Wagner's Valhalla

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

As to Lohengrin's mother, Jens - well, seemingly Parsifal did escape her, she doesn't appear at all in Wagner's Grail universe, not a mention much less an appearance (unlike in Wolfram's Parzifal). Not unless she was one of the flower-girls, who slipped him her number en passant in Act 2.

And they say Wagnerians are a humorless bunch. 

[Jaakko Keskinen]

I can sort of empathise with some of what you are saying, but I find it very odd that Siegmund is your least favourite character, considering that he is not a superman but a gentleman who puts Sieglinde first to the extent that he willingly renounces eternal life in Valhalla (Brünnhilde can hardly believe her ears): this strikes me as the noblest gesture of any figure in the whole cycle

Yes, but I usually (not always) like more flawed characters. Not to say that Siegmund is completely flawless, unless almost killing Sieglinde in her sleep because he refuses to let anyone alse ever touch her purity, is considered noble act; and I am pretty sure some actually think so (as mercy kill so no one else will violate her rights if Siegmund falls in battle) and in 19th century literature that was like most romantic thing ever.

Wagnerians humorless bunch? Surely they jest! I have several wagner opera jokes (although mostly crappy ones). 

[MishaK]

To revert to Lohengrin - how does the Bychkov, which coincidentally I had wanted to ask about anyway, compare with the Barenboim for insight and performance? I read about the latter that Elsa's voice was not easily distinguishable from Ortrud's, which would bother me a bit, otherwise I might get it, as it is very cheap on amazon.de.

First off, I don't see how anyone could possibly confuse Polaski's and Magee's voices: one somewhat old-ish with a huge vibrato, the other angelic and youthful.

The choice between Barenboim and Bychkov is rather one of who you prefer in the roles of Elsa and Lohengrin and whose orchestral leadership you prefer. It's been a while since I listened to the Barenboim, but Barenboim of course has the richer orchestra and the warmer, more romantic reading. Bychkov's orchestra is amazingly superb, the best I have heard from the WDR. If transparency and dramatic tension is what you seek, he's your man. As to the lead roles, Seiffert for Barenboim is an assertive, masculine, heroic Lohengrin with terrific diction and a nice dramatic edge. His "Nie sollst du mich befragen" is really hair raising. But I'd have to say I think I prefer Johan Botha for Bychkov, who is a much more lyrical Lohengrin, with ample power and projection, no shortage of vocal reserves, stunning dynamic control, rock solid intonation, and the smoothest legato you'll ever hear. He's a human Lohengrin. You really buy that he's head over heels for Elsa, and the scenes with the two of them have an unsurpassed tenderness. Emily Magee for Barenboim is a superb angelic Elsa, pure of tone and naive in expression. But Pieczonka for Bychkov is no slouch either, and she has by far the better diction. Both Barenboim and Bychkov have the same Telramund in Falk Struckmann, so there is no meaningful distinction here. I find neither Barenboim's Deborah Polaski with her huge vibrato, nor Petra Lang for Bychkov with her smallish voice and lack of dramatic distinction entirely persuasive as Ortrud. When I saw Lohengrin live here in Chicago at the Lyric a two weeks ago with Johan Botha in the title role, the Ortrud was Michaela Schuster, who was just demonically manipulative. Really sent shivers down your spine. Neither of these two on the two recordings at hand are in that league. Rene Pape (Barenboim's King Henry) is a fine singer, but I find him not "profundo" enough for roles like this one. Kwanchul Youn for Bychkov is surprisingly better in that respect and his German sounds like that of a native speaker. So, between Barenboim and Bychkov, I think it's a matter of whether you prefer the more heroic Seiffert for the role or the more tenderly lyrical Botha (I'd go with the latter), and whether you prefer the richer color palette of Barenboim's Staatskapelle Berlin or the spacious transparency of Bychkov's WDR SO caught in the latest SACD sound. In the other respects they are more or less a tie. I do generally prefer Barenboim as a conductor, especially in Wagner. But Bychkov did really surprise me extremely positively on this one. And the incandescent Botha seals the deal here, I think, though Seiffert is a fine Lohengrin in his own right.

