Reviews

A first performance in Colombia of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman with Stefan Lano conducting the Bogotá Philharmonic and the velvet warmth and highly expressive rendition of Colombian soprano, Betty Garcés as Senta.

Zenaida des Aubris, 05. März 2026

... For die-hard Wagnerians, however, the ultimate test of a performance lies in the orchestra pit. It was here that the evening reached its most impressive moments and climax. Swiss conductor Stefan Lano—an experienced interpreter of Wagner’s music dramas—led the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá in a performance brimming with vitality and nuance. From the very first bars of the Overture, Lano shaped the music with an architectural sense of drama.

The storm music swelled restless waves, with brass and timpani shaping the elemental energy of the opera, while the strings maintained a tense, driving undercurrent throughout. Nevertheless, the performance never descended into mere volume: Lano elicited an impressive transparency from the orchestra, which allowed the inner voices—especially the woodwinds—to emerge with almost chamber-music-like clarity. The Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá responded to his conducting with impressive discipline and musical imagination. The strings produced a luminous brilliance in Senta’s more introspective passages; their phrasing was smooth and expressive. The brass—so crucial to Wagner’s orchestral palette—sounded both heroic and finely balanced, lending the whole a sense of weight without seeming heavy. Particularly noteworthy was the orchestra’s ability to master Lano’s often brisk tempos while maintaining cohesion and dramatic focus. Here was an ensemble fully immersed in the drama paying close attention to the shaping of the long, Wagnerian lines as shaped by the conductor which resulted in the orchestra assuming the dramatic figure of the central narrator of the evening supporting the psychological turbulence of Lombardero's stunning production.

The National Choir of Colombia also contributed significantly to the dramatic effect. Wagner’s score divides the chorus into strongly contrasting groups, and the ensemble seized this opportunity with enthusiasm. The chorus of sailors possessed a powerful, unified sonority that suggested the camaraderie of life at sea, while the women’s spinning chorus brought a lighter, almost playful tone. When the villagers attempt to provoke a reaction from the silent crew of the Flying Dutchman’s ship, the choral score takes on an eerie theatrical tension—a tension that the Bogotá choir conveyed with remarkable precision.

Judging by the audience’s warm applause, this first Wagner opera will not be the last on the stage of the beautiful Teatro Mayor, as all three performances sold out quickly. It is hoped that this production will serve as a prelude to a broader engagement by Colombia with Wagner’s extensive and captivating theatrical universe.