Simon O’Neill: Wagner Gala

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anthony Legge

Few tenors have reached the summit of singing as quickly and decisively as New Zealand’s own Simon
O’Neill. One of the most gifted and distinguished singers of his generation, O’Neill has worked with some of the world’s finest conductors including Boulez, Gergiev, Pappano and Barenboim. He has also performed in leading roles at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and Covent Garden, and in 2010, O’Neill makes his illustrious La Scala debut with Die Walküre.

Wagner’s epic operas require a superhuman breed of singer to contend with the incredible demands of the music. The Heldentenor (heroic tenor) is the powerful voice of Siegfried, Tristan, Parsifal and Lohengrin, and must deliver the intensity of demigods, knights and lovers. The rousing music calls for an orchestra, and voice, as radiant as it is room-filling and it is fitting that O’Neill should answer the call.

Hear the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and today’s leading Wagnerian tenor perform highlights from the Ring Cycle, Parsifal and Lohengrin with orchestral interludes from Wagner’s operas – a banquet of delights for opera-lovers!

WAGNER :
Lohengrin: Introduction to Act III
In fernem Land
Siegfried: Selige Öde auf wonniger Höh!
Die Walküre: Ein Schwert verhiess mir der Vater
Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond
Ride of the Valkyries
Parsifal: Amfortas! Die Wunde!
Good Friday Spell
Nur eine Waffe taugt
Götterdämmerung: Siegfried’s Rhine Journey
Brünnhilde! Heilige Braut!/Trauermusik
Conductor Anthony Legge
Tenor Simon O’Neill
Presented by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in association with the
New Zealand International Arts Festival.
Image Lisa Kohler
Duration: 1 hr 30