Both Barenboim and Bychkov feature the uncut grail narration.

My two references for this opera are: the 1942 recording with the Ortrud of Margarete Klose, who is the all-time world-beater in this role, and the '58 Cluytens with the superb Konya as Lohengrin.

I don't have any of Konya's Lohengrins, but I was told the one to have is the live recording with Lovro von Matacic conducting. Can anyone comment?

[mjwal]

Thanks for the judicious comparisons, Mensch. - I didn't even know about the Matacic - it's '59 Bayreuth (whereas the Cluytens is from the year before, with Varnay as Ortrud). It certainly sounds recommendable, judging from Amazon, and Konya was certainly superb in '58.
Alberich, Siegmund does not "almost kill[ing] Sieglinde in her sleep": he impulsively says he would do so if he knew that he had to die, which he is however not yet convinced of. In the context of his society (prone to both exaggerated concepts of "honour" and sexual violence, as the text tells us) it was a noble reaction, and hardly tantamount to "almost killing" her.

[Guido]

Have we had discussions here of Tristan versions yet? I have the Karajan which I'm not actually a huge fan of (too violent!), and have just acquired the Kleiber/Margaret Price one which is gorgeous, but is let down a bit by the boys. How is the Bernstein one - similar in approach to Kleiber? How Bohm/Nilson Furtwangler/Flagstad etc.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Alberich, Siegmund does not "almost kill[ing] Sieglinde in her sleep": he impulsively says he would do so if he knew that he had to die, which he is however not yet convinced of. In the context of his society (prone to both exaggerated concepts of "honour" and sexual violence, as the text tells us) it was a noble reaction, and hardly tantamount to "almost killing" her.

That was actually my point when I said from that point of view it is considered noble and kind of romantic. But I have to point out that die walküre's stage directions clearly say: "Er zückt das Schwert auf Sieglinde" when he says:

Zwei Leben
lachen dir hier:
nimm sie, Notung,
neidischer Stahl!
Nimm sie mit einem Streich!

of course it could be figurative speech but then brünnhilde quickly tells him to stop "im heftigsten Sturme".

and have just acquired the Kleiber/Margaret Price one which is gorgeous, but is let down a bit by the boys.

Oh, come on! Kollo, Fischer-Dieskau, Moll and Werner Gotz overshadow women by long shot (although considering there are only 2 woman roles, it shouldn't be surprising, even if roles in question are Isolde and Brangäne.

[Guido]

I mainly meant Kollo... Doesn't convice me.

[ccar]

Is anyone familiar with this Tristan?

[asin]B000QGDZCI[/asin]

There was an earlier Opera d'Oro issue of bootleg of another 1974 (or the same?) Bayreuth performance that was said to have atrocious sound. Wondering if this one is any better. I've heard great things about Ligendza's Isolde, not to mention Kleiber's conducting.

There are at least 7 available recordings of Tristan conducted by Carlos Kleiber – the "official" 1982 DG version and 6 live performances - Stuttgart 1973, Vienna 1973, Bayreuth 1974, 1975, 1976 and La Scala 1978.

For me, the Bayreuth and the La Scala performances, all with Caterina Ligendza, are much more involving than the studio version - Kleiber is more incandescent, more inspired and spontaneous in the way he drives and accentuates every musical moment, bringing more dramatic intensity to the singing and to every scene. But from all the Tristan-Kleiber live versions, I am most impressed with the Bayreuth 1976, with Ligendza and Spas Wenkoff. The 1976 brodcast has probably the best live sound and is certainly one of the most riveting Tristan performances I know.

Then, not for the fainted hearts, there is the 1978 version at La Scala, also with Ligendza and Wenkoff  – the sound is not so good as in the 1976 broadcast but it's amazing how Kleiber was able to use the plasticity of the La Scala orchestra to bring even more urgency to the music and to the stage - I remember imagining the Tristan of a Toscanini when I first listened to this performance.

