The ultimate opera experience deserves its own board so here I go!

If you are into opera, then no doubt you will have heard of this epic opera. It is divided into four nights (or as Wagner calls it a three day day festival) with a preliminary evening. They are "Das Rheingold", "Die Walkure" (The Valkyrie), "Siegfried" and "Gotterdammerung" (Twilight Of The Gods). Apologies for no dots above some o's and u's.

If you are keen to listen to this cycle I make the following sugestions-

1) Listen to a cd first. These days a Ring cycle (as the combined operas are called) is around 14 cd's in length. There are several budget editions but the two worth buying are conducted by Herbert von Karajan on DG or Sir Georg Solti on Decca. Both have their pluses and minuses, but these are irrelevant when approaching the work for the first time. You can follow the libretto (and Wagner's at times silly stage directions) at your leisure.

2) The next step would be to see the thing on video or dvd. If it is your first time watching, get James Levine's Met production as it is the most traditional one around. Other productions are too cerebral for the newcomer (and yes, that DOES include the woeful Bayreuth Boulez production). Trust me, see it as it was MEANT to be seen first, worry about the deeper philosophies later.

3) Buy William Berger's "Wagner Without Fear" book. it is a no-nonsense guide to all of Wagner's greatest operas. It is humorous yet reverential in it's approach. Very easy to read and might make the experience that little more enlightening.

4) Avoid most other texts until you know the work better. Trust me, you'll only get confused.

5) Avoid talking to seasoned Wagnerians. They only scare people off Wagner (which is probably what they want).

Plot nits to follow...

"Apologies for no dots above some o's and u's." - Rodney Hrvatin

Those are called umlauts. And I wish I knew how to format for them, too. Properly, any time I write Blue Oyster Cult down, there should be umlauts over the "O" in "Oyster". For that matter, the word, "umlaut" should have one over the "u".

I think I've seen a bit of this opera years ago on Channel 13, the PBS station in Dallas. It's when I learned that I could stand Opera, after all. I don't think I saw all of it, regretfully. (I think going to a topless bar was more important at the time. Lord only knows why. .... Oooh, ye-ah.)

About how much do those disc sets you mention go for anyway, Rodney? I really would like to have this in my collection

np - Deguello - ZZ Top (I know. It's sacriligious to be mentioning ZZ on this thread. Sorry.) (Hey! "Deguello". There's another word that should have an umlaut in it. They go over the "u".)

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

Those are called umlauts. And I wish I knew how to format for them, too.

To include accented and other foreign letters from the extended ASCII range 192-255, determine the extended ASCII number "xxx" and type \char{xxx}.

For example,
\char{197} = Å
\char{214} = Ö
\char{224} = à
\char{230} = æ
\char{241} = ñ
\char{246} = ö

It also works for the special punctuation for Spanish

\char{161} = ¡
\char{191} = ¿

and international cuurency:
\char{163} = £
\char{165} = ¥

The letters can be placed inside words:
c\char{230}sarian section = cæsarian section
The Ni\char{241}a, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria = The Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria

Thank you, Tom!! !

np - Tidal - Fiona Apple

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

Well here in Oz, the sets range from $140AUD to $200AUD. I suspect they are available on amazon.com for viewing.

I should also point out that the main reason I recommend the two sets above sets conductoed by Bohm or Levine is that they don't have the libretto.

nits still to follow

"Well here in Oz, the sets range from $140AUD to $200AUD. I suspect they are available on amazon.com for viewing." - Rodney Hrvatin

Hm. Now the question is how much does that convert to American money?

np - Quinella - Atlanta Rhythm Section

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

"The Ride of the Valkries" is a personal fave.

Even if you don't love the smell of napalm in the morning?

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000009CMV
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000042H4

Okie Dokie folks- I said I would nitpick and I shall.

