Bayreuth Ring - Audio Problem
Heinz Wartski
The audio fluctuates from loud to inaudible - in all four operas. Attempting
to keep up with the sound, by using the volume control, is counterproductive
because the sound fluctuations are too numerous. I played the DVDs on two
different DVD players as well as on a computer and got the exact same
results all three times. There is no question that this production, which I
saw many years ago on TV, is excellent. I would appreciate any suggestions
as to what the problem might be.
Richard Loeb
set????
"Heinz Wartski" <hwar...@surfbest.net> wrote in message
news:abhqnc$jf$1...@news.chatlink.com...
Heinz Wartski
Would you tell me where you got your set so that I could also purchase a
set? I returned my set to Amazon.
"Richard Loeb" <loe...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:qx_C8.135759$n7.12...@bin8.nnrp.aus1.giganews.com...
Richard Loeb
Herzeleide
Heinz Wartski
"Herzeleide" <richa...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:19ff1c80.02051...@posting.google.com...
Donald Epstein
www.dvdboxoffice.com - a Canadian company sells it for $67
with no shipping costs. Absolutely no audio problems!
Donald
--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
Herzeleide
Can someone please offer more information about this DVD? A friend of
mine in the US has bought a copy for me, not knowing that I would
rather listen to a police siren than to Gwyneth Jones' renowned
wobble. Any comments on the singing and the orchestra, tempo, etc?
I've always had a problem with Boulez trying to set new Guiness
records for the fastest Wagner recordings (his 1971 Parsifal, also
with Dame Gwyneth, seemed to mercilessly squeeze all the sensuality
and romance out of the score). Any information would be appreciated!
Heinz Wartski
My audio problem is more terrestrial and involves the audio being there or
not being there. If I didn't know better I could have sworn that someone had
made off with a microphone or two. I found your comments about Boulez and
his conducting speed as well as Gwyneth Jones'singing instructive and, as
soon as I find a more audible version of this production, I will pay more
attention to see if I too can discern those elements as faults. I assume
that the audio volume on your dvd set does not fluctuate as it does on mine.
Heinz Wartski
A 33% saving is significant and I thank you for bringing dvdboxoffice to my
attention. I'm still wondering why the dvd set I bought is so different from
the one you have.
"Donald Epstein" <foli...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:4a41dacfdd77deb948e...@mygate.mailgate.org...
michael presley
> Can someone please offer more information about this DVD? A friend of
> mine in the US has bought a copy for me, not knowing that I would
> rather listen to a police siren than to Gwyneth Jones' renowned
> wobble.
I'll burn you a CD of police sirens (and throw in some interesting fog horn
blasts as a bonus) if you want to trade. :-)
michael--Linux RU#224791
"If you can't compile it, you don't need to be playing with it."
Herzeleide
> Herzeleide.
> My audio problem is more terrestrial and involves the audio being there or
> not being there. If I didn't know better I could have sworn that someone had
> made off with a microphone or two. I found your comments about Boulez and
> his conducting speed as well as Gwyneth Jones'singing instructive and, as
> soon as I find a more audible version of this production, I will pay more
> attention to see if I too can discern those elements as faults. I assume
> that the audio volume on your dvd set does not fluctuate as it does on mine.
>
bought it for me, but I am not in the US and will have to wait until
next year before I actually get to see it. But I remember Gwyneth
Jones' singing and Boulez's conducting from the live 1976 Bayreuth
performance -- I had the honour of being there in person when people
blew whistles and screamed at the Chereau production, which nowadays
looks pretty tame!
Nathan taylor
that I was impressed with what I saw and heard--now, maybe one could
attribute that to me watching the DVDs on a tinny laptop which made the
audio rather difficult to hear....
Now, can someone tell me his opinion of Peter Hofmann as Sigmund? I
have to say that I wasn't blown away with him as Parsifal in the DG von
Karajan recording (but Kurt Moll's performance IMO more than made up for
it), and I'm curious as to how he stands up in an earlier performance.
Oh, while we're on the subject: A co-worker briefly got his hands on
the laserdisc version of the performances, and apparently a documentary
of mounting the show was included in the set. I'm given to understand
that it doesn't appear on the DVD set. Has anyone seen this?
Thanks,
Nathan Taylor
zor...@shaw.ca
steve
your problem.
"Heinz Wartski" <hwar...@surfbest.net> wrote in message
news:abhqnc$jf$1...@news.chatlink.com...
Heinz Wartski
I used three different systems with the same results.
