Alexander Liebreich, conducts the Taipei Symphony Orchestra (TSO) in performances of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde this week, on 16 and 19 September, at the Taipei Performing Arts Center’s Grand Theatre. He has been Chief Conductor of the orchestra since January 2026.
Two seasoned Wagnerians take on the title roles. Swedish tenor Michael Weinius and Armeinian soprano Lianna Haroutounian. Liebreich and Weinius have enjoyed many collaborations over the years, including performances of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Salome with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR).
The Taipei staging is directed by Christian Räth, in a production originally created for The Dallas Opera, where it premiered in 2012. Noted for its striking video projections by Elaine J. McCarthy, the production has been restaged in Taipei with Associate Director Birgit Kajtna-Wönig and lighting designer Thomas Hase.
Wagner has shaped Alexander Liebreich’s career from early on. In 1996 he won the International Kirill Kondrashin Conducting Competition in Amsterdam, conducting music from Wagner’s Tannhäuser — an early triumph that helped establish him as a specialist of the large German Romantic repertoire. That reputation has continued growing throughout his career: he conducted celebrated performances of Wagner’s Die Walküre with soprano Anja Kampe, among many other Wagner excursions across his tenures with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, NOSPR and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Later this year, Liebreich will conduct selections from Parsifal with the Orquesta de València, of which he is also Chief Conductor, again with Michael Weinius as Parsifal who will be joined by star mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča as Kundry, at the Palau de la Música de Valencia. Liebreich’s contract in Valencia has recently been extended for another 5 seasons.
The Grand Theater in Taipei, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas together with David Gianotten of OMA, in collaboration with Taiwanese architect Kris Yao, is one of the most distinctive new performing arts spaces in Asia.
Cast:
Conductor: Alexander Liebreich
Director: Christian Räth
Tristan: Michael Weinius
Isolde: Lianna Haroutounian
Kurwenal: Michael Kupfer-Radecky
Brangäne: Stefanie Iranyi
König Mar: Wen-I Tseng
Melot: Moritz Kallenberg
Taipei Male Choir; Taipei Symphony Orchestra
Associate Director: Birgit Kajtna-Wönig; Projection Designer: Elaine McCarthy; Lighting Designer: Thomas Hase; Original production created by The Dallas Opera.