{"id":9785,"date":"2026-07-18T15:14:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T13:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/?p=9785"},"modified":"2026-07-18T15:14:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T13:14:30","slug":"the-sorcerers-apprentices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/?p=9785","title":{"rendered":"The Sorcerer\u2019s Apprentices"},"content":{"rendered":"

I feel strange. For the first time since 2014 I have failed to get to Longborough to attend a performance conducted by Anthony Negus \u2013 this time in another revival of Carmen Jakobi\u2019s phenomenal Tristan und Isolde.<\/em> I will come to LFO this season, but it will be for a completely different production. I can\u2019t help it, this is just how my professional commitments have turned out. But I am looking forward all the more eagerly to next year\u2019s Meistersinger<\/em> at the home of one of the greatest \u2013 and, at the same time, the most elusive \u2013 Wagnerian conductors of our time. At the same time I am happy that within a short period of time I was able to listen to, see and judge the work of two young musicians who in recent years have had the opportunity to benefit from Negus\u2019 experience and through him \u2013 more or less consciously \u2013 join the guardians of a tradition which is still underappreciated on the Continent and which the Sorcerer of Longborough took over directly from his master, Sir Reginald Goodall.<\/p>\n

It seemed at one point that Goodall \u2013 assistant to Albert Coates and Malcolm Sargent \u2013 reached his peak in the mid-1940s, when he went down in the history of British music as Britten\u2019s unexpected guiding angel, first preparing the premiere of his Peter Grimes<\/em> at Sadler\u2019s Wells and then sharing the baton with Ernest Ansermet during the first performances of The Rape of Lucretia<\/em> at Glyndebourne. He soon joined the Covent Garden company, where he was entrusted with several touring performances of Die Walk\u00fcre.<\/em> Despite excellent reviews, he was unable to spread his wings in the Wagnerian repertoire. In the early 1960s he was outshone by Georg Solti, the Royal Opera\u2019s new music director. And yet Goodall continued to work in his \u201cValhalla\u201d in the theatre\u2019s attic \u2013 neither a dressing room, nor a broom closet \u2013 honing interpretations with singers of the stature of Donald McIntyre and Gwyneth Jones. He was biding his time until 1968, when Sadler\u2019s Wells Opera asked him to prepare Die Meistersinger<\/em> for the company\u2019s centenary. The production became legendary, as did the Ring<\/em> started in 1970 by the same team and the fruits of his later Wagnerian collaboration with the ROH and WNO.<\/p>\n

The production remained a legend also because Goodall\u2019s unique approach to Wagner\u2019s music \u2013 stemming from his in-depth study of the score, extraordinary sensitivity to colour and phrasing details, and above all from the time devoted by the conductor to rehearsing with the musicians \u2013 was something only witnesses of these events could appreciate. The recordings of the performances conducted by Goodall got lost in the archives for a long time. When they finally resurfaced, in an era of ridiculously perfect studio recordings, few people were able to appreciate Goodall\u2019s interpretative \u201cendless crescendo\u201d as well as his art of piling up tensions for hours, which could be captured only during a live performance.<\/p>\n

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John Tomlinson (Gurnemanz) in rehearsal for Inverness\u00a0Parsifal.\u00a0<\/em>Photo: Mahler Players<\/p>\n

Negus is not the only continuator of this almost extinct tradition (in this context it is impossible not to mention Sir Mark Elder, another of Goodall\u2019s assistants at the time), but he is certainly the closest to its core idea of shaping the narrative over a broad timescale. This was spotted years ago by Tomas Leakey, the Inverness-born founder of the ambitious chamber orchestra Mahler Players, which after a few seasons of presenting works of its patron arranged for small ensembles decided to take the bull by the horns and introduce the Highlands residents to the oeuvre of Wagner. I have been following their ventures for over seven years, from the moment when Matthew King and Peter Longworth prepared for them an arrangement of Act One of Die Walk\u00fcre<\/em> for thirty instruments. Since then Leakey has been regularly consulting his ideas with Negus. In the last three seasons he shared the baton with him in concert performances of Act Two of Tristan<\/em>, Act Three of Siegfried<\/em> and Act Three of Parsifal.<\/em> Using a method only he himself knows, he enlisted for these projects not only well-known Longborough soloists, but also artists like Sir John Tomlinson, a Bayreuth legend of nearly twenty seasons.<\/p>\n

