Met Gotterdammerung

[grandchant]

Nina Stemme

Fair enough; her voice is certainly fresher but IMO she doesn't manage the transformations of Brunhilde's character as well yet. I suppose she'll come into her own in the next few years.

[Bert Coules]

I thought Voigt was in better vocal form than in Siegfried, and I enjoyed what I heard tonight. She has brings real intensity and drama to the part, knows what she's saying and uses the words with great intelligence. There were strong performances elsewhere, too: in particular the Siegfried was fine and the Waltraute rather more than that. As with the Siegfried broadcast, I would have liked more aural sense of incident, movement and presence from the action: if you didn't know what was going on, Gunther's murder would have completely passed you by as would the dead Siegfried's sudden supernatural movement, so little reaction did they engender. It's perhaps unfair to judge the sound-only presentation of a staging that's meant to be seen as well as heard, but it's not as if they didn't know that the broadcast was happening: why couldn't we have had just a few small tweaks in the production to accommodate the international multitude of listeners?

One last thought about Voigt's vocal delivery: I'd be interested to know what anyone who finds it so distressing thinks of Hotter's Wotan in the Decca/Solti studio Ring. Also unacceptable?

[Mr Pee]

Do catch Die Walkure tomorrow night on Sky if you are able. Westbroek and Kaufmann as the twins are truly electrifying.

The Met production is a very successful straight telling of The Ring that faithfully adheres to Wagner's stage directions, albeit using state of the art technology. In that respect it is a perfect introduction for the novice, and a wonderful spectacle to behold. Where it falls short is in exploring the deeper aspects of the work. The interpretation is The Set, but it does the job well.

[LHC]

I won't bother arguing against such a blast of derision. Well I can't resist saying that IMO Voigt's Brunhilde is well studied and her voice lasted the course and contains all the notes. Who else at the present time would you cast instead? All the people I can think of are no better. As for Siegfried we get a good one every fifty years or so. Personally, I can't help but develop a rapport with a cast that gives these great operas their best over the course of a long evening.
On the DVD issue, if you want blu-ray you don't have much choice beyond those mentioned, but if you don't mind DVD what about the Bayreuth sets of Boulez and Chereau or even better (because of the conducting) Barenboim and Kupfer?

The Barenboim/Kupfer ring is now available on blu ray for under £50. The picture is not as sharp as the modern rings, but the performances are, in my view, much stronger, and at that price it's a bargain.

I have both the Valencia and Met Rings. To me, both are essentially traditional productions, albeit dressed up with all the benefits of modern technology. The Met ring especially seems not to have been directed at all. The set and projections are amazing, but the singers seem to have been left to their own devices. There is little or no personregie or interaction between them. It's ok when you have singers like Kaufmann and Terfel, but the sense of dramatic involvement in the Barenboim/Kupfer Ring is much greater.

[bluestateprommer]

Yanking this old thread from its original purpose (as is BSP's wont): it's probably already on another thread elsewhere, but in a sense, the twilight of a Metropolitan Opera god is nigh, with the announcement that James Levine is to retire as the Met Opera's music director.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/arts/music/james-levine-transformative-at-the-met-opera-is-stepping-down.html

Commentary elsewhere on the NYT's site:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/arts/music/a-capstone-not-an-end-to-james-levines-career.html

Given the state of his health, as harsh as it is to say this, it was time for "Jimmy" to take the 'upstairs promotion' of the music director emeritus title. Interesting to see who will be the next MD there, as Fabio Luisi seems to have completely slipped through the Met's fingers. As the one article notes, speculation is on Yannick Nezet-Seguin as the successor, which might cause Philly concerns (except for the one critic there with the Vladimir Jurowski fixation and thus digs at YNS whenever he can).

[Conchis]

Yanking this old thread from its original purpose (as is BSP's wont): it's probably already on another thread elsewhere, but in a sense, the twilight of a Metropolitan Opera is nigh, with the announcement that James Levine is to retire as the Met Opera's music director.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/arts/music/james-levine-transformative-at-the-met-opera-is-stepping-down.html

Commentary elsewhere on the NYT's site:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/arts/music/a-capstone-not-an-end-to-james-levines-career.html

Given the state of his health, as harsh as it is to say this, it was time for "Jimmy" to take the 'upstairs promotion' of the music director emeritus title. Interesting to see who will be the next MD there, as Fabio Luisi seems to have completely slipped through the Met's fingers. As the one article notes, speculation is on Yannick Nezet-Seguin as the successor, which might cause Philly concerns (except for the one critic there with the Vladimir Jurowski fixation and thus digs at YNS whenever he can).

That brings an incredible era to a full-stop. Hasn't Levine been in charge of the Met since something like 1972?

[bluestateprommer]

That brings an incredible era to a full-stop. Hasn't Levine been in charge of the Met since something like 1972?

The official record indicates that Levine became principal conductor indeed in 1972, and music director in 1976, at the Met. Barring the apocalypse by 2020, the Met gets its new music director that year, with the announcement today that Yannick Nézet-Séguin is the Met's new music director:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/arts/music/yannick-nezet-seguin-to-succeed-james-levine-as-met-operas-music-director.html

In a related commentary, Anthony Tommasini trots out some old whines, some of which admittedly have some justification, about this long hello:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/arts/music/is-yannick-nzet-sguin-worth-the-wait-at-the-met.html

But in all honesty, admittedly at one remove, Levine has been out of action as a full-time music director at the Met for so long that almost by definition, even having a 3-year interregnum with a music director designate is a step up. At least YNS seems healthy, which isn't hard given past context. Plus, at least the Met named someone pretty quickly after announcing that Levine would vacate the post, which seems to indicate that YNS' appointment was in the works for a while.