New Ring
Mike Scott Rohan
CD set -- the 2008 Bayreuth Ring, Thielmann of course conducting. And
coming soon after that is the Tristan on DVD.
Cheers,
Mike
Mike Scott Rohan
And the complete Valencia Ring is announced on DVD for 16th November
in Europe. Don't yet know the label, but am pursuing it. This is the
rather strange staging with the acrobatic Valhalla and gods on
gantries etc. What I've seen so far I rather like, as modern stagings
go; it tells the story and it keeps the mythical dimension -- no gods
in business suits here. Juha Uusitalo's Wotan looks curiously like the
second guitar of the band Nightwish...
Cheers,
Mike
Bert Coules
> And the complete Valencia Ring is announced on DVD for 16th November
> in Europe. Don't yet know the label, but am pursuing it. This is the
> rather strange staging with the acrobatic Valhalla and gods on
> gantries etc.
Rather more inviting a prospect for me personally than the Bayreuth cycle.
Thanks for the info.
Bert
Albekling
dbrow...@gmail.com
> http://www.cmajor-entertainment.com/flyer/WagnerRingFlyer.pdf
This is the one with Loge riding in on a Segway, isn't it? Sorry all
you traditionalists--this is a great production!
Bert Coules
> And the complete Valencia Ring is announced on DVD for 16th November
> in Europe. Don't yet know the label, but am pursuing it. This is the
> rather strange staging with the acrobatic Valhalla and gods on
> gantries etc.
The is the La Fura dels Baus production, isn't it? The Rheingold has been
shown on Sky Arts and is repeated this week: tomorrow night, I think.
Bert
Mike Scott Rohan
That's it. And, yes, DBrowne, the Segway as well. And I am a
traditionalist, and I like it a lot, for good reason. Why is the
debate always presented as between self-conscious, deformative
"modernism" on the one hand, and straw beards and canvas backdrops on
the other? What concerns me is that stagings ought to dramatise the
Ring rather than the current producer's gloss on it. They can do that
well in any terms, from the most antiquated to the super-modern. What
matters far more is content.
I much prefer a romantic staging, because it fits the music more
closely; but if an alternative vision can approach that in power, fair
enough. Unlike the modernists I'm not trying to enforce an orthodoxy.
The Valencia Ring works in its own terms. It's visionary and exciting,
and -- unlike almost all the currently orthodox stagings-- it doesn't
duck or devalue the mythological dimension. It tells Wagner's story
with Wagner's characters, in a vivid and lively fashion (mostly --
Alberich, as usual these days, is geriatric) and it fits the music
well.
The label, incidentally, appears to be Unitel itself. Unfortunately
I've been having troubles with their German site, so no more details
yet -- any gratefully received, in fact, including a UK distributor so
we can get it into the office.
By the way, I am supposed to be reviewing the new CD Thielmann Ring,
and will report as and when. Would have had it by now, except it
appears the BBC post room lovingly stuck the frank label over the
address. There goes the license money, folks!
Cheers,
Mike
Bert Coules
very impressive it was. I think it's the most overtly *theatrical*
production I've ever seen, by which I mean that it uses a good deal of the
sort of stage artifice that's common in the straight theatre but very rare
in opera, even now.
So yes, the gods for the most part move around on cantilevered platform-lift
gantries operated by two or three men, but men and gantries aren't actually
there, if you take my meaning: they're not part of the world being presented
and we have to accept their invisibility (which I, at least, did, very
quickly indeed). The giants have similar arrangements but their lifts
supported not small platforms for them to stand on but huge mechanical
figures in which the singers stood. The performers - the singing
performers, since the platform operators are clearly performers too - have a
certain amount of control over the movement of the giant figures' arms,
though not enough for anything much beyond vague gesturing.
The Rhinemaidens inhabit individual glass tanks full of water - and they
spend a fair bit of their time *under* the water, which is impressive - and
the tanks can rise and fall most impressively but not fast enough to
simulate vertical swimming, which means that the
Alberich-chases-the-Rhinemaidens sequence rather went for nothing.
The production's great triumph is the huge video-wall which backs the stage,
and the truly spectacular video sequences which are shown on it. Some of
these are quite breathtaking: the descent into Nibelheim is like nothing
I've ever seen on a stage, operatic or otherwise.
This wall, and a few flyable gantries, constitute pretty much the whole of
the scenery.
Characterisation was fine, with gods and giants played absolutely straight
and Loge nicely cynical and with no gimmicks beyond a highly strokable
beard. Alberich I was less sure of: why can't we have a young, strong,
silkily dangerous Alberich instead of the ageing, initially bumbling figure
that seems to be fairly universal even in these avant-garde productions?
