The festival theme for 2007  was 'Wagner's Ring in Seven Parts', a title which actually meant that over the course of a week a Ring Cycle interspersed with a performance of Tristan and Isolde, two dramatic readings of the entire text of Die Meistersinger and a closing performance of  Parsifal  were  offered in chronological order of composition. Each staged opera performance had the usual Erl mix of up-and-coming young singers assisted by more seasoned professionals.

No-one goes to Erl for spectacular productions however. The available stage space is very restricted and consequently,  room for manoeuvre is very limited especially for the elements requiring large numbers of singers on stage simultaneously. Sets are necessarily very basic  - there is no grid from which to fly scenery for example- and in one sense innovative production concepts are essentially impossible. More importantly though, they are largely irrelevant.

No, the thing that attracts  returning audiences to Erl is the wonderful sound that Gustav Kuhn draws from his orchestra, the extrordinarily clear acoustic in the 1500 seat hall and the freshness of new voices supported by seasoned stalwarts - of which Robert Hale, Phillip Joll (Wotans) and Jürgen Müller and Gianluca Zampiere (Siegfrieds) were just four examples this year.

Each of the three Brünnhildes (Elena Comotti d'Adda, Bettine Kampp and Brigitte Wohlfarth) sang  with power and assurance despite the high temperatures and rather than causing a distraction,  the cast changes made as the cycle progressed added interest due to differences in vocal timbre, appearance and personal styles of acting. Particularly great performances from the stalwarts - Gertrud  Ottenthal (Sieglinde, Gutrune) Martina Tomcic (Fricka) and Monika Waeckerle (Waltraute) were supplemented by some exceptionally rich singing from Svetlana Sidorova as Erda. Andrea Silvestrelli  - a rich and sonorous true bass - offered one of the most menacing Hagens to be seen anywhere and the imported Gibichung chorus was splendidly impressive.

Michela Sburlati (Isolde) and Monika Waeckerle (Brangäne)
 

That Gustav Kuhn has developed into an  exceptionally fine Wagner conductor  - a quality shown throughout  the whole Ring - was underlined firmly by his reading of Tristan und Isolde,  the only other work I was able to see during the festival's second week. It is fair to say that in Act I particularly,  the wealth of detail revealed by Dr Kuhn's fairly brisk reading was as fine as I can remember - and that includes the Stockholm production from 2004 with Nina Stemme as Isolde.

If the singing didn't quite meet the same standard with the exception of Monika Waeckerle's Brangäne and Kurt Rydl's magisterial King Marke, then just for once it really is fair to blame that on the heat in the hall.  Gianluca Zampiere and Michela Sburlati in the title roles did their joint best but hampered as they were by elaborate heavy costumes,  it would have been nothing short of miraculous if they had produced world class performances on this occasion.

2008 is a Passion Play year in Erl and the festival moves to the nearby town of Kufstein where there is a particularly impressive castle. That will probably be as interesting musically as ever but the Erl cognoscenti will doubtless be pining for the discomforts and delights of the Passionsspielhaus. They'll be right to do so: nowhere else could ever have Erl's  magic. Or  Erlkönig  Kuhn, as my colleague Glyn Pursglove points out.