Met Gotterdammerung

[Bert Coules]

Prommer, thanks for the (ill-deserved, in fact) admiration.

Ravensbourne, what an excellent defence. I shall print it out and save it against the day...

[bluestateprommer]

Late to the party, as usual: first off, I second the praises of Belgrove and BC for Iain Paterson's Gunther, as I too was exceptionally impressed with his singing and performance. He even really took pains to put on a hangdog, sad sack face as his stature slips. I also appreciated his acting during Siegfried's Funeral March, as he has his "what have I done?" moment there, as he takes Nothung and carries it in tribute across the stage. I further second kb's comment about Gunther washing his blood-stained hands in the Rhine, and the visual trick there.

Jay Hunter Morris seemed to gain vocal power as the long afternoon went on, and he definitely uses his "aw, shucks" manner to advantage. It's admittedly a jolt to hear an opera singer speak, during his intermission banter, with such a pronounced Texas twang, since that's not the "stereotype" that we have for opera singers here (yup, we have our "class" and social biases here too).

I was hoping for a little more visual spectacle in the destruction of Valhalla at the end, in the "cheap thrills" department. Even fuzzy images of the aged gods and goddesses, if not exactly spitting images of the earlier cast (maybe for reasons of cost), would have added to the poignancy. Actually, one of these days, I would love a production where at the end, the Rhine Maidens retrieve Nothung from the funeral pyre, track down Alberich, and whack him.