Customer Reviews

Wagner: Siegfried

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Before the reader proceeds any further, I would first like to warn that I am quite biased towards this recorded performance of the Ring des Nibelungen, considering it simply the best overall - at least at this time in my ongoing (but somewhat slow) voyage of discovery through the world of recorded performances of the 'Ring'.
Anyhow, my first acquaintance with Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen was indeed through the 'Barenboim Ring'. I say 'Barenboim Ring', and not Barenboim/Kupfer/Schavernoch Ring, because I - probably like many others - first came to this production through the audio-only version, which on itself, so without the acting and the stage design, is already astonishing and quite captivating. But seeing it really does add to the experience.
Often, emotions color my view of what I see and hear on certain moments. And also, matters of personal taste come 'in the way'. I will not try to apologize for either ;-) But I will try to describe as clearly as I am able what I find so wonderful about this production of Siegfried and 'Der Ring' in general. Well, most of the singers are to my ears simply the best for their parts, utterly convincing. We have the towering talents of the excellent actor-singer Graham Clark (Mime), the energetic and heroic Siegfried by Siegfried Jerusalem, the enormously expressive, deeply resounding Wotan by John Tomlinson, the beautifully humane and warmly sympathetic Brunnhilde by Anne Evans ... And now I can at last SEE all of them, singing (and acting) together! What an enormous 'bonus' to see John Tomlinson sing/act his part! His expressive acting does add even more depth to his already deeply moving, highly charged singing.
Also, because all of the singers are obviously great actors as well, the end result is simply spellbinding. But as if this were not enough, we also have a beautiful stage-design. Here, there seems to be more room for discussion, because, of course, with stage-design more liberties can be (and are) taken than with the music or the singing. But to me, the gritty and often just bare stage-design (with completely dark background) really helps to focus attention to the music and singing. Miraculously evocative, how the third act is completely played out on a virtually bare stage, with the help of just (a few) relatively simple light and smoke effects!
Another highlight in my view is earlier, at the end of Act II, where a visibly amused Wotan, up high and out of Siegfried's sight, conjures up the Waldvogel himself, putting it gently upon the end of his outstretched spear, from where it starts to fly upwards, and ultimately offwards, showing Siegfried the way to his bride: a light at the back of the stage begins to glow ever brighter as the music becomes more and more ecstatic, wile the criss-crossing of fallen beams sink and rise slowly out of the way, opening up the way for Siegfried - and with the final fortissimo clang, a close-up of Wotan, victoriously swinging up his clenched fist. In my eyes, this is a stroke of genius of Kupfer: strengthening the fact that it is indeed Wotan's own wish ('Um der Goetter Ende graem't mich die Angst nicht, seit mein Wunsch es will!') that Siegfried should find and wake Brunnhilde, building Wotan's 'new hope for the future', beyond the destruction of the gods.
This Production of Der Ring des Nibelungen, and this Siegfried (my favorite opera in the Ring-cycle), are full of beautiful little (and big) inspirational and creative touches in acting, singing, music-making and stage-design, making it a most highly satisfying and most deeply emotionally engaging 'Gesamtkunstwerk' that really lifts my heart every time.

I, too, waited months and was horrified to open a Region 2345 DVD, but sought help on the internet by plugging "region code hack" into a search engine. There is a website with a database of known hacks (usually by pressing an undocumented key sequence on your remote) and one of my players is not unofficially region free. Everyone, check this out before returning. I now have little room probably to review the performance, but I've seen every one on video and (despite the lack of a beautiful setting) this is the most glorious, radiant Act 3 duet certainly on video and maybe in my audio collection. I'm in the Chicago area and am certainly among those who are sorry to see Barenboim go -- in this Act 3 I never once found myself waiting for the next "highlight" due to Barenboim's mastery of pacing. (I find Levine's a better Acts 1-2, due to a better Mime and Wanderer.) Siegfried Jerusalem gives his usual 200% and does a very different interpretation of Siegfried than on the Levine, and is apparently in better voice. (And he drools less, but I have to complain about the hair and headband. The 80s were over, Harry.) Getting on the soapbox for a minute, anyone with the brains to appreciate this artist (and I know there are naysayers out there) needs to own both this and the Levine, and needs to immediately acquire the Janowski Ring cycle that just appeared on CD, to have his Siegmund. Graham Clark does his usual fine acting and mediocre singing. Tomlinson is an emotional Wanderer with a very bass-like timbre.

