Customer Reviews

Wagner - Das Rheingold / Tomlinson, Clarke, Holle, Finnie, Johansson, von Kannen, Svenden, Barenboim, Bayreuth Opera

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Any new Ring Cycle attracts attention much like the proverbial elephant in the room. In this recently released Das Rheingold the elephant is not the music, which is presented with matchless professionalism by Daniel Barenboim and the legendary Bayreuth Opera. For me, at least, it is the production that is the pachyderm wandering throughout the house, occasionally smashing the good porcelain. After viewing this DVD a few times and trying to keep an open mind, Harry Kupfer's staging of the opening opera of Wagner's 4-part Ring cycle still hasn't grown on me. In fact, his staging strikes me as the weakest part of this production, filmed in June & July 1991. His ideas are not bad, per se. They're just a little banal; and in a couple of instances, his ideas are even misguided. The opera begins with a 3 minute prequel: a big smoking crater surrounded by figures who finally just wander off in silence. This is meant to suggest an historic calamity of global dimensions. These silent figures are "the survivors, about to set out anew on the journey along the road of history". A single laser beam, symbolising the Rhine, moves into the picture, constantly fanning out over an ever wider area. Then, the familiar E flat Major chord begins to unfurl 136 bars of leisurely arpeggios as the Rhine (and time) become Wagner's "cradle song of the world". The problem with this approach: such a prequel is not an artistically licensed interpretation of Wagner's score. It is an interpolation INTO Wagner's score. It changes Wagner's intent, creating a hybrid opera with an entirely different meaning. Here, humans and their history appear to predate the Gods and their involvement in the world. This is certainly not what Wagner intended.

And when we first see the Gods they are fashionably festooned by laurel garlands, floppy bardolino hats and trendy clothing made of either leather or shiny linoleum: they look less like Gods and more like Uncle Bob and Aunt Flossie on their way to a disco reunion in Boca Raton. They carry large, transparent plastic suitcases that are empty. Thor carries a clear plastic hammer. Wotan carries a gigantic Xacto knife as a spear. It all seems slightly pointless, even silly. Incidentally, the laser at the opening shines on for some 25 minutes, causing some disturbing visible distortions (during those few minutes) in the video cameras filming the opera. Anyone who's worked with video cameras knows how easily they are disrupted by E-M radiation. If you've ever placed an unshielded speaker next to your TV and seen the result (violent distortion of the picture), you know what I mean. This production error, by seasoned professionals, truly seems incomprehensible to me. Although Kupfer's staging occasionally strikes me as shallow and listless, and the transient production flaws a minor nuisance, this DVD is still excellent overall and remains strongly recommended. And that is certainly attributable to the greatness of Wagner's score, to Barenboim's emerging brilliance as a conductor in the early 1990's and to the sui generis nature of the splendid Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele playing in it's unique opera house in Bayreuth which usually makes Wagner's music sound spectacular.

The cast is very good, especially John Tomlinson as Wotan. My favorite character in Das Rheingold, reminding me of Rutger Hauer in Bladerunner, is the superb Graham Clark as the white haired punkish trickster, Loge. The rest of the large cast is also quite good. Gunter von Kannen as Alberich and Eva Johansson as Freia spring to mind for special mention. This is a fine Das Rheingold, despite the occasional mildly annoying production weaknesses that, thankfully, are never fatal.

The region code of this DVD is NTSC 1. The film is shot in color in 16:9 widescreen and looks good without distortions or artifacts other than the laser problem already discussed. The disc format is DVD-9. Sound is available in LPCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and DTS Digital Surround Sound. All three sound spectacular: the two true surround sounds providing ambiance to the rear speakers and clarity to the total soundfield. The voices are crystal clear, the instruments also. Both are airy and well localized, surrounded by a nice sense of space. You feel like you're there. Menus are in English. Subtitles are likewise in English as well as French, German, Spanish and Italian. Running time is 154 minutes. There are no extras.

Strongly recommended for excellent singing, superb orchestral playing and fine conducting. The production and staging weaknesses are not severe enough to overshadow these other artistic elements and should not deter anyone from experiencing this excellent DVD. It looks and sounds splendid.

