Aunt Cieca is on the case
Once again we have an email from a budding member of the cher public (and you know La Cieca never could resist a budding member), so put on your thinking caps, cher hive mind, and offer a little advice:
I would like to learn more about the Ring cycle, I only know the orchestral “good parts” and wonder if you or your chers could recommend which DVD set I should try: The traditional Met production with James Morris, The Chereau/Bayreuth with Dame Gwyneth, or the newer Copenhagen with the flappers, naked swimmer and Valkyries on top of the Chrysler Building(?) Or another I don’t know about. I’m surprised the Seattle “green” Ring hasn’t been filmed and look forward to Robert LePage at the Met. But in the meantime….
In making your recommendations, cher public, please feel free to use YouTube and the Macy’s Accessory Wall, thoughtfully.
ACD: “….as Thielemann is without question one of the greatest Wagner conductors of the past and this century”.
Surely you are joking? That version of his Triatan with Moser & Voigt is one of the worst I have listened to. As for the conducting, moment after moment is imply skated over. It is vile.
I suggest the Met Levine DVDs as closest to being a traditional staging. I also suggest the Bayreuth Boulez Chereau DVDs for the acting and psychological “realism.” A few comments on the above… Jessye Norman just doesn’t work as Sieglinde in the Met set, but I do like James Morris’ Wotan and Behrens’ Brunnhilde. The Volsung twins in the Bayreuth set are fantastic, sexy, and actually look like each other. Of course, Dame Gwyneth’s Brunnhilde is out of sight. Conclusion: see both!
Odd, my opinion is the diametric opposite. I know Norman is black but that bothered me not in the least. Her singing is superb. I found Behrens very under-powered for Brunnhilde and Morris rather weak of voice as Wotan.
La Cieca is not bothered by Norman’s pigmentation but rather by her mannered grandiosity as so human a character. Basically, though, Jessye Norman will always be miscast as a human being.
She was at her best as Cassandra. Best operatic performance I have ever seen on film, period. Love her Sieglinde, but it is odd to hear her next to Behrens’ Brunnhilde: it makes you think they should have switched roles.
Thanks so much for posting this! I will forever worship at the altar of NORMAN…
The costume designer for this Dido clearly took his inspiration from nature
Cieca, do you mean Norman should be an intergalactic Amidala? The dress kinda work already, and if that voice isn’t (wasn’t) good enough for a Sieglinde, God help us all.
Ok, I’ll take my lumps.
My clarification on Norman’s Sieglinde is that I find it ludicrous to pair her up with a slim white guy and then have them both go on and on about being “separated at birth,” “You’re like looking in a mirror,” etc. Yes, her singing is strong, but her appearance is MASSIVE, as in too damn large, especially when her brother is SO not as large or anywhere near. Ok, I’m being look-ist here. So, in case you’re wondering, yes, I would’ve been happier if her Siegmund had been a fat black tenor, then at least they would’ve had the twin thing going strong. As it stands on the video. NOT.
Uh…this is the first time any one has referred to Gary Lakes as ‘slim’. They are matched in physical size, but not in vocal size: Norman’s voice matches the grandeur of her physique. She is the only performer who actually used her size to her advantage: she seemed grand, not fat.
But yes, they are not beleivable as twins.
I was going on memory (apparently slimming Monsieur Lakes). And yet Norman remains twice his size…
I’m sure Monsieur Lakes appreciates it!
My general rule of thumb for any opera is listen or watch more than one version. Why pick only one? Multiple productions give you the opportunity to decide which approach you like, and different casts offer various strengths and weaknesses in any given opera. Actually, The Met is in the process of posting all of their archives to the their website and for a relatively low monthly subscription, you can watch or hear as many different performances as you want to, including the Ring.
I would say, for the first ring, rent the Met’s version (which is wonderful) and then BUY either the Boulez of Barenboim Ring Cycles from Bayreuth. Both are excellent, and I like Harry Kupfer’s production for Barenboim more than I do Chearau’s for Boulez. Barenboim also has John Tomlinson, at the height of his powers, as Wotan. Amazing.
I’d actually suggest something else: going to the library or bookstore and buying a mythology book, where you can read up on the Nordic and Teutonic myths on which Wagner based his Ring Cycle. For me reading those myths helped me understand the story much better when I actually saw a performance.
What does everybody think of Kupfer’s Bayreuth production, with Barenboim on the helm? I was quite pleased by the same director’s ideas for the Rheingold they shot in Barcelona, but the singing and camerawork rendered the DVD all but unwatchable.