 

[MishaK]

There are at least 7 available recordings of Tristan conducted by Carlos Kleiber – the "official" 1982 DG version and 6 live performances - Stuttgart 1973, Vienna 1973, Bayreuth 1974, 1975, 1976 and La Scala 1978.

For me, the Bayreuth and the La Scala performances, all with Caterina Ligendza, are much more involving than the studio version - Kleiber is more incandescent, more inspired and spontaneous in the way he drives and accentuates every musical moment, bringing more dramatic intensity to the singing and to every scene. But from all the Tristan-Kleiber live versions, I am most impressed with the Bayreuth 1976, with Ligendza and Spas Wenkoff. The 1976 brodcast has probably the best live sound and is certainly one of the most riveting Tristan performances I know.

Then, not for the fainted hearts, there is the 1978 version at La Scala, also with Ligendza and Wenkoff  – the sound is not so good as in the 1976 broadcast but it's amazing how Kleiber was able to use the plasticity of the La Scala orchestra to bring even more urgency to the music and to the stage - I remember imagining the Tristan of a Toscanini when I first listened to this performance.

Thanks for this, ccar. I have found the '73 Stuttgart and the '74 and '75 Bayreuth versions, but I can't find either the '76 Bayreuth, nor the '78 La Scala. Neither amazon nor arkivmusic has it.

This:

[asin]B000GH3CIO[/asin]

appears to be the same performance as the one I posted above, but without booklet and hence cheaper (and it comes with a review from Jens). I presume the sound quality is the same, since both are Opera d'Oro. Can someone confirm?

[Guido]

There are at least 7 available recordings of Tristan conducted by Carlos Kleiber – the "official" 1982 DG version and 6 live performances - Stuttgart 1973, Vienna 1973, Bayreuth 1974, 1975, 1976 and La Scala 1978.

For me, the Bayreuth and the La Scala performances, all with Caterina Ligendza, are much more involving than the studio version - Kleiber is more incandescent, more inspired and spontaneous in the way he drives and accentuates every musical moment, bringing more dramatic intensity to the singing and to every scene. But from all the Tristan-Kleiber live versions, I am most impressed with the Bayreuth 1976, with Ligendza and Spas Wenkoff. The 1976 brodcast has probably the best live sound and is certainly one of the most riveting Tristan performances I know.

Then, not for the fainted hearts, there is the 1978 version at La Scala, also with Ligendza and Wenkoff  – the sound is not so good as in the 1976 broadcast but it's amazing how Kleiber was able to use the plasticity of the La Scala orchestra to bring even more urgency to the music and to the stage - I remember imagining the Tristan of a Toscanini when I first listened to this performance.

Cheers!

[marvinbrown]

DER RING DES NIBELUNGENr
Nothing in Wagner's output prefigures the sheer scale of Der Ring des Nibelungen, and indeed it was not initially envisaged on anything like the scale it ultimately attained. In 1848 Wagner began searching for a subject that could express the political fervour engendered by the Europe-wide uprisings of that year. He wanted a theme that would possess the power of ancient Greek theatre, with its emphasis on myth and communal experience, and he found it in the Norse-Germanic myth of the hero Siegfried, through whom and old, corrupt world was destroyed and replaced by one of hope.

Soon he had sketched the libretto for an opera called Siegfrieds Tod (Siegfried's Death), but the realized he needed to elaborate upon the events that led up to the hero's demis, and thus wrote a "prequel" called Der junge Siegfried (The Young Siegfried). Even that was not enough, so he drafted a scenario that added two more dramas, Das Rheingold (The Rhinehold) and Die Walkure (The Valkyries). Having written the libretti for the four dramas in reverse order he began composing the music in sequence, beginning with Rhinegold, the shortest part of the cycle, described merely as a prelude to the main drama (though it's longer than many full-length operas). Having completed Walkure and much Siegfried (formly Der junge Siegfried), in 1857 he broke off composition of The Ring to write Tristan and Die Meistersinger. Resuming Siegfried in 1865, he then composed the gargantuan finale, Gotterdammerung (Twilight of the Gods), as Siegfrieds Tod had now become. From a single opera, his project had grown to a length of some fifteen hours, spread over four evenings.

