Halle Die Walkure

[Guest]

Anybody else at this last night... And tonight.

[Colonel Danby]

Ooh Threni, were they doing the whole opera? Who were the singers?

I'm all agog...

[Roslynmuse]

Yes and yes - just about to set off!

[Threni]

Yes it was complete although a play and Act 1 on Friday night and Act 2 & 3 on Saturday.

Sir Mark Elder conductor
Hallé Orchestra
The Madness of an Extraordinary Plan:
Gerard McBurney writer
Neil Bartlett director
Chris Davey lighting designer
Roger Allam Richard Wagner
Deborah Findlay chorus
Sara Kestelman chorus
Die Walküre:
Stig Anderson Siegmund
Yvonne Howard Sieglinde
Clive Bayley Hunding
Eglis Silins Wotan
Susan Bullock Brünnhilde
Susan Bickley Fricka
Miranda Keys Gerhilde
Elaine McKrill Ortlinde
Sarah Castle* Waltraute
Linda Finnie Schwertleite
Katherine Broderick Helmwige
Alison Kettlewell Siegrune
Ceri Williams Grimgerde
Leah-Marian Jones Rossweisse

[Roslynmuse]

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, Threni!

[Bert Coules]

What was the play like? It sounds intriguing.

[Roslynmuse]

The idea behind it was more interesting than the end result, I felt. Wagner himself, literally the central character, describing the drive to write the Ring; two women on either side of him quoting from quite a wide range of other sources and illuminating or at least casting a different light on Wagner's own words. Orchestral excerpts linking or underpinning the readings. The problem was that as a structure it didn't really flow; there was a chronological narrative, but that only provided a sort of incidental structure. I enjoyed the musical excerpts and there were some moments of passion from the three actors, but I can't imagine it having a life beyond this event - unless it was broadcast on the radio, where it might work more effectively and could be perhaps more tautly produced.

[Bert Coules]

Thanks for that; sounds interesting even if it didn't completely come off.

Wagner is of course a great character for drama, if handled properly. I've just got hold of a copy of Magic Fire the 1955 movie with Alan Badel in the lead and - wonderfully! - Peter Cushing as Otto von Wesendonk. I haven't seen that since I was very young indeed and I'm looking forward to revisiting it despite the several less-than-complimentary barbed comments from one disgruntled reviewer on the IMDb: Looks like a Monty Python version of The Music Lovers... Very much a Liberace idea of European music and life... The furniture and photography are good...

[Roslynmuse]

I see that Yvonne de Carlo and Frederick Valk are both in it too. The latter was the psychiatrist in one of my favourite films, Dead of Night.

At least the IMDb reviewer didn't mention The Munsters!

[Tevot]

Will the BBC be recording this? If not presumably the Halle's own label?

Best wishes,

Tevot

[Roslynmuse]

There were certainly microphones in evidence.

[Threni]

There was a sign somewhere saying that it was being recorded for future release. However I presume r3 will air it also like they did with Götterdämmerung.