Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” on tour (August 2023)
After the successful start at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele in June 2023, Kent Nagano will go on tour with Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” in historically informed performance practice in August 2023. With musicians from the Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln as well as a renowned cast, there will be guest performances at the Cologne Philharmonie (18 August), the Ravello Festival (20 August) and the Lucerne Festival (22 August).
Under the artistic direction of Kent Nagano and Jan Vogler, the Ring will be performed in the context of its period of origin and on the basis of current research in performance practice in a project of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, building on the Wagner-Lesarten initiative, which was launched in 2017 and performed “Das Rheingold” in Cologne and Amsterdam – back in 2021 in its first phase. With the support of the Minister of State for Culture and the Media and the Free State of Saxony, the project will continue in Dresden with musicians from the Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln performing under the direction of Kent Nagano with recourse to current research on Wagner and 19th century performance practice. A team of researchers from various institutions around the scientific curator PD Dr. Kai Hinrich Müller has focused, among other things, on the areas of historical instruments (e.g. oboes and Wagner tubas were reconstructed) and orchestral sound (e.g. tuning tone according to Wagner’s specifications a = 435 Hertz) as well as vocal practice with a special focus on the treatment of speech which was central to Wagner.
In a press talk in Dresden, Kent Nagano, Jan Vogler and Kai Hinrich Müller, among others, presented the scientific research as well as the background and new aspects of the project.