Obviously enough, the plot is impossible to convey in a few sentences, though one wit summarized it as a moral tale about what happens when a god defaults on the repayments on his house. This might well sum up Das Rheingold, in which the ruler of the gods, Wotan, tricks a power-wielding ring from the Nibelung dwart Alberich (who in turn has stolen gold from the Rhinemaidens), then is obliged to use it to pay the giants Fafner and Fasolt for building his fortress, Valhalla. In a nutshell, the rest of the cycle depicts the attempts of both Woltan and Alberich to retrieve the ring from Fafner (who guards it in the form of a dragon) by fathering offspring to do the deed for them, with Brunnhilde (his betrothed, and Wotan's daughter), foils Alberich's son Hagen's plan to gain the ring, which returned to the Rhinemaidens as the old world is cleansed by fire and water.

In outline The Ring sounds a bit like a "Sword and Sorcery" fantasy yarn, but's in fact a drama so complex that it can bear - and has borne - scores of different interpretations. At Bayreuth where they don't take kindly to frivolous cleverness, it has been presented both as a ritualistic exploration of such eternal verities as Love and Death, and as a quasi-Marxist study in power relations. The musical structure of The Ring is even more rich than its text, and includes some of the most powerful scenes in all opera: the very opening, for example, which conjures up the Rhine in a single, extended and elaborated chord; or the entry of the gods into Valhalla at the end Rheingold; or the Ride of the Valkyries and Magic Fire Music in the third act of Die Walkure; or Siegfried's "Funeral March" from Gotterdammerung. But these are just moments of extreme intensity in an epic that is highly charged from start to finish. Take the plunge - this is one of the great musical journeys.

[asin]B003Y3MYYU[/asin]
Karl Bohm's Ring, recorded live at Bayreuth between 1966 and 1967, is the most viscerally exciting, with an outstanding cast and vital sound. Some find Bohm's conducting too calculating, but few performances carry such a weight of personality. Some of the casting overlaps with the Solti set below, but this recording captures these remarkable voices in richer, more theatrical form.

[asin]B004FLKV5O[/asin]
This Ring, recorded live at Bayreuth in 1993, is the most rewarding since Bohm's. The carefully prepared voices, sublime orchestral sonorities and clear, naturally balanced sound world satisfy the most pedantic score-follower, but the spirit of Wagner's gothic imagination is also present throughout, with some remarkably percipient and  imaginative conducting. All four operas are available separately.

[asin]B0000042H4[/asin]
The first studio Ring is for many the finest: the sumptuous orchestral presence, the superb singing, the sound quality and the special effects (eighteen anvils for Rheingold) have never been bettered. It falls slightly short of the Bohm set, because incident rather than structure seems to be the main preoccupation, but there is no more impressive sounding Ring on record.

Excellent post James  !

  It is unbelievable how Wagner's plans to compose just one music drama with the character of Siegfried in mind has escalated to a 4 music drama extravaganza.  Notwithstanding the title of the 3rd music drama in this tetralogy, I find that Wagner's  principal character of interest (ie Siegfried) has in many ways been superseded by Wotan who takes center stage and emerges as the Ring's protagonist and Brunhilde who I believe is the true hero of the Ring.  Whether Wagner intended for this to happen I do not know but I can't help but feel that the end result (ie the Ring Cycle) has betrayed the intention (ie Siegfried's Tod).  That said, I am grateful that we have this great epic adventure to enjoy  .

 
  marvin

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Excellent post James  !

Seconded.

[Guido]

What are these posts James? Are you writing a book?

[MishaK]

Sorry, mildly OT, this pic at the top of this NYT article today on contemporary Japanese art:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/arts/design/anxiety-on-the-fault-line.html?_r=1

It's Manabu Ikeda's "Existence" (2004), which represents the world as a giant, decomposing tree. If there ever was a better representation of the "Weltesche" I have yet to see it.