Mike Birman

I tried to tell my husband it would be easier to start watching opera by Mozart or Bizet, but when we received Gotterdamerung as a gift he was hooked (surprise to me). I knew I'd have to get the whole set and start at the beginning. My mother & I used to see the Met. when it came to town in the spring. I grew to appreciate many types of opera, with Verdi and Wagner being my favorites. This is an interesting stage/costume setting; I'm getting used to it. The voices are spectacular and I appreciate information in the booklets and Bonus features. Well done.

Wagner - Das Rheingold / Tomlinson, Clarke, Holle, Finnie, Johansson, von Kannen, Svenden, Barenboim, Bayreuth Opera You need to see Das Rheingold to understand the three operas to follow. It turns out that Wotan has made a mess of things, and the unwinding of fate through the Ring cycle leads to grave consequences in the end. All four operas have lengthy narratives, but Das Rheingold, although shorter than the others, has a narration that is essential to what is to follow.
There is not a lot of action in the Ring, but the orchestra, through the use of numerous leitmotives, makes up for this by reinforcing the narratives provided by the singers.
This production features beautiful music from Barenboim and the Bayreuth Opera, excellent singing by the entire cast and believable acting. The sets are imaginative and the costumes are attractive. The giants are a hoot and the Rhinemaidens swimming around and through Alberich's legs provides just the right comedic touch. And the opera looks great in HD. What's not to like?

Don't let the Rheinmaidens' 1980s punk-rock look put you off. Their costume style works well with the yellow-green laser lights that set the stage for the Rhein scenes. To handle the difficult staging of Wotan's and Loge's travel to and from Nibelheim, there are endless industrial-stlye stairways. Likewise, in the closing scene of Rheingold, where Wotan and the other gods enter Valhalla, instead of a rainbow bridge, they use a well-lighted, pyramidal elevator.

So with all these unconventional staging surprises, why is this such a great DVD set? The widescreen format and surround sound help us focus on the great singing and acting in this performance.

John Tomlinson is a convincing, energetic Wotan. Alberich is sung (and acted!) at his very best by Gunter von Kannen. Fasolt and Fafner are, as you would expect them, bigger than life. Eva Johansson is a younger than the usual, and very appealing Freia.

Perhaps conductor Daniel Barenboim and director Harry Kupfer chose such a "modernistic" way of staging the opera in order to direct our attention to the exceptional singing and acting of the cast, which I should add is matched by the superb quality of the sound that Barenboim gets from the Bayreuth Festspiele Orchestra.

If I could have only one DVD set of Rheingold, this would be my choice.

Donner is a blustering oaf, Froh a dithering wuss with evident ED, Fricka a nagging Hausfrau, and Wotan a hen-pecked greedy philanderer. None of them show half a neuron in their immortal minds; in fact, there's no evidence in this drama that they're a whiff smarter than the Giants Fasolt and Fafner. But then there's Loge, the only one of the bunch who shows evolutionary potential, by way of his deceitful wiles and his 'superiority' to all morality. Loge dominates every scene of this opera as thoroughly as his prototype Loki dominates every tale of the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturlason. He's the God of Lies indeed, a perfect avatar of the Aryan Superman of a certain mustached Austrian or the heroic capitalist of an Ayn Rand novel. The 'Gods' are all despicable enough to make one almost sympathize with poor dwarf Alberich.

This much-acclaimed staging presents them -- the Aesir at least -- in slightly zany semi-modern dress, with geometrical light-shows and triangulated girders for sets. There are no horned helmets, no heftily plodding sopranos, none of the traditional trappings of Wagnerian staging that became such objects of ridicule in decades gone by. Dramatically, this is a situation comedy, and the singers play to their audience with grimaces, hoots, and other vocal exaggerations. They cavort, each as lissomely as he or she can. If you don't find the stage business in this production vaguely absurd, you're obviously awestruck by the mere notion of Wagner! You're devout, and there's no arguing with devotion.

