Wagner One Ring to rule them all...

[Franco]

  Renfield, next season the Met is introducing its new Ring with Rheingold and Walkure. The Rheingold premiere is on opening night .
  The production will be by the French-Canadian director and designer Robert Lapage, who recently made his Met debut with a strikingly original Damnation of Faust.
  Lepage is responsible for Cirque du Soleil, and this production will use special computer and digital technology. It may be something spectacular and utterly original, possibly like no Ring production in operatic history.
  Good old Jimmy L is scheduled to conduct, and I hope he won't be sidelined by physical problems. I can't wait for this.

That will be the second new Ring production I will have heard about using "special computer and digital technology." 

Here's the other one

Now in the 21st Century, the imagination of Carlus Padrissa and La Fura combined with the awesome potential of modern technology means that we're perhaps closer to realising Wagner's visionary world than ever before. Finally now the Rhinemaidens can emerge from the Rhine (tanks of water), the gods can swoop around the stage (on personal cranes) and Wotan can ride over the mountaintops for his encounter with Erda (accompanied by huge video projections). The whole production is breathtaking, with the magical use of human beings to create organic structures such as Valhalla (here in the picture) producing several jaw-dropping moments.

[eyeresist]

Here's the other one

Striking, but NOT how I picture the Rhine maidens:

[Lilas Pastia]

I'm looking for the Goodall Ring at a good price (under 100$). It doesn't seem to be a available from e-retailers at  anything under 150$. Prices range from expensive to outrageous.

This has some of the best sung Wagner around (esp. in Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods), and orchestral detail is just astounding.

Any one has a tip ?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Striking, but NOT how I picture the Rhine maidens:

There's a lot of Klingsor in this production. I doubt the Magician of Bayreuth would be pleased. Just listening to Wagner and seeing the mental picture is probably best (it has worked for me, I only saw my first and only production in the late 'nineties, in Amsterdam).

[Elgarian]

I tried searching but couldn't find a thread dedicated to Ring recordings - so here's one. This was inspired by a thirty-year-old aspiration to own the Solti Ring, thwarted down the years by its prohibitive cost, but suddenly now affordable. (I bought mine last week for £51 on Amazon, and I see that its price has already leapt up to £68 - though that's still cheap by comparison with previous prices.)



My 'big period' of Wagner listening was in the 70s and 80s. I had the Bohm Ring on LPs; listened to the live Bayreuth radio broadcast around 1980-ish (Boulez/Chereau/Gwyneth Jones) on successive evenings; saw ENO's 'Twilight of the Gods' (Goodall/Rita Hunter) twice, live. But I always wanted a Solti Ring, ever since a friend of mine played part of it to me in his newly constructed listening room. Herewith a diversion:

This guy had bought two semi-detached cottages, converted them into one, and included in the reconstruction a special listening room with a domed ceiling, painted with putti among clouds. There was a small stage, on which stood two Quad electrostatic loudspeakers, concealed by a thin gauze curtain. At the back of the room was a projector capable of projecting a range of special lighting effects onto the gauze: rippling water, clouds, fire, and so on. I first heard a large part of Solti's Gotterdammerung sitting in this room, played on what was then state-of-the-art audio equipment, with the projected images shifting according to what was happening in the music. My own stereo system couldn't compete with this; neither could the room acoustic in our family lounge; and neither could my Bohm recording, excellent though it seemed to me at the time.

I went home after that and ached for a Solti set; read Culshaw's book; but by then my Wagner phase was waning somewhat, and the Solti investment never happened. And in fact I haven't listened to a complete Act from The Ring in 20 years, being content with bleeding chunks, but knowing all the time that the bleeding chunks really were not the point, and never could be.

My Solti Ring arrived a couple of days ago, and today I listened to Rheingold. I wondered how I'd find it after all these years, and in this new legendary, unfamiliar version (unfamiliar to me, that is). Well, it was spellbinding, for all sorts of reasons.

First, even though I've read comments about the recording quality in reviews, I still found it impossible to accept that this recording was made in 1958. It comes up as fresh and dynamic and exciting as anything I know - so good that almost immediately I stopped even thinking about recording quality and just seemed to absorb the music directly.

