Further Details

Title: Wagner - Das Rheingold / Struckmann, Clark, von Kannen, Braun, Youn, de Billy, Barcelona Opera
Format: DVD
Condition: New
Number Of Discs: 2
Release Date: 22/03/2005
Actors: Bertrand de Billy, Gunter von Kannen, Lioba Braun, Falk Struckmann, Graham Clark
Audio Language: German, German
Runtime: 2 hours and 39 minutes
Region Code: DVD: 1 (US, Canada...)
Studio: Opus Arte
Subtitle Language: German, English, Spanish, Italian, French, Cantonese
Certificate: MPAA Not Rated
Description: PRODUCT DESCRIPTION



The prologue to Wagner's giant masterpiece Der Ring des Nibelungen unfolds the beginning of an epic journey when Alberich seizes the ring of gold, its awesome power unleashing an unstoppable story of deceit, destruction, death and transfiguring love. Filmed at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu in 2004, Harry Kupfer's stunning production first staged in Berlin, and recorded in sumptuous surround sound, numbers among the greatest productions of modern times.

Press Reviews
" Traditionalists need not fear Harry Kupfer and his team (set design: Hans Schavernoch, lighting: Franz Peter David). There's enough convention to be familiar and the modern touches are highly appropriate to the plot and its development. I am looking forward very much indeed to the next three parts of this cycle. It may well prove to be the definitive Ring cycle on film. " (Musicweb International)
"Harry Kupfer's Bayreuth staging was Teutonically technological and ugly, but despite some dramatic silliness it actually heeded Wagner's stage directions. So does this one, created originally for Berlin, but it's a lot more attractive, and rightly attentive to the Ring's mythological core. Its centrepiece, towering above a black mirrored stage surface, is the massive World-Ash tree, from which we see Wotan tearing his spear, and around whose roots the Rhinemaidens gambol and climb; the action moves up and down the trunk with the aid of the Liceu's splendid new machinery. Sillinesses – recurring suitcases, the gods' premature entrances and over-extended dance finale, the serpent reduced to feeble claws – aren't crippling. Bertrand de Billy's warm, slowish reading is likeable, but doesn't generate enough shape and dramatic drive. Falk Struckmann's Wotan is a strong-voiced dynamic presence, but his tone is harsh and vibrant, and his characterisation arrogantly unsympathetic. Günter von Kannen is now a rather portly Alberich, and, despite a wonderfully malign glare, short on vocal and dramatic bite. Not so Graham Clark's Loge, incisively sung, even if his character tenor underplays the part's more lyrical side. Lioba Braun, Elisabete Matos and Andrea Bönig are worthy goddesses, Jeffrey Dowd a strong if not ideally mellifluous Froh, and Wolfgang Rauch an unusually impressive Donner. Veteran Matthias Hölle and rising star Kwangchul Youn are excellent Giants, android-like figures more effective than Bayreuth's dehumanised monstrous puppets. That goes, too, for the romantic rather than tarty Rhinemaidens. So we have a decent modern staging on DVD, recorded in vivid surround-sound and clear if somewhat stygian vision. It does, though, have one infuriating disadvantage: unlike any other Rheingold it's spread over two discs; the sidebreak isn't well chosen, and you have to go through the whole menu rigmarole before the second side.” " (Gramophone)

Cast
Falk Struckmann (Wotan)
Graham Clark (Loge)
Günter von Kannen (Alberich)
Lioba Braun (Fricka)
Kwanchul Youn (Fasolt)
Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu; Bertrand de Billy
Production
Company: Gran Teatre del Liceu; Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin
Stage Director: Harry Kupfer



Disc Information
Catalogue Number: OA0910D
Date of Performance: 2004
Running Time: 159 minutes
Sound: DTS Surround; LPCM Stereo
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Anamorphic
Subtitles: EN, FR, DE, ES, IT, CA
Label: Opus Arte



AMAZON
The first of the four operas that comprise Wagner's Ring cycle, Das Rheingold has a narrative that serves as the backstory of the ensuing saga of deceit, greed, and betrayal. It opens underwater, with the Rhine maidens tricked of their gold by the Nibelung, Alberich, who forswears love for the power to rule the world. We are then taken to Valhalla, where Wotan's new castle must be paid for. The giants who built it demand his sister-in-law Freia in payment. But the wily god descends to the underworld to steal Alberich's gold. He pays them with it, including the magic ring upon which Alberich lays a terrible curse. Its first victim is the giant Fasolt, murdered by his brother, Fafner, who takes his booty.

This version of Das Rheingold features the talents of leading Wagnerians. Producer Harry Kupfer, a veteran of several Ring cycles, sees the operas as a parable of man's greed and despoliation of nature and his spare sets reflect that vision. The ash tree, central to the plot, dominates a stage whose grid screen backdrop changes to suit the action, vertical lights symbolizing the bridge across which the gods walk in triumph to their new castle. Wotan descends to the Nibelung realm, a nightmare factory of clanking machinery and fearful slaves, via a stairway encased in a transparent plastic tube reminiscent of the escalators in Paris' De Gaulle airport. The gods are costumed in nondescript generic outfits and enter Valhalla's castle holding suitcases. The giants are fitted in clumsy industrial garb that limits their movements. A grim vision expertly realized by Kupfer, but made darker by filming that casts the action in murky gloom.

The musical side of the production is in the hands of Bertrand de Billy, whose conducting is competent, but without the strong individual interpretation heard in other versions. The orchestra of Barcelona's beautiful Gran Teatre del Liceu is a fallible instrument, which may account for some slower than usual tempos. Falk Struckmann's Wotan is one-dimensional; his semi-permanent anger limits the universality of a figure whose deceptions ensnare even himself. The vocal and acting star of the production is tenor Graham Clark as Loge, a diminutive figure in a red wig, whose sinuous vocalism drips with sarcastic contempt for his masters. Alberich, played by the experienced Günter von Kannen, is a forceful presence, and bass Kwanchul Youn as the giant, Fasolt, is superb as both actor and singer. But the Erda, Andrea Bönig, is miscast, too light of voice and figure to be the all-knowing Earth-Mother. On the whole then, a thoughtfully provocative, decently sung production. --Dan Davis

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