"steve" <fas...@fsj.com> wrote in message
news:BknD8.63556$xS2.4...@news1.calgary.shaw.ca...
Monte
<snip>
> Any comments on the singing and the orchestra, tempo, etc?
> I've always had a problem with Boulez trying to set new Guiness
> records for the fastest Wagner recordings (his 1971 Parsifal, also
> with Dame Gwyneth, seemed to mercilessly squeeze all the sensuality
> and romance out of the score). Any information would be appreciated!
Well Richard, we agree on so many things! The temopos in the Boulez
Ring are a little brisk when the should be majestic...the Funeral
march comes to mind.
best,
Monte
Monte
> Now, can someone tell me his opinion of Peter Hofmann as Sigmund?
I was pleasantly surprised at Hoffmans vocal performance. He's no
Melchior, not even a King or Vickers. But this performance was early
in his career and he sounds downright acceptable. I was prepared for
the worst, with the memory of several performances of Parsifal and
Lohengrin at the Met in the early eighties when he sounded truly at
the end of his tether. But apparently this performance was prior to a
major and precipitous decline. And the staging and "chemistry" of Act
I with Altmyer is H-O-T hot! Very moving, no matter what you may think
of the production in general.
Best,
Monte
Edward A. Cowan
205-1). I have this LaserDisc and have seen it once. I have an intense
dislike for the Chéreau production and for most of the singing, in
particular the alleged singing of Dame Gwyneth Jones. (I must admit,
however, that her singing here is vastly better than the unspeakable
mewling by her on a Met broadcast of the _Ring_ several seasons later!)
This _Ring_ was telecast on PBS, and that's where I saw and heard it.
I have not watched this LD since the first time I saw it. I do recall
that one such documentary -- perhaps this one? -- included footage of
the Bayreuth _Ring_ of the 1930's, in which one gets a glimpse of Frida
Leider and other German artists of that time in more realistic sets. The
footage is, of course, in black and white. (I do wish that some way
could be found for issuing a documentary I saw on German TV back in the
summer of 1983 that was shown following the performance of _Siegfried_
cond. Sir Georg Solti. This included rehearsal video footage of
_Siegfried_ with another tenor than the one who sang the actual
performance!) --E.A.C.
Nathan taylor <nob...@nowhere.nothing.loopback.edu> wrote:
> A co-worker briefly got his hands on
> the laserdisc version of the performances, and apparently a documentary
> of mounting the show was included in the set. I'm given to understand
> that it doesn't appear on the DVD set. Has anyone seen this?
--E.A.C.
Mike Scott Rohan
from Nathan taylor <nob...@nowhere.nothing.loopback.edu> contains
these words:
It doesn't. It didn't appear in every laserdisc set, either, but was
stuck on as a bonus for earlier buyers. It also included a
large-format hardcover souvenir book, full of pretty photographs (a
bit superfluous, when you're buying the video version!) and some
amazingly empty essays, by Boulez in particular. The documentary was
quite short, and moderately interesting, more for the backstage
glimpses than for Wolfgang Wagner's smug presence and appallingly
strong local accent. Incidentally, my PAL laserdisc set is now giving
some problems with degeneration of the discs; so watch out for
second-hand ones!
Hoffmann is a pretty good Siegmund, IMHO. It was his signature role.
Vocally he is lean rather than stentorian, but powerful enough, well
characterized and with a fine lyrical side; I wouldn't compare him
with Vickers, but he will definitely do. Especially in combination
with Altmeyer; she can be rather a blank singer, but not here. What's
more, they actually look reasonably like twins, and generate a fair
amount of electricity.
Cheers,
Mike
--
mike.sco...@asgard.zetnet.co.uk
From Little, Brown, out now -- Shadow of the Seer, the sixth Winter
of the World novel
Visit my site at www.users.zetnet.co.uk/mike.scott.rohan
Mike Scott Rohan
from richa...@hotmail.com (Herzeleide) contains these words:
Mike Scott Rohan
from richa...@hotmail.com (Herzeleide) contains these words:
Richard, you could get my review on the Gramophone site, but for what
it's worth, here's most of it. I was very restricted in the
word-length, and had to go through it again and again rephrasing
things to save a syllable or two here and there; it was that tight.
It was accompanied by a full cast-list, of course, so I could refer
to singers without making that clear. Consequently it's a bit cramped
and ill expressed, but I think it gives you the idea of what I
thought. Of course, only your opinion should really matter to you, so
you could try to get a demonstration somewhere.