There were some inevitable sillinesses, and some things that simply didn't
work - the giants' lack of manoeuvrability made the killing of Fasolt a bit
of a nothingness, the piling of the gold contradicted the dialogue all over
the place, Erda's entrance and exit were something less than awesome, and
curiously, given what was surely possible with the setup at their disposal,
the rainbow bridge was essentially non-existent until way too late. And the
costuming was a very mixed bag: the generously-proportioned Matti Salminen
deserves some kind of medal for gamely taking his curtain call in a
figure-hugging silver body stocking and a black breech-cloth (decently
concealed when he was in his giant-figure), and I still haven't quite
figured out why Loge was wearing a cross between a tent and a sleeping bag.
I wasn't too impressed with the TV production which all too frequently
presented closeups when what I wanted was a view of the whole stage; and
there was one massive cop-out when, just after Alberich-the-toad had been
captured, we were given a lengthy shot of Zubin Mehta conducting away (the
only time it happened during the action) presumably to cover some very
awkward stage business as Loge, Wotan and Alberich got aboard their
hoist-platform and had themselves strapped in (damned health and safety
striking again). How do they manage this live, and why didn't we see it, I
wonder? Perhaps they only filmed a single performance and something went
drastically wrong.
But overall, a marvellous show and one I'd love to see in the theatre.
Rereading this, I see I haven't mentioned the musical side. It was OK.
Bert
Giuseppe Sottotetti
> and
> there was one massive cop-out when, just after Alberich-the-toad had been
> captured, we were given a lengthy shot of Zubin Mehta conducting away (the
> only time it happened during the action) presumably to cover some very
> awkward stage business as Loge, Wotan and Alberich got aboard their
> hoist-platform and had themselves strapped in (damned health and safety
> striking again). How do they manage this live, and why didn't we see it, I
> wonder? Perhaps they only filmed a single performance and something went
> drastically wrong.
Or the tv producer was just idiot, it happens quite often. The show was
absolutely breathtaking and people who watched it in theater have told
me it's absolutely riveting.
--
Giuseppe Sottotetti
gso...@alice.it
http://sottotettigiuseppe.ilcannocchiale.it/
Bert Coules
coverage to have been one single unbroken shot from the centre of the stalls
of the entire stage, with no closeups or other editing at all. It's a pity
that this option isn't offered as an alternative on the DVD (assuming that
it isn't).
Actually - and I've said this here before - I'd quite like *all* operas
filmed live to be done that way.
Bert
Mike Scott Rohan
I'm inclined to agree, although there are cases where close-up can
intensify the impact of the performance. As I've mentioned before,
when I discussed this with various producers and directors, Dennis
Marks, Humphrey Burton, Brian Large and others all singled out the
close-up as the great liberating instrument of video direction. Used
sensibly, one can see what they mean -- in the recent film of La
Boheme, for example, with Netrebko and Villazon. But in live
performances it can be a liability, certainly, and needs more
discretion. Brian Large in the Met Ring used one or two carefully pre-
shot closeups, to very good effect.
That cut to the conductor I agree is annoying, and breaks the stage
illusion -- if that's the word. It's totally outside the UK tradition
in opera video direction. In the US, though, they tend to hang onto
the conductor till the last moment, as in the Met Ring, where you're
seeing far too much of Jimmy Levine during some of the most
atmospheric music -- SIegfried Act III intro, for example; though at
least they don't break into the action. That does happen in Europe,
though, and particularly -- no offence, Giuseppe -- in Italy. I still
remember one La Scala broadcast of Norma (still found on the historic
circuit, I think) with Caballe, in which the camera would wander off
stage at will, particularly onto the conductor -- Abbado, I think --
but also meandering up and down the theatre, over the audience, the
ceiling or whatever, in an almost stoned fashion. The tenor's entrance
was completely missed; you just heard a couple of distant voices on
stage, while staring down the stalls. The effect was hilarious, in its
fashion; but thank god it wasn't Wagner!
Cheers,
Mike
Giuseppe Sottotetti
> That does happen in Europe,
> though, and particularly -- no offence, Giuseppe -- in Italy.
No offence, I hate chauvinism. I own an excellent broadcast of Cos� fan
tutte at La Scala marred by too many close-ups of Muti.
