenship – and with the Comunale, which had staged five of his operas in their Italian premiere, was solid.

Disruptive and innovative for the time was the famous opening attack on the prolonged note of E-flat; Wagner described in Mein Leben how it had revealed itself to him: ‘I fell into a kind of drowsiness, in which I suddenly had the sensation of sinking into a strong current of water. Its romance soon became precise as a musical sound, namely the chord in E-flat major, dissolved in continuously swaying arpeggios; these arpeggios took the form of melodic forms that became more and more moved, but without ever leaving the pure triad of E-flat major, which with its continuity seemed to lend an infinite signification to the element into which I was sinking. With the sensation of the waves that now rumbled high over me, I awoke abruptly from my slumber. I quickly recognised that the orchestral prelude to Rhinegold had abruptly revealed itself to me […]’.

The Bolognese cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen is dedicated to the entrepreneur and philanthropist Marino Golinelli, a lifelong lover and supporter of the arts, music and theatre, and founder of Fondazione Golinelli, which supported the realisation of the tetralogy.

Both evenings will be introduced to the public by Alberto Mattioli, starting 45 minutes before the start, in the foyer of the bar of the Auditorium Manzoni.

Tickets – from €15 to €60 – are on sale online via Vivaticket and at the Municipal Theatre ticket office (Largo Respighi, 1), Tuesday to Friday from 12 to 6 p.m. and on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; on the day of the concert at the Auditorium Manzoni from 1 hour before until 15 minutes after the start of the performance.

DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE A L'OPÉRA DE PARIS

October 2024

OPERA CHARM TEAM

PREMIERE OF ‘DON CARLO’ AT WIENER STAATSOPER

September 2024

Opera Charm Team

Alice Lechner

Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.

Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.

Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Oana Zamfir

Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.

She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.

Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.

Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.

Alexandru Suciu

Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.

His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.

During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.

He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.

Cristina Fieraru

Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.

She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.

She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.

Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.

BIANCA L. NICA

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