Product Details

• Actors: Jeannine Altmeyer, Hermann Becht, Katie Clarke, Ilse Gramatzki, Fritz Hübner
• Directors: Brian Large
• Writers: Richard Wagner
• Format: Full Screen, Color, Dolby, DVD, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC
• Language: Unknown (DTS 5.1), Unknown (PCM Stereo), German (DTS 5.1), German (PCM Stereo)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, German, French
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
• DVD Release Date: August 9, 2005
• Run Time: 250 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000935TVS
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #131,303 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Wagner - Gotterdammerung / Jones, Mazura, Jung, Hubner, Becht, Altmeyer, Killebrew, Boulez, Bayreuth Opera (Boulez Ring Cycle Part 4)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

According to director Patrice Chereau, "Götterdämmerung undoubtedly presents a world in which no values exist any more... a world in which it is difficult for anyone to believe in anything any longer." It is truly, as its title proclaims, "The twilight of the gods." Siegfried is tricked, drugged, and treacherously murdered by power-hungry humans, deceived into betraying Brunnhilde, who remains faithful without hope. An air of weariness and decadence pervades the action and much of the music (though the score includes two of Wagner's finest instrumental inventions: Siegfried's Rhine journey and his funeral music.) A new note is the introduction of a chorus of humans (effectively used by Chereau) for the first time in the cycle. The heyday of the gods is over; now, world domination is sought by a human family, the Gibichungs.

The cursed ring is stolen from Brunnhilde, who has kept it as a token of Siegfried's love. Siegfried, who has taken the ring in disguise, has been drugged and deceived into wooing Gutrune, a Gibichung. Brunnhilde is forced to marry Gunther, another Gibichung, but still faithful to Siegfried she commits suicide on his funeral pyre. The fire spreads to destroy Valhalla. The ring, snatched from Siegfried's dead hand, is dropped into the Rhine, where it is restored to its rightful place, and the situation returns to the normality of the time before Das Rheingold.

The Gibichungs, new to the cycle, are well-portrayed by Franz Mazura and Jeanne Altmeyer, and Fritz Hübner is impressive as the treacherous Hagen. Gwemdolyn Killibrew stands out as Brunnhilde's ally Waltraute. As always, Pierre Boulez conducts with a clear vision of the total work. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't hestiate to purchase this remarkable Götterdämmerung!, November 18, 2001

By 

David (North Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wagner - Gotterdammerung / Boulez, Jones, Jung, Hubner, Altmeyer, Bayreuth Festival (Ring Cycle Part 4) (DVD)

Due to the high cost of this collection, I decided to purchase my favorite opera from the Ring, which is Götterdämerung. If the rest of the Chéreau Ring Cycle is as incredible as this production of Wagner's Götterdämmergung, then my only regret will be that I didn't save money and buy the entire Ring, which as a set is sold at a special price. This glorious production is on 2 discs (over 4 hours) with rich, full stero and surround sound of the highest quality that DVD has to offer. The sound quality is superior to a lot of opera productions on DVD that were made much later than this one. Unfortunately, the picture quality is not always at the same high level of the sound quality, especially in the darker scenes, of which there are many in this opera. Even so, the picture quality is no worse than slightly below average, and often it is quite good. The singing is first rate--Gwyneth Jones' Brünnhilde especially captivated me. For me the entire cast was outstanding in bringing this amazing work to life. Of course with Wagner the orchestra as is vital as the singing, and the Bayreuther Festspeile Orchestra under Pierre Boulez is radiant throughout. This is a modern production, and while controversial some 20 years ago, it seems just right for today. I prefer it to the more traditional Ring productions, but that is a question of personal taste. I look forward to viewing the rest of the highly acclaimed Chéreau Ring cycle, for if the standards are a high as they are for Götterdämmerung, it will rank for me as one of the greatest accomplishments for opera on DVD.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A magnificent achievement, October 21, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Wagner - Gotterdammerung / Boulez, Jones, Jung, Hubner, Altmeyer, Bayreuth Festival (Ring Cycle Part 4) (DVD)

Although this production is not perfect, as seen on DVD, it is still a magnificent achievement. The drama unfolds powerfully on the stage, and the direction is always appropriate, often superb.

The singers make a fine team, headed by Gwyneth Jones's glorious Brunnhilde. Manfred Jung is a macho Siegfried, even though the character doesn't earn one's sympathy. The Bayreuth Orchestra plays with great skill under Boulez.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I got iniciated to Wagner through this (!), February 24, 2004

By 

Rafael Fernandez Fernandez "kopkopkop" (Madrid, Madrid Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wagner - Gotterdammerung / Boulez, Jones, Jung, Hubner, Altmeyer, Bayreuth Festival (Ring Cycle Part 4) (DVD)

When I watched for the first time this DVD (well, it was a Laserdisc, for that happened prior to the release on DVD) I knew the music of the Ring for 6 years (more or less) and I hadn't yet seen any other production. I have to confess that it was watching it that I had for the first time a feeling of understanding not only the music but the drama. Since then my relation with Wagner's music and drama changed completely and he became one of my great musical loves along with Puccini. As time has passed I have also my regrets to this production (the dullness of the image) but I still love it. That cannot say in the same degree about the other operas of the cycle, specially about boring, with nothing to say 'Siegfried'.

I'm not a fan of Boulez conducting Wagner operas. I also think that his axionatic 'return to the truth' when conducting this Ring in Bayreuth in the 70s and his negative to accept tempi acquired by tradition was an out-of-place extrapolation of the phenomenological principles that guided him in composition (that's to say, to do music as if one had been born out of the world, had no bias derived from tradition and had to invent the laws of music from zero).
Nevertheless, although I'm opposed to almost all of Boulez's ideas about music, I feel confortable with much of his music and sometimes also with his conducting. This is the place with this Götterdämmerung, the highest peak of an irregular and overall not very satisfactory Ring cycle. With a disciplined, a little constrained and in some sense modern orchestral sound, with the help of excellent actor-singers achieves some moments of such profound tragicness that I cannot forget while hearing any other recording.

These are my irrepetible moments:

- Act I: Scene between Brünnhilde and Gutrune. I will never forget the tragic accents, the description of the end of an old world, by Gwendoline Killebrew and the sober response by Brünnhilde 'Welch banger Träume Mären meldest du mir". Also excellent her downfall minutes later when Siegfried comes in disguise and submits her.

- Act II almost in its entirety. Haunting first scene between Hagen and Alberich, frightening, almost nazi scene of the vassals, heartbreaking realization of the downfall of the Gods through Hagen's manipulations when Brünnhilde holds her violent agonistic scene with Siegfried, scandal of the people, and final bloody vendetta trio.

- Acto III. Full expresionistic final scene from the moment in which Gutrune (Jeannine Altmeyer) cannot sleep due to nightmares, the murder of king Gunther (great actor Franz Mazura, also excellent Schön/Jack the Ripper in Boulez's Lulu and Moses in Solti's 'Moses und Aron') by his brother for the possesion of the ring and appearance of apocalyptic Brünnhilde in a final monologue for which I haven't words enough.

Ok, this Götterdämmerung has not a brilliant funeral march or a Siegfried singer to compete with many others (althogh here he is much more inspired that in his boring rendition of the role in 'Siegfried'), but it has the Brünnhilde that made me understand the deepest feeling of this work (Gwyneth Jones, and I mean the Ring complete cycle) and I still have to listen to it when want to remember the true sense of this metaphore of the world's destruction by the greedness of the powerful.

Sorry for my English.

Rafael Fernandez