Sky Arts are showing this year`s Bayreuth Ring, on Saturday 29th (Rheingold + Walkure) and Sunday 30th (all 4 operas)
Marvellous news!
Marvellous news!
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15 hours worth in one day - & that's not including intervals! -
Erm.......29th of............? month?Comment
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Terribly sorry - July!
i forgot to add - they promise (or threaten) additional features including something presented by Stephen Fry.....Comment
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??? But 29th & 30th July aren't on Saturday and Sunday this year. Friday and Saturday?Originally posted by ARBurton View Post[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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The dates in the OP are wrong. The details of the broadcasts are:Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post
For those wanting to watch the whole cycle on the Sunday, note that in order to show Gotterdammerung live, Rheingold starts rather early on the Sunday morning.Saturday 30 July - Bayreuth Festival
8pm Wagner Documentary
9pm Das Rheingold
11.30pm Die Walküre
Sunday 31 July - Bayreuth Festival Complete Ring Cycle
4.30am Das Rheingold
7.00am Die Walküre
11.00am Siegfried
3.45pm Götterdämmerung LIVE
Stephen Fry will interview the cast and tour the famous Bayreuth Festspielhaus specifically built and conceived by Wagner in 1876 to showcase his works. Further experts will investigate the importance of the Ring Cycle looking at its heroes and villains, its feminist icons and its controversial place in political history.
I assume Fry will present the documentary on the Saturday night, and possibly also do interviews etc in the intervals of the individual operas.
An exciting prospect and quite a departure for Sky Arts, but I think I'll be setting the recorder, rather than getting up at 4:30 am"I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square."
Lady Bracknell The importance of Being EarnestComment
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Well, yes - even if one decided to watch the first two on the Saturday to avoid rising early on Sunday one would have a late night - round about 3.30 am. Sky Arts seem to think that Wagnerians have a lot of stamina.Comment
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Artist details:
Rheingold
Walkure
Siegfried
Gotterdammerung
(I have NO idea what the photos of the rubber duck, samovar, rifle, exploding lighter have to do with ANYTHING!
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[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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The duck is obviously an escapee from Lohengrin, & presumably signifies the Rhine (ducks live on rivers); the lighter doesn't need any explanation; the samovar - Sieglinde serving a refreshing cup of tea to Siegfried (or drugged drink to Hunding); & the gun - shooting Fafner.Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View PostArtist details:
Rheingold
Walkure
Siegfried
Gotterdammerung
(I have NO idea what the photos of the rubber duck, samovar, rifle, exploding lighter have to do with ANYTHING! )
It's clearly going to be one of those productions
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Originally posted by Flosshilde View PostIt's clearly going to be one of those productions
- I did wonder!
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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Even by the sometimes bizarre standards of modern Bayreuth, it is definitely one of those productions. From the Guardian review of its premiere:Originally posted by Flosshilde View PostThe duck is obviously an escapee from Lohengrin, & presumably signifies the Rhine (ducks live on rivers); the lighter doesn't need any explanation; the samovar - Sieglinde serving a refreshing cup of tea to Siegfried (or drugged drink to Hunding); & the gun - shooting Fafner.
It's clearly going to be one of those productions
There is also this description of the closing scene from Siegfried from the New York Times:His take on the Ring was ultimately – and perhaps deliberately – incoherent. Before the cycle began, Castorf held a press conference. In it, he explained that this Ring cycle, focusing on oil, would tease out ways that our greed for it and its wealth re-enact the impulse for the riches, power and destruction on which Wagner's Ring is centred. In its first two parts – a Rheingold set in a Route 66 US gas station and motel inhabited by Tarantino-style characters, and a Walküre set in the Caspian oil fields just before the Russian revolution – it was just about possible to discern a link, albeit a loosely drawn one, between these two settings and the professed oil theme.
But the two final parts of Castorf's cycle had almost nothing of this theme, beyond the dark polluted clouds that formed its permanent backdrop. Instead, the settings were increasingly dominated by the remnants and echoes of East Berlin before the fall of communism. Even here, little was developed to a theatrical, let alone musical, argument. Most important, it had nothing to do with Wagner's Ring – with its music, its poetry or its ambition to unify the performing arts and elevate humankind in the process.
I wonder if a certain poster on this site will be watching the TV with his 'regiemask' (TM) on?In this production, at the most climactic moment in the music, the stage rotated to reveal two monster crocodiles busily copulating.
Looking hungry after sex, the squiggling reptiles, their jaws flapping, headed toward Siegfried and Brünnhilde, who were singing away.
As the reptiles crawled closer, the Forest Bird, presented here as an alluring young woman, burst upon the stage to save the day. Of course, the Forest Bird was not supposed to be in this scene, but who cares what Wagner wrote? This fetching Forest Bird bravely fought off one crocodile by jabbing a pole down its throat. But the other one opened wide and swallowed her whole. Throughout, Siegfried and Brünnhilde seemed only mildly concerned. But then, in Mr. Castorf’s staging, they also seemed only mildly concerned with each other, a much bigger problem."I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square."
Lady Bracknell The importance of Being EarnestComment
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Perhaps this is the reason for Sky Arts' scheduling. Having forked out for (sponsored?) the production they felt so embarrassed that they hid it away late at night & early morning.Comment
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Sky's scheduling is slightly odd, but they seem very pleased with the deal they have done with Bayreuth and regard this as something of a coup for them. I suspect as well that Sky's UK audience are not the main target audience for this. It is notable that Sky Arts is launching as a new channel in Germany and Austria on 21 July, and this will be the first big live broadcast to be shown in those countries soon after launch.Originally posted by Flosshilde View Post"I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square."
Lady Bracknell The importance of Being EarnestComment
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Live? Surely not.Comment
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Hmmm...
turning into quite a frustrating non event( musically) for me that weekend.
Two terrific looking Proms,(the Berlioz R and J my top pick of the season) the Wagner on Sky Arts which I have a subscription for,but no recorder, and the Rev Peyton's Big Damn band playing live in Newbury.
And I'm away visiting rellies.
Where's the " stoical" smiley when you need it ?
Harrumph.I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
I am not a number, I am a free man.Comment
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