Live from the Met 2.04.11 - Wagner: Das Rheingold

[Bert Coules]

Actually, Rheingold has occasionally been done with an interval; not at the Met though, I think.

It's noticeable today that the broadcast sound balance favours the singers somewhat more than a BBC relay from Covent Garden or the Coli usually would. I rather like that.

[Bert Coules]

I stand corrected: the NY Met premiere had an interval between scene two and scene three.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Actually, Rheingold has occasionally been done with an interval; not at the Met though, I think.

So where would the interval occur? I can't think of any suitable perfect cadences, though there are a few silences.

It's noticeable today that the broadcast sound balance favours the singers somewhat more than a BBC relay from Covent Garden or the Coli usually would. I rather like that.

The orchestra does sound distant, which to me is a little unnatural. (However, I haven't experienced Bayreuth, where the orchestra is condemned to an underground tank.) Wagner's vocal lines are often the "inner parts" of the orchestra, so giving them undue prominence can seem unmusical.

[Bert Coules]

The sound at Bayreuth is beautifully blended: the singers do indeed sound like part of the orchestra but it happens without any sacrifice of clarity, at least in the best stagings. There's no real sense (at least in my admittedly limited experience) that the orchestra is in any way muffled or restricted by its placing, though it's true that some conductors have thought so, and I believe that on at least one occasion part of the famous curved pit cover was removed to enhance the sound. I wonder if the balance today is being affected slightly by the set, which might be pushing the voices forward more than a more open staging would.

There are some lovely images of the production here. Once you've stopped being startled by Wotan's Long John Silver impersonation, scroll down for the Rheingold stage pictures.

[Flosshilde]

& a video introduction here - http://www.metoperafamily.org/metope....aspx?id=12572

I see from the Met's performance diary that the perfromance is scheduled to end at 3.35, & Le Comte Ory starts at 8.00 - a pretty quick turn-around for the stage hands, given the massiveness of the Ring set machinery.

[perfect wagnerite]

... while still on Bayreuth rather than Wagner himself, Brigitte Hamann's "Winifred Wagner: A Life at the heart of Hitler's Bayreuth" is a very worthwhile insight into that dark period of Bayreuth's history, and the relationship between the Wagner dynasty and the Nazis.

I'd have said it was more than worthwhile - indispensible, in fact. It provides as complete an explanation as you will find of how Wagner's art changed from being something modern and revolutionary into a symbol of political reaction, and of how it was misused.

[DracoM]

The Bayreuth blend is to die for.
Yes, the balance is very pro voices. In the Nibelheim scenes I think that loses a LOT of the ugly mystery and violence of the place. Good Alberich and Fricka. Terfel still has to convince IMO. Decent Loge. Trifle over-emphatic Mime, but plentuy of colour and drama.

Is the set the star of the show?

Met Orchestra in top, top form and Luisi is really keeping the thing movibg with plenty of life, colour and shape, and are those players watching or what? The tempi changes have so far been beautifully handled. Top class listen.

[Flosshilde]

Yes, the balance is very pro voices. In the Nibelheim scenes I think that loses a LOT of the ugly mystery and violence of the place.

Met Orchestra in top, top form and Luisi is really keeping the thing movibg with plenty of life, colour and shape, and are those players watching or what? The tempi changes have so far been beautifully handled. Top class listen.

Absolutely agree - if the voices are being favoured I think it's a pity, as the orchestral playing is really rather good. I think in the transition from the mountain to Neibelheim it conveyed plenty of menace.

[Bert Coules]

Well-deserved cheers there; a very enjoyable performance, with some fine singing. Eric Owens' Alberich sounded as if he was in difficulties at the end, but managed beautifully; and I thought that Terfel's Wotan grew in stature as the show progressed: his final naming of Valhalla was impressively done and noticeably without the rather over-emphatic word-colouring he was going in for earlier. But these things are very much a matter of taste, of course: the Loge and the Mime were doing it every bit as much if not more, and they didn't bother me at all (the odd shout apart).

On the question of the balance, how exactly do the Met sound engineers mic the stage? Does anyone here know?

[BetweenTheStaves]

To put another perspective I thought it was awful. From the turgid opening temp (tempi) one could have been forgiven for thinking that the river had been silted up, that quavering Rhinemaiden reminded me of Dame Nellie Melba. I struggled manfully with it but found my attention wandering off all the time. I have heard so many better ones.

[Flosshilde]

Well, I did think that one of the Rhinemaidens did sound rather matronly - I hope it wasn't me! But I really can't agree with BTS's other comments, & fully agree with Bert about Terfel - the final scene was excellent, beautifully done, & made Wotan sound less bombastic & triumphant than usual.

[Don Basilio]

Good grief, was that really applause I just heard? (just before the Rhinemaidens started singing) Presumably the curtain had just gone up & the audience were applauding the set?

I heard it too in the car radio, trying to avoid the snarl up on Salisbury Plain caused by road works north of Amesbury. (Larkhill is weird.)

Yes. Applause. Applauding the set? Last heard by me at the Exmouth Players production of Rebecca c 1977.

[Cavaradossi]

The applause greeted the entrance of the Rhinemaidens "flying" on their wires. Remembering from the HD performance, it's quite a visual effect.

[Bert Coules]

Exactly: they weren't applauding the set but applauding the artistic totality of the moment: the combination of sound, scenery, lighting and action. Wagner would have been delighted.

[Flosshilde]

Would he?

The Met audience - at the matinees, at least - have a habit of applauding the set as the curtain goes up. On one hand it's a demonstration of appreciation of the work of the designers etc., on the other it's like the people who applaud at the end of a film - rather meaningless as there's no-one involved to hear it. There are also times when it's inappropriate, as in this instance, when the music is seamless & doesn't offer a break for applause.