DVD's of the Ring

[Richard Partridge]

The Met Opera shop is offering DVD’s of a production of the “Ring” operas by the Netherlands Opera, Hartmut Haenchen conducting.  I wonder if Herman, or anyone, can give us an opinion of the quality of this production.  The price they’re asking is $140.


Dick Partridge

[@zonnet.nl Herman van der Woude]

Richard Partridge schreef op 19-5-2013 het volgende:
Richard Partridge wrote on 19-5-2013 as follows:
> The Met Opera shop is offering DVDￜs of a production of the ￜRingￜ operas by

> the Netherlands Opera, Hartmut Haenchen conducting. I wonder if Herman, or
> anyone, can give us an opinion of the quality of this production. The price

> theyï¿œre asking is $140.
>
>
> Dick Partridge

I have this Ring myself. It is a recording of 1999/2000 of The
Netherlands Opera. I bought it as the same staging was shown again in
2005 (and it is done this year again, but now for the last time).

From a musical point of view, the recordings are allright; Haenchen is
a fine conductor and he was proud that he used copies of Wagner's
original scores in stead of the ones opera houses usually do (not that
I could hear the difference). The soloists were fine as well, though
you will never find *the* perfect performance, neither in Amsterdam,
nor in Bayreuth or in New York. Let me say that there are no real weak
parts.

They used three orchestra's for the Amsterdam Ring, the opera house's
own orchestra, being The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (for two of
the operas), The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and The Residentie
Orchestra (aka The Hague Philharmonic Orchestra). All orchestras played
superbly. I remember having spoken with a couple of musicians of The
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005 and they told me that during
the performance half of the orchestra is replaced to avoid exhaustion.

The staging is by Pierre Audi and it is spectacular but very ugly too.
At least it is consistently ugly throughout the whole production of the
Ring. All four of the Ring operas were stage on a vast Ring, which even
stretched into the audience. In 2005 I had one of the better places
(more or less by incident) and it was almost possible to touch the the
singers as they passed me by on this huge, extended stage.
Wotan never has a spear, in stead a gigantic spear is hanging in the
air and it sometimes moves, points downward to one of the characters or
is doing other vague movements. You will not find realistic landscapes.
The Valkyries look ridiculous as does Mime.

I would not buy this production for its beauty.

There are fine bonuses on the DVD's, especially studio presentations
and studio interviews (in Dutch, but subtitled in English), which are
very much worth-wile.

To be honest, I think the price they ask in New York too high.

I hope, Dick, that this impression is of any help for you.

--
Met vriendelijke groet,
Cheers!
Herman van der Woude

[Bert Coules]

Dick,

I've seen that Ring and enjoyed it, save for the usual occasional silliness.
The unit set design is particularly interesting in that a wide walkway
curves out across the orchestra and enables some of the action to take place
very close to the front rows of the stalls - bravo for an approach which
breaks down the basic "us and them" divisions of the traditional opera
house.

There are several extracts on YouTube which might give you an idea of
whether or not it's for you. Try:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWU09ASAV0w

For the opening of Walk�re act one,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWKk29cxmfY

For the act two prelude, and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COK233_15Ik

for a chunk of Siegfried and the woodbird.

[Richard Partridge]

On 5/19/13 5:45 PM, Herman van der Woude, at hvdwoude @ zonnet.nl, wrote the
following:

> Richard Partridge schreef op 19-5-2013 het volgende:
> Richard Partridge wrote on 19-5-2013 as follows:

>> The Met Opera shop is offering DVD¹s of a production of the ³Ring² operas

>> by
>> the Netherlands Opera, Hartmut Haenchen conducting. I wonder if Herman, or
>> anyone, can give us an opinion of the quality of this production. The price

>> they¹re asking is $140.

Yes, thank you, I appreciate your reactions. I believe I will pass on this,
in view of what you say about the staging. For the music, I already have
the Solti and the Goodall recordings, so I'd only want DVD's if the staging
was attractive.


Dick Partridge

[Richard Partridge]

On 5/19/13 6:04 PM, Bert Coules, at ma...@bertcoules.co.uk, wrote the
following:

> Dick,
>
> I've seen that Ring and enjoyed it, save for the usual occasional silliness.
> The unit set design is particularly interesting in that a wide walkway
> curves out across the orchestra and enables some of the action to take place
> very close to the front rows of the stalls - bravo for an approach which
> breaks down the basic "us and them" divisions of the traditional opera
> house.
>
> There are several extracts on YouTube which might give you an idea of
> whether or not it's for you. Try:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWU09ASAV0w
>

> For the opening of Walküre act one,

>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWKk29cxmfY
>
> For the act two prelude, and
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COK233_15Ik
>
> for a chunk of Siegfried and the woodbird.
>

Thank you for the helpful links.


Dick Partridge

[Mike Scott Rohan]

On Monday, May 20, 2013 9:05:03 PM UTC+1, Richard Partridge wrote:
> On 5/19/13 6:04 PM, Bert Coules, at ma...@bertcoules.co.uk, wrote the
>
> following:
>
>
>
> > Dick,
>
> >
>
> > I've seen that Ring and enjoyed it, save for the usual occasional silliness.
>
> > The unit set design is particularly interesting in that a wide walkway
>
> > curves out across the orchestra and enables some of the action to take place
>
> > very close to the front rows of the stalls - bravo for an approach which
>
> > breaks down the basic "us and them" divisions of the traditional opera
>
> > house.
>
> >
>
> > There are several extracts on YouTube which might give you an idea of
>
> > whether or not it's for you. Try:
>
> >
>
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWU09ASAV0w
>
> >
>
> > For the opening of Walküre act one,
>
> >
>
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWKk29cxmfY
>
> >
>
> > For the act two prelude, and
>

> Thank you for the helpful links.
>
>
>
>
>
> Dick Partridge

A couple of points -- a different performance of this cycle was released on SACD and may still be found. The casting is slightly better. I reviewed both -- can't remember whether it was for Gramophone or the BBC, but the copy may still be available. Audi is a complete berk normally (I remember a Verdi staging where the Papal Legate went around goosing people with a purple glove on a stick), and I was surprised, therefore, how much I enjoyed the earlier parts of the DVD, Rheingold especially. But a great deal is made of the "authenticity" angle, more than Herman suggests, and I wasn't too impressed by it, or indeed by Haenchen, who seems to me to sag in the middle.

Several of the voices are not too impressive, either, notably Jeanine Altmeyer's Brunnhilde, sadly aged from her Bayreuth Sieglinde and Karajan RHeingold. And this is the only Siegfried I've seen where Siegfried -- Heinz Kruse -- is notably shorter than Mime. I once saw Kruse in concert beside Jane Eaglen, and the contrast was hysterical; here it's just a bit silly. I do watch this sometimes myself, still; but $140? Rip-off city, especially for something this old.

Cheers,

Mike