2016 Bayreuth Ring on Sky Arts

[Bert Coules]

I'm not suggesting that every production should be like that, but it's a perfectly legitimate approach and one that I believe a large number of people would like to see. And just because it looks realistic and traditional doesn't mean that the execution was creaky and old-fashioned: there was some extremely modern and sophisticated technology and artistry at work in Seattle.

[LHC]

It's a shame in many ways that the Seattle Ring - which was very firmly traditional and, by all accounts, extremely successful - was never filmed. It almost happened, apparently, but fell through. And even more sadly it's never going to be revived, if reports are true.


Picture (c) Seattle Opera, no infringement intended

Its not as if there aren't traditional productions available for those that prefer them.

The Metropolitan Opera production of the Ring Cycle directed by Otto Schenk and designed by Gunther Schneider-Siemssen is still available on DVD, and that production was ultra-traditional.

Indeed, the more recent Robert Lepage production was also very conservative in its costume design and direction of the principals. It was only the use of a rather ungainly single set with video projections that could have been considered ground-breaking.

To my mind, the biggest problem with these productions (and from the look of that photo the Seattle production as well), is that instead of being treated as a serious work of art, the Ring is Disneyfied, and comes over as kitsch.

I saw the Otto Schenk production at the Met and found it terribly dull. It was as if the producers thought all they had to do make it look like an Arthur Rackham illustration and their job was done. There was seemingly no attempt to get the singers to engage with the drama or relate to each other as actors.

[Bert Coules]

To my mind, the biggest problem with these productions (and from the look of that photo the Seattle production as well), is that instead of being treated as a serious work of art, the Ring is Disneyfied, and comes over as kitsch.

Yes, I'm rather afraid that the world is divided between those who can accept and embrace a traditional portrayal of gods, giants, dragons and the like as a source of deep, meaningful and relevant drama, and those who can't. To those who are in tune with what you might perhaps call a naturalistic approach it tends to be the currently fashionable stagings which are risible.

LHC, when did you see the old Met Ring? It suffered a very sad decline. By the time I saw it, it felt as if the cast had been given no actual direction at all: they just came on, did their things and went off again. And the tech side was almost as lacklustre. The DVDs show the production in a better light.

[LHC]

Yes, I'm rather afraid that the world is divided between those who can accept and embrace a traditional portrayal of gods, giants, dragons and the like as a source of deep, meaningful and relevant drama, and those who can't. To those who are in tune with what you might perhaps call a naturalistic approach it tends to be the currently fashionable stagings which are risible.

LHC, when did you see the old Met Ring? It suffered a very sad decline. By the time I saw it, it felt as if the cast had been given no actual direction at all: they just came on, did their things and went off again. And the tech side was almost as lacklustre. The DVDs show the production in a better light.

Bert, it was one of its later incarnations when, as you say, there was little or no direction at all, and the whole thing was extremely lacklustre (indeed, my better half slept through most of it, prompting me to quote 'who wants to be a millionaire' to her). I agree that the DVDs show it in a much better light.

I tend not to take an ideological view with regard to modernist or traditional productions. If the singers are engaged and have been well and imaginatively directed, and the musical performance is strong, then I will probably enjoy the production. I have enjoyed many traditional performances and many non-traditional ones. Equally, I have seen many lacklustre, dull and unimaginative traditional and non-traditional productions.

I found the Castorf production fascinating and frustrating in equal measure. I was impressed by the extremely detailed direction of many parts, and by the quality of the sets, some of which I thought were stunning. But I was equally frustrated by the the lack of interest in the work as a whole, which simply seemed to be used to service Castorf rather than the other way round; and the repeated attempts to undermine and ridicule so many parts of the Ring. The crocodiles at the end of Siegfried being a particular low point.

[Bert Coules]

I agree that there were things to admire in the Castorf Ring: the realisation of the sets, as you say, the handling of the many extra characters in some scenes, the technical aspects: all that on- and offstage videoing must have taken a fearsome amount of organisation. And there were some very fine individual performances, circumstances permitting. But I was offended by the sheer wilfulness, the feeling that the work was somehow incidental to the production. The many, many instances of the action flatly contradicting the text, for example: I suppose it's possible that Castorf sees some dramatic point in having Hagen, who's just been told of Siegfried's one vulnerable spot, completely ignoring it in favour of bashing him over the head, but it's hard not feel that the director is simply being contrary for the sheer sake of it.