I'm not sure how one could stage this opera without an aura of silliness, yet I'm fairly sure that Richard Wagner did not intend it to be buffa. The music, especially the orchestra, has a solemn grandeur that's hard to square with the parody of majesty dramatized in the libretto. Virtually all stage directors of the last 30 or 40 years seem to have suffered the same lack of confidence; from Copenhagen to San Francisco, every production of Das Rheingold, and of the whole Ring Cycle, seems dedicated to contemporizing the drama, to rendering the opera pertinent to a post-Romantic audience. None of them that I've seen have come any closer than this. Perhaps the horned helmets and the lumbersome stage blocking were indispensable after all.

I've committed myself to the whole Barenboim Bayreuther Festspiele Ring des Nibelungen, by buying the eleven-CD set. You can look forward to my snarky reviews of the other three operas over the course of the winter. I should acknowledge that I'm a "hard sell" when it comes to Wagner; if I had tickets to an opera season, with works by Monteverdi, Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Janacek, and Wagner, and I had to skip one performance for any reason, I'm afraid it would be the Wagner that I'd offer on E-Bay.

This is one of the best rimgs I have seen. The singing and conducting are excellent. Although the staging and costumes are somewhat untraditional (which usually for me detracts from my enjoyment of an opera), in this performance they seem to fit very well.

After you watch this impressive version with the so well penetrating and brutally incisive ending; in which those indifferent guests contemplate with absolute coldness and passiveness the fall, you will understand why this version has been motive of wide discussion around the musical world. Kupffer's merciless vision brings us back the fact the Art is not a mere pretext to delight ourselves for just a few hours, but there is still more to talk about it and think a lot.

From its immediate release in 1992, this exuberant, visually stunning, powerfully expressive, astonishingly performed has been widely acclaimed around the world. The effective approach given by Kupffer has been discussion 's motive between Wagnerians.

The first release was on Laser Disc in 1996, and since that year, I have watched at least seven times. Among the multiple virtues I should remark the level of artistic commitment that would retake the essence of the cathartic experience: to fragment the soul through the catastrophe.

This version proves once more that it 's truly possible to undertake it.

A must-acquire it.

My exposure to Wagner up to now has been the orchestral works ported out of his operas on lp by Karajan, Ormandy, etc. I recently have viewed the Ring (Boulez & Barenboim versions) thanks to Netflix. The DVD is a great alternative to the live experience. I especially like the English subtitles!

I would love to have seen either of these Ring productions in person. The singing is great in each. For me, the Ring is a great escape without the need for chemical additives. The orchestra is much more prominent in the Barenboim production-- you can actually hear the brass! I saw the documentary of the Boulez production and they seem to have purposefully toned down the orchestra to the point the orchestra actually protested and threatened to strike. Wagner's music is big and powerful and brass laden and should not be diminished to the point where it is hard to hear. Barenboim understands this and gets it right.

I would love to see a traditional staging version of the ring. Both of these are modern updates, which is fine.

Don't let yourself be fooled: what Richard Wagner would have thought of the peculiarities of any of the productions of his Ring after his death almost one and a half century (and many human wars and disasters as well as triumphs) later, we can never know. In a sense, what Wagner wanted is rendered moot not by just his own death, but especially by the changes of time and history itself.
Richard Wagner's ideas as he expressed them in his letters and pamphlets are a reflexion of that man's particular stance at that particular moment in history, and I believe it would be, in a way, detrimental to Richard Wagner's ever renewing art to take Wagner's comments about performance and production as strict guidelines for a certain performance tradition or even for canonization. And while we all have our own opinions about this particular 'Barenboim/Kupfer/Schavernoch Ring' (ranging from 'mind-bending' to 'silly' to 'extraordinary' or even 'visionary'), would Richard Wagner himself really have (principally) disapproved of what we see here, in this specific production of his masterpiece in his own custom-built theatre? We simply can never know.
What does remain the 'unshakable foundation' of Der Ring des Nibelungen is of course the music itself, but also, beyond the music, the deep human emotions that we, now, as contemporary listeners and onlookers of Der Ring des Nibelungen, feel, evoked by the music, and emanating from the living interaction between the 'characters', and to which we feel connected. And anyway, like any form of true art, Der Ring des Nibelungen - in all of its aspects, which touch the basis of true human feelings and emotions - is ever-renewing - able to grow and evolve along as we humans change and evolve while our basic human emotions remain the same - and as such can stand the test of (any) time, and with that of any 'Zeitgeist'.
Any 'essence' (the deepest importance of the work of art that is Der Ring des Nibelungen) or 'interpretation' (as in the way a production-design takes shape in the form that it does) is (and must always be) stemming from the foundation of our own human feelings and emotions towards our time and place and fellow human beings. This also means that any true art, as a consequence, is 'flexible', in that it can withstand a multitude of interpretational permutations, while never losing, ever retaining, its core of deep and human truth - its soul - which lies beneath the metaphors and the music and the drama. However much people change the 'appearance' of any 'Ring' in any of its productions, the true 'Ring' itself - this 'world' build around the fixed elements of its dramatic story and its music - can never be broken.

