Customer Reviews

Wagner: The Ring of the Nibelung ( Das Rheingold / Die Walküre / Siegfried / Götterdämmerung) (Boulez/Chereau Ring Cycle)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As much as this production detracts from the teutonic tradition that Wagner designed the Ring for, this centenniary production of the Ring with Patrice Chereau as the director, Pierre Boulez as conductor, and Brian Large as the very talented producer, is possibly the best in the market. No, it doesn't have a cast that has the dimension and experience of the Solti or Karajan rings, but without a doubt, it is the most visually engaging and dramatically correct rendition of Wagner's tetralogy. Others would say that the Levine Ring provides the most traditional and faithful production with respect to Wagner's score, and I have no doubts that the sets used in the Met are very beautiful. This set, however, changes the concept from a legendary setting of mountains and god-palaces to a more French social hierarchy environment. The interpretation makes sense, but it isn't only this which makes this Ring come to life. It is the involvement of a very talented conductor and a cast of marvelous singers which make this Ring a most memorable moment.

Donald McIntyre may not have Hans Hotter's great voice or James Morris' great bel canto interpretation of Wotan's role, but it certainly exudes a nobility and a richness absent from other recordings. Gwyneth Jones is a marvelous Brunnhilde. For her alone would I see this Ring day after day. It is note perfect, powerful, and very dramatic. I'd say that she has the best Brunnhilde overall of the ones I've heard.

The first part of this Ring I owned was Gotterdammerung. In that production I noticed that the story, the impact of the drama, was made by the staging of Patrice Chereau and the acting prestations in the first place followed by the vocal performances of the singers. A kind of the other around considering the premise of opera. Having seen all four parts of the Boulez-Ring I stay with that first impression. Expecially Gwyneth Jones and Donald McIntyre are far better actors then they are singers. Their voices cannot bare the weight of the drama required in Die Walkure Act 3 (Brunnhilde and Wotan) and Gotterdammerung Act 3 (Brunnhilde)for example.

The staging, however, is superb. The great thing from this production is that Chereau, not just ripped Wagners Ring from the old German mythology, but replaced it with a world that looks like a combination of Jules Verne and ancient Greek in which an insight in the characters and their motives are given in a way that I did not see before. It is as accessible as an average arthouse movie. Many modern staging just seem to want to get away from the old bearskins and teuton heroism so much that nothing else is offered instead (except leaving the audience with Brunnhilde looking like Christiane F. for instance - Stuttgarter Opera). What I appreciated in the world of the Chereau Ring is it's own atmosphere and use of images and elements that are not just post-modern but also functional. The Wotan-monologue in Act 2 from Die Walkure and the love-duet from Act 3 between Siegfried and Brunnhilde are so cleverly directed that every line sung here is important instead of just asking time from the audience.

Another big plus for me is the conductorship of Pierre Boulez. Fast without rushing, modern with great insight, he lets the music do its work. Personally I prefer that very much over conductors who emphasis to much on the so called dramatic moments and by that destroying the natural flow of the music. With his approach Boulez shows us the richness of Wagners score, instead of converting it into something more one-dimensional.

This is a great Ring cycle and I think a great version to have if you are interested in owning a Ring on DVD.

I remember watching this Boulez/Chéreau Ring when it was broadcast (!) on American tv (!!) around 1981 or 82. I was glued to the tv for 4 nights as this visually arresting and musically compelling cycle unfolded. This was before the era of video taping so I did not see this production again until it was released on commercial videos several years later. I was less smitten by this event than before, noticing a few flops in the production and being more critical of some of the singing, though I liked Boulez's conducting more than I had before. I have a set of recordings from the premiere season (1976) with a very different cast of singers and a very disgruntled orchestra which played pretty crudely for Boulez who they did not like at all.
The eruption of hissing and booing at the start of Act 3 of Götterdämmerung was really shocking to me. The audience was expressing HATRED for the hydroelectric dam appearing again, something they had expected to be finished with after the opening scene of Rheingold. It's reappearance was too much for them and they erupted.