A real low spot for me was the final duet in Siegfried. Not (just) because of the crocodiles and their antics but for the "Ewig war ich..." sequence. Brünnhilde's most tender utterances to date, a moment of supreme change for her and vitally important to both she and Siegfried - and Castorf has his tenor visibly bored, ignoring this woman he's just fought his way through fire to win, wandering around the set, opening boxes and sorting through their contents. Again, if there was a reason for it, if he was making a valid (or even an invalid) interpretative point, it escaped me.

[DracoM]

I agree with Bert Coules in a huge measure.
It is productions like Castorf's that make one yearn for the granite, ascetic, almost a-temporal evocations in Wieland Wagner / Karl Bohm's realisations.

[Bert Coules]

Wieland knew and exploited the power of stillness, of letting the words and the music and the acting do their work with no distractions. That's increasingly rare today. I think that directors get bored and so assume that their audiences will too.

Wieland had his moments of rebellion, of course. The sparse sets and effects-through-lighting which were adopted as an economic necessity when Bayreuth reopened in 1951 quickly became the norm and he used the emptiness of his stages as a "look how far I can go" statement to his critics sometimes. And then there was his infamous Götterdämmerung cut...

[DracoM]

i.e., Bert, they really do not trust EITHER Wagner's music OR the audience's attention span and intelligence.
Afraid they'll start checking their mobiles?
Got to fill the eye with trashy flashiness and symbolism at several removes from even the farthest reaches of the libretto and the myth-base.

At its base, IMO there is terror at what they have undertaken in many productions so hide their poverty in an Amazon-Prime giveaway box set of carp.
For my money, less is more, and Castorf most decidedly does not have that as a base from which to move .

The MUSIC does the big stuff in Wagner, so let it speak.

[ARBurton]

Erm, forgive my asking what might be a daft question, but has there been any explanation for the crocodiles? I was put in mind of the 1980s WNO troyens whose "Royal Hunt and Storm" featured a stuffed tiger appearing halfway up the side of the stage whereupon it rested for the rest of that section..

[Bert Coules]

I don't have the details but I recall reading that the set is based on an abandoned bus station or similar somewhere in Germany, where local parents, anxious to stop their children exploring the dangerous ruins, told them that wild crocodiles roamed the building.

Obvious really, when you think about it. Though the relevance to Siegfried, to Wagner, to music drama in general, and indeed to anything at all, rather escapes me.

[LHC]

It's worth remembering that Wieland Wagner's productions at Bayreuth were greeted with consternation at the time, and were considered grossly offensive by traditionalists. The production team was regularly booed at Bayreuth.

I doubt that Castorf's productions will be seen as classics in 50 years time, as Wieland's are now, but it was Wieland who recast Bayreuth as a theatre at the forefront of new approaches to opera production.

[Bert Coules]

That's a good point. But even at his most rebellious I don't recall Wieland ever mistreating the works to the extreme extent we see today.

[DracoM]

Well, maybe initially, but I saw them several times across the mid-late 70's and beyond and they were not booed on any cycle that I saw - and I promise that is not age sweetening memory.

[Bert Coules]

Was it Wieland or Wolfgang who directed the notorious "Kiss Me, Eva" Meistersinger where Hans Sachs was played as a crushing old bore whom nobody took any notice of?

[LHC]

DracoM, I was referring to their reception in the 1950s, when Wieland introduced this new minimalist style of production.

I regret I am too young to have seen any of Wieland's productions, but the hostility they were met with in the 1950s is well documented. His production of Meistersinger in 1956 was especially derided by critics and public alike ("The Meistersingers without Nuremberg"). For example see the scathing comments in John Culshaw's autobiography about the productions (he was there to record some of the operas for Decca).

In time (and long before the 70s), they came to be seen as classics, and set the new standard for Wagner productions for several decades.

Similarly the Boulez/Chereau Centenary Ring was greeted with howls of complaint in 1976, but was cheered to the echo by the time of its last performances in the early 80s.

I can't see the Castorf Ring following a similar trajectory to be considered a classic by the time it is retired, although it does apparently have some admirers.

Thinking about Bert's earlier comments about a more traditional approach to the Ring, the Solti/Hall Ring looked very interesting, and had some stunning stage pictures, although it was ultimately unsuccessful, as much because of casting problems as anything else.