However, when he decided to present the complete Parsifal<\/em> in Inverness, I could not believe it. Not because I doubted the passion and professionalism of his musicians. But I feared he was too optimistic about the endurance of the audience, who would be forced to listen to this four-hour work inside the local cathedral, in a performance that, despite some elements of stage movement, would still be a concert. How wrong I was. Wagner\u2019s mystery captivated the audience members from the very first bars of the prelude \u2013 unfolding unhurriedly but inexorably, as spoke Goodall and then Negus after him \u2013 holding them on the edge of their folding chairs until the powerful climax in the finale of Act Three. This was largely due to the orchestration, arranged for forty musicians \u2013 nearly three times fewer than Wagner envisaged \u2013 by King himself, who somehow managed to preserve the unique colour and richness of the sound of the ensemble, despite the proportional superiority of the wind instruments over the string section of merely twenty. A lot of the credit for this success goes to Leakey, who shaped the narrative with a tender hand and a feeling for the challenging acoustics of the Gothic Revival cathedral. To complain about isolated clinkers and lapses in intonation would be unbecoming for a reviewer brought up on the legendary, beautifully imperfect Bayreuth recording under Knappertsbusch. Most importantly, the Inverness performance featured no cases of miscasting, even though there were singers with vastly differing levels of experience \u2013 and in some cases, with no experience whatsoever \u2013 in the Wagnerian repertoire.<\/p>\n

Each of them managed to create a convincing portrayal, beginning with the phenomenal Tomlinson as Gurnemanz, a character into which he put all the wisdom of his experience and beauty of his voice that time has treated exceptionally kindly \u2013 one might even get the impression that it has decided not to touch it at all. Tomlinson\u2019s is a bass voice in the truest sense of the word, still magnificent in the middle register and skilfully handled at the extreme ends of the range, in perfect harmony with the libretto, articulated precisely, emphatically and without the tendency, so common today, to descend into caricature. The revelation of the Scottish Parsifal <\/em>was Almerija Delic, a Bosnian singer with an excellent track record in German theatres, who impressed me with her exceptional stage presence as well as a rich, highly expressive dramatic mezzo-soprano, simply perfect for the role of Kundry. The eponymous \u201cpure fool\u201d found an brilliant interpreter in Julian Hubbard, a youthful singer in all respects, both physical and vocal. It has been a long time since I heard a Parsifal with such a resonant and luminous tenor voice, and spot-on intonation. I was a bit concerned about Amfortas, portrayed by Thomas Weinhappel, a decidedly lyric baritone who had only recently begun to venture into heavier repertoire. Fortunately, my fears proved unfounded: his velvety-voiced, anguished Amfortas was genuinely moving, especially in his interaction with Gurnemanz, well-thought-out by both singers. An excellent performance in the role of Klingsor came from the German bass Renatus M\u00e9sz\u00e1r, a memorable Wotan from the Karlsruhe Ring<\/em> and soloist in the just as memorable recording of Bruno Maderna\u2019s rediscovered Requiem<\/em>, conducted by Frank Beermann. Titurel was successfully portrayed by Sion Goronwy, whose bass is rounded, pitch-black and authoritative in its sound. The Flowermaidens (Catriona Clark, Jessica Leary and Laura Margaret Smith \u2013 the last two artists also singing Squires) were excellent, as was Barbara Scott (Voice from Above). I should add that all the ladies, the two other Squires (Petro Wychrij and Aidan Thomas Phillips) as well as Grail Knights (Matthew Kimble and Jim MacPherson) not only excelled in their solo roles, but also formed part of the twenty-five-strong chorus. I also have to stress that Wychrij noted in his bio that he is a Royal Mail employee, while the Second Knight, MacPherson, turned out to be a historian and lecturer at the local university.<\/p>\n

