2016 Bayreuth Ring on Sky Arts

[underthecountertenor]

Good post Bert - do you know the Copenhagen Ring on Drcca dvds with Michael Schonwandt? modern yet interpretative as you suggest.

That production was by Kaspar Holten, of course. It is, in my view, a brilliant production, and Holten is, in my view, a great director and was a great appointment at the Royal Opera House. What a pity he is leaving. London's loss is very definitely Kobenhavn's (re-)gain.

[underthecountertenor]

Watched for 20 mins. Enough for me.

I'm intrigued and am looking forward to seeing it. If nothing else, I'll get to see and hear Sarah Connolly's magisterial Fricka

[Bert Coules]

I dropped back in for the end of act one: very impressed by Hunding's home cinema, less so by the moment at the very end when the director cut away from a very effective shot to another which consisted almost entirely of the back of the cameraman who was getting the first one.

Siegmund looks incredibly well dressed and groomed for someone who's been living rough for years.

[Bert Coules]

Wow. Massive deconstruction of Wotan's final great embrace of Brünnhilde. Though with unsubtle vintage film footage playing on the giant screen maybe some will have missed it.

[Bert Coules]

Even such a determinedly anti-Wagnerian staging as this couldn't completely destroy the impact of the end of Walküre. John Lundgren's Wotan (though you wouldn't know his name if you relied on Sky) was particularly fine, I thought.

[DracoM]

Sorry, Bert, I am a devoted Wagnerian, but, honestly, I found / am finding this pretty well unwatchable. The sets are ludicrously over-elaborate, sort of Penguin book cover Cat on a Hot tin Roof New Orleans back streets image [well, Die Walkure Act 3 anyway], the singers magnified on screen and an embarrassing number of them seem so hugely over-weight as to render their screen image both deeply unflattering and actually very distracting and thus less theatrically credible. Some of the singing is very fine indeed - the Wotan among them - but the orchestra seems to have been banished to a footnote by the sound balance. Everything possible seem to have been done to make this televisually accessible rather than theatrically satisfying i.e. to increase income from network buyers.

Or am I being way too cynical and de-constructing?

[Bert Coules]

DracoM, on the contrary, I think you've pinpointed the central thing wrong with the production: it isn't theatrical. It doesn't use the stage to do what the stage does best: there's no illusion, no evocation: it all has to be spelled out.

There's a distinct feeling that Castorf would much rather be making a film. The multi-room action is fussy and distracting, and as you say, the video closeups aren't doing most of the cast any favours, either from the point of view of their appearance or (in some cases) their acting ability. He appears to have little time for stillness and space, two aspects of the work which he should be embracing, and he equally seems to have no regard for the work's wonderful conjuration of the natural world, the power of sky and mountain, forest and cave, river and meadow.

And like many directors who attempt to force their usually simplistic single-view interpretation on the piece, he appears to be perfectly content to ignore the text every time he can't find (or can't be bothered to find) a way to accommodate it.

[ARBurton]

The direction for tv isn't helping either - much worse than any other bayreuth broadcasts of previous years.

[Bert Coules]

That's very true.

[Bert Coules]

I'm always amazed to hear people say that Siegfried is an unsympathetic character, impossible to warm to and with no depth: for me the exact opposite is true.

[Bert Coules]

Siegfried's "bear" distractedly fooling around during the most intimate dialogue in the entire act is a perfect example of Castorf's unwillingness to trust the work.

[ARBurton]

Notwithstanding the criticisms of the production I'm glad sky are showing it as I'd be unable to go to Bayreuth myself. But I do wish they'd done a better job of it!

[Bert Coules]

Yes. Too many interval chats, I think, too abrupt transitions into the performance, no credits (presumably they're saving them all up to the very end), very poor subtitling, no real introduction to the story (which is brave: I wonder how anyone completely new to the Ring is getting along?) - all of this could be improved, for me. But it is, as has been said, a welcome exposure and a chance to see a production which has drawn such a range of reactions and I'm grateful for that.

[Stanfordian]

Notwithstanding the criticisms of the production I'm glad sky are showing it as I'd be unable to go to Bayreuth myself. But I do wish they'd done a better job of it!

Yes, the production and presentation are not ideal but I too am glad it's being shown.

[Bert Coules]

A word of praise for Stefan Vinke, surely as good as Siegfried as any today. He deserves a whole lot better than this.

There's an interesting review of the production from its first year here.