User Reviews

This is the second instalment of Wagner's Ring conducted by Daniel Barenboim from Beyreuth. The Ring gets better with each succeeding part but even by part two it is nothing less than incredible. It is performed on a large, uncluttered stage in fairly modern dress, long leather coats being in this year for teutonic gods. John Tomlinson is a bespectacled Wotan, with one lens blacked out. Wagner's stage directions are followed fairly literally in this as in the other three films that make up this set so I was slightly surprised that there was a Walk of the Valkyries rather than the usual Ride but it was still thrilling. This is the only point in the Ring in which we see Wotan and Brünnhilde together and Tomlinson and Anne Evans are a stunning partnership in Act III. Wotan has to punish Brünnhilde for her disobedience by putting her to sleep surrounded by a ring of fire that only a hero can penetrate. Tomlinson and Evans fully exploit the incestuous nature of this father and daughter pairing. In fact there's a lot of incest in the Ring, what with Wotan's children Siegmund and Sieglinde in Act I and their son Siegfried with his aunty Brunhilde to come later.

There is a Christian resonance in the holy trinity of the father Wotan, the son Siegmund and the holy spirit Brünnhilde who describes herself as the instrument of Wotan's will. Of course Wotan doesn't just beget one redeemer he also begets nine Valkyries. In fact for someone who likes to put it about a bit he has probably chosen the wrong wife in Fricka, the goddess of marital fidelity. Henpecked by his wife and constrained by his own godliness from stealing back the ring, Wotan describes himself as the least powerful of all beings.

The Valkyries'job is to scoop dying heroes from the battlefield and transport them direct to Valhalla where they will be entertained by accommodating maidens. These days I'm a bit uncomfortable about this idea of virgins waiting in heaven to greet dead martyrs. Still, its an exciting story and you can't wait to find out what happens next. There are not many operas where you can say that

To my taste the 1993 Barenboim/Bayreuth Ring is the best of the current commercial video recordings of The Ring, which include as well: 1) the 1985 Bayreuth (Philips DVD), 2) the 1989 Bavarian State Opera (EMI-Toshiba DVD), 3) the 1990 Metropolitan Opera (DG DVD), 4) the 2002 Stuttgart Staatsoper (TDK DVD), and 5) the 2004 Teatre del Liceu (Opus Arte DVD). Most of the versions have significant strong points. The 1985 Bayreuth has very good singing and acting in a satisfying modern production. For me, though, the sound and video quality have always been disappointing. The 1989 production has very good audio and video quality and a good, satisfying performance in a fairly interesting production. However, this Japanese set is extremely expensive and hard to buy. The 1990 Met performance is, amazingly, the only traditional staging available. It is definitely a very good performance, but I find the less traditional performances more stimulating. The audio and video quality are only good. The 2002 Stuttgart performance is well sung and the orchestra plays well. The sound is very good, video is OK. This version has been roundly criticized, but mostly for its stage design. It is pretty strange in parts (the Dragon in Siegfried, for example), but I enjoyed many parts of it. The 2004 Barcelona performance has been acclaimed by many reviewers, largely based on the stage design by Harry Kupfer. The singing and orchestral playing are OK, the conductor's tempo is generally slow. The sound recording is good, but the video (particularly for a brand new release) is quite disappointingly grainy to me.

Now we come to the 1993 Bayreuth/Barenboim production. Always important for Wagner, the orchestral playing is excellent, Barenboim's conducting is outstanding, and the recorded sound is excellent. The singing and acting are uniformly very good. The stage design, again by Harry Kupfer is modern (supposedly set in the 30's--Siegmund's costume is rather Indiana Jones-like). The deep Bayreuth stage is effectively used. Through all four operas I find the staging interesting and enjoyable to look at, not so spare as to be boring but not so dominant as to be awkward or overwhelming to the action. This performance has finally been released on DVD by Warner Classics in both the US and Europe in NTSC. I've learned from Warner that the original recording was in analog High Definition and their first step in preparing the curent DVD was to transfer the video recording to a digital 1080 line tape (so we can hope there will be an HD version later). There was also ambient sound recording in the original so the DTS soundtrack is real 5.1. The 16:9 anamorphic picture is a big improvement over the laser disc, much more detail; the sound is very good. An exciting reintroduction of a great performance. (The other 3 Ring operas will be released in the next 15 months, according to Warner.)

Die Walkure is just one of four wonderful operas that is part of Wagner's truly epic Ring Cycle. Of the productions seen so far, I'd seen the 1990 Met, the 1980 Bayreuth, one from 1996 with Domingo and Meier and the 2011 Met, but this one is my favourite. It does look effective visually, not in the traditional sense, but it has a lot of atmosphere. The technical parts of the DVD are above par too, with the sound especially the singing fills the house. The orchestra are also excellent especially with Brunnhilde's War cry and the monumental Wotan's Farewell, and Daniel Barenboim provides an enigmatic, bombastic and sometimes nuanced reading. The cast are superb, but John Tomlinson with his firm command of the stage and resonant voice was the standout as Wotan. Linda Finnie makes for a powerful and vocally steely Fricka, Nadine Secunde conveys the ardour and pain of Sieglinde very affectingly, Graham Clark is an oily Mime, Anne Evans a very involving Brunnhilde(though she's even better in Siegfried and Gotterdamerung) and Matthias Holle an unyielding and aggressive Hunding. Poul Elming is appropriately heroic as Siegmund. In conclusion, a superb and always compelling Walkure. 10/10 Bethany Cox