The dramatic symphonist Wagner: Siegfried

It was a great wish of chief conductor Karina Canellakis: to conduct Wagner's Siegfried, the third movement from Der Ring des Nibelungen. This wish is fulfilled with a fine orchestra and exceptional soloists.

Wagner reveals himself as a true dramatist
In Siegfried, the composer takes the final step in his development from romantic composer to the "symphonist" of the musical drama he invented. Not without humor, as evidenced by the brilliantly comic part for the Nibelung Mime, written for a terse character tenor. It was precisely in the second act, in which orchestral nature invocations accompany the young hero Siegfried's voyage of discovery, that Wagner fell into an artistic crisis in 1857. After finger exercises with Tristan and Meistersinger, he returned to the Ring as an accomplished and full-blooded dramatist to complete the third act of Siegfried. An undaunting challenge for any conductor.

Clay Hilley and Daniela Köhler
The Matinee gathered an extraordinary cast. Hero tenor Stephen Gould was to sing the title role, had to cancel all his performances due to an incurable illness and passed away on Sept. 19. Clay Hilley, a celebrated Siegfried at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (2021) will take over his role. In the famous third act, he will find his ultimate beloved Brünnhilde. That role of Elena Stikhina will be taken over by Daniela Köhler. A more positive reason here: the Russian is pregnant. Köhler previously sang this role in Leipzig (alongside Stephen Gould) and, last and this summer, in Bayreuth. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung on July 30, 2023: "Minutenlang wurde das Sängerensemble gefeiert - allen voran Daniela Köhler für ihre facettenreiche, sehr feinfühlige Brünnhilde-Darbietung."