This just in, copied from a press release. (I shall be reporting back over the coming weekend from some of this year's Festtage, namely a concert of music by Falla and Ravel from Daniel Barenboim and the orchestra of La Scala, a Lieder recital given by Barenboim and René Pape, and Lulu, conducted by Barenboim and produced by Andrea Breth, an exciting prospect given their 2011 Wozzeck.)
From 23 March to 1 April 2013, the Schiller Theater and Philharmonie will again be playing host to the Staatsoper FESTTAGE festival. 17 years after Daniel Barenboim first launched the FESTTAGE with an entire performance of Richard Wagner’s cycle The Ring of the Nibelung in 1996, the tetralogy once again takes centre stage in the 2013 Easter festival.
This is the first time that the complete Ring cycle will be performed at the Staatsoper im Schiller Theater – under the direction of Guy Cassiers and with Daniel Barenboim as the Musical Director. (The Rhine Gold on 23 March [reviewed here], The Valkyrie on 24 March [reviewed here], Siegfried on 27 March, The Twilight of the Gods on 31 March). The soloists include René Pape, Ekaterina Gubanova, Iréne Theorin, Waltraud Meier, Lance Ryan, Anna Larsson, Mikhail Petrenko, Christopher Ventris and Ian Storey.
In addition to the opera, top-class concerts will take place at the Philharmonie with Daniel Barenboim, the festival’s leading figure, conducting three symphony concerts: On 30 March as Conductor with the orchestra and choir of the Teatro alla Scala performing Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem and on 26 March and 1 April as the Musical Director of the Staatskapelle Berlin, performing works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (e.g. his requiem), Giuseppe Verdi and Igor Strawinsky. Rolando Villazón, Anja Harteros, René Pape, Maria Bengtsson, Bernarda Fink, Daniela Barcellona and Fabio Sartori are among the outstanding soloists performing in these three concerts.
Furthermore, the Perspectives Pollini series planned by Maurizio Pollini is scheduled for two evenings (25 and 29 March). Pollini will be combining Beethoven’s last five piano sonatas with contemporary music.
