WAGNER.
The name alone can incite fervent discussions about identity, cultural nationalism, musical revolution, the nature of human expression. His vast oeuvre – so complex that its first scholarly edition took nearly half a century to complete – resembles a dense, labyrinthine forest. For decades I found myself hesitant to delve into this territory. Over the course of my operatic career, I’ve had the privilege of an extraordinarily diverse repertoire, yet Wagner always stood dauntingly apart.
There’s no doubt that this impression is largely shaped by the composer’s own self-styling: in his theoretical tracts, Wagner presents himself as a revolutionary malcontent, solely capable of and responsible for a cataclysmic transformation in artistic expression. He makes sweeping denunciations of nearly all opera that precedes him and refuses to apply the term “opera” to his own work. Perhaps Wagner embodies the formidable Nidhogg: the winged serpent of Norse mythology whose arrival heralds a renewal only possible through catastrophic destruction. Wagner, it seems, gnaws at the very roots of opera just as Nidhogg gnaws at the base of Yggdrasil, the tree of the world. And so I delve into the woods.
- Michael Spyres
Championing a broad vocal and instrumental repertoire, ranging from early Baroque to the beginnings of Romanticism, the musicians of Les Talens Lyriques aim to throw light on the great masterpieces of musical history, while providing perspective by presenting rarer or little known works that are important as missing links in the European musical heritage. This musicological and editorial work, which contributes to its renown, is a priority for the ensemble.