Second, the sense of 'dramatic presence' is astonishing. Even having read Culshaw's book, I'm not sure how they managed to achieve this. I can see in principle that in constructing a studio recording, it's possible to organise things across the stereo sound stage trying to compensate for the lack of visual clues (as one would get in a real performance), but that they achieved this so well is breathtaking. My Bohm set, if my memory serves me right, doesn't come close to achieving this sense of 'presence'.

Third, I was astonished to discover how easy it was to listen to; how so many of the leitmotifs are still embedded, subconsciously, in my distinctly feeble musical memory, and immediately recognisable (if not consciously  identifiable), as the tapestry of the music unfolds. A friend once said that he couldn't hear tunes in Wagner - a comment which astonished me, because the whole damn thing is full of tunes: interweaving, constantly shifting gear, but ever-present.

I'm almost scared, now, to move on - not sure whether the rest of this recorded cycle can live up to the brilliance of Rheingold. Oh, I know it will, objectively. But am I up to it? We'll see. Meanwhile, if anyone is hesitating over the buying of this set on grounds that it might sound 'dated' - forget any such worries. As far as I'm concerned, this recording could have been made yesterday, and it can only get better from here on.

I have just two grumbles. (1) Why do they make the outer box so tight that it's almost impossible to extract the inner boxes? (2) Why do they print the booklet so that the lines of the English translation have insufficient left-hand margin, and therefore are so close to the spine that one almost has to break the booklet in order to read them, when there's so much blank space available on the other side?

[Sergeant Rock]

I have just two grumbles. (1) Why do they make the outer box so tight that it's almost impossible to extract the inner boxes?

I think I have the same edition (a recent purchase, and relatively cheap; the cover looks the same). The outer box has a top lid that comes off completely, exposing the four inner boxes, right? Mine come out very easily. I don't know why yours would be different.

(2) Why do they print the booklet so that the lines of the English translation have insufficient left-hand margin, and therefore are so close to the spine that one almost has to break the booklet in order to read them, when there's so much blank space available on the other side?

I'm so familiar with the Ring I rarely look at the libretto. I hadn't noticed the Solti booklet before. I just took a look. It is poorly made! I actually laughed when I saw all the white space on the right side pages. Brilliant design 

I saw your post in the Purchase thread. Congratulations on realizing a dream. I didn't say anything then because I can be...well, a little negative about the Solti Ring. I own eleven Rings and Solti is ranked number ten. But don't mind me....I'm weird 

When someone asks for a recommendation, though, I do tell them Solti is the safe bet. The cast is great; Culshaw's production astounding. I just find Solti a bit hard driven. I prefer Böhm, Barenboim and Karajan, especially in Walküre. Solti's Walküre is, I think, the weak link. I sincerely hope, though, that when you move beyond Rheingold, it will not be a disappointment. If it is, though, Siegfried should reassure you. I think that is the best of Solti's Ring.

It's strange. I'm usually a Solti advocate: one of the few in this forum who loves his Elgar, Mahler, Liszt, Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven. But the one composer he's most identified with, the one he's most celebrated for--Wagner--I have problems with. Go figure 

Sarge

[samuel]

This set was a revelation to me when it was released by Testament a few years back and is my prime recommendation to anyone. It's one of the few chances to hear great singers like Hans Hotter, Wolfgang Windgassen, and Astrid Varnay, etc. ACTUALLY IN THEIR PRIMES and in STEREO SOUND, a very rare combination. Keilberth isn't a big name like Solti or Karajan but he's very good, especially in the second two operas when he really brings levels of excitement unheard of in the competing sets (Karajan, Boehm, even Solti believe it or not).

[Elgarian]

I think I have the same edition (a recent purchase, and relatively cheap; the cover looks the same). The outer box has a top lid that comes off completely, exposing the four inner boxes, right? Mine come out very easily. I don't know why yours would be different.

That's the one, Sarge. (Was the packaging different in previous incarnations, I wonder?) The inner boxes really are a pig to remove from the outer - makes me want to take an oil can to the thing.

