Jonathan Dove's Reduced Ring by Wagner (from Nimes)

[Chris Newman]

Some of you will remember some 20 years ago when the City of Birmingham Opera took a nine hour version of Wagner's Ring to those pokey little theatres that could never normally dream of any opera. Jonathan Dove's reduced 18 instrument orchestration was very faithful to the spirit of the original (as was his later Jenufa). Then Graham Vick directed. Now Peter Rundel conducts and Antoine Gindt directs a revival of the show in Nimes, France (the home of denim).

Here it is on ArteLive:

Rheingold: http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Ring_Saga_L_or_du_Rhin/

Walkure: http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Ring_Saga_La_Walkyrie/

Siegfried: http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Ring_Saga_Siegfried/

Twilight of the Gods: http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Ring...ule_des_Dieux/

[Bryn]

Thanks for that, CD. 'HDPE' now doing what it does best.

[Serial_Apologist]

Better still:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mUInYuhvQU



Thanks for leaving us this, David - R.I.P.

[Chris Newman]

Thanks S_A. DB is much missed. I am sure those not fully converted to Wagner would wish that 58 seconds was all we got.

I have to say that I hope that converts (Bert Coules and IGI!!!!!) will watch this Ring. It is far better sung overall than many Bayreuth and Covent Garden versions. The future great Wotan/Hans Sachs (Ivan Ludlow) sounds like a cross between the young Robert LLoyd of Boult's Gerontius and Norman Bailey. If he is careful he will go far. You saw him first here!!!!! Not long ago he was a lay-singer at Winchester Cathedral. The Alberich might have a voice more suited to Mime but he gives the best acted Alberich I have ever seen. I would love to see him as Rigoletto or Wozzeck. Come to think of it I would love to see Domingo as Wozzeck...that is how good his acting is.

That is only Rheingold. Wait till you hear Siegfried.

[Chris Newman]

I have already praised Ivan Ludlow, the Wotan of this very moving production (on a tiny set by the way, which increases the intimacy of every relationship including that of the singers with the orchestra who are almost part of the set) but really must say do watch out in future for soprano, Jihye Son, who is a gorgeous sounding Sieglinde and Wellgunde. She should go far in opera.

[Bert Coules]

I have to say that I hope that converts (Bert Coules and IGI!!!!!) will watch this Ring.

Surely to be a convert you have to start off as a hater, or at the very least as a disliker? I've never been in that position! Thanks so much for those links: I've only dipped into the performances, but I'm looking forward to a lengthier session: what I've seen so far strikes me as excellent (though not without its oddities - the climax of Siegfried act one was a strange bit of staging, and it's distinctly odd to have the music end and receive no applause or reaction at all, like the rousing end of an opening symphonic movement being stoically greeted by an overly custom-conscious audience. Were they asked not to applaud? Why? And why did they obey?

Bert

[Dave2002]

Thanks S_A. DB is much missed. I am sure those not fully converted to Wagner would wish that 58 seconds was all we got.

It had the great merit of brevity, but even that was not enough. Sounded rather like the Goon Show, which I can take in slightly larger chunks. Much shorter than those reduced Shakespeare performances, or Stoppard's Dog's Hamlet and Cahoot's Macbeth, which attempt to do similar things for Shakespeare.

[Chris Newman]

That did puzzle me too, Bert. I can only assume that rehearsals and actual performances were used in the recording. There is applause at most breaks. The camera work becomes more widely spaced in Gotterdammerung. I was most impressed by most of the singers, only one weakness in the last opera: most are not ready for the same roles with a full orchestra but they are well prepared and sing within their safety zone. At first I was distracted by the orchestra in the camera work but then remembered that twenty years ago it was just like that in the flesh when they did it in Britain, similarly when Jonathan Dove's Birmingham "Cunning Little Vixen" came to Salisbury and the orchestra pit was actually built into the set. I liked the absolute minimum of props (only Tarnhelm, Nothung, some drinks and a couple of hammers) which made them concentrate on acting though the absence of a spear did make the death of Siegfried at odds with the script.

bws
Chris

[Bert Coules]

Chris,

Exciting and impressive as it is to encounter huge voices and huger orchestral forces in Wagner (and elsewhere, of course) some of the most gripping, theatrical and involving performances I've ever encountered have been in small spaces with far more modest firepower; and not a few of them have been in rehearsal or workshop conditions with piano. The Wagner Society's Parsifal (was it in the seventies?) on a thrust stage with the small orchestra up on a balcony had the most shattering act two I've ever seen anywhere, thanks to the sheer proximity of the actors and the directness of the communication (it was, as it had to be to make that impact, in English).

Does anyone know if it's possible to download those videos from ArteLive? Or if there are any plans to release them commercially, or maybe to show them on the Arte TV channels?

Bert

[Mr Pee]

Chris,


Does anyone know if it's possible to download those videos from ArteLive? Or if there are any plans to release them commercially, or maybe to show them on the Arte TV channels?

Bert

I would imagine that they'll appear on Sky Arts 2 before very long.