Talking about Wagner operas on video I dislike the images that fill the
orchestral passages in the Bayreuth videos: sometimes it's bad taste,
sometimes they are absurd. In the otherwise good Sinopoli Tannhauser,
Wolfgang Wagner decides to cut the ouverture and lead us straight in the
bacchanale although he is following the Dresden version.
wagnerfan
news:4af9e54d$0$1107$4faf...@reader3.news.tin.it...
So there is no overture in the Sinopoli Bayreuth Tannhauser video???????
Wagner Fan
Bert Coules
I remain convinced that the cutaway to Mehta was born of desperation rather
than anything else: I think they simply didn't have any usable footage of
what was happening on stage for those moments.
For a totally different approach to filming live Wagner, I'm rather fond of
the Copenhagen Ring (though I haven't yet seen G�tterd�mmerung) which
doesn't even pretend to offer a view from the house, mid-stalls or
otherwise. Its extreme closeups, odd angles and rapid cutting make it
almost more of a documentary about the stage production than a
representation of it.
Bert
Mike Scott Rohan
> Mike,
>
> I remain convinced that the cutaway to Mehta was born of desperation rather
> than anything else: I think they simply didn't have any usable footage of
> what was happening on stage for those moments.
Or it may just be the cult of personality. Conductors do sometimes
insist on being seen.
>
> For a totally different approach to filming live Wagner, I'm rather fond of
> the Copenhagen Ring (though I haven't yet seen Götterdämmerung) which
> doesn't even pretend to offer a view from the house, mid-stalls or
> otherwise. Its extreme closeups, odd angles and rapid cutting make it
> almost more of a documentary about the stage production than a
> representation of it.
>
Haven't sat through this yet -- didn't like what I did see. But I'll
have to have another look from that POV.
Cheers,
Mike
Richard Partridge
mike.sco...@asgardpublishing.co.uk, wrote the following:
> On Nov 10, 8:22�am, "Bert Coules" <m...@bertcoules.co.uk> wrote:
>> Giuseppe, thanks for that. �I must say, I would have preferred the TV
>> coverage to have been one single unbroken shot from the centre of the stalls
>> of the entire stage, with no closeups or other editing at all. �It's a pity
>> that this option isn't offered as an alternative on the DVD (assuming that
>> it isn't).
>>
>> Actually - and I've said this here before - I'd quite like *all* operas
>> filmed live to be done that way.
>>
>> Bert
>
> I'm inclined to agree, although there are cases where close-up can
> intensify the impact of the performance. As I've mentioned before,
> when I discussed this with various producers and directors, Dennis
> Marks, Humphrey Burton, Brian Large and others all singled out the
> close-up as the great liberating instrument of video direction. Used
> sensibly, one can see what they mean -- in the recent film of La
> Boheme, for example, with Netrebko and Villazon. But in live
> performances it can be a liability, certainly, and needs more
> discretion. Brian Large in the Met Ring used one or two carefully pre-
> shot closeups, to very good effect.
>
[snip]
Sometimes close-ups show too much. Wotan may be standing on a mountaintop,
where presumably it is pretty cool, and with a close-up you see the sweat
streaming down his cheeks as he struggles with the heavy costume he has to
wear.
You also see how much singers spit. You wouldn't want to be standing near
them.
Dick Partridge
Bert Coules
> Or it may just be the cult of personality. Conductors do sometimes
> insist on being seen.
It's possible, of course. But it's a mighty odd place to choose to have it
happen. And it surely can't be coincidental that immediately before the
cutaway Loge, Wotan and Alberich are standing on the floor of the stage,
whereas after it they're all snugly in their window-cleaner's platform,
securely safety-chained in place.
> Haven't sat through this yet -- didn't like what I did see. But I'll
> have to have another look from that POV.
I like the approach, even if, as may be, it's not what they intend at all.
It does make one's reaction to the piece completely different: far less
immersive in the fiction, more so in the fact of the performance. That's
not the youthful, all-powerful Siegfried, it's the tenor Stig Anderssen
*playing* Siegfried and making heroic efforts at the part. It's his age,
his sweat, his wig, his makeup, his achievement, that one becomes involved
with. It's almost like being a member of the company, on stage with them.
Bert
Giuseppe Sottotetti
>
> So there is no overture in the Sinopoli Bayreuth Tannhauser video???????
There's just the first half. the Venusberg themes turn into the
Bacchanale music. I realize that Wolfgang Wagner doesn't know what he
could show on the screen, but this time he goes too farther.
Albekling
Sawallisch's 1962 Tannhäuser on Phllips? Wieland tryied to "recreate"
the Venusberg music, changing from the 1847 to the 1875 versions at
each 2 bars...