Last night, I finally got round to watching the DVDs of Das Rheingold from the Netherlands Opera and it’s certainly an interesting production, as you would have established from the information and photographs in the SACD accompanying material. It’s pretty abstract and I much preferred it to the recent Royal Opera ‘age of industrial revolution’ staging. There’s a 50 minute documentary with plenty of interviews with conductor, Hartmut Haenchen, director, Pierre Audi, and cast. Graham Clark speaks well about Audi’s concept of moving the orchestra around and singing from the platform right up close to the audience. You see how for Rheingold the orchestra are more or less in the traditional pit position, although that is raised slightly. Then, for Walküre and Siegfried, they are on stage, on the right and left respectively, before coming full-circle, as it were, back to the front for Götterdämmerung, with this large platform circling them. In the documentary, the Brünnholde, Jean Altmeyer, seemed less than impressed with the staging, but John Keyes, Siegmund on both DVD and SACD, enthusiastically embraces it all. The transitions in Rheingold were done smoothly and I was impressed by each scene, but especially the Nibelheim one, which contained plenty of fiery furnace effects. The Nibelungs were rather ET-like, trotting around, and the giant serpent Alberich turns into was pretty impressive, with giant tail fanning flames around the stage. The lighting was excellent and I liked the costumes – Mime appeared animal-like, with a sort of insect-like abdomen and hair sprouting down his back – and the gods had coloured robes with matching ‘Mr Whippy’ type sculptured hair.
This is a much earlier performance of the Ring than the ones used for the SACDs, with only Chris Merritt as Loge, Graham Clark as Mime and Anna Gjevang as Erda in both Rheingolds. It was interesting to hear John Bröcheler as Wotan. He appears in this role on Asher Fisch’s Adelaide Ring on Melba, but is generally not in Albert Dohmen’s league; he hectors a fair bit as if addressing a public meeting and has little of Dohmen’s subtlety or nobility. I shall give it another watch this evening, I think, before returning the discs. The other Ring operas from this production are lined up ready!

Opilec, have you got the SACD Rheingold yet?

For those of you who heard Rheingold from Bayreuth this afternoon, it's worth flagging up that Albert Dohmen's Wotan can be heard in Hartmut Haenchen's fascinating SACD recording. I was in the process of replying to opi's point on the R3 messageboards, but they had just closed for Christmas as I hit the post button!

<quote>Beautiful playing and singing, yes, especially Dohmen's marvellous Wotan.</quote>

Agreed there, opilec.  <ok> Probably a good time to alert people to the Haenchen recording which, despite Melba's promotional claims, was the first Ring to be released on SACD. Very strong cast (Dohmen's Wotan being a highlight) and swift speeds without sounding hurried. There are some fascinating booklet notes about what Wagner wanted. I have seen the first two operas on DVD - different cast in most cases, with vocal performances which are not quite as strong as the SACD recording from a few years later - but an interesting production, with the orchestra raised and the stage surrounding them at various points.

Opi, have you listened to the complete cycle yet?

Not as inconsistent as you'd think, IGI: candles don't have a fail-safe self-extinguishing system: in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, we had huge practical flambeau torches, which had two safety features: to keep the gas flowing, you had to keep pressure on a button in the handle, so if the torch was dropped or knocked out of the hand, it was immediately disabled: secondly, the valve feeding the gas only operated between when held within ten degrees of vertical; if you let the torch droop too far, it would go out. I have seen radio-controlled gas-candles, but they're hugely expensive.... (That production also went through ten grands' worth of pyrotechnics a week - no expense was spared.)

Worst magic fire: "three dancers with violent green hair" in the Gergiev/Tsypin RING