The Passion of Opera

Seeing the entire Ring Cycle in two weeks, performed under Christian Thielemann with the Wiener Philharmoniker in the pit, was definitely a highlight of my time in Vienna. I am no Wagnerian, by which I mean that while I appreciate the music it is not an area with which I have a great deal of experience. Still, it was quite the experience. I commented then that there were ups and downs in the singing but that the conducting and orchestra were superb. The staging was non-traditional, which also had its high and low points. I had no idea  that it was being recorded while I was there, however. It's very gratifying to see the edition, read people's thoughts about it, and say, "oh yes, that substitution of one singer for another? I witnessed that!" I will not make any further comment on the comparative quality of this recording than to say it definitely has its merits even if many will find it lackluster in singing compared to earlier "golden ages," and may d...

This post is just to address the overall arc of the Wiener Staatsoper's Fall 2011 production of Der Ring des Nibelungen . These observations didn't feel appropriate to describe in any of the reviews of the individual operas, but a review of the cycle as a whole would be incomplete without them. The set design was very mediocre. In the first three operas of the cycle it tended toward the abstract without actually going all the way down the rabbit hole. It is respectable that designers want to get away from the massive, grand sets and costumes with horns and metal bras. I imagine that there is a feeling among designers that they just can't top a "period" Ring set and that this well is dry. Nonetheless, if the decision is to go abstract, then full abstraction is probably requisite, rather than trying to make a literal interpretation feel abstract. This just leads to a sense that things were left out or skimped upon. Perhaps the greatest failing in the first three...