Prom 14 - 22.07.13: Wagner – Das Rheingold

[opera lover]

I don't know about the level, but I found it to be a clearer transmission than one, say, from the Met recently. Perhaps due to it being a concert performance. Very, very beautiful.

[Resurrection Man]

I missed the opening announcements tonight: was the performance semi-staged or did they just stand in a line and sing?

The bits I heard certainly sounded like the latter: it was just about the most bloodless, undramatic and uninvolving Rheingold I've ever heard. Mind you I've always been allergic to Barenboim, so whatever the staging I'd probably have felt the same.

Well, I did wonder if he was going to finish before midnight.

[opera lover]

I thought exactly the opposite. One of the most involving Rings I have heard, and the sound of the orchestra is peerless. This is what it can sound like, then. Can't wait till tomorrow.

[Flosshilde]

It's much more difficult to creep off the stage in a concert performance. Players do sometimes abscond from the pit from time to time, and actors have ample opportunity to do the necessary.

That's true - I hadn't thought of that; although I believe most opera performances at the Proms now have a fair amount of coming & going.

[Bert Coules]

Very, very beautiful.

A few particular passages apart, beautiful is the last thing Rheingold should be. And clarity of orchestral sound is exactly what Wagner didn't want for the Ring.

[Petrushka]

I just tuned in to sample this. Is it just me, or is it being transmitted at an unusually low level, both on DAB and online?

It was the same on Freeview. I boosted the treble and volume and it all came wonderfully into focus. Once boosted it was extremely involving and the orchestra (brass in particular) were quite magnificent.

Can you explain your allergy to Barenboim in Wagner?

[DracoM]

R3 presenter Sarah Mohr-P has written in a national newspaper blog that she is s 'Ring Cycle Virgin'.

[Alison]

Why do we have to call the Ring THE RING CYCLE ?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Good point, Alison.

[Petrushka]

Why do we have to call the Ring THE RING CYCLE ?

I can't find any mention of such a phrase following a cursory examination of Ernest Newman's Wagner Nights where he appears to call it a tetralogy. I suspect it came into use via the recording industry.

[Bryn]

I can't find any mention of such a phrase following a cursory examination of Ernest Newman's Wagner Nights where he appears to call it a tetralogy. I suspect it came into use via the recording industry.

It's no less inaccurate to refer to symphonic cycles. How many final symphonies link back to the first? Shostakovich's, to some extent, I suppose, but how many others?

[Bert Coules]

Can you explain your allergy to Barenboim in Wagner?

Oh, it's not just Wagner. I freely admit that it's a highly personal reaction but for me Barenboim coats everything he conducts with a blanket of blandness.

[gurnemanz]

I can't find any mention of such a phrase following a cursory examination of Ernest Newman's Wagner Nights where he appears to call it a tetralogy. I suspect it came into use via the recording industry.

I notice Newman refers to "The Nibelung's Ring" rather than the more usual "The Ring of the Nibelung".

[David-G]

I notice Newman refers to "The Nibelung's Ring" rather than the more usual "The Ring of the Nibelung".

The subtleties of translation into English. This reminds me of "Figaro's Wedding".

[David-G]

It struck me that the level seemed very low. No comments on the singing? I only heard the last 15 minutes, but I thought the singing seemed rather fine. The orchestral balance seemed odd at times; I was hearing parts which are usually subdued, and not hearing the main theme.