The Measure of Inspiration
4 – 10 July 2026
Saturday 4 July
To Munich by plane
Munich, Staatsoper • Tobias Kratzer’s approach to Wagner’s Die Walküre offered the best possible argument for the work’s enduring power by confronting it with a simple, contemporary world. The gods may have kept the trappings of the Ring’s original imagery, but the situations and characters appeared entirely mundane, in the best possible way. Kratzer brilliantly emphasised the key dramatic turns, revealing the work’s multilayered density, and made some choices I had rarely seen before, such as opening Act II on the set from Act I — a solution that, once seen, seems so obvious that I will now question every staging that does otherwise. Much was happening on stage, which made a welcome change from more static approaches that seem to negate opera’s theatrical dimension. This vision was served by a committed and splendid cast, as well as a fiery interpretation from the pit. The few orchestral lapses in Act I were quickly forgotten as Vladimir Jurowski drove the performance with mounting intensity.
Sunday 5 July
Munich, Museum Brandhorst • Located within a strikingly colourful building designed by Sauerbruch Hutton, Museum Brandhorst houses a remarkable collection of contemporary art assembled by Anette Brandhorst, an heiress to the Henkel fortune. The high point of the visit for me was discovering the two Cy Twombly series, Rosen and Lepanto, the latter installed in a spectacular, purpose-built polygonal gallery.
Back to Paris by plane
Tuesday 7 July
Paris, Fondation Louis Vuitton • Bernard Arnault spared no expense organising this concert as a tribute to the recently deceased Frank Gehry, the creative force behind the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s iconic building. Given the modest size of the auditorium, bringing together the Philharmonia Orchestra, Thomas Adès, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yuja Wang and Daniel Lozakovich on the same evening can reasonably be described as an indulgence. The programme was a mixed bag, but the second half, after the orchestra had taken the stage, moved me more: Adès’s thrilling Shanty, followed by Sibelius’s Violin concerto and Symphony No. 7, filled me with elation and tightened my throat.
Thursday 9 July
Paris, Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier • This French-language production of Heinrich von Kleist’s Penthesilea (in the Julien Gracq version) left me so utterly unengaged that I was led to ponder: does theatre lose its potency if it doesn’t appear to engage with our world, to resonate with our everyday experience? Michael Thalheimer’s staging, for all its visual economy and tragic intensity, kept me at bay, and none of the wonderful performances could draw me in.
Friday 10 July
Paris, Théâtre de la Ville • For a few minutes, Hofesh Shechter’s Theatre of Dreams unfolded like a euphoric, rapid-fire cinematic hallucination: travelling curtains and ethereal lights created a succession of visual fragments, some humorous, others mysterious or ominous. And then the novelty wore off, and complacency settled in, culminating in an ill-advised moment of audience participation. Echoes from previous Shechter works crept in. Inspiration is a fickle companion.
And so, for now, the lights dim… until the next act.