Wagner Gala-Konzert in Wiesbaden

René Pape, along with soprano Catherine Foster and tenor Klaus Florian Vogt, are the featured soloists at a Wagner Gala Concert on April 30. The performance is the opening of the 2017 International May Festival, and includes highlights from Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Parsifal. Patrick Lange leads the Hessisches Staatsorchester Wiesbaden for this sold-out performance.

Program notes:

Great Wagner voices will kick off the festival season in Wiesbaden with a gala concert dedicated to the creator of the “Ring” cycle. Catherine Foster, Klaus Florian Vogt and René Pape, three of the world’s leading Wagner interpreters, will set the stage for a festival which sees two complete runs of the “Ring” being staged during festival month. Klaus Florian Vogt, who is in demand worldwide as Lohengrin, will perform the Swan Knight’s “Grail Narration”, while British soprano Catherine Foster, known internationally for her Bünnhilde (amongst others in the current Castorf-“Ring” in Bayreuth), will interpret key scenes of Wagner’s protagonists Elisabeth (“Tannhäuser”) and Isolde (“Tristan und Isolde”). King Marke is one of René Pape’s famed roles, one which he regularly sings at the Met.