I'm so familiar with the Ring I rarely look at the libretto. I hadn't noticed the Solti booklet before. I just took a look. It is poorly made! I actually laughed when I saw all the white space on the right side pages. Brilliant design 

Yes. Worthy of ranking along with those other dud designs such as saucepans that drip when you try to pour from them (as if we hadn't learned any lessons at all after making saucepans for centuries).

I saw your post in the Purchase thread. Congratulations on realizing a dream. I didn't say anything then because I can be...well, a little negative about the Solti Ring. I own eleven Rings and Solti is ranked number ten. But don't mind me....I'm weird 

When someone asks for a recommendation, though, I do tell them Solti is the safe bet. The cast is great; Culshaw's production astounding. I just find Solti a bit hard driven. I prefer Böhm, Barenboim and Karajan, especially in Walküre. Solti's Walküre is, I think, the weak link. I sincerely hope, though, that when you move beyond Rheingold, it will not be a disappointment. If it is, though, Siegfried should reassure you. I think that is the best of Solti's Ring.

It's strange. I'm usually a Solti advocate: one of the few in this forum who loves his Elgar, Mahler, Liszt, Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven. But the one composer he's most identified with, the one he's most celebrated for--Wagner--I have problems with. Go figure 

I revel in your weirdness in this respect, and am not surprised by it or anyone else's. Reading reviews of these various productions makes it obvious that different people approach the Ring for different reasons and from different perspectives. For me, involvement in the drama has always been uppermost - the chance to inhabit a mythical sphere where great epic deeds, both good and evil are done, where gods mingle with men in ways that seem differently meaningful with every encounter. So for me the music is a vehicle that assists that process, rather than an end in itself. I used to love English National Opera's staging in the 70s/80s - some found it unencouragingly minimal, but I loved the way it lifted the action off the stage, and into an abstract realm where the imagination could have free play. To a large degree I'm still strongly influenced by that particular conceptual approach, which probably seems a bit dated, now. (I was put off by what I saw of Chereau's production because it seemed to pin the thing down too tightly, making the whole Ring concept seem smaller - though it sounded well enough on the radio, and I vividly remember being blown away by Gwyneth Jones's Brunnhilde.)

But that's not the approach for everyone - and indeed my friend with the special listening room used to dismiss my high-falutin' mythic blather, and say that he preferred the Solti version for no other reason than that it was brighter and more exciting.* And indeed, that seems as good a reason as any!


*I think 'more lively' was the expression he actually used, now I come to think of it.

[DavidRoss]

I like Solti's Ring for its dramatic qualities, and Janowski's for its musical grace and beauty...also a studio recording, with the Staatskapelle Dresden, and the first digital recording, its sound quality is also among the best, and the soloists are darned good, too!

[bhodges]

The Solti set is great, and still holds up well after all these years.  I mean, it's not popular for no reason! 

Just want to mention two recently released sets on DVD, which I've dipped into somewhat.  While I haven't seen either entire cycle (yet), each has enough pleasures to tempt me to buy them both. 

The Copenhagen Ring begins with an interesting concept: Brünnhilde is examining books in an enormous library that stretches from the floor to the top of the curtain, trying to find out what has happened to her.  The entire cycle basically becomes one big flashback.  The conductor is Michael Schønwandt with the Royal Danish Opera, and the orchestra sounds terrific.  Some of the singers are excellent; others good to very good.

The Valencia Ring was perhaps even more surprising, with a production by La Fura dels Baus, the troupe based in Barcelona with a penchant for suspending people high in the air.  Zubin Mehta is the conductor, and (frankly) I hadn't paid much attention to his work in recent years--he's not my favorite--but he is marvelous here, getting a terrific performance from the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana.  The spectacular venue (Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía) was designed by Santiago Calatrava.

--Bruce

[karlhenning]

Gawd, but I hate those four-evening-long flashbacks! ; )

One of these days, I'll listen to the Ring as included in the Bayreuth Festival Cube

[Franco]

Gawd, but I hate those four-evening-long flashbacks! ; )

One of these days, I'll listen to the Ring as included in the Bayreuth Festival Cube

At present, listening to the Ring is beyond my capabilities - but I can watch a DVD.  Maybe after I have the basic outline of the characters and plot in my mind from having seen it staged, listening will be more productive.