Any wish towards a performance/production that is 'historically correct' or in the way of 'what Wagner would have wanted' is (to certain extent) a delusion. Indeed, true art - and certainly music drama - is always 'alive' and can't survive 'in stasis' - it needs to grow and evolve to survive: we must look at what we can (and must) change while staying true to the source. Any true art is indeed ever-renewing, able to stand any test of any time, and this Barenboim/Kupfer/Schavernoch production certainly adds to the accumulating, growing significance of Der Ring des Nibelungen.
More than that, I believe this Barenboim/Kupfer/Schavernoch Ring is a great achievement (above and beyond the marvellous singing and orchestral playing which is IMHO quite simply some of the best), in that it tries and succeeds, more than any other performance maybe, to lift the 'story' beyond any specific (socio-economic, historical, or whatever) frame of reference, and with that focussing our attention purely upon the music, the human interactions and the emotions. Any reference to, and dramatic consequences of, any 'Rheingold', 'Walhal', 'Golden Apples', 'Spear', 'Nothung' or the Ring itself, in this specific performance/production of Der Ring des Nibelungen become almost purely metaphorical - as they of course always are to be understood in the end. Less is more, indeed. And because the imagery is left as abstract as possible, and because any reference to any specific time or place are left hanging in suspension, this becomes a Ring of almost pure ideas and emotions.

The very start of this Rheingold is a stroke of pure genius. It creates but at the same time solves, I think, the 'problem' (or as how some people may perceive it) of this Ring: the 'problem' of its so-called 'setting', evoked by the gritty, bare, (post)industrial, kind of 'aftermath-of-a-disaster' stage design - a disaster that is of course already happening 'before our own eyes' every day, as is reiterated literally at the very end of the opera-cycle: people watching the (not so) slow but sure decline and destruction of the world around them on their television sets from the relative comfort of their own homes and stable material lives. In this sense it is of course telling of a certain 'Zeitgeist', but only in the broadest possible sense: it could be in the present, or it could just as well be fifty or more years into the past or into the future. Anyhow, there certainly are some ecological messages here as well (take also for example a good look at what is happening with the Rhinemaidens at the start of the Third Act of Gotterdammerung) ...

