Wagner: The Rhinegold

Derek Hammond-Stroud (Performer, Composer), Norman Welsby (Performer, Conductor), Richard [Classical] Wagner (Composer, Performer), Reginald Goodall (Conductor), English National Opera Movement Group (Performer), Katherine Pring (Performer), Shilagh Squires (Performer), English National Opera Orchestra (Orchestra), Lois McDonall (Performer), Valerie Masterson (Performer), Emile Belcourt (Performer), Gregory Dempsey (Performer), Robert Ferguson (Performer), English National Opera (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Derek Hammond-Stroud, Norman Welsby, Richard [Classical] Wagner, English National Opera Movement Group, Katherine Pring, et al.
• Orchestra: English National Opera Orchestra
• Conductor: Norman Welsby, Reginald Goodall
• Composer: Derek Hammond-Stroud, Richard [Classical] Wagner
• Audio CD (May 22, 2001)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 3
• Label: Chandos
• ASIN: B00005B550
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,599 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available.
Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 22-MAY-2001

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Goodall Ring - 1975 - Restored and Remastered, June 7, 2001

By 

Stephen McLeod (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wagner: The Rhinegold (Audio CD)

I have been curious about this for years. When I saw the packaging, I wondered whether this was the same Ring that has been kicking around for a couple of decades from the Sadler's Wells performances of the mid-70s. News flash: It's the same. However, the box says that it's been re-mastered with something called 24-bit digital mastering. Since I never heard the old records, I have no idea if this is better. Judged on its own, the sound is terrific. This live recording really places the listener in the theater with clarity and authentic spaciousness. So often, a live recording will capture the audience up close, then the orchestra, then the singers, cataloguing every throat being cleared and every bow being tapped. Somewhere in the distance, the singers voices follow their heavy tread over the stage. Not here. There is an intimacy to the sound here that approximates sitting in about the tenth row back in a large hall. It doesn't sound like the opera's being played in your room; it sounds as though your room has been transformed into a medium sized theater. I found it uncanny.

As to the experience of the drama in English, that too is remarkable, at least for someone like me whose home-tongue is English. The drama takes on an immediacy that I have never experienced before. This factor alone is why you should explore this Ring. I can't overemphasize the impact on me that this recording had on me because it was in English and because it was well-acted. Surely this is what Wagner meant, at least dramaturgically (obviously allowing that you can't actually see the action).

Overall, the singing is competent, and in some places, it's excellent. None of the cast really stands out musically. Norman Bailey's wobbly Wotan could have certainly benefitted from a deeper, richer tone. Still, and perhaps more importantly, he creates a god who is clearly unsure of where the moral highground is, even when he's standing on "an open space on a mountain summit." Everyone, for that matter, is dramatically convincing, especially Emile Belcourt (Loge) and Derek Hammond-Stroud (Alberich) and Robert Lloyd (Fasolt), all of whom, by the way, have excellent diction. And speaking of diction, I almost could have done without the libretto when the men were singing. Not so with the women, whose diction was uniformly wanting.

Goodall's pace is notoriously glacial. Still, it's interesting to hear it parsed in this way, and I never had the feeling that I was going to fall off the world. Which is to say that the tempos were deliberate, not affected. This was definitely a labor of love for RG and the English National Opera. The orchestra is a little thin sounding, and perhaps, not entirely up to the score. Occasionally a horn mis-blew and a cello creaked. This is unavoidable in live performances, I suppose. Still, there is a surprising sense of smallness to the ensemble, even though there's never a moment when the balance between singers and players is lost. As a result, the overall effect is a balance of clarity and urgency that is clearly the upside of Goodall's idiosyncratic "vision" of the score. Not a huge or "erotic" sound, but always committed, intelligent, and sometimes impassioned.

For all of its flaws, this is an astonishing and, for me, an indispensible recording because it made me listen to this opera with new ears. While it's not the most lyrically pleasing recording (Karajan) or musically authoritative (that would be Solti, IMHO), dramatically, this Rhinegold excells any recording I know of. I will definitely buy the rest of the set.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Agreeably Surprised, May 31, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Wagner: The Rhinegold (Audio CD)

I wasn't expecting much from a 'Rhinegold' in English, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good this English National Opera performance turned out to be. The translation by Andrew Porter fits the English words amazingly well with the music; so much so that the singers were able to introduce nuances that can only be heard if one is familiar with language that is being sung. I was listening very carefully and albeit my ears are not as good as many others' I rarely heard a misaccented syllable. The words are not clear enough to do without the libretto entirely, but that's of little moment.

I'm not picky about singers but I didn't hear a bad one on this recording. I especially liked Robert Lloyd as Fasolt. The conducting by Reginald Goodall is less incisive than what I'm accustomed to. The producers must not have messed with the recording too much during the transfer from analog to digital, and it sounds warm and compressed like an old LP.

I'm eagerly waiting for the rest of Goodall's recordings of Wagner to be avaiable.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Love This Recording, April 4, 2002

By 

Doc Sarvis - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wagner: The Rhinegold (Audio CD)

I was a little suspicious when approaching this English-language version of Das Rhinegold. I was considering assembling this as my third RING set (behind Solti and Levine) and had listened to THE VALKYRIE (Die Walkure) with a little initial disappointment. Although the live sound quality was very interesting, the tempo was much slower than I was used to and thus a little disconcerting, and the English words were harder to understand than I had hoped. Nevertheless, I persevered and listended to THE RHINEGOLD (probably my favorite of the four RING operas, although I know this puts me in a minority) and was amazed. Best of all, after listening to this album I revisited the Goodall VALKYRIE and discovered a new appreciation! Now the Goodall set ranks as one of the best I've heard. It just needed to get under my skin a bit.

What's so good about it? Three things stand out for me: First, the slow tempi that were a litle rough at first actually allow, upon repeated listenings, a new discovery and understanding of Wagner's unfathomable genius. Every nuance is slowed down just enough to be fully accessible. Second, the modern English translation really does make this a different experience...my initial mistake was thinking that English lyrics could allow me to listen to this as background music, and that's not the case. However, if one devotes the same attention to this as a German recording, the time wil be richly rewarded. Finally, the smaller orchestra creates an almost chamber music-esque setting, which compliments the music in an undefinable way. Despite being in English, this is almost more Germanic than original-language recordings.

I still probably wouldn't get this as the first foray into Wagner's RING (I still think Solti or Levine are the choices for that). But for someone who already has some familiarity with the work, this will provide a lifetime's enjoyment. Cudos to Chandos for resurrecting these recordings!