The triumph of the Wilson

With the production of Siegfried, the “Ring for the 21st Century” staged by La Fura dels Baus finally hits its stride.   

By March 21, 2010 at 4:33 PM
41 comments
When projections attack

The Catalan theatre company La Fura dels Baus, under the baton of Zubin Mehta, brought forth a new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in 2007 in Valencia. The brochure for the DVD release calls this “A Ring for the 21st Century” and tells us that stage director Carlus Padrissa has employed “…imagery for…

By February 21, 2010 at 2:06 PM
15 comments
The rise of the Roman empire

Okay, La Cieca has sifted all the evidence thus far, and she has done Pravda-style scrutiny of what was said and what was left unsaid (particularly by Peter Gelb) in the most recent New York Times analysis of the issue, and ignoring the most recent Jeremiads from Rome on account of the fact that pretty…

By December 29, 2009 at 1:41 PM
72 comments
Entry of the God into Valhalla

A new CD set of Der Ring des Nibelungen, recorded live at the Bayreuth Festival in 2008, is slim on superstar casting, but basks in the reflected glory of conductor Christian Thielemann, a controversial artist with a passionate following. So how does the music measure up?

By December 02, 2009 at 11:57 PM
7 comments
Oh, them olden slippers

The ArtHaus Musik DVD of the Deutsches Nationaltheater/Staatskapelle Weimar production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold, stage directed by Michael Shulz, begins with a long still shot: That’s right, this interpretation of Wagner’s epic 19-hour cycle kicks off with a long static shot of… some dirty red boots. It’s gonna be a long Gesamtkunstwerk.

By November 09, 2009 at 2:33 PM
12 comments