The very first sign of what we are going to witness is a different kind of 'Ring', is made absolutely clear to us at the very start. Before the start even! We are puzzled and our attention is immediately grabbed, because we do not hear the familiar introduction of the Nature- and Wave-motif music with closed curtains. No, even before the music begins, the curtains are raised and we se a bare stage, dimly lit, people standing - dazed and silent - around a slowly dissipating, rising cloud, and as the cloud is dissipating, the people slowly walk off towards the back, moving off into the darkness ... Darkness creeps back ... The mystical sounds of the Wave/Nature/Rhine music begin to slowly wash over us ... The beginning of a new cycle? ...
This all is, I believe, a beautiful way to tell us, through the metaphor of catastrophe (reiterated at the very end of Gotterdammerung, making the Ring full circle, as it were), that our sense of 'history' or 'time' - for example as linked to the rise and fall of societies and cultures -, works in cycles. And that although the specific form, metaphors and signs of any form of art may be dictated by its specific place and time of origin - its 'Zeitgeist' -, art always grows from unchanging basic human cravings, wishes and emotions - history and art all the time repeating itself, but always different ...
And secondly, this Ring, because of its peculiar set-design, could (and does) lead people to believe that what they are going to witness must be unfolding in some specific time and place in some hypothetical 'future' or 'present-that-could-have-been', which is of course inevitable, because any audience of the 'Ring' is always viewing it from within its own specific (socio-historic, techno-economic) frame of reference. (Any description is really always an interpretation, and as such can never be totally objective.) But what this production also does, I believe, is that it tries to place the drama or 'Handlung' - although of course inextricably linked to its deep medieval Nordic and Central European historical and mythical roots - in a kind of (modern) mythical time, above and beyond any specific historic time or place. Which is I think very appropriate and completely in character with the whole conception of this production of Der Ring des Nibelungen, which I have read as characterized by some as 'mind-bending'. Well, it certainly does bend a few of the traditional conceptions about what a Der Ring des Nibelungen 'should' look like and what it 'should' evoke (according to certain people). One would certainly have to feel sympathy for the ideas behind this 'Ring' to be able to wholeheartedly like or even love it, but if one does accept the premises, then one could really find many things to treasure about it, aside from the great music making, singing (and acting) that is going on here, of course.
Although, if one is planning to enjoy (or has already enjoyed) this really good Das Rheingold, one has to realize that this really is 'just' a appetizer for 'the best which is still to come' afterward, with a truly astounding and intense Die Walkure (great stage design, often quite bare, and shining roles for John Tomlinson as a deeply emotional Wotan & Anne Evans as a warmly humane and sympathetic Brunnhilde), Siegfried (with some of the most beautiful but outrageous stage design, and Graham Clark's sharp, dispicable, dangerously deceitful Mime) and Gotterdammerung ...

In a word... Silly. That is what comes to mind when I think of this production. The music and singing are outstanding for the most part and the orchestra, under the direction of Barenboim, is exactly what you want for this glorious masterpiece. Then why is Wotan, the Father of Victories, The Father of Ravens, The Father of Hosts, The Father of Battles and Lord of all Gods wearing sunglasses, a bright green fluffy boa and what can only be described as, a summer vacation hat? Tomlinson is the best modern Wotan I have heard since James Morris but he looks like a mixture of a motorcycle gang leader, pimp and a model for the Salvation Army clothing stores! And what is the deal with the clear plastic suitcases? I know that they are moving into Valhalla, but come on! Let's put a giant U-Haul truck on the stage as well... This way you can show more garbage that has nothing to do with the story. And why is Donner's hammer made out of clear plastic? That tends to underestimate the power that it wields. I actually spent most of the second scene laughing... Complete Euro-trash!!! Wagner is not funny (not even in Die Meistersinger!), so why do something so silly! I actually felt as if the T.V. were mocking me for liking Wagner... Like a group of people who hate opera got together and decided to sabotage my good time. I was actually a little angry, but I got over it. I plan to purchase the CD versions of this production because I was very impressed by the music and vocal performance. Alberich was one of the best I have heard... The Rheinmaidens (who swim in a laser light show that would have made Wagner walk out of the theater) were exquisite and the same goes for Wotan, Fricka, Freia, The Giants, Donner and Froh. Loge was not up to my standards. I enjoy Siegfried Jerusalem (DVD) and Set Svanholm (CD) much more. The 4 Stars are for performance alone... If it were based on production It would receive 0 stars. Try Levine's MET production for a much more true realization of this great masterpiece. And if you need something a little different, try Boulez's DVD versions. The music is not nearly as good but the production is tolerable (except for the Giants who will have you rolling on the floor laughing!).

Buy this once you have every other DVD version to see how it can be done as a comedy. I am not interested in seeing the rest of this cycle, although I'm sure I will out of curiosity.