I liked the production much less than this suggests, but in a review
I strive to say the best I can, and you should perhaps read it in
this light. Jones's wobble is much less obtrusive than in later
years, and didn't really worry me, especially in the light of her
other fine qualities. It seems to me we put up with a lot worse these
days, quite routinely. Not so Boulez's conducting -- and I actually
found his Parsifal very refreshing! But here he seems far more
hard-driven than Solti ever was, or even Bohm, and thoroughly
shallow. The digital effects I referred to are especially visible in
smoke or other shifting images.
{Begins}
Appropriately enough, this first full DVD *Ring* is the first ever
televised, the
Bayreuth centenary production which garnered worldwide audiences some twenty
years ago. Patrice Chereau’s staging was a considerable *suces de
scandale*; but
compared to most modern productions his notionally Marxist approach,
expounded in
his somewhat pretentious notes, seems fairly restrained. Exaggerated
gestures and
comic-book violence have lost their shock value, but its strengths
are also more
apparent. Peduzzi’s grandiose Victorian-architectural settings,
though sometimes grey
and dull, yield striking images such as Valhalla’s Foucault pendulum, Hunding’s
moonlit glasshouse and Siegfried’s birch forest; and Chereau’s
dynamism, though often
crude, does propel the drama effectively. The same could be said for Boulez’s
hard-driven conducting, though it is never as revelatory as his
Bayreuth *Parsifal*,
and elides too much detail. And individual performances, especially
in three pivotal
roles, are outstanding.
Finest of all is Jones’ Brunnhilde, appealingly feminine and passionately
committed, developing from girlish vulnerability to tragic grandeur,
and singing with
her distinctively melting middle range and ringing top. Her incipient
upper-range pitch
problems and unstable "beat" are often audible, but not unbearably
so. McIntyre’s
Wotan is resoundingly powerful, although the one-dimensional characterization,
tyrannical and brutal, narrows his scope for colour and expression
and underlines the
harsh edge to his voice. His adversary Alberich’s satanic stature is
correspondingly
diminished, but Becht sings rather than barks, with telling intensity.
Otherwise the casting is variable, which affects the individual operas.
*Rheingold* (on one disc!) boasts Becht, Schwarz’s superb Fricka and
fine Giants, but
also McIntyre’s monochrome grimness, average Rhinemaidens, Wenkel’s
lightweight,
overly vibrant Erda, Zednik’s undersung Loge, Egel’s off-pitch
Donner, and, despite
the famous hydroelectric dam, some unimpressive sets.
In *Walkure* McIntyre sings with more passion, infusing the
interplay with Jones and Schwarz with anguished
power. Hofmann and Altmeyer are vocally and physically charismatic
Volsung twins,
and with Salminen’s creepy bourgeois Hunding, a strong Valkyrie contingent, and
striking settings, this is the best performance of the cycle.
Unfortunately *Siegfried* has an inadequate, vocally scrawny hero in Jung; but
this fits the production, which makes him a weakling bully unable to
forge the sword
without the steamhammer Wotan supplies, as he does the Woodbird --
incidentally
destroying the *Ring*’s entire rationale. Mime often traps
insensitive producers, and
this murderous little megalomaniac is indeed reduced to Zednik’s
saucepan-helmeted
comic turn. McIntyre’s violence becomes self-defeating; when the
Wanderer begins by
grinding Mime’s neck to the anvil with his spear, it leaves the scene
nowhere to go,
and his confrontation with Siegfried is diminished by too much
pushing and shoving.
Fafner, despite Hubner’s black voice, is merely a giant wheeled
pull-toy in a woodland
garage; Wenkel is again light. Jones’ reawakening is radiant but
unsteady, and she
overpowers a fading Jung throughout the duet.
In *Gotterdammerung* Wenkel is much better leading a strong trio of Norns.
The Gibichungs, a dry-voiced Mazura, a less characterful Altmeyer, and Hubner’s
slobbish Hagen, become decadent capitalists inhabiting a warehouse dock by a
glittering, kitschy Rhine, the clansmen their labourers -- although
this vigorous chorus
hardly sounds "oppressed and exploited". Jung’s strained voice and ugly
characterization undermines the unfolding tragedy; but the finest
performers restore it,
Killebrew’s rich-toned Waltraute and above all Jones’ incandescent heroine.
The cycle’s success owes much to Brian Large’s fluent video direction, full of
imaginative touches such as the eerily balletic scenery in the
*Rheingold* scene
changes, yet also capturing the intensity of more intimate scenes.