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Chorus at the Inverness cathedral. Photo: Mahler Players<\/p>\n

The Inverness Parsifal <\/em>captivated me also with its imaginative use of the cathedral space as well as acting \u2013 equally well thought-out and executed. Every move, every grimace, every non-existent and yet palpably present prop made up a story that was more vivid that most stagings by today\u2019s directors. I suspect that the scene in which Parsifal, proud of having shot the swan, is gradually losing his composure, and, above all, the image of the aged Gurnemanz supporting the anguished Amfortas on his way to the revealing the Grail will come back to me every time I encounter Wagner\u2019s masterpiece in the future.<\/p>\n

Shortly after that I found myself at a Grange Park Opera\u2019s performance of Das Rheingold<\/em> conducted by Harry Sever, a rising star among British conductors and assistant to Anthony Negus during the work on the Longborough Ring<\/em>, which began even before the pandemic and ended two years ago with the entire tetralogy being staged over the course of one season. Wasfi Kani decided to present the monumental cycle at her \u201ctheatre in the woods\u201d in Surrey, on terms similar to those at LFO, that is with a cast of British singers, presenting one part of the cycle per season, until the completion of the work in 2030, preferably under Negus\u2019 baton. In the end it was agreed that Negus would join the venture only in 2028; the responsibility for the preparation of the first two parts of the Ring <\/em>was assumed by Sever, who, in addition to serving as the master\u2019s apprentice, also had an opportunity to try his hand at being a LFO conductor, taking charge of several performances of Die Walk\u00fcre<\/em> and Siegfried.<\/em><\/p>\n

I will start with the staging of Das Rheingold<\/em>, my biggest cause for concern, as GPO\u2019s new production was to be directed by Charlie Edwards, the very same who three years earlier had staged Tristan <\/em>here \u2013 in a setting resembling a huge garage sale of furniture and museum artefacts from the Neuschweinstein Castle, the Wesendoncks\u2019 villa and the Bayreuth Festival archive. This time the stage space was much cleaner and more consistent with the logic of the work, also in terms of colours (the blue of the Rhine, the dazzling white of the gods\u2019 residence, the black of the Nibelheim). Collaborating, like before, with the costume designer Gabrielle Dalton and the lighting director Tim Mitchell, Edwards has set the action in the nineteenth-century reality \u2013 not precisely defined but nevertheless bringing to mind the second stage of the industrial revolution in Britain. Hence the \u201cDickensian\u201d costumes by Gabrielle Dalton; hence Valhalla\u2019s resemblance not so much to Greek temples but to Victorian imitations of classical Palladian architecture; hence the dual form of the eponymous gold \u2013 of electricity, driving mass production, and of arrivistes\u2019 wealth derived from it. There are also psychoanalytical tropes, like the abused Freia\u2019s dependence on Fasolt.<\/p>\n

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Das Rheingold. <\/em>David Stout (Alberich), James Rutherford (Wotan), and Mark Le Brocq (Loge). Photo: Marc Brenner<\/p>\n

