Met Die Walkure 13th April

[Flosshilde]

Golly, Floss, perhaps we chatted in the queue- or even shared a few feet of floor space!! I am sure you would remember; I was the devastatingly attractive young man, not unlike a young Steve McQueen, who kept the queue entertained with pearls of wisdom about Wagner, a few magic tricks, and a spot of juggling

Indeed - we could have been buttock to buttock. I did meet a number of devastatingly attractive young men but I'm afraid I don't remember the juggling

[Mr Pee]

http://schleppynabuccos.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/mid-scene-replacements-and-machine.html

[Flosshilde]

Thanks Mr Pee. I must say, Andrew Sritheran looks absolutely scrumptious.

[David-G]

I was at a revival of that Cycle, Floss, in 1980, as a Prommer, when the ROH took out all the stalls seats and one queued up on the day to sit on the floor. It was my first Ring- indeed my first Wagner other than on record- and it did certainly produce some very memorable images- and some cramp! I remember the Wanderer/Erda scene in particular, with the platform raised to it's full height, Wanderer standing on the lip, and Erda below. I still have a program from it signed by Colin Davis, Gwyneth Jones, Alberto Remedios, and a number of other cast members.

I was also at the 1980 Ring. Though I didn't Prom - I stood in the Stalls Circle (probably more comfortable!) I have been trying to find my programme from that occasion. If you still have the programme from the 1980 Ring, Mr Pee, you could be very helpful, by telling me what I should be looking for. Was it one of the usual red Covent Garden programmes - or was it a special large-size edition?

[Mr Pee]

I was also at the 1980 Ring. Though I didn't Prom - I stood in the Stalls Circle (probably more comfortable!) I have been trying to find my programme from that occasion. If you still have the programme from the 1980 Ring, Mr Pee, you could be very helpful, by telling me what I should be looking for. Was it one of the usual red Covent Garden programmes - or was it a special large-size edition?

It was the usual looking red programme, David -G.

And I am sure you were DEFINITELY more comfortable!!

[Bert Coules]

Rheingold

Sorry to be late to the party but I was at that Covent Garden Prom cycle too. A good few images from the production have stayed with me: the opening of act one of Walküre, with the huge platform spinning at an alarming rate in one direction while Siegmund tried to cross it in the other; the tagliatelle-like curtain of ribbons right across the stage in Siegfried act two through which emerged a distinctly undragonish tank-like Fafner; Wotan's confrontation with an Erda who was almost literally in her own subterranean realm; the way the huge platform slowly tipped up at the end of Rheingold threatening to send the entire cast sliding into the pit, only to break up into transverse steps at what seemed the last possible moment: a lovely bit of theatrical magic slightly undermined by the gods' subsequent curious one-step-forward two-steps back progress towards Valhalla.

What a shame that there aren't pictures on the web. Here are two, scanned from the large-format booklet which accompanied the production's first outing in 1974. Only black and white I 'm afraid, and hardly giving any real impression of what it was actually like, but maybe still worth posting. Rheingold first:

And Walküre:

Sorry I haven't more.

Bert

[Flosshilde]

Thanks for posting those, Bert. I'd forgotten how stark it was, except for Fafner's forest.