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Wagner - Gotterdammerung / Boulez, Jones, Jung, Hubner, Altmeyer, Bayreuth Festival (Ring Cycle Part 4)Rating:
Release Date: 30 October, 2001 Retail Price: $39.98 OUR Price: $35.99 You SAVE: $3.99! Cast: |
Wagner - Gotterdammerung / Boulez, Jones, Jung, Hubner, Altmeyer, Bayreuth Festival (Ring Cycle Part 4) Reviews
A Distortion Of Wagner's Concept: Boulez's Version Is Not My Favorite
ABOUT THIS DVD: Wagner: Gotterdammerung, Director Pierre Boulez Centennial Bayreuth Opera production. CAST: Manfred Jung (tenor, Siegfried) Gwyneth Jones (soprano) Brunhilde Fritz Hubner (Hagen) Franz Masura (Gibechung) Jeanne Altmeyer (Gutrune) Gwendolyn Killebrew (Waltraud) ....Last of the Four Operas in the Boulez Ring Cycle, others available on Deutsche Grammophone
I have never given a 1-star rating to anything before but after watching director Piere Boulez' Centennial production of Wagner's Gotterdammerung at the Bayreuth Opera (filmed in the 80's)I have to. This is by no means the best Gotterdammerung nor the way the opera should be staged or represented. While I'm sure there are worse productions (Peter Sellers is another abstract, post-modern nut job of an opera director)which probably have the Gibechung giants become Nazis or have even more minimalist staging "nothing" production values, this opera is weak and ineffective and downright boring. The three operas that lead up to this climatic final opera - Rhinegold, Walkure and Siegfried- are also lackluster and full of the same unorthodox, unconventional and terrible production elements. It's not that I don't understand Boulez or his concept of the Ring, but it is not to my liking and it was the first time I have ever seen the Ring operas. Living in the desert that is California, I have no access to opera and least of all not traditional Wagner opera productions. In Wagner's time, the Ring operas that were staged at Bayreuth followed Wagner's original instructions as written. This is an old Norse/Viking saga and we are dealing with mythical beings - the King of the Gods, Wotan, his wife the frigid goddess Freya, the human lovers Siegmund and Sieglende Wotan's daughter the Valkyre and later ex-Valkyrie daughter Brunnhilde, the heroic semi-god/human hero Siegfried, and nasty dwarfs like Albrecht, Giants Fafner and Falsolt and the Gibechung and Nibelung race of giants. There is a rainbrow bridge that leads to the palatial home of the Gods Valhalla, a beautiful and eternally flowing river called the Rhine and beautiful sirens called the Rhinemaidens. In Siegfried, there is even a Talking Bird-Woman and a powerful fire-breathing dragon. You do not see any of them in this production. Since the fall of the Third Reich at the end of World War II, namely throughout the decade of the 50's, strange, modern, abstract designs appeared in Wagner opera productions. Wieland Wagner, the last member of the Wagner family, introduced bold new ideas to Bayreuth. The only good thing about his involvement with Bayreuth was that through him ethnic singers like African-American opera diva Grace Bumbry were able to sing at Bayreuth when prior to that only white/European singers sang there. Wieland Wagner welcomed modern stage productions and would have surely enjoyed Boulez' version. But not me.
Boulez has changed everything to suit his directorial concept. Instead, we have low lighting and a lot of darkness, minimal set design, a 19th century time period (and that I can tell from the costumes)and the few edifices we see are 19th century architecture. What the heck is this all about ? The worst part is that eventhough they are singing the libretto as written (i.e. Brunhilde summons her flying horse Grane.."Grane Meine Ross! during the Immolation Scene...and orders the Gibechungs to erect Siegfried's funeral pyre.."Starke Scheite"..) we do not see any of the things they are singing about. It is not as minimalist as some other operas but it is still far too modern for my tastes. As such, this particular production is suited for lovers of modern concept operas. But all I'm saying is that Wagner's Ring Des Nibelungen should not look like this and the better ones are always the ones that stick to the original concept by Wagner.
