Topic: Opera on DVD

[Wendell_E]

Did Wagner ever use castanets in the orchestra for any other work?  They're here at the beginning of the Overture. 

The only use that springs immediately to mind is in the ballet music in Tannhäuser, but only in the Paris/Vienna version.

[ritter]

WAGNER (Richard!)  Das Liebesverbot    based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure
Teatro Real, Madrid production
an early work (1835)  more like Gilbert & Sullivan than a Parsifal-like look at "forbidden love"
Did Wagner ever use castanets in the orchestra for any other work?  They're here at the beginning of the Overture.  And a surprise visit from "Angela Merkel" at the finale of this production.

I saw that production live here in Madrid. The opera isn’t anything memorable, but it was a rare and welcome chance to see early Wagner fully staged, a was ultimately a fun evening in the theatre.

[listener]

The only use that springs immediately to mind is in the ballet music in Tannhäuser, but only in the Paris/Vienna version.

Quite right, I see them in the Dover score

The staging is inventive, a single but complex set that slides back and forth with a few small sub-pieces and very well lit. 
With some advice about editing and plot clarification Wagner could have become the German Hérold.  It was interesting to discover this unexpected side of the composer.