Vögelchen posts an opera entry a bit off subject from the upcoming Crucible production.

Last Saturday, it took almost nearly 6 hours for Siegfried to drink the potion, switch ladies, attach Brünhilde to Gunther, get stabbed in the back (literally) by Hagan, and then get carted off to some really rousing music, only for Brünhilde to return to sing her guts out, finally realizing that Siegfried had been an innocent bystander duped by the Gibichungs, and then ride with her horse Grane into the flames that are burning Siegfried, losing the ring back to the Rhinemaidens as the world of the humans and gods ends. Whew. It takes a true diehard to witness 6 hours of Wagner’s final opera in his Ring Cycle, Götterdamerung, and Vögelchen is happy to report that there were lots of diehards in the audience at Hanesbrands Theater.  These live in HD broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera sponsored by Piedmont Opera have been a big hit, even this 6 hour marathon.

I’m not a reviewer, but that won’t stop me from giving a very brief review of this Götterdämerung. I’m a bit of a neophyte when it comes to Wagner, so unlike many in the audience who have seen many different productions of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, I cannot comment on how effective this one was compared to the more traditional productions in the past. That said, I thought the production was very effective. It actually was a relatively traditional staging, just with some highly technical features; maybe “techno traditional” would be a better term for this staging. For those who haven’t seen or read about this Met Ring Cycle, all 4 operas featured The Machine, a huge, heavy, structure made up of 24 parallel steel planks (see photo), and this Machine could twist and turn and elevate and served as the “stage” for the characters. Video projections changed the look of these planks. I loved it when Gunther washed his bloody hands in the virtual river, and the videos changed the river to blood-tinged. Overall, I thought the singing was quite good, but special recognition has to go to Hans-Peter König in the part of Hagan—what a voice. The Met Orchestra was of course in good form, and the well-paced conducting of Fabio Luisi made the 6 hours fly by.

Vögelchen will return to a more Crucible-centric blog with the next entry.

Final Scene of Götterdämerung, with Brünhilde on her horse ready to ride into the flames. Note the  24 huge steel planks with video projections. Also, Hagen (far left) doesn't seem too concerned with all that's going on. Perhaps he should be--he drowns in the next scene trying to get the ring from the Rhinemaidens.