And it looks like the Valencia Ring is going to be coming out on DVD, is that right? Did anybody see this, or at least the HD broadcast? The stills are stunning.
Idiot. See Baritenor, above.
Kupfer actually reused, recognizably bits of staging from his Bayreuth staging for Barcelona. I don’t think the singing is that bad, though it is certainly a come-down from the Bayreuth Staging. It’s one of John Treleavan’s better Siegfrieds, I recall. And It’s interesting to see compare Graham Clark’s performances as Loge and Mime. The man is ageless.
By Valencia Ring u mean Mehta/Fura dels Baus, I presume…
I saw some of the broadcast. I was struck my some images – Valkyries at beginning of Sigfried/Act3 gathering bodies (real mimes?) and piling them up on a great big bloody swinging net! It was like seeing a giant ball of twine made of … people!
But really, the costumes and Personenregie was quite commonplace, almost MET-like. I don’t know Fura dels Baus’s work but it seemed very tame considering their reputation.
Dare I go out on a limb and say Wagner’s Ring is the last thing one wants to be safe about? I have both Kupfer’s, the Stuttgart Ring, the Copenhagen Ring, The Met Ring, the Amsterdam Ring, and the Chereau Ring. Of all these, it is the Chereau I come to most often. Why? I think of all these Ring’s, Chereau gets the drama right more often than the others. It is also, believe it or not, one of the most beautiful Rings.
To the twenty-first century neophyte, I think this nearly 35 year old production would make a good place to start.
Yes! A perfect example of how Chereau was able to stage the human element of the drama and coax such performances from the singers. And as to the beauty of this production, note in the next clip how effective the explosion if color is:
I think you’re right. The Chereau is a good, coherent place to start for a DVD performance, but honestly, I’d start with a good audio version, either the Solti or the Boehm version. Wonderful performances from some great singers. (Nilsson will spoil you for other Brunnhildes, however.) Follow a libretto and learn it that way before subjecting yourself to a staged performance. Then you watch whatever appeals.
Or here: http://parterre.com/podcast/podderdammerung.rss
Thanks, La Cieca. Am downloading the podcasts now.
“subjecting yourself to a stage performance” ?
Huh? It was written for the stage.
The idea of an audio-only version would have been completely outside the experience of the composer and everyone alive at his time.
Especially when any language barrier can now be overcome with translated titles, seeing and hearing the piece as a whole seems ideal.
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
What ever version you choose, I think Earnest Newman’s THE WAGNER OPERAS is essential to own. I played the Met DVD’s and followed along with his book. I don’t know how any potential Wagnerite could live without it.
How very true, Noel Dahling.
I always found Ms Russell’s commentary quite insightful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM15dEexiu0
Or try William Berger’s book ‘Wagner without Fear’. Besides his casual approach, I did get quite a lot about the Ring out of it.
As for Ring DVDs, I thought the Met version was a good start. The story comes through without much of a director’s commentary, and I found that a good foundation for watching other versions that have more pronounced points of view.
Honestly, I think the met DVD gets a bad rep. Just because it eventually became something of a schmaltz-fest, doesn’t mean Schenk didn’t bring some real insight into the operas. Look at the farewell scene in Walkure…There is some intense emotion and a lot of chemistry being generated between Morris and the late, lamented Hildegaurd Behrens. And for Christsakes, It’s Christa Ludwig as Fricka. How does it get better than that?
for Christsakes, It’s Christa Ludwig as Fricka. How does it get better than that?
Better than that would be Christa Ludwig 20 years earlier when she could still sing the part and not just “manage” it.
Oh, I think Ludwig does much more than “manage” the part. Sure, she didn’t have the same roundness of tone and all that by the late 80s, but her Fricka was still quite moving.
Cieca, it’s true, by the late 80s Ludwig’s Fricka and Waltraute both had an overlay of “amazingly preserved quality” over them. And this is not really as thrilling
as a performance where the singer doesn’t have to steer carefully through the part.
But all in all, Ludwig does much better with this kind of compromise than a lot of other singers. For instance
late Sutherland really got on my nerves.
And personally, I was thrilled to see her do these two roles even at the late stage of her career. I was a big Ludwig fan but was disappointed that I hadn’t seen
her in any of her big Wagner roles other than Kundry.
So these late appearance were welcome to me, particularly the Waltraute.
So even though Ludwig’s a bit of a “leftover” on the DVDs, it’s a leftover of a really terrific meal