A bridge not quite far enough
The fact: the rainbow bridge worked tonight in Rheingold at the Met, and the effect was “spectacular.” (All right, that last part was an opinion. But, moving on.)
The rumor: “everyone” at the Met knew “well in advance” that the rainbow bridge would not be attempted at Monday night’s opening performance.
Way, WAY off topic (but I’m not the first ever to hijack a thread on parterre)–has anyone else listened to the “Wozzeck” CD in the Levine/40th collection? The one with Anja Silja and Jose Van Dam…
Call me crazy, but the 2nd CD (acts 2 and 3) sounds like a different performance, different cast and different year. It is undoubtedly Hildegard Behrens on the 2nd CD. I don’t know who the baritone is but it is NOT van Dam. The orchestra/stage balance is different on the 2nd CD and it sounds like a “better” orchestra too. Do any other parterrians hear this too?
Nothing in the liner notes give any hint of this (naturally)–am I hearing things? someone back me up on this…
I was there last night too. I was entranced and delighted. But there was one effect no one has mentioned that was my favorite. The resume for Freia should contain the word daredevil. I loved it when freia laid down in the long net and the part of the “machine” where she was located went out from under her and she was suspended by the net. And then they piled the gold on her. And from where I was sitting(parterre box 2 seat 5) it looked like the 2 giants assembled the whole contraption. That took some trust on freia’s part. Blythe was just sublime. She effortlessly flung her huge voice out into the house. I detected no wobble in terfel’s voice live in the house. I wish his voice was a size bigger, but he otherwise sang well. Who would have thought that alberich would be the star performer in this starry cast, but he got and deserved the best ovation of the night. Sitting where I was I could see into the wings during the curtain calls. It appeared that levine was walking with the help of 2 men and a cane. He handed the cane off as blythe came and took his hand. He held on for dear life. I don’t see how he will keep up with his schedule. It was nice to have him back in the pit and there was a lot of love for him in the house.
OT — Hampson and Michael are the venomous Scots, live from Chicago, just starting on WFMT
Long-time voyeur of this site, first-time poster. Please be gentle with me!
Am interested by the correspondence over the new Lepage Ring. I saw his production of Midsummer Night’s Dream at the National Theatre in London in 1992. BIG and ambitious production but you couldn’t hear a bloody word for many avoidable reasons.
The Olivier has a notoriously difficult acoustic.
He cast pretty young film actors who couldn’t project (Ruper Graves being the worst culprit but at least he got his cock out to compensate).
His Puck was a French-Canadian aerialist whose accent was so thick she might as well have been speaking Tamil.
He set it in a mudbath with at least an inch of water across the (vast) stage and the constant splashing was so loud it drowned out almost every word.
And I was in the 3rd row!
But it was spectacular in a way I’ve never seen since.
For me the ransom of Freia (in that silly hammock) and the murder of Fasolt are the two moments that especially do not work in this production, and I’d like them to be rethought. (Dream on, Hansel.) The Rhinemaidens also looked especially graceless, ergo unfishy, in their admittedly terrifying maneuvers, and did not sing too impressively. (Actually I liked Mumford’s vibrato.)
No, Terfel is not a Wotan … but he wasn’t terrible either (as I’d half-expected he’s be). It is difficult to think of someone today who could do the role justice. Maybe there’s a German or two that we haven’t heard….
FWIW, Hans, I’ve surely missed your presence here. Hope all is better or getting that way.
Would it not be Eric Owens’ type of voice that might be more suitable in colour and maybe timbre??
When does your Norma article appear or has it already?
Cordially,
C