The Passion of Opera

After having waiting 20 hours and witnessing 18 hours of opera over two weeks, I have finally finished the Wiener Staatsoper's production of Wagner's  Der Ring des Nibelungen . I will finish up my own cycle of four reviews by dedicating this post to  Götterdämmerung . It is well worth making general observations about the production of the Cycle as a whole (though some of these have slipped in already), particularly on account of the orchestra, but I will do this in a separate post. First:  Götterdämmerung . General information & synopsis:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Götterdämmerung Cast: Christian Thielemann | Dirigent Sven-Eric Bechtolf | Regie Rolf Glittenberg | Bühne Marianne Glittenberg | Kostüme Thomas Lang | Chorleitung Stephen Gould | Siegfried Markus Eiche | Gunther Eric Halfvarson/Attila Jun | Hagen Tomasz Konieczny | Alberich Linda Watson | Brünnhilde Caroline Wenborne | Gutrune Janina Baechle | Waltraute ...

Siegfried , like Die Walküre  is one of the linchpins of the Ring Cycle. Both of these operas are more recognized than Das Rheingold  or Götterdämmerung . While the performances in this production continued to be generally solid, Siegfried  did not feel as well put together as the preceding two operas in the cycle in the Wiener Staatsoper's production. The sets continued to be lackluster, and the voices, with some very notable exceptions, were neither as kind to the ear nor as consistent as in the other operas. Synopsis & general information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_(opera) Cast: Siegfried | Richard Wagner Christian Thielemann | Dirigent Sven-Eric Bechtolf | Regie Rolf Glittenberg | Bühne Marianne Glittenberg | Kostüme fettFilm | Video Stephen Gould | Siegfried Linda Watson | Linda Watson Albert Dohmen | Der Wanderer Tomasz Koniczny | Alberich Anna Larsson | Erda Wolfgang Schmidt | Mime Ain Anger | Fafner Chen Reiss | S...