[marvinbrown]

Sorry, mildly OT, this pic at the top of this NYT article today on contemporary Japanese art:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/arts/design/anxiety-on-the-fault-line.html?_r=1

It's Manabu Ikeda's "Existence" (2004), which represents the world as a giant, decomposing tree. If there ever was a better representation of the "Weltesche" I have yet to see it.

  The World Ash Tree indeed. I wonder how many spear carrying one-eyed Japanese gods there are  ...........

  marvin

[Brahmsian]

Have been listening to Levine's studio production of the cycle a lot lately ..

I have this set, and had bought it 3 years ago for $49 CDN, which I thought was a really good deal at the time.  It's now going for $17.99 at Amazon Canada. 

Wonderful set, the only drawback is it doesn't include the libretto.  No big deal, as I have a large soft cover book of the libretto at a used book store.

[marvinbrown]

Have been listening to Levine's studio production of the cycle a lot lately ..

  James if you like this recording so much I would check out the DVD version of that cycle.  Recorded at the MET in the early 90s it is the only traditional (true to Wagner's intention) production of the complete Ring on the market:

 

  marvin

[Brahmsian]

Just finished watching this fantastic modern production of Die Walkure, from The Copenhagen Ring.  Recommended.  I especially thought that Irene Theorin's performance of Brunnhilde compelling.

[asin]B0024396GU[/asin]

[Harry Powell]

There are at least 7 available recordings of Tristan conducted by Carlos Kleiber – the "official" 1982 DG version and 6 live performances - Stuttgart 1973, Vienna 1973, Bayreuth 1974, 1975, 1976 and La Scala 1978.

For me, the Bayreuth and the La Scala performances, all with Caterina Ligendza, are much more involving than the studio version - Kleiber is more incandescent, more inspired and spontaneous in the way he drives and accentuates every musical moment, bringing more dramatic intensity to the singing and to every scene. But from all the Tristan-Kleiber live versions, I am most impressed with the Bayreuth 1976, with Ligendza and Spas Wenkoff. The 1976 brodcast has probably the best live sound and is certainly one of the most riveting Tristan performances I know.

Then, not for the fainted hearts, there is the 1978 version at La Scala, also with Ligendza and Wenkoff  – the sound is not so good as in the 1976 broadcast but it's amazing how Kleiber was able to use the plasticity of the La Scala orchestra to bring even more urgency to the music and to the stage - I remember imagining the Tristan of a Toscanini when I first listened to this performance.

Excellent post. I remember that, in his private notebooks that were published by Bruno Monsaingeon, Sviatoslav Richter wrote: "I far that as long as I live I shall never heard another Tristan like this one. This was the real thing. Carlos Kleiber brought the music to boiling point and kept it there throughout the whole evening ... There's no doubt he's the greatest conductor of our day." (...) Richter says he went backstage to see Kleiber: "I told him what I thought and he suddenly leapt into the air with joy, like a child: 'Also, wirklich, gut?' [So it was really good?]. Such a titan, and so unsure of himself."

The variety of tones that Kleiber obtains from the orchestra is simply staggering. Infinite grading of tone that can be now harsh and piercing, then caressing and nuanced. The range of psicological moods thus created is astounding.

I remember very well Tristan's orchestral "introduction" to Isolde in Acto One (Fifth Scene): this is the portrait of an accursed heroe. Simply devastating.

The main singers are much less satisfying but to a certain extent well integrated in the performance. Ligendza had a light voice even for Eva and her technique was poor. The low tones were dull, the voice sounded as if full of air and she couldn't sing "in the mask" on the high notes. Apart from that, she didn't have a real pianissimo and her mezzavoce "frayed" because the support wasn't solid. She never matched the nuances in the orchestra. She had a clear diction and her recitation didn't lack a certain ferocity but one can perceive such vulgar resources as duplicated consonants and verista gasping.

Wenkoff had a robust voice and was good at declamatory passages but any legato singing exposed him. His delivery was hoarse and his pitch wasn't accurate.

[bigshot]

Isn't there a live South American recording og Tristan under Kleiber, or am I confused again?