9/27/06........The wait is over -- it's now NTSC Region 1. I have all the Rings available on DVD and some that aren't -- THIS IS THE BEST overall Ring available. It just gets better with each part. Others may top it on a specific point but when it comes to the whole, and the Ring is a big "whole", nothing is better in my opinion. I've always especially liked the production which puts everything in a timeless, almost nondescript place, except for maybe the very end of Gotterdämmerung. You're never thinking -- What is that? What is that supposed to mean? Okay, there is a little too much rolling around on the ground but when taken in perspective with the rest of the direction, it's a minor point. Siegfried has some nice touches too, i.e. Wotan's handling of the Waldvogels in Act 2, Siegfried's extended kiss/holding of Brünnhilde. I'm eagerly waiting for Gotterdämmerung's release sometime during Nov.-Jan.

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7/19/06.........don't get bent out of shape folks. I'm disappointed too but since this was the initial shipment, somebody goofed -- BIG TIME! Just return it and ask for a replacement. Since they have released Rheingold and Walküre in Region 1, there is no reason to assume this was done on purpose. There is certainly no revenue potential for Amazon if they send this out knowing they will have to accept returns on all of them. Addendum: I just noticed that if you look at the info on the DVD page it does say it is Region 2. In Europe it is important to check that but not normally in the US. I still think someone just goofed here because if you look at the UK Amazon site it says the color is PAL and Region 2 and here it says NTSC and Region 2. That wouldn't make sense but lets wait and see.

Siegfried is now available formatted for North America. I wish Amazon would remove those reviews which state otherwise, because the situation has obviously changed. I hope no one will be put off buying this by fear of not being able to play it.

The Kupfer/Barenboim RING is, in my opinion, musically, dramatically and conceptually the best currently available. Bring on Gotterdammerung.

Siegfried a simpleton? Of course he is! The son of a toad is a toad, as Siggy himself was clever enough to observe, and the father of a wolf is certainly another wolf. Siegfried's mortal father was supposed to be the Volsung Siegmund, but his `literary' father was plainly Simplicius Simplicissimus, the hero of the the 17th C picaresque novel by Christoph von Grimmelshausen. And his grandfather was not so much Odin as Parzifal, the boy who grew up in the forest with no knowledge of knighthood, the hero of the Middle High German epic by Wolfram von Eschenbach. All three have a slew of kinfolk in the Märchen collected by the Brothers Grimm. Richard Wagner wouldn't deny the kinship. His sources were Germanic folklore, and "Der Ring des Nibelungen" is quintessentially a Grimm fairy tale.

In this production from the Bayreuther Festspiele, Siegfried is both an 'innocent' and a lout, qualities certainly exaggerated by the camera when its close-ups reveal the redoubtable Siefried Jerusalem to be a bulky man of middle age rather than a simple lad. What looks plausible from the third balcony tends to become questionable on HDTV, and the better the camera work the less comfortable the viewer may be with the characterization. John Tomlinson, in the role of Wotan the Wanderer, is far more plausible as an actor, given the post-modernist interpretation of this drama by director Harry Kupfer. The Nibelung brothers Mime and Alberich are disturbingly plausible in this staging. Dare I point out that they're both portrayed as stereotypical Jews? Mime is a too-clever kvetching manipulator, and Alberich is a coarse, corpulent, greedy Merchant-of-Venice lookalike. Both of them lust for Gold on any terms. Was this an allusion that Richard Wagner intended? Was it explicit in the thinking of director Harry Kupfer? More importantly, was there ever a single "Aryan" Übermensch who didn't grasp the allusion in racial terms? Reach your own conclusions.

"Is it supposed to be funny?" That's a question Kupfer must have asked, and that innumerable opera-goers ever since 1860 perhaps have avoided asking. The first Act of Siegfried is inherently comic stuff, made goofier by the antics of both Mime (Graham Clark) and Siegfried. When Wotan and Mime wager their heads over three questions, old-time burlesque comedians hoot from the wings of the theater. But the humor is ponderous and slow; you flinch at it rather than chuckle, as you would at a dreadfully corny joke told by your local pastor. This staging is modernist, of course, and intended to offer `something for everyone' -- Wagner Lite, especially when Siegfried swings like a schoolboy on the handle of the bellows. Maybe a staid traditionalist lushly costumed production would seem less slapstick. Honestly, I don't think Wagner had humor in mind. He had no aptitude for it.

