Opera North: Ring

[teamsaint]

From the South Bank Centre's site, they are planning streams to the Clore Ballroom of the RFH performances, apparently:

Rhinegold: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/wha...ingold-1001568

Walkure: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/wha...3%BCre-1001569

Siegfried: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/wha...gfried-1001570

Gotterdaemmerung: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/wha...merung-1001571

Thanks for flagging this up, BSP.

I'm due in London on the 29th, so might be able to make the screening that night.

Ferney's reviews were indeed inspiring.

[Once Was 4]

Thanks for flagging this up, BSP.

I'm due in London on the 29th, so might be able to make the screening that night.

Ferney's reviews were indeed inspiring.

Dreadful news about the death, from cancer, of Opera North’s Principal bassoon Sebastian (Bas) New. A larger than life character whose superb playing and sense of humour will be greatly missed by his colleagues. The second Ring cycle is dedicated to his memory. RIP.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Dreadful news about the death, from cancer, of Opera North’s Principal bassoon Sebastian (Bas) New. A larger than life character whose superb playing and sense of humour will be greatly missed by his colleagues. The second Ring cycle is dedicated to his memory. RIP.

Terrible news - he played in the "one-a-year" Cycle between 2011 and 2014. A very sad loss

[Nick Armstrong]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/27/ring-the-changes-my-asuterity-wagner-with-opera-north

[Belgrove]

Michael Tanner is usually pretty trustworthy in his opinion

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/06/the-conducting-is-as-potent-as-furtwanglers-opera-norths-ring-reviewed/

I shall be attending the Nottingham cycle next week and am greatly looking forward to it.

[Belgrove]

There is little for me to add to ferny's eloquent reviews.

Can this really be the best Ring I have seen? I do think so. Richard Farnes' traversal of the mighty score leaves me casting around for superlatives which cannot do justice to the achievement. His conducting is simply 'right' in every instance! Take, for example, the Annunciation of Death scene in Act 2 of Die Walkure. Starting almost dangerously slow, twenty minutes later we were in the centre of a frenzied maelstrom of sound, and never the sense of the gears having changed. Wagner's music is always in flux, but Farnes makes these vast arcs of music sonic evolution, unfolding naturally but with inexorable purpose.

The acoustic of Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham provides an almost Bayreuth bloom. The performers, in front of the orchestra, sans props, act with total conviction.

It's been an astonishing week with the climactic Götterdämmerung this afternoon - I think it might be incandescent!

Pappano is on record as saying that the only way he gets to hear the Ring these days is to conduct it. He really should make the effort to hear Farnes, for he would learn so much. Better still, the ROH should hire Farnes to conduct their next Ring in 2018.

If you get the chance, go see it - you won't forget it.

[bluestateprommer]

Reading about this from a distance, I can't help but think that with probably 1/200th of the money, Peter Mumford got proportionately correct with his video projection production of this Opera North Ring what Robert LePage got incorrect in his now-notorious Metropolitan Opera Ring, cursed with "The Machine" and its random computer-wired temperament (although to be fair, LePage's direction of the Met Opera's singers struck me as pretty decent). It's great to read the general praise all around for it.

Pappano is on record as saying that the only way he gets to hear the Ring these days is to conduct it. He really should make the effort to hear Farnes, for he would learn so much. Better still, the ROH should hire Farnes to conduct their next Ring in 2018.

Actually, here's an idea: ENO needs to revive the Andrew Porter translation of the Ring, and get the rights to stage the Peter Mumford version at the Coliseum. They then could book Farnes and Anthony Negus for alternating runs, if so inclined.

[Belgrove]

As ferney says, you run out superlatives.

This was the most overwhelming Götterdämmerung I have seen. The visceral impact of Act 2 left me shocked and speechless. And this was then topped by a shattering Funeral March, just one epic peak following another. Farnes gave us a miracle of pace and shape throughout the four days.

The reaction of the audience at the end of the Cycle said it all. A sense of euphoria (among all the performers too) on having been part of a community sharing something extraordinary and memorable. I attended the Cycle with a friend whose first experience of Wagner this was. At the beginning of the week he felt daunted by the prospect of spending 15 hours in a concert hall, listening to music he was unfamiliar with. By the end he knew he had shared in experiencing one of the high-water marks in western culture. What a privilege to have been there.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Indeed they may well be - the Vienna Phil of Britain, perhaps. When they play as a concert orchestra, their experience/responsiveness, from working in the pit, is apparent at all times, in the same way as the great Viennese orchestra.

I wonder if you've noticed the concert on 1st April (well after noon!) next year in Leeds Town Hall, Alpie? (Page 20 of the booklet here; page 11 of the PDF):

http://www.leeds.gov.uk/LeedsConcertSeason/Documents/Leeds%20International%20Orchestral%20Season%201617.pdf

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Belgrove - I was delighted and moved (not to mention relieved )to read your posts, especially #53: I also shared the cycle with a friend who'd been a little daunted by the idea of the cycle (his wife had positively refused to even consider the possibility!) and who was awestruck by the whole thing. The icing on a perfect cake when this happens.

[Nick Armstrong]

Have you been reading IGI's reviews of the cycle in its South Bank manifestation....? e.g. the final night reviewed here

[arthroceph]

Listening to the Sage Gateshead Rheingold this evening ... it's pretty OK!

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Have you been reading IGI's reviews of the cycle in its South Bank manifestation....? e.g. the final night reviewed here

Thanks, Caliban. It was quite a week - with a pair of Trovatores either side of Götterdämmerung! Opera North and the Southbank Centre did a splendid job presenting The Ring. Each opera was streamed downstairs into the Clore Ballroom, where astroturf helped create their very own 'Green Hill'. On Saturday, I saw a school choir perform songs telling the tales from the Icelandic Edda. Kids were making Fafner masks. I even took part in ON's 'Anvil Workshop' where we were let loose on their anvils (well, borrowed from the ROH) to perform the Nibelheim percussion.

Very strong performances by Opera North, centring on Richard Farnes and his tremendous orchestra. The simple concert presentation worked so well. Highly recommended to R3 listeners this week. I spoke with Donald Macleod at Rheingold and Götterdämmerung in London and he was really looking forward to the week in Gateshead.

[jonfan]

Brings back memories of Cycle 2 in Leeds. What a great arch from beginning to end but what superb engineering with ideal balance between singers and orchestra. All the detail is there but with the climaxes spreading out thrillingly as well.

[Ein Heldenleben]

That Walkure was absolutely magnificent - really quite superbly conducted , sung and played . How I envy forum members who were there to see it.