Before the nitpicking commences I should point out that I shall only discuss matters of text as productions vary greatly. I have used the dvd's of the Met production to help me out (although I shan't make too many comments about production faults)

Das Rheingold
=============

Scene 1- The Rheinmaidens tease Alberich by feigning love for him- one at a time. Is it any wonder the little troll (ok, ok, I mean Dwarf) is quick to renounce love? On that point, how does the gold know that he has renounced love? According to the Rheinmaidens, it can only be forged into a ring of power by someone who renounces love. Fine and dandy until we see that Mime is the one who forged it. Did he renounce love as well?
Now if I do a quick count let me see, 1...2...3 Rheinmaidens and one dwarf. These maidens are in their home habitat (underwater) and poor Alberich is sneezing and spluttering yet still manages to take the gold. Surely these girls, who have been left to GUARD the gold would be able to overpower him???
Scene 2: The question of Freia's apples and their power is an interesting one. Apparently there are golden apples which only she can tend to properly and these apples give a youthful appearance to our rugged gang of gods. So naturally after Wotan does the highly intelligent thing of bartering away this apparently VERY important lady to the giants the gods start flailing about in pain (it is often so badly acted on stage BTW- but I digress). Towards the end of the scene Wotan suddenly springs up and seems in a pretty chipper mood throughout the rest of this opera- second wind maybe??
Scene 3- OK, just what exactly does this ring enable the bearer to do? Apparently it can bend people's will to the wearer of the ring. Now Mime has made the ring and given it to Alberich- first mistake. But let's say that ALberich was sly and convieniently forgot to tell Mime what it does. So Alberich has the ring- if he was so powerful and could bend the will of others, how could Wotan and Loge get it off him? Surely he could wave his hands at them before he did the magic tricks that led to his capture. I mean, how often does the head God take a stroll through a dingy mine with his offsider?? I would be suspicious and likely just to bend their will to mine so that I could make sure that I kept my preciouussssssss.....oops, wrong board....
Scene 4- Now let's continue this theme- Wotan grabs the ring. Wotan- head of the gods and probably a pretty bright fellow (at least brighter than Alberich). He wears this ring for a good part of the scene including when giants come and demand their fee (all the gold or Freia). So why didn't Wotan just wave his hand at them and say (sing?) "You don't want any fee- for that matter, there's a cliff, jump off it".
Taking a back step, when Alberich is released he places the curse on the ring. Exactly why should this curse work in the first place?? Once again, Wotan (who is wearing the ring) could say (sing?) "Renounce the curse NOW!! And see that cliff over there?...".
When Erda appears she warns Wotan to give back the ring, at the risk of flogging a dead horse here (are you getting my point about this ring???) yet again, if Wotan had scared off Alberich with said ring (thus releasing it from the curse), and scared off the giants then he could follow it up by telling this eternal wet blanket to shut up.

The good bits
=============
How can one note so totally and utterly depict a scene?? From the very first low e-flat in the double basses you KNOW you are in the Rhine. The whole prelude is gorgeous.
The music of the Rheingold is fantastic.
The entrance of the Giants is brilliant (and perhaps a good inspiration for John Williams when writing his Star Wars Imperial March).
Scene 3 is a real pearler- moves at great pace and lots of cool music (the interludes before and after this scene are also worthy of note)
Scene 4- The last 15 minutes or so (from when Donner clears the gloomy air to the final curtain) is sheer brilliance. If ever there was any doubt of Wagner's ability to paint a picture in sound then this should wipe out all doubt.

I think I have a nit. . .

The importance of Freia is that her apples, when consumed by the gods, give them immortality. When Loge appears, he observes that, being but a demi-god, he was never allowed to eat the apples. That being the case, why is he still alive generations later at the end of Gotterdamerung? If he had an alternative source of immortality, why didn't the gods avail themselves of that when Freia was taken?

Loge actually says that he doesn't NEED the apples- that they have no effect on him. That's the reason why he doesn't get affected like the others. You must remember that these gods are fairly old- probably centuries. Loge might still be a "young pup" as it were.

I went to see Götterdämmerung in February in Toronto. The full cycle will premiere in September.

The music was (of course) fantastic, as were the performances. The staging, however, was non-traditional, putting a quasi-modern (and highly minimalist) spin on the story with costumes in a 1930s style. Kind of weird, especially given the story. I would have loved a less interpretive presentation, though.