Now it is all very mild. By the end of the run in this production was greeted with cheers of approval. How fickle public opinion is. It is refreshing to see new viewpoints expressed in telling Wagner's mythological epic but,sadly, things have gone off the rails with the ascendence of the 'Konzept' producers who are more interested in themselves than Wagner, or us.

Chéreau and Harry Kupfer were the granddaddies of Konzept productions. Whereas Kupfer slid into a rut of predictable imagery Chéreau has continued to grow in a more a imaginative fashion, note his 'From the House of the Dead' currently showing at the Met. It's modern and bleak but so is the story. Some of the other current wunderkinds of Konzept productions could easily have set Janacek's opera in a grocery store or shopping mall or something like that. Chéreau has more self-control, and sense.

His early Ring at Bayreuth is a sensible production within the framework of non-traditional settings for Wagner's masterpieces. And he does not offend, but the original illusion of sure-footedness has started to crack and the production now looks slightly gimcrack.

The sets are beautiful and the direction of the singers is tightly controlled but not so tight as to thwart freedom of movement, especially with some of the better singer-actors like Gwyneth Jones' Brünnhilde and Hermann Becht's Alberich.

Overall the singing is very good, if not in the same league as the casts from Bayreuth's Golden Age of the 1950s and early 1960s when Wieland Wagner was hiring the best possible singers from around the world. By the 1980s things had deteriorated in that department and Wagnerians found themselves settling for make-do singers and conductors, with the occasional brilliant production, notably 'Der fliegende Holländer' in the late '70s.

I mention Gwyneth Jones right off the bat because she is the star of this production. Many complain about her vocal inconsistencies but I hear a soprano who has the measure of this huge part, and the voice to sing it and, even more of an asset, a great theatrical sense and ability to express it in her fine acting. She is the main reason to see this production on film. There are other important performances in this show, notably the Siegmund and Sieglinde of Peter Hofmann (his world debut for all intents and purposes) and Jeannine Altmeyer. Act 1 of Walküre is white hot, though the staging is pretty disappointing, beyond their impassioned embraces which are very convincing, almost blush-making.

Matti Salminen makes his international debut as the giant Fasolt. Sadly the giants' costumes are one of the glaring failures of this production, but Salminen and Fritz Hübner sing through these impediments with great power. Salminen's Hunding is one of the great vocal assumptions of this role on record (film) and his performances are another compelling, if comparatively minor reason to view these films. Hermann Becht is an outstanding Alberich, vocally and histrionically. And Heinz Zednik's Loge carries the first opera almost solely upon his shoulders, which are draped in a long white sheet.
The other great singing comes from Ortrun Wenkel's Erda.

Donald McIntyre is a good Wotan, within the limitations of his less-than-Wagnerian baritone. It's an attractive voice, he's an attractive man and he fits perfectly into Chéreau's Konzept as the 19th century landed gentleman/god who is stricken by a guilty conscience for his treachery against the working classes (Chéreau took G.B. Shaw's book 'The Perfect Wagnerite' to heart and has based this production on that Marxist point of view and hatred for the aristocracy).

There is one galvanizing moment, in particular, that has stuck in my mind since the first time I saw it; the moment in the last act of Walküre when Wotan scoops the sleeping Brünnhilde up into his arms where she dangles limply like a dead child. It is a deeply moving moment. The singing up to this point in this cycle has been of a consistently high level.

It is with the last two operas that problems begin to intrude with the cast. Manfred Jung sings well but he was a disappointment compared to the original Siegfrieds in this production (who quit after the first season), René Kollo and Jess Thomas. Jung had a nice, strongish lyric tenor and he pushes enough to be credible in the louder moments, like the Forging Scene, but he is pushed to the limits and it shows. He's an unusual looking man, not unattractive, just unusual, the one-browed type (not an inapposite thing for a Siegfried) but he also exudes the air of a certified accountant that is out of tune with his primitive character. He's a make-do singer who does not detract but neither does he satisfy. He's also a mediocre actor. Heinz Zednik's vivid Mime saves the first act of Siegfried with his lively and subtly nuanced performance.

