This weekend kicked off FestspieleZürich, this year's edition called "Treibhaus Wagner" (Wagner Greenhouse) in reference to a song from the Wesendonck Lieder based on Mathilde Wesendonck's poem "Im Treibhaus", below, Kirsten Flagstad gets lush with the Wiener Phil/Knappertsbusch in 1956.
In this bicentennial Wagner birth year, Switzerland's largest city celebrates the nine Zürich years (1849 - 1858) that he lived/composed with a program, running through July 14, of ballet, theater, concerts, art exhibitions, lectures -- and of course, opera -- like a Hollander with Terfel and a premiere of Bellini's La straniera starring Edita Gruberova in a Christof Loy production conducted by Luisi. The rest includes Rusalka, Lady Macbeth, Salome, Rigoletto, Der Rosenkavalier and Don Giovanni.