"It Must Have Been the Wagner."

Opera, eroticism and the joys of Penny Dreadful.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Decadence: Eva Greene and Reeve Carney in Penny Dreadful. 

Image © Showtime Network, used for promotional purposes only.

The elaborate Showtime drama Penny Dreadful is a riot: a gleeful mash-up of Gothic literary figures. Framed as a horror/adventure show and taking its title from the cheap novels of the 19th century, Dreadful combines Frankenstein's monster, werewolves, witches, vampires and a possession case similar to The Exorcist into a heady brew of horror, sex and special effects. Now in its second season, the show has become notable not only for its  intense visuals but for its incorporation of the operas of Richard Wagner into its tapestry of Victorian decadence.

Opera Review: The Relief Princess

Iréne Theorin saves WNO Tristan und Isolde.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Iréne Theorin is Isolde in Washington National Opera's Tristan und Isolde.
Photo by Scott Suchman © 2013 Washington National Opera/The Kennedy Center.

For her first production as artistic director of the Washington National Opera, Francesca Zambello chose  Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. One of Wagner's most abstract and ambitious works, this tale of doomed romance  realized at the Kennedy Center in a handsome production imported from Opera Australia. This reviewer attended the Sept. 24 performance, the last of this run to feature the "first" cast.

Isolde Dumps Tristan

Deborah Voight withdraws from WNO Wagner run.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

To sail no more: Deborah Voigt may have sung her last Tristan und Isolde.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2007 The Metropolitan Opera.

One week before the premiere of its new production of Tristan und Isolde, the Washington National Opera had to search for a replacement soprano.

According to a story by Anne Midgette in today's Washington Post, soprano Deborah Voigt has bowed out of the WNO's season-opening run of the Wagner opera. Ms. Midgette also reported that the soprano is considering retiring the role of Isolde (the fiery Irish princess who falls hard for a Cornish knight) from her repertory.

Recordings Review: Efficient German Sex

Marek Janowski's Berlin Tristan und Isolde.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Love, Cornwall Style. This is a detail from Salvador Dali's Mad Tristan, created
as a ballet backdrop for the Metropolitan Opera in 1944.
Image © 1944 The Estate of Salvador Dali.

Marek Janowski's new recording of Tristan und Isolde has arrived, marking the midpoint of the conductor's ambitious plan to issue new live recordings of the ten mature Wagner operas on the PentaTone label in a three-year time-frame. (In case you're wondering, Tannhäuser is next.)