Tag: The Ring

“Gotterdammerung,” the concluding episode of Richard Wagner’s tetralogy, “Der Ring des Nibelungen,” is an arduous journey, impossibly lengthy and complex. At its best, it is thrilling and sublime, at its worst, boring and just long-winded.

Seattle Opera’s production, its third in some 34 years, is nearly always riveting, making drama both visually and musically, and immensely appealing and human. Credit goes to stage director Stephen Wadsworth, who only stumbles on occasion, and a long list of singing actors who bring their roles to life. Over an amazing three-month rehearsal period, every detail is meticulously worked out, so that the result is an almost seamless flow of action wedded to music. In the pit is conductor Robert Spano, his second Seattle “Ring,” who presides over the affair in a sensitive and alert manner.

Continue reading The first cycle in three of Seattle Opera’s “Ring” closed Friday night at McCaw Hall

Wednesday night at the Seattle Opera’s first Siegfried of August, Stig Andersen achieved a feat worthy of Wagner’s mythic Siegfried.

Just before the curtain came up, Speight Jenkins edged his way onto the stage for an announcement. Stig Andersen, it seems, was plagued by a viral infection that had attacked his voice and sapped his constitution with a fever. There were gasps and a few worried looks around me, but then Jenkins reassured the concerned that Andersen would still sing the part. The show would go on as planned.

“He’s strong and is experienced. Stig Andersen wants to sing his role.” Jenkins said.

Andersen is strong and experienced, but is this enough for a role as demanding as Siegfried? From beginning to end, there are few moments when Siegfried isn’t on stage and when he is on stage he is singing some of the most demanding and stimulating music Wagner wrote for a tenor.

Continue reading My Ring journey: Siegfried

“Siegfried” is considered by many to be the most problematic opera in Wagner’s “Ring.” It is not the longest –“Gotterdamerrung” gets that prize, logging in at nearly five and one-half hours — but it has the fewest characters, all of whom, except for the Forest Bird, tend to make long speeches on a variety of subjects. But when it works, it works –glorious and profound, even fun.

Seattle Opera’s production, which was performed at McCaw Hall Wednesday night, may linger on occasion but it rarely gets stuck. With Stephen Wadsworth’s staging, there is usually a sense of purpose and progress, although on Wednesday the final scene seemed overlong, in a major part because the Siegfried, Stig Andersen, was suffering from an infection and his voice was slowly disappearing. Like any company that produces the opera on a regular basis, Seattle has had its share of problems with tenors doing this role. Sometimes they get sick and have trouble doing the role and sometimes they can’t do it at all. Whatever the reason they seem to come to grief with some regularity.

Continue reading Stig Andersen makes his Seattle debut in “Siegfried”

During the needed break between Valkyrie and tonight’s Siegfried I did what every serious blogger does – work on his blog. I hunkered down in my office, patched together interviews, uploaded content to YouTube, and monitored site traffic. For the weeks and months leading up to the Seattle Opera’s Ring I regularly listened to Wagner. Last night, I gave a new compilation of Prokofiev piano sonatas a spin in the stereo.

My break didn’t last too long. And in fact, there was no break at all. I suspect most people who experience Wagner’s Ring find it hard to take a break from the human story that began to unfold in Valkyrie.

Continue reading My Ring Journey: Valkyrie

By: Peter Klein

Woody Allen once quipped that every time he listened to the music of Wagner, he got the urge to invade Poland. Woody isn’t alone. Many people can’t hear Wagner’s music without thinking of Nazism and Hitler. Some Jews can’t bear to listen to it at all.

Seattle Opera is presenting three complete cycles of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung on August 9-30. The mammoth four-opera saga of Nordic gods and heroes has a long tradition here. The Ring is also at the center of the controversy about Wagner. Why does the issue persist, 126 years after Wagner’s death, and 64 years after the fall of the Third Reich?

The problem is that Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was both a great composer and a notorious anti-Semite. A half-century after his death, his music and writings became part of the cultural and intellectual foundations of Nazi Germany. And in between, a number of Wagner’s prominent followers and family members contributed to the malignant threads of German thought that eventually made the Holocaust possible.

Continue reading The Wagner Question

On night two of the Seattle Opera’s Ring Cycle, I tracked down Jonathan Caves to ask him a few questions about The Valkyrie and his impressions of this particular “green” Ring as it is sometimes called.  We talked before the curtain came up and after Act II.  Caves has lined up his tickets already to see the LA Opera do their own, very different Ring.  Caves is among the handful of people who will be attending all three Seattle Opera cycles.

Jonathan’s thoughts on Act I and II are after the jump.

Continue reading Impressions of The Ring: Valkyrie

Wagner’s “Die Walkure” has long been regarded one of great operas in the canon. It is no error on the public’s judgment that it is probably the most performed opera in the cycle. The reasons why were made very clear Monday night at McCaw Hall in the compelling performance at Seattle Opera. From the rush of music in the overture to the final heartbreaking moments, the music-drama was real, exploring the human experience. It was sublime, expressive, passionate, energetic and profoundly moving.

There are not as many obstacles in “Walkure” to a satisfying performance. But they are there, especially in the second act. None was present in Monday’s performance. The music-making was exemplary and the acting as well. Thank you conductor Robert Spano, and the superb cast of singers, and stage director Stephen Wadsworth. Every moment was alive.

Continue reading “Die Walkure” Provides a Riveting Four Hours of Opera Monday at McCaw Hall

Incomparable in scope, Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” is back at McCaw Hall. “Das Rheingold,” the first opera in the tetralogy, opened Sunday night. Before the end of August, three cycles will have been performed to sold-out houses.

Continue reading Wagner’s “Ring” Cycle returns to McCaw Hall

One of the ways I will be blogging about The Ring is by speaking with people in attendance at each of the operas.  I’m bringing my handy Zoom recorder with me each night and will record the impressions of long-time and first-time Ring goers.  For the first installment, I talked to James, who is attending his very first Ring.

If you would like to be interviewed send me an e-mail at zach@gatheringnote.org.

My first encounter with this year’s Ring happened in the middle of July. For reasons that are irrelevant, I was sitting across a table from Bob Spano. Spano first conducted the Seattle Ring in 2005 and made such a positive impression that Speight Jenkins invited him back for the 2009 Ring. Here we were, with a vodka tonic in my hand and a martini in his hand, having a conversation – about The Ring.

I met Spano, and a few other people at a local watering hole. It was 11:30 pm and the conductor had finished a rehearsal of Twilight of the Gods – the nearly five hour conclusion of The Ring. A few minutes earlier Spano had pulled out the mammoth score to the opera he just rehearsed, and placed it with a thud on a nearby chair. The rest of the group, all musicians, marveled at the phone book-sized tome. Soon the musicians – with Spano’s approval – picked up the score and began going through its pages. “There’s a man who has studied Wagner’s music.” Remarked one of the musicians after reading through Spano’s post-it annotations to the score.

“Be careful. Don’t mess with those post-its!” Spano shot back.

Continue reading My Ring journey: The Rhinegold