Tag Archives: Ring

Gé¶tterdé¤mmerung MetHD Review – Conclusion of Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle

It seemed like old home week as I settled into my comfortable seat at CinÉArts @ Palo Alto Square Theatre at 8:55 AM Saturday morning, February 11, 2012 to begin six hours of immersion in wonderful music and cosmic story-telling.  Sara, Letha Ann, Bruce, and Ellen were with me, as they had been for most of the first three installments of The Ring of the NibelungDas RheingoldDie Walké¼re, and Siegfried.   Continue reading »

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2011 Review – and a look ahead to 2012

As I look back over my first full year of publishing opera reviews in SPLASH Magazine, January seems like a good time to reflect on some of the operatic highlights of the past year.  It came as something of a shock to me Continue reading »

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SF Opera Ring – Part IV, Why Was This Performance So Great?

The quick and easy answer to the title question is – Nina Stemme. More knowledgeable critics than I have praised her singing. For example, Richard Scheinin writes in the San Jose Mercury News, “She has been the cornerstone. She is a singer of arresting power and sheer delicacy, her voice both spacious and focused. And filled with color . . .” Continue reading »

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SF Opera Ring – Part III, How

As Director of the SF Opera Ring Series, Francesca Zambello faced two challenges which are not normally present in opera. First and foremost was the fact that in each act of each opera the music is continuous. Wagner allowed for the fact that it takes a stage crew a substantial number of minutes in real time to make necessary scenery changes by generously filling those minutes with orchestral sound. That’s fine as far as auditory reception goes, but opera also has its visual component. What to do visually during these musical interludes? Continue reading »

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SF Opera Ring – Part II, Who and What

Now I’m ready to tell you about seeing my first live performance of the complete Ring cycle. I’ll begin with an organized list of the dramatis personae, only a few of whom are ordinary mortals. Rather than clutter up the text by giving both the role and the singer each time, I’ll refer only to the role names here and give credit to the singers in an appendix, which lists them all in convenient reference form. Continue reading »

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SF Opera Ring – Part I, Introduction

The past week has been an extraordinary experience. In the course of 6 days I spent some 17 hours in seat R1 of the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco watching and listening to Wagner’s complete Ring cycle; the 3rd and last cycle of the 2011 summer season of the San Francisco Opera. Continue reading »

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Die Walké¼re at the Met – Part II of Wagner’s epic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen

PART I    THE OPERA

Last October, as the final curtain descended on Das Reingold, we left our heroes, The Aesir (the gods) ascending the magic rainbow bridge to their new home, Valhalla. Continue reading »

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Rheingold Review – MetHD

The count-down begins: 5 minutes . . .  4 . . . 3 . . .  2 . . . 1 . . .  The theater lights dim, the audience becomes quiet.  There is an air of expectancy in the CinÉArts @ Palo Alto Square Theatre where it is 10 AM Saturday morning, as there is on the giant screen in front of us where it is 1 pm in the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center New  York City. Continue reading »

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Wagner’s Ring (Valencia) – Exciting Technology

If all goes well for me during the coming 2010-11 operatic season, it will be the Year of the Ring. The 12-production Met HD season will be book-ended by new productions of Das Rheingold and Die Walké¼re, the first two operas in the cycle (the last two should follow next year). In November and January the European HD network will present a new production of the same two operas from La Scala. In June, the San Francisco Opera will present the complete cycle produced by their Artistic Adviser Francesca Zambello. And the season began in August 2010 with the European HD showing of final opera in the fantastical production by Carlus Padrissa and La Fura dels Baus which I have just seen. Continue reading »

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Siegfried

Siegfried
Wagner
March 21 and 24, 2010
Valencia (Spain) HD
HD at Camera 7 Pruneyard, Campbell, CA

 the   R I N G.

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