All this is actually quite interesting to watch, despite the fact that Tim Mitchell once again bathes some scenes in harsh, stark light, closer in its aesthetics to expressionism than to Victorian sumptuousness. I had the impression, however, that Edwards had replaced his mania for amassing props with collecting ideas stolen from other Ring<\/em> directors. In addition to obvious references to Chereau\u2019s legendary Ring <\/em>celebrating the tetralogy\u2019s centenary, we also have veiled allusions to the Ring <\/em>production directed by Castorf \u2013 who turned gold into oil \u2013 and even some tropes from Schwarz\u2019s failed staging, like the compulsive tinkering with the fuse box, which nevertheless worked better in the storm scene from Act One of the Bayreuth Walk\u00fcre<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The cast of the GPO Rheingold <\/em>featured several singers I knew not only from British theatres, including James Rutherford with his beautifully nuanced take on the tortured figure of Wotan. I heard him in the role for the first time in the Frankfurt Walk\u00fcre<\/em> conducted by Weigle and I am very much looking forward to his performance next season. The lord of the gods found a perfect partner in Christine Rice, whose wisdom, stage experience and magnificent technique enabled her to create a Fricka worthy of the best opera houses in Europe. Rachel Nicholls takes a long time to warm up \u2013 long enough not to be able this time to shine vocally as Freia, which does not change the fact that acting-wise she round rings round her colleagues, as usual. It is quite possible that I would have appreciated Sara Fulgoni\u2019s craft in the role of Erda, if the director had not had her appear \u2013 as if it were an amateur theatre \u2013 between the rows of seats in the auditorium, as a result of which the bloodcurdling prophecy of this Nordic Gaia completely lost its momentum. I may have been impressed by Mark Le Brocq\u2019s Loge more than I was in Longborough: not only in vocal, but also in acting terms, as a vision \u2013 as unsettling as it is close to my own sensibilities \u2013 of a failed intellectual whom nobody wants to listen to. Of the two giants Matthew Rose definitely stood out as Fasolt.\u00a0 Other members of the cast \u2013 perhaps with the exception of Adrian Thompson and his over-the-top Mime \u2013 did a more than decent job. However, I did not expect that the artist that would become king of this Rheingold <\/em>would be David Stout \u2013 an Alberich incarnate I would say, if I did not know this singer earlier and could not say with absolute certainty that with a voice of such beauty, with such intelligence and such awareness of the context he is ready not only for this role and not only in the Wagnerian repertoire.<\/p>\n

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Mark Le Brocq, David Stout, James Rutherford, and Thomas Isherwood (Donner). Photo: Marc Brenner<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I truly do not know what to say about the orchestral sound in this production. Wasfi Kani extended a helping hand to the English National Opera company, which is irrevocably bidding farewell to London and is trying to come to terms with its exile to Greater Manchester. Kani\u2019s initiative is laudable, but I would like to know who was responsible for the line-up of the ensemble performing Das Rheingold<\/em>, which, out of necessity, was reduced to fewer than seventy instrumentalists. Was it a coincidence or someone\u2019s conscious decision that although in the GPO orchestra pit there were ten more musicians than in Longborough, the string section was much smaller, which in this particular work went against the composer\u2019s intention? Is it down to Harry Sever, extraordinarily musical and sensitive to the beauty of sound as he is, that nothing came of the prelude, that the \u201cmusic of the beginning\u201d, so celebrated by Thomas Mann, failed to flow already in the very first bars, failed to build up in a torrent of successive passages, failed to recede like a dead wave before Woglinde\u2019s first phrase? Would it not be better to follow Tomas Leakey\u2019s and Matthew King\u2019s example, not only reducing the size of the orchestra, but also trying to bring its sound and proportions closer to what the composer intended?<\/p>\n

I would rather not jump to any conclusions today. I will wait for Sever to begin to tell his own tale himself. After all, it is not that everybody should read Wagner through Goodall\u2019s interpretation. It is about finally breaking free from the diktat of the anachronistic, monumentally \u201cTeutonic\u201d approaches to the Bayreuth master and returning to the very essence. This is being done not only by Negus the sorcerer and his apprentices. Attempts are also being made by heirs to other traditions, like, for example, Altinoglu and Nagano. Let the Wagnerian aoidoi finally sing their hearts out \u2013 for in these masterpieces what matters is not just the details of the texture. The essence is a myth, an eternal tale, a narrative that will be able to liberate us from the nightmare of the everyday or at least will make us realise that we cannot escape it.<\/p>\n

Translated by: Anna Kijak<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I feel strange. For the first time since 2014 I have failed to get to Longborough to attend a performance conducted by Anthony Negus \u2013 this time in another revival of Carmen Jakobi\u2019s phenomenal Tristan und Isolde. I will come to LFO this season, but it will be for a completely different production. I can\u2019t … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","post","publish","author-mangusta","post-9785","format-standard","category-posts-in-english","category-wedrowki-operowe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9790,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9785\/revisions\/9790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}