Inevitably DVD
shows up the old recording, the digital "grid" occasionally visible
in backgrounds, but
its sharpness and clarity improve vastly on the videotape, as do the
soundtracks. One
offers CD-quality stereo, the other a Dolby 5.1 remix which caught the Bayreuth
acoustic surprisingly well on my modest surround set-up.
For all its flaws this is impressive, and welcome. Still, I look forward to
Barenboim’s superior Bayreuth set, and the Met version, already
released complete in
Japan. Or, better yet, a new recording -- perhaps Stephen Wadsworth’s
brilliant Seattle
staging, demonstrating that "traditional" versions can still be
characterful and
innovative.
{ends}
Incidentally, when this appeared it prompted a dispute over whether
Wotan actually did provide the Woodbird; I and others at the time of
the original production assumed that he did, although not as
explicitly as in Kupfer, and I'm not going to get into that one again!
Mike Scott Rohan
from "Heinz Wartski" <hwar...@surfbest.net> contains these words:
> Pierre Boulez Bayreuth Ring.
Heinz, while I had some reservations about the video image -- just as
with CD after LP, the sheer quality of DVD tends to show up the
limited quality of the original recording -- the sound quality was
excellent, with no problem at all. So it seems there's a glitch somewhere.
It may be in the pressings, but that seems unlikely. When you think
about it, a huge fault like that would hardly be tolerated in a
popular commercial release; it would be all over the magazines and
groups. As far as I know, the same pressings were sold worldwide,
since the Universal labels release in NTSC only, without regional
coding; and the idea of an individual fault affecting all the discs
in a set seems very unlikely. That would suggest the fault is more
likely in your playback equipment, but if you are using different
players playing back through different systems that would seem
unusual. I don't know where you are, but if you're not using an NTSC
machine, there might be some imbalance created by the transcoding
into PAl or whatever, or the regional setting. If you are using the
same amps or speakers, check the inputs; one of the commonest causes
of channel dropout is a bad connection at the terminals, often caused
by the stress of unplugging one machine and plugging in another. If
it's not that, take them back to the dealer and get a replacement.
That's all I can immediately suggest -- provided, that is, these are
original pressings. Forgive the question, but they aren't by any
chance dubbed onto recordable DVDs, are they? That has been known to
create problems like this.
Nathan Taylor
I believe it was called "The Forging of the Ring" or something along
those lines. Perhaps this was what you saw?
-Nathan Taylor
zor...@shaw.ca
In article <1fc31d9.1iwtisrlhiduuN%eac...@anet-dfw.com>,
.________________________
| Nathan Taylor
| zor...@shaw.ca
Mike Scott Rohan
from Mike Scott Rohan <mike.sco...@asgard.zetnet.co.uk>
contains these words:
{snip}
> That's all I can immediately suggest -- provided, that is, these are
> original pressings. Forgive the question, but they aren't by any
> chance dubbed onto recordable DVDs, are they? That has been known to
> create problems like this.
Sorry, Heinz; I hadn't seen your post about sending them back to
Amazon. Nothing personal about the question, anyhow, but it had to be
asked because things like this do occasionally happen. One magazine I
worked on got an indignant letter about the poor sound of a disc I'd
recommended as well recorded. It turned out the writer was listening
to a CD-R, and one that I suspected had been made from a compressed
copy, on Minidisc perhaps....
Anyhow, I hope you get a good copy soon. I just put on my Boulez
Gotterdammerung prologue, and it looked and sounded splendid.
Heinz Wartski
I are worth looking into. I am located in Naples, Florida where the AC
power is stable with very few glitches or outages. You and the other
members of the Newsgroup have been helpful with suggestions to the extent
that I can now purchase the same product from DVD BOX OFFICE, in Canada, for
$67.30, including shipping, instead of $102 from Amazon.
"Mike Scott Rohan" <mike.sco...@asgard.zetnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:200205141...@asgard.zetnet.co.uk...
Mike Scott Rohan
from eac...@anet-dfw.com (Edward A. Cowan) contains these words:
{snip}
> I have not watched this LD since the first time I saw it. I do recall
> that one such documentary -- perhaps this one? -- included footage of
> the Bayreuth _Ring_ of the 1930's, in which one gets a glimpse of Frida
> Leider and other German artists of that time in more realistic sets. The
> footage is, of course, in black and white. (I do wish that some way
> could be found for issuing a documentary I saw on German TV back in the
> summer of 1983 that was shown following the performance of _Siegfried_
> cond. Sir Georg Solti. This included rehearsal video footage of
> _Siegfried_ with another tenor than the one who sang the actual
> performance!) --E.A.C.
