Theatre of the Mind

In the past decade, the Berlin Philharmonic have spent the Easter weekend in Baden Baden, where their programmes have often featured a concert or semi-staged opera as the centrepiece. Although this year saw the orchestra return to Salzburg for the Easter Festival, they continued the tradition of bringing their festival opera back to Berlin for a one-off performance at the Philharmonie. These post-Easter opera evenings have frequently been a highlight of the season – recall, for example, the excellent recent performances of Die Frau ohne Schatten and Elektra – and this year the orchestra, under the direction of Kirill Petrenko, turned their attention to nothing less than Das Rheingold, the Vorabend of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

The advantages and disadvantages of operas in concert performance are perhaps nowhere more pronounced than in Wagner.…