[Josquin des Prez]

I personally really like Bohm. Too bad his set didn't come with a booklet.

[Elgarian]

I personally really like Bohm. Too bad his set didn't come with a booklet.

When I had it in its original LP version, the booklets were superb - thick, lavish, and a delight to use - with full texts and translations, but also notes and photos from the Bayreuth production. When I bought the CD version (years after I'd disposed of all my vinyl) I was shocked to discover that the whole of that side of things had been cast aside.

[kishnevi]

When I had it in its original LP version, the booklets were superb - thick, lavish, and a delight to use - with full texts and translations, but also notes and photos from the Bayreuth production. When I bought the CD version (years after I'd disposed of all my vinyl) I was shocked to discover that the whole of that side of things had been cast aside.

I had the CD version of Rheingold back in the '80s.  It came with a booklet including the libretto, but not that I recall any linkage from the production beyond the cover photo.

Unfortunately, I put this recording and some others on the back shelf for too long. The styrofoam padding included in the CD box dried out, stuck to the CDs and ruined them  irreparably. Had to throw it out.  Same thing with the Solti recordings of Meistersinger and Marriage of Figaro.  A couple of other sets suffered less damage:  the CDs were unplayable, but I could at least rip and burn copies to use in their place.

[Sergeant Rock]

About 30-odd years ago I went through the anguish of deciding which Ring to buy, against a background of not having any money. The obvious best choice back then was the Decca/Solti recording, but it was simply out of reach, and I settled on the significantly cheaper but still highly regarded Bohm/Bayreuth version. Well, I played the grooves out of those LPs and thought it was a superb recording, but I always hankered after a Solti set.

That mirrors my own Ring beginnings. In the early 70s, when I finally had a good stereo system, I couldn't afford Solti. I was newly married, scraping by on a Buck Sergeant's salary. All I had were a couple recordings of the bleeding chunks. I was assigned to Germany in 1974, where records were even more expensive. But there was a shop that operated like a club: you had to agree to buy at least one item per month. It was mostly books but they also had a few records. In exchange for that contractual agreement, they offered significant discounts (at a time discounts in normal shops were non-existent). I found Böhm's Ring there, for the astounding price of 99 DM (about 40 dollars).

After I bought a CD player in 1985, my parents-in-law gave me Karajan's Ring for Christmas. I was disappointed (I was hoping for Solti). But when I listened to Karajan, I fell in love. It's still my favorite: a combination of poetry and power (when applicable; the Berlin Phil even trumping Solti's Vienna forces occasionally--the last pages of Rheingold, for example.

When I had it in its original LP version, the booklets were superb - thick, lavish, and a delight to use - with full texts and translations, but also notes and photos from the Bayreuth production. When I bought the CD version (years after I'd disposed of all my vinyl) I was shocked to discover that the whole of that side of things had been cast aside.

There is quite a quantitative and qualitative difference between the LP's presentation and the CD's. My Böhm LP box came with four booklets, one for each opera. The CD box looks pretty puny, doesn't it 




Sarge

[DavidRoss]

The styrofoam padding included in the CD box dried out, stuck to the CDs...

I've had that happen, too, but found that rubbing alcohol and distilled water were adequate solvents to save the discs.

[(poco) Sforzando]

The Copenhagen Ring begins with an interesting concept: Brünnhilde is examining books in an enormous library that stretches from the floor to the top of the curtain, trying to find out what has happened to her.

How original! how dramatically relevant and compelling! But tell me, please: just what is Brünnhilde reading - a century of Wagnerian scholarship? - and since she rides her horse into the funeral pyre being ignited for Siegfried, just when is she expected to catch up with all those books?

[Sergeant Rock]

How original! how dramatically relevant and compelling! But tell me, please: just what is Brünnhilde reading - a century of Wagnerian scholarship? - and since she rides her horse into the funeral pyre being ignited for Siegfried, just when is she expected to catch up with all those books?

Maybe it was all just a dream 

Sarge

[karlhenning]

Maybe it was all just a dream 

I was literally about to post much the same thing! I was going to say just a bad dream, though ; )