Performance Date: May 5, 1990.
Conductor - James Levine. Brunnhilde - Hildegard Behrens, Siegfried - Siegfried Jerusalem, Hagen - Matti Salminen, Waltraute - Christa Ludwig, Gutrune - Hanna Lisowska, Gunther - Anthony Raffell, Alberich - Ekkehard Vlaschiha, First Norn - Gweneth Bean, Second Norn - Joyce Castle, Third Norn - Andrea Gruber; Woglinde - Kaaren Erickson, Wellgunde - Diana Kesling, Flosshilde - Meredith Parsons.
Having watched these two Ring cycles, I am quite worried about how much I would get out of the Bayreuth experience. Two major reasons. One is the lack of subtitles. Although the overall plot is easy enough to understand, it would be difficult to correlate what I see on the stage with where exactly the story is at. Two is that the reviews on this Bayreuth Ring indicate the story is centered around a dysfunctional family (with one could argue is the case with the original story), that the ring is represented by a baby, and that the Valkyries scene is one where people compare the results of their plastic surgeries - instead of collecting heroes to bring to Valhalla. Will I be able to correlate these new interpretations with the original story (which I grasp at only a high level anyway)? We shall see soon enough.
I also discovered these Metopera videos were taken from different Ring cycles, or possibly some stand-alone performances of individual operas. Take the older ring. It would appear Rheingold and Siegfried are from the same cycle, Walkure is from an earlier one, while Gotterdammerung is from a later one. The later Ring comprises of operas performed over two seasons. The first two were conducted by Levine, the second two by Luisi.
With the completion of this video, I have watched 3 cycles via Met on Demand, the prior time, in 2020, being the videos Metopera made available for free during the COVID pandemic. For in-person rings the number is 4: 2009 in Seattle; 2013 and 2019 at the Met; and once over two seasons (2011 and 2012), and not in order. In addition, Die Walkure was my first encounter with any Ring operas - at the Met in 2008, conducted by Lorin Maazel; and Alan Gilbert did Das Rheingold in concert with the New York Philharmonic in 2017.
After all those encounters, I am still lost very often.
No comments:
Post a Comment