The casting of Götterdämmerung is good if not outstanding. Franz Mazura stands out as Gunther and Jeannine Altmeyer is luxury casting as Gutrune. Fritz Hübner is not in the same league as the original Hagen (Karl Ridderbusch, who also quit after the first season) but he does what he can, hobbled a bit by the Konzept of the Gibichungs being a parvenu family of rich businessmen, Plutocractic peers if you will.

There are some gorgeous sets by Peduzzi; notably the 2nd scene of Rheingold with its sunken columns and giant clock, the 3rd act of Walküre with the Pironesi-like broken wall upon which Brünnhilde is lain to rest, and the forest in Siegfried with the toy-like dragon hauled by stagehands (something you wouldn't think would work but it does). I also happened to like the hydroelectric dam that the Rhine Daughters frolic upon in their glad rags. It's a powerful, potent image that evokes great masses of water and was, at the time, a relief from the usual dark green rocky riverbed with 3 middle-aged singers attempting to allure by waving their arms and jumping around all over the place. These 3 prostitute daughters are more dignified than that, and therefore sing more in-tune than the usual lot.

Boulez is a swift Wagnerian, occasionally a bit glib, but he doesn't gloss over the profound bits, he simply eschews lingering in the often somnolent manner of James Levine.

Having seen this film again 30 years after the tv broadcast I have to say that I wouldn't spend the money on the dvds. What I did instead was to go to Ebay and snag an original un-opened set of the lps that came in that red and black cardboard carrying case just before the era of the cd blew vinyl out of the stores. I think listening is the best way to experience this good performance as the production becomes more of an incumbrance, unlike the theater of my mind.

Remember to read ALL of the original Amazon customer reviews for this DVD set. This new DG release is merely a re-release of the first 2001 DVD release by UMVD Labels. Please enjoy the 50 excellent and thoughtful reviews of this Chereau/Boulez Ring before you make your purchase decisions: Wagner - Der Ring des Nibelungen / Patrice Chéreau - Pierre Boulez, Bayreuth Festival (Complete Ring Cycle).


All in all, I'd say this Chereau/Boulez Ring is an excellent Ring, even for complete newcomers. It takes characters/singers which look, sound, and act as they should, and tells a very relatable and human story that is easy to follow and super-easy to get wrapped-up in and mesmerized by.

My main reason for reviewing this is to criticize the Amazon sin-opsis given on this page. The references to Nazism are completely out of place. please, save this for some secret meeting somewhere. Sure, I'm aware of Wagner's "jews in Music" and whatnot. But Jesus didn't cause the Hundred Years War, did he? I don't know, maybe he did. Basically, I think the review is slightly objective but too whiny and cranky little baby stuff..."oh, siegfried didn't ask the dragon's permission to kill it" boo-hoo....When will it ever end? And why mix in the 'racial purity' joke about the incest element? That isn't funny to me, because it is completely out of line with the scenario. The incest has nothing to do with the supposed Nazi blood purity schlogg. Okay, Parsifal definitely has some overtones in that direction. but the incest is more about proto-alchemical manifestations of the sub-kawnshiss....anyway. I really dig this video, never saw it on DVD...and this official Amazon review was pretty insulting, It's writer is probably a real whining dish rag

Every time I watch or listen to this production of the Ring, I feel comforted that I seemed to be one of the only voices praising it when it first was produced in Bayreuth. There may be some better Siegfrieds, better Brunnhildes, etc. but no recording presents such perfection as a whole from start to finish. It might very well remain the Ring by which all others will be judged.
Robert Lepage has a difficult task but is poorly served by a substandard cast (`park and bark` Terfel, obese Blyth and `past her BBD Voight).

This Ring Cycle is well known to opera fans and scholars. I need not add anything in detail to the volumes aready written about the production's artistic merit. But I do want to say that my DVDs arrived promptly and in perfect condition. It is a revelation all over again. Infinitely superior, in my view, to recent new productions in Los Angeles and New York. Intelligent story telling and superb casting. Boulez was maligned but I don't hear it. To my way of thinking this is very much worth the purchase price.

This Bayreuth centennial production of Wagner's Ring is historically one of the most celebrated and scandalous in the entire history of the festival. It's strengths and weaknesses have been well documented for over thirty years, from the controversial staging by a young filmmaker to the consistancy (or lack of) of the cast.

