Customer Reviews

Wagner - Das Rheingold / Struckmann, Clark, von Kannen, Braun, Youn, de Billy, Barcelona Opera

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

 

 

I was very fortunate to have bought the video of Harry Kupfer's memorable 1988 Beyreuth RING. This has been most unfortunately delisted and should be reissued. This production is based on another version Kupfer did for the Deutsch Staatsoper Berlin.

Since "Das Rheingold" is the Prologue of THE RING, and since the other three productions are not yet available, it is hard to see how it will develop. It is of necessity a very cold production since Siegmund and Sieglinde have not yet introduced love into the Cycle. All the characters are egocentric and self-serving -- except possibly for the Giants; and this is very clear in this production. I would hope that Falk Struckmann who plays Wotan warms up his voice in the next two productions, but for this one, the cold tones in his voice are most appropriate. His acting matched his voice.

Gunter von Kannen as Alberich stole the production for me. His singing and acting are impeccable, and I almost felt sorry for him when he was stripped of his gold and the Ring; his prior swagger, bragging and bullying notwithstanding. He was Alberich in the 1988 Kupfer RING, as was Graham Clarke who turned in a very good performance as Loge. The Rhinemaidens (cockteasers all) were also very good.

As with the 1988 production, the scenery is effectively abstract and, because of the extensive stage mechanics, very fluid with no need to pause between scenes. Bertrand de Billy's musical direction is also excellent. And, as usual, Opus Arte has produced a technically superb DVD.

Until whoever has the rights to the Kupfer 1988 RING and rereleases it, this is the best production of Das Rheingold currently available.

Although "Die Walkure" has been released, Amazon has not seen fit to obtain it as yet (April 20). They should!!

I was definitely looking forward to this release. But after watching it, I have to put it in the "good but....." category.

The good -- I liked the production. It was very high tech and moved fluidly with none of those "this doesn't make any sense" ideas. The Alberich, Loge and Mime with excellent. If you know the Bayreuth Kupfer version, you'll see similarities in the production and direction. And I do agree with another reviewer who thought there was much clarity around the story line.

The not so good - the rest of the singers were acceptable but no shining stars and I'm just not sure what to make of Struckmann's Wotan. While I think the notes are there, too often his tone sounded unfocused and forced. But the biggest problem for me was the overall lack of real emotion. Yes, it can be "cold" as another reviewer stated but then there is an emotion that is conveyed even with that -- too often this performance was bland and the characters just not convincing. Given the overwhelming emotion in the Bayreuth Kupfer production I don't know what happened here. Were the singers just poor actors, was it the fault of the director OR was it the orchestra direction? De Billy's conducting was lackluster at best -- it wasn't a Solti supercharge, it wasn't a von Karajan sense of musical line, it wasn't anything distinctive, it was........just there. I certainly hope the orchestra has replaced some of their horn section since this performance. I know it was live but there were more flubs in this one performance than should ever be acceptable.

All that being said, would I still buy it, yes. If you love Wagner, you get just about everything you can, the good, the bad, and the somewhere in between. And on a separate note, that's why I'm fascinated by the Stuttgart "Ring" on TDK. I absolutely hate and love some of the concepts in it but they challenge my thinking and many of the singers gave supercharged emotional performances. I would have given the Barcelona performance a 3 1/2 stars but I can't. Okay, now it's onward to Die Walkure and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will get better.

What a fine show this is! Here we have a production that really adds to one's understanding of the ring and is gripping. The singing and conducting are more than adequate but not all have been to every reviewer's liking. Some thought Loge and Albrecht particularly well done and the Wotan somewhat weak. Others completely reversed this judgement. For me all presented refreshingly new ideas about their characters and all were well sung and well acted. Of course there are faults. The opera is spread over two disks and changing disks requires reprograming. But then the sound is excellent.

Oh,give me a break!Can "ill focused voices" sing three complete Wotans without to show any kind of fatigue by chance?On the contrary,I listen this complete,very uneven Ring production and I'm sure Struckmann is a strong reason 'cause this dvd set isn't completely irrelevant one.Interesting Kupfer's ideas here,but some whims like Loge and Alberich resembling Las Vegas' Siegfried&Roy,that Dracula's fiancée Erda(what a poor singing to this character!)and I'm not sure about these Power Rangers Fafner/Fasolt and gods dancing a "minuetto" at the time they should be "over the rainbow".Orchestra has serious problems in its horn/wagner tubas section and de Billy gets well "Siegfried" and "Walküre" (in despite that weak eight Brünhilde's sisters)but shows his lack of affinities with Wagner scores on "Gotterdämmerung",the lowest performance by his crew.Pick one or two parts of this set and keep your money to Bayreuth production reissue.