The Second Act extends the buffoonery of Mime and the oafishness of Siegfried almost beyond endurance and -- here's where I get myself in trouble -- quite frankly the music, though wonderfully fluid and deft, also tends to be bumptious and bombastic. It isn't until the long Third Act, after Wotan is finally brushed aside and Siegfried penetrates the magic fire that encircles the sleeping Valkyrie Brünnhilde, that Wagner's rapturous music finally overwhelms my intellectual Wagnerphobia. Clear the stage! (in fact, the Bayreuth stage is utterly bare at this point, with only swirling smoke and colored lights to enhance the drama.) Let the human lovers sing their Liebestod! Let Transcendence be conceivable, if only at the cost of defilement and mortality! So! Now I get it! This is what Wagner is all about!

Siegfried Jerusalem -- how I love that name! -- and Anne Evans as Brünnhilde finally, finally! get to SING in the Third Act, and they sing so numinously that most audience members will remember nothing previous.

Wait! Wait? Don't tell me there's more, another whole opera, after that sensuous climax! Well, it'd better be good ....

The Barenboim "Siegfried" DVD that Amazon sent me did not work as described in Amazon's "Product Details". "Product Details" stated that this DVD is for "Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)". That was not true of the copy that I received. When I tried to play the DVD, it triggered a message stating that it was incompatible with the "Region" setting of my DVD/CD disc drive, and that if I wanted to play the DVD, I had to reset the drive from "1" (USA) to some other region. But when I reset the region to "2" (Europe), another message said that I could only switch regions four times (even if Windows was reinstalled after the fourth region change!). I've never encountered this problem before. Since all my other opera DVDs are Region 1, I will return this "Siegfried" DVD to Amazon. The DVD (or at least the copy I received) is simply incompatible with a standard USA DVD/CD disc drive.

If you are familiar with Richard Wagner, then you probably know of the leitmotifs, or signature tunes for which he is well-known. This technique is showcased here, as Barenboim helps the themes come through during the conversation between Mime and the Wanderer, as Wotan describes all the things that he has encountered in the world.

The acting adds immensely to the power of this performance, as is illustrated by the way the Wanderer casually notices the broken pieces of Notung, Siegmund's sword, during his conversation with the evil dwarf. What could top fine acting, singing, and a conductor who makes sure we hear the leitmotifs?: Siegfried's sword forging. Siegfried Jerusalem excels in this supremely challenging role. It's difficulty lies in requiring a combination of singing and acting ability, AND ability as a percussionist. Siegfried's hammer has to tap out the hammer blows in synchronization with the orchestra--not an easy thing to do while you're concentrating on your singing and convincingness as an actor.

Graham Clark joins the ranks of the most brilliant portrayals of Mime. A hero is amplified when the villain is convincing. Graham Clark is one of the most wily and agile Mimes.

Want more reasons why this is such a great Siegfried?: Anne Evans whose Brunnhilde joins Siegfried to really heat up the stage in the Magic Fire music. Really--no one has sung "Sei Mein!" (Be Mine!) so passionately, and with all the leitmotifs swirling around you will be dizzied by the heat of their love.

I am happy to report that Amazon and Warner have finally sorted out the Region coding SNAFU, and are shipping the full Region 1 NTSC version of this recording (just got mine yesterday)! This is everything I could have hoped for, and a splendid addition to the Barenboim cycle. Highly recommended!

The NTSC Region 1 version is finally available. You can order this DVD without fear. I just received the new version from Amazon today (Sept. 18, 2006), and the scenes I've sampled look and sound great. For my money, the Barenboim Bayreuth Ring is the best currently available on DVD.

I haven't seen all of this DVD yet, but what I've viewed is superb. This will surely be the best complete RING available on DVD once GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG comes out in December. I have an all-region DVD player, so I'm not having any problems with regions or formats these days. Highly recommended!