This epic collection brings together all of Opus Arte's recordings from the Bayreuth Festival. Included are many of Wagner's much-admired operas which show how the mastery of composer, conductor, and performer can combine to create a true musical excellence. Wagner's epic four-opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen, is a work of extraordinary scale and is given an interpretation that is both thrilling and sensitive by the conductor Christian Thielemann and a cast of renowned Wagner interpreters. Thielemann also presents an incredible account of Der fliegende Holländer a recording which secured his place as the world's greatest Wagner conductor. Klaus Florian Vogt is staggering in the title role of Lohengrin, with Andris Nelsons brings out the best in the festival chorus and orchestra. This recording of Tannhäuser, Wagner’s tale of the struggle between spiritual and profane love, and of redemption through love, was described by Opera Journal as 'outstanding’, whilst Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which tells a humorous tale about artistically inclined craftsmen, was described as ‘on an entirely new Wagnerian scale...” (The Washington Post). The set is completed by the critically acclaimed recording of Tristan und Isolde starring the leading Wagner exponents Robert Dean Smith and Iréne Theorin in the title roles.

Artists

Franz-Josef Selig (daland), Ricarda Merbeth (senta), Tomislav Mužek (erik), Christa Meyer (mary), Benjamin Bruns (steersman), Samuel Youn (the dutchman), Bayreuth Festival (opera company), Kwangchul Youn (hermann), Torsten Kerl (tannhäuser), Markus Eiche (wolfram von eschenbach), Lothar Odinius (walther), Camilla Nylund (elisabeth), Michelle Breedt (venus, brangane), Georg Zeppenfeld (konig heinrich), Klaus Florian Vogt (lohengrin, walther von stolzing), Annette Dasch (elsa), Jukka Rasilainen (friedrich, kurwenal), Petra Lang (ortrud), Linda Watson (brunnhilde), Stephen Gould (siegfried), Albert Dohmen (wotan), Endrik Wottrich (siegmund), Eva-Maria Westbroek (sieglinde), Andrew Shore (alberich), Robert Dean Smith (tristan), Iréne Theorin (isolde), Robert Holl (king marke), Ralf Lukas (melot), Franz Hawlata (hans sach), Artur Korn (veit pogner), Michael Volle (sixtus beckmesser), Norbert Ernst (david), Michaela Kaune (eva), Carola Guber (magdalena), Christian Thielemann, Axel Kober, Andris Nelsons, Peter Schneider, Sebastian Weigle