DVD of the month

The Copenhagen Ring - winner of The Gramophone Award 2009 (DVD)

Recording of the month

Kirsten Flagstad: Volume 1, The Early Recordings 1914-1941

Important years in Richard Wagner's life

1813 born in Leipzig
1834 Die Feen completed
1843 Holländer premiere
1845 Tannhäuser premiere
1850 Lohengrin premiere
1852 text of Rheingold and Walküre
1854 Das Rheingold completed
1856 Die Walküre completed
1859 Tristan completed
1865 Tristan premiere in Munich
1868 Meistersinger premiere
1869 Das Rheingold premiere
1870 Die Walküre premiere
1871 Siegfried completed
1874 Götterdämmerung completed
1876 First Festival in Bayreuth
1882 Parsifal premiere
1883 Wagner dies in Venice

Waltraud Meier

Waltraud Meier's talent, perfectionism, charisma, unmatched stage presence, text studies and complete devotion to the art of singing has made her one of the greatest opera singers of our time. She is a great actress as well, and is open-minded to experimental stagings. She constantly refines her art.

Waltraud Meier was born in Würzburg in 1956. She made her debut in 1976 at the Würzburg Opera as Lola in "Cavalleria rusticana". In 1980, she made her international début at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires as Fricka in "Die Walküre".

After the success as Kundry at the Bayreuth Festival in 1983 her career moved up to a new level. The following years she regularly appeared at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Metropolitan, La Scala, Opéra national de Paris, Wiener Staatsoper and Bayerische Staatsoper.

In 1993 she sang Isolde for the first time, in Heiner Müller's production in Bayreuth, a sensational debut despite her conflicts with the producer. This production is now one of the classic productions from the Bayreuth Festival, and recently issued on DVD.

In 1995 she recorded Tristan und Isolde with Daniel Barenboim conducting. Her interpretations of Kundry, Isolde, Ortrud, Venus and Sieglinde in many productions around the world has made her one of the greatest Wagner singers of our time. Waltraud Meier lives in Munich.

In 2009 Waltraud Meier announced that she is not going to include Brünnhilde into her repertoire.

Liebestod Theme: Waltraud Meier as Isolde in different productions

The documentary about Waltraud Meier on Amazon