Concert Review: CPO SPRING SYMPHONY SEASON 2026: WAGNER SPECTACULAR
Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jeremy Silver. Soloists: Valerija Iljin (Soprano), Owen Metsileng (Tenor), On Thursday 24 September, 2026.At Cape Town City Hall. ALBERT COMBRINK reviews.
The Cape Town Philharmonic ended their 2026 Spring Symphony Season with a programme that contained neither a concerto nor a symphony, presenting instead, a programme of music taken exclusively from Richard Wagner’s operas. An opera gala might have contained a series of the popular arias and overtures, and an all-orchestral programme might have excluded vocalists altogether. Instead, conductor Jeremy Silver, Director of Opera UCT, presented a selection of music that showcased the orchestral writing, as well as some vocal music, providing a broad overview of this enormous sound-universe that is Richard Wagner – a composer of universal genius.
One can easily be tempted to divide music lovers by taste and genre: Mahler versus Bruckner, opera versus symphony. And, of course, those who “get” Wagner and those who don’t. True Wagnerians brave long evenings in the theatre and make pilgrimages to Bayreuth. Non-Wagnerians occasionally dip a toe into an overture or a wedding march.
It was therefore a real treat to hear two well-filled, but not overstuffed, halves, of carefully selected music: The Overture to The Flying Dutchman, the famous Ride of the Valkyries and, of course, the Prelude & Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde (with soprano) were perhaps the most familiar items. Orchestral excerpts then included the Entry of the Gods into Valhalla from Das Rheingold and Siegfried’s Death and Funeral March from Götterdämmerung, the last of the four epic music dramas that constitute Wagner’s cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. The two singers sang the entire Scene 3 from Act 1 of The Valkyrie.
The concert followed the model of many Wagner recordings of the previous century, focusing on the orchestral excerpts and the star-power of the conductor, rather than an operatic album built around a famous singer: Toscanini conducts Wagner Vol. 1 and 2 date back to 1938; the first of Leopold Stokowsky’s multiple albums was recorded in 1919. In modern times we have had Antal Dorati, Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt… Therefore, while some critics consider these types of excerpts to be antithetical to Wagner’s theatrical vision – referring to them as “bleeding chunks” hacked from larger works – there is an established symphonic tradition for this type of programming. Silver’s clever selection of repertoire made its own case: a completely satisfying mix of familiar and less familiar, as well as a balance of the intimate with the titanic.
The swirling storms of Der Fliegende Holländer indeed made for a titanic opener: the musical depiction of violent, chaotic, and unpredictable currents of the ocean provides metaphor and canvas for the telling of a gripping ghost story of a curse and redemption.
While harking back to earlier operatic models such as Weber, Silver balanced the two aspects of the work – the wild an uncontrollable demonic side (The Dutchman and his spirit sailors) vs. the purity and redemptive element of love (Senta) – providing a thrilling orchestral showcase of impressive technical skill, while, at the end, giving glimpses of the deeper introspection and the floating sound world that was to come, in the first opera of The Ring. The strings were particularly impressive with some lightning-quick finger work and explosive splashes of virtuosity. There was an excitement in the orchestral sound from the first note – the orchestra were happy to play this, and we felt it.
To my taste this is one of the best performances with the CPO I have experienced with Jeremy Silver. His ideas were straightforward and clear; he knew where he was going with each selected excerpt, and the climaxes were perfectly gauged – both in selection of works, and in their performance. Lesser-known excerpts such as the Rheingold and Götterdämmerung held the interest as stand-alone works. The orchestra managed the huge programme with energy and commitment. The brass were heroic throughout, and – kudos to both Silver on the podium and Wagner at his writing desk – there were absolutely no balance problems at all, despite a large orchestra including two harps, two tympani and, at times, eighteen brass players which included some rarely-seen instruments such as the Wagner tubas.
The Ride of the Valkyries showed just how much fun Wagner can be, and when the strings and woodwinds start those trills, you could absolutely see the Valkyries and their horses start to lift off the ground, and when the Double Basses and Brass let loose with the famous tune, you could see them flying through the sky. An absolutely thrilling and memorable moment.
Owen Metsileng
Also memorable was a proudly South African moment, when our own Owen Metsileng took to the stage and threw his hat in the ring as a ‘Wagner tenor’ – the rarest tenor species on the planet. And what a fantastic job he did. Introduced to classical singing by his high school teacher in the village of Manamakghota in Rustenburg, he is one of the success stories of the Tirisano Choral Eisteddfod Competition and the South African Choral Music Association (SACMA) competitions.
Metsileng performed, initially, as a Baritone – Black Tie Ensemble, Cape Town Opera Studio, Third World Bunfight, transitioning to tenor in 2018. He is currently taking on the hugely demanding role of Verdi’s Otello (Staatstheater Meiningen (Germany), Opéra de Lille (France) and La Monnaie/De Munt (Belgium). Metsileng sang Siegmund with deeply felt musicality, a sensitivity to the text, and phrasing that seemed to employ an extra set of bellows – he never seemed to have a moment of anxiety about making it to the end of phrases. He never pushed his voice beyond what it was meant to do, remaining beautiful and carefully placed in all registers. Excellent diction made every word audible, even in the back row of the City Hall and he and the conductor were absolutely locked in on every subtle change of direction. Bravo to Silver and the CPO management for providing a platform at home for our best artists currently working overseas, and for local audiences to also get a taste of what the rest of the world is raving about.
For the Duet from the end of Act 1 of Die Walküre Sieglinde was sung by Lithuanian soprano Valerija Iljin. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, she is a member of Dolora Zajick’s institute of Dramatic Voices and the American Wagner Project. Her various prizes include the Leeds Lieder, Hans Gabor Belvedere, Kathleen Ferrier Award, and the Medici International Music Competition. She has a lovely stage personality, with facial acting and body language presenting a youthful Sieglinde, and later in the programme, a youthful Isolde.
When she opens up at the big climaxes, and especially above the stave, the voice is lovely, and carries over the orchestra, even in the tricky acoustics of the City Hall, which does not favour vocalists. Sieglinde’s music is not a continuous bellow, and Iljin brought many expressive touches to the text in the softer sections. We look forward to hearing where this voice goes in the next decade, as dramatic sopranos tend to hit their peak in their 40s and 50s. Iljin’s Isolde made up for lack of heft with some exquisite floating notes at the finale, bringing to an end one of the highlights of the year.
The 2026 Summer Symphony Season resumes on Thursday 5 November with Rhapsody in Blue featuring Charl du Plessis (Piano) and Arjian Tien (Conductor)
What: CPO Spring Symphony Season Wagner Spectacular review
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