Although the cast is a group of some of the best Wagnerians at time, it is sometimes painfully obvious that not every generation has a Nilsson/Flagstad/Melchior caliber of singer, but over all the music is served well. Gwyneth Jones in particle was inconsitant vocally, her upper register at times sounding worn, flapping in the breeze uncontrollably. On a good day however, she could sing like an absolute goddess. Here she is NOT a goddess, but her high notes don't flap either....at least not too much. Her strongest point in this production is her stage acting...she is intense and unashamedly committed to Chereau's direction. Her Siegfried, Manfred Jung, is serviceable and not much more, which isn't neccesarily a bad thing considering the demands of the role. Jung also stepped in at the last minute a few years later and saved the Solti/Hall Ring when Reiner Goldberg fizzled out. Also notable is a young Peter Hoffman as Siegmund near the start of his short operatic career. Overall the singers may not be great, but they are good.

Chereau's Marxist 19th century setting is definitely not to everyone's taste, but at least he has specific ideas that work, for good or bad.

While Chereau's direction is cutting edge and exciting, it is Brian Large's camera work that is the major flaw in this set. He has been called the most musical video director today with a keen eye for detail, but detail can be nothing and even destroy art if you miss the forest for the trees. To completely ignore the entire production because of a fascination with the second tenor from the left, or to ignore Desdemona's death just to get an extreme close-up of Placido Domingo's right eye and nostril, or to edit out the end of Don Carlos because we have to see Nicolai Ghiaurov in close up pining away, is downright heinous. While close ups add to the theatrical experience when done correctly at appropriate times, it should NOT be done at the expense of the entire production. At times I wish they had set up a single camera dead center with the entire stage in view...and left it alone. It is absolutely maddening to be forced for eternity to watch a small fraction of the drama with a flicker of flame in the corner of the screen, or obvious stage action just off-camera. Thank heavens Mr. Large didn't direct something like Ben-Hur or no one would ever know who won the chariot race since the camera would be zoomed in on some Judean Noble-person in row 47.

Overall, this is a memorable document of one of the high points in Bayreuth's controversial history, permantly marred by subjectively selective camera work.

A strong cast is misserved by a weak production with odds and ends that distract without illuminating. If you are looking for one DVD of the Ring to own, stick with the Metropolitan Opera under the direction of Levine

The rot set in when opera house managers realized that there was a profitable link between embracing "new" artistic concepts of staging and saving money.
In the 70s, Chereau's production was widely seen as a new low - we were not supposed to see through the crass "updating" of Wagner's stunning adventure into the cost-cutting exercise which it really was. We were supposed to admire Chereau's bold vision and then shut our eyes to the reality.
But the worst of it is that the next generation, the disciples of such worldly gurus, use their "revolutionary" teachers as role models in order to misunderstand Wagner's basic premises even further, building careers solely upon the basis of saving money. Opera house managers just love them, of course, quite unaware of what they have lost.
I repeat: Wagner's work is an ADVENTURE into the depths of nature and of humanity, to be experienced on its author's terms.
When he said to his offspring: "Kinder, schafft Neues!" ("Children, create anew!") he was expressing the hope that his work would not become fossilized to the point where it would only exist as a museum piece.
He was NOT trying to encourage them to pluck a fish out of water and watch to see how long it would take to die.
Others before Chereau began the process of plucking Wagner's adventure out of its natural environment, but this year's Bayreuth Festival must represent some sort of consummation of this process. There is no adventure, nature or humanity left - only a cynical addiction to the idea of "updating", so that everything great, everything beautiful and everything honest about Wagner's endeavours in the face of ceaseless opposition and financial difficulty has been removed - along with everything expensive, of course.
We are now left with an up-to-date corpse. The very last thing the poor composer would have wanted.
Thank Heaven for audio CDs which still allow those of us with imagination to see into his world!
That said, I love listening to the Chereau DVD discs - the sound is lovely, if too obviously compressed at times, and Boulez is transparent and perceptive, however slick he may seem to some ears.