I may have a suggestion on who should be considered to stage the next Ring in Bayreuth ...

I was Saturday at Paris's Comédie-Française to see Tennessee Williams's a Tramway named Desire in the production of American director Lee Breuer.

Breuer's concepts is a highly stylised one. Settings are inspired from Japan. They are both spare and sophsiticated as they keep changing. 4 mute characters keep coming and leaving to bring it alive. It both allows to make the most of a simple stage, to keep it very dynamic and also to be able to step back and think of the situation, the concept, the characters, ...

There is also a lot of focus (in a manner close to Peter Brook ...), each scene has an idea and the staging, actors play, ..., make it very clear. There are also nice touches of modernity. As an example, when Blanche is raped by Stanley, he is gradually masquerading as the Dark Knight's joker ... Small touches, not too much, just enough, ...

I started thinking where this approach would work well and came to the conclusion that Wagner's Ring could be a good candidate. If someone is reading this in Bayreuth ... (or elsewhere ...)

One last word: the Comédie-Française is currently staging Brecht, Shakespeare, Feydeau, ... Repertory is wide and all comments I am getting is that the classic Comédie-Française quality is present everywhere. As a Geneva-based friend of mine said: what I prefer in France is the Comédie-Françasie.

Peter Hofmann

Concertonet's Zurich Correspondant and long-time friend John Rhodes emailed me this morning on the passing of German tenor Peter Hofmann.

I heard him first in Paris in 1981 a concert performance of the act 3 of Parsifal with the Berlin Philharmonic and Karajan, then as Lohengrin, then the following year in Paris in Lohengrin under Dohnanyi. But it was in Bayreuth that I heard him in many roles: Parsifal in 83, Tristan in 87 and a final Siegmund in 89.

What was unique in his performances was the sheer physicality of his performances best captured in the DVD of the Boulez-Chéreau Ring:

In the Götz Friedrich's production of Parsifal, he really caught the spear. No wires, no funny games, ..., this was thrilling.

Not enough A's ...I am afraid

and I am not talking about academic results nor bond rating ...

Wolfgang Wagner

Has passed away at the age of 90.

I would recommend to anyone the excellent book of Jonathan Carr: the Wagner Clan to be able to both appreciate Wolfgang Wagner positive and dark side. Whatever one can feel on his conservative stagings as well as on his overpowering grip on the Bayreuth Festival, his personality was larger than life, operatic and definitely Wagnerian.

How the Festival evolves will be an object of interest, the new family structure does not have its lease for life anymore and will have to prove its capacity. Singing standards have lowered in the recent past, allowing us to get better performances in many places such as New York, Berlin or even Paris (under the old régime of Gérard Mortier who tried to stage a coup in Bayreuth.) Rumors are that he secured the programs for many of the next seasons are already booked and "Wolfgang Wagner-approved".

But this would be without recognising that at its best, during the time he ran it, the Festival produced some of its most glorious performances.