Was this the Bayreuth production? Was it itself televised? I wasn't
aware it had been. If so, anyway, the tenor may have been Reiner
Goldberg, whom Solti, with his characteristic concern for younger
singers, wanted to give his big chance. It appears that Goldberg
repaid him by failing to learn the role properly, and had to be
dropped at the last moment in favour of Manfred Jung (who could
hardly have been worse!). This must have seemed like a nightmarish
reprise of Solti's Siegfried sound-recordng, when Ernst Kozub let him
down in just the same way.
Edward A. Cowan
on TV was a videoclip of a rehearsal. I heard a little of the
performance on German FM radio in my hotel room. (Act 3 only, and just a
portion of this. I found Solti's tempi way too fast...)
And can anyone imagine any American TV network giving coverage to, say,
a Met _Ring_ in a similar fashion? <g> <scowl> <knowing, resigned nod>
--E.A.C.
Herzeleide
concerns and Jones, I have always felt she had remarkable presence and
a great sense of musicality, and after reading your article I am
looking forward to viewing the DVD later on this year (earlier I was
actually kind of dreading it). When I think back on her Kundry in 1995
at the Met, when the wobble was totally out of control, the memory
makes me cringe. Glad to hear it's not so bad on the DVD.
Mike Scott Rohan
from richa...@hotmail.com (Herzeleide) contains these words:
It's there, but not too bad -- certainly not as bad as it was when I
heard her in Lohengrin at C.G. with poor old Winbergh at about the
same time as your Parsifal. I have a soft spot for her, I must admit.
My wife and I went to Vienna, where she studied, for our honeymoon;
we hadn't booked any opera tickets, and were surprised to find them
offered to us, for performances including Dutchman, which is rather
"our" opera. So we went, and from superb seats saw this diminutive,
radiantly beautiful and passionately convincing Senta, with
rock-steady golden tones -- and with her Theo Adam (also much
steadier-sounding than the microphone makes him, and simply *vast* in
voice), Karl Ridderbusch and -- into every life etc. -- Hans Beirer,
though even he wasn't too bad. And the English-language TV Dutchman
she made for the BBC around the same time isn't too vibrato-laden,
either. Then there was her near-topless Venus at Bayreuth, which had
those of us in the audience with moustaches twirling them, and
agreeing for once with those damned Parisians that Tannhauser was mad
to prefer the sound of church bells....
Anyhow, I compared her last night with Behrens on the Met set -- and
Jones, to my surprise ('cause I am also fond of Behrens) won hands
down in the Gotterdammerung opening duet.
Mike Scott Rohan
from eac...@anet-dfw.com (Edward A. Cowan) contains these words:
> Yes, it was the Bayreuth production. No, it was not telecast. What I saw
> on TV was a videoclip of a rehearsal. I heard a little of the
> performance on German FM radio in my hotel room. (Act 3 only, and just a
> portion of this. I found Solti's tempi way too fast...)
I heard some on the radio too, and much as I like Solti, I agree. It
was almost as if he had begun to believe in his critics by then -- as
in his excerpts disc with the Chicago orchestra, which completely
lacks the magic of his earlier recordings, or, indeed, his annual
Covent Garden performances, which I also used to thrill to, with some
superb casts.
> And can anyone imagine any American TV network giving coverage to, say,
> a Met _Ring_ in a similar fashion? <g> <scowl> <knowing, resigned nod>
Welll, the Seattle station gave their Ring a splendid documentary
while I was there, and there was a marvellous one on the San
Francisco production a few years back. So it's not a complete desert.
Come to that, while we get the very occasional relay from Covent
Garden, the BBC never pays any attention to Wagner any more; yet in
the 1970s they staged Dutchman for TV with Jones and Bailey, and were
planning a studio Ring with Solti, as well as a relay of the Goodall
Siegfried. Now they're too busy filling their arts programmes with
film tie-ins and pop-group profiles....
Roberto Ullfig
>
> Pierre Boulez Bayreuth Ring.
>
> The audio fluctuates from loud to inaudible - in all four operas. Attempting
> to keep up with the sound, by using the volume control, is counterproductive
> because the sound fluctuations are too numerous. I played the DVDs on two
> different DVD players as well as on a computer and got the exact same
> results all three times. There is no question that this production, which I
> saw many years ago on TV, is excellent. I would appreciate any suggestions
> as to what the problem might be.
Hiya, saw your negative review on amazon.com. So, have you been able to
get a good copy? I'm also interested in purchasing this set...
--
Roberto Ullfig : ro...@suba.com