As for the singers, I like Manfred Jung's Siegfried. Blonde, handsome and noble, he epitomizes the Wagnerian hero even if the music for Siegfried taxes him to the point he is out of breath. Singing Siegfried is not easy and Jung is considerably underpowered next to the more striking Siegfrieds sung by tenors Wolfgang Windgassen, Jon Vickers and James King. He is more like Wagnerian tenor Rene Kollo, a strong lyric tenor with some dramatic abilities but not really enough to carry Wagner's music well and cut through large-scale orchestras. Fritz Hubner and Franz Masura are superb villains Hagen and Gibechung. They have secure, strong Wagnerian baritone-bass voices and are perhaps the only good singers in the cast, which is ultimately very disappointing and sad because the two most powerful singers in this opera should be the tenor and soprano in the roles of Siegfried and Brunhilde. Dame Gwyneth Jones' Brunhilde was hailed by critics as a great performance, not just in this production but in others. Why that is, I don't know. I don't really care for her voice. It's an unsteady, blowzy, grating soprano voice and to me, it doesn't feel right for Brunhilde. She is of course no Birgit Nilsson or Astrid Varnay, who vocally capture the true spirit of Brunhilde's character and Wagner's music for the character, and granted Gwyneth Jones is better than the light voice of Hildegard Behrens, but she is not singing Brunhilde correctly. Gwyneth Jones sang several Wagnerian heroines (Elisabeth in Tannhauser, Isolde, Senta)and she was considered to be a fine Wagnerian soprano by many but let's face it. That voice is not properly placed, the vibrato is far too wide, and she seems very nervous when she sings. I have heard her both in recordings and in video/DVD and at certain parts her voice cracks under pressure. The Immolation Scene is God-awful. Wearing a plain white gown with long elbow sleeves, and ranting and raving in that unsteady and shaky, awful voice of hers, it is the worst I've ever seen or heard. She makes it look more like a Mad Scene than anything else. At the end of this opera, the world is supposed to end, destroyed by fire and water, and Valhalla is supposed to be consumed by flames. But insstead we see a pillar of fire into which Brunhilde leaps into, and dry ice/smoke. A group of people in 19th century clothes stand around silent and dead. It's unbelievably awful.
A mixed feeling
The opera's from Wagner got me into opera in general but it are his opera's I return to at the end of the day and can't get away from. And it is from these opera's that I want to hear as many different versions (and interpretations) from as possible.
The big plusses from this production are the beautifull -19th century with classic elements- stage scenes and clever - around the action- stage directions from Patrice Chereau and the orchestral work under the baton of Pierre Boulez. Boulez is one of my favorite Wagner-conductors (along with Karl Bohm and Clemens Krauss). Boulez let the music "breath" and do its work. With him there's always a lot of movement and fluidity. No artificial exaggerations in volume or pauses in tempi to "enhance" the effect of drama (merely an effect it stays then).
The big con of this production is the voices (yes really). Expecially Gwyneth Jones looks much better then she sounds as Brunnhilde. Every time she reaches her "Schlussgesang" I reach for the volumebutton on my stereo to give it turn to the left. Manfred Jungs' Siegfried has a voice that scares the cat and Fritz Hubners' Hagen sounds much to thin. Watching these production reminds me of what really makes the story and the drama in an opera: the voices, backupped by the music, the acting and (eventually) the scenery on stage. With this one it is the other way around. Does that prevent the drama from taking off? No, this is a case of bad singers transformed into good actors (because that they are) set in a wonderfull stage environnement that makes a very accessible compelling story. But is only with Gwendolyn Killebrews Waltraute singing that you experience what this production might have been if the rest of the cast was likewise up to their role. Almost all the ingredients for superb drama are here, only the main ingredient falls short, and that prevents me of giving it 5 stars (3.5 out of 5 would be my rating).
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