... Reimann wrote Lear for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who casts a long shadow. Tómas Tómasson makes the title role effortlessly his own, with a towering performance. Caroline Melzer is a heart-rendingly pure Cordelia, Thomas Ebenstein’s Kent gives us moments of spellbinding lyricism, Irmgard Vilsmaier and Erika Roos are chillingly wicked as Goneril and Regan, Jens Larsen is a commanding Gloster, John Daszak suitably nasty as Edmund, Martin Wölfel a multi-faceted Edgar. Elisabeth Trissenaar lends a trans-gender twist to the spoken role of the Fool, in a performance of affecting restraint. ...
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Letztlich war aber das Orchester des 19. Jahrhunderts durchaus mit seinem zurückhaltenden Klangbild sängerfreundlicher. Andererseits war den Orchestermusikern auf dem Podium vergönnt, die Sänger auch einmal zu hören.
Though billed as a concert performance, the cast was off the book and thought had gone into the presentation with more than just entrances and exits. These characters fully interacted, they existed in their own dramatic space and the singers created a real sense of impulsive, often gripping, drama.
