The musical journeys of Richard Wagner come to Spain.

“Siegfried’s Olé in Spain” is the third stop
on the great adventure of Ben Lierhouse. The German producer had a feeling
the great music of Richard Wagner would travel well and soak up local
rhythms and melodies.

What surprised Lierhouse in 1999 – that an Afro-Cuban percussionist
might spontaneously add his instrument to a Wagnerian recording and make
it sound natural, is inevitable – has been repeated in a half dozen
countries: the great Wagner handily combines with outside influences.

The work was carried out in Havana and New York. Lierhouse had originally
intended to combine flamenco with the German composer and ended up embracing
the whole of Iberian music.

There’s plenty of flamenco in “Siegfried’s Olé
in Spain”, with the great Gerardo Núñez demonstrating
his astonishing ability, but there’s also an Aragonese jota, a muñeira
from Galicia, a Portuguese fado and of course, a “pasodoble”.
Spanish folklore happily wed to Wagner.

“Siegfrieds Olé in Spain” is, like the other titles
in the series, the result of a global production. Before going into the
studio pianist Pepe Rivero, a Cuban living in Madrid, worked for months
on the arrangements. Musicians like Bobby Martínez, Jerry González,
Alain Pérez and Rivero himself pulled together with Spanish artists
Germán Díaz López and Gerardo Núñez
to create a polished and fascinating work.

And the voices. Prestigious names, from Eva Durán to Gema Corredera.
First-class soloists like Málaga singer Pasión Vega, Afro-Spanish
Concha Buika and Chilean Dolores García Salas. The orchestral arrangements
were added in Hamburg. More than two years of work, endless travelling,
negotiations and last-minute adjustments. “Siegfrieds Olé
in Spain” brings a Wagner never before heard, reinvented and taken
from that Arian musical niche.

This audacious project comes as a DVD plus CDs, and the symbol of the
maestro’s image means it’s possible to hear the original passage
in order to compare. Surprise and enjoyment guaranteed.