The Vargas Blog

The August 11 performance of Parsifal that I attended at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus was filmed and shown in Europe on the Arte Network ....

-->  Parsifal , a work that in 1882 Richard Wagner labeled a “Stage-consecrating Festival Drama,” was never to be heard outsi...

After the first act of Tannhäuser finished, I stepped outside and filmed the following video. Be sure that that hopeful smile on my fa...

Here is a short video I took of the Verstummte Stimmen exhibition that is currently just outside of the Bayreuth Festspilehaus , in the g...

The first thing that you have to get over in order to strain some type of enjoyment from the current production of Lohengrin at ...

This photo, taken with my iPhone, does not do justice to the interior of the Margravial Opera House, but at least it gives you an idea of ...

The Festspielhaus does a good job of welcoming newcomers.   At least that’s how I felt yesterday after stepping inside the audit...

The Margravial Opera House (Markgräfliches OperHaus) is one of the last surviving European theatres dating back to the mid 1700s...

From the very first measures of its famous overture, in a great production of Der fliegende Holländer we are transported to the middle of...

Things are getting curiouser and curiouser at Bayreuth these days.  A little over 72 hours after bass-baritone Yevgeny Nikitin made an ex...

The Bayreuth Festival has announced that bass-baritone Samuel Youn will replace Yevgeny Nikitin in the title role of Der fliegende Holl...

Major controversy has erupted at the Bayreuth Festival mere days before opening night.  Russian bass baritone Yevgeny Nikitin , who was t...

So far, Bayreuth has not released any pictures from the new production of Der fliegende Holländer by Jan Philipp Gloger which will open...

When is an expected prequel not a prequel? When director Ridley Scott decides to revisit his classic 1979 film Alien .  The director is b...

When I was a grade school lad back in the late sixties and early seventies, I remember I used to hurry home from school to watch Dark Shad...

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau 's voice was one of my first operatic experiences.  Decca had repackaged the Sir Georg Solti Ring and was e...

The Metropolitan Opera will premiere its new Parsifal next season.  It is a production conceived by François Girard that just had its prem...

Ever since he broke the ban on encores at the Metropolitan Opera a few seasons ago in the new production of La Fille du Régiment, Juan Die...

The Metropolitan Opera announced this week its 2012-2013 lineup. It features exciting new productions, a totally new work, and a a good cr...

After being on the waiting list for about nine years, which of course felt more like nine centuries (there's an Italian bel canto line i...