How do you listen to Wagner operas?

[Solitary Wanderer]

With The Ring, I listened to one Act per day whislt following the libretto then watched the same Act on the DVD Met version.

Looking forward to doing it all over again! 

[Haffner]

With The Ring, I listened to one Act per day whislt following the libretto then watched the same Act on the DVD Met version.

Looking forward to doing it all over again! 

This is a good one, too. I used it for Le Nozze Di Figaro!

[marvinbrown]

With The Ring, I listened to one Act per day whislt following the libretto then watched the same Act on the DVD Met version.

Looking forward to doing it all over again! 

  WOW so 14+ hours have become 28+ hours.  As much as I love the Ring I think I would find that a bit too overwhelming.  After 14+ hours of the Ring I usually like to play one of Wagner's calmer operas Die Meistersinger or Parsifal. Like I said before so many ways to appreciate Wagner  !

  marvin

[Haffner]

   Like I said before so many ways to appreciate Wagner  !

  marvin

Gurnemanz, of Parsifal, is the perfectly "admirable" baritone to help provide a respite from black Alberich!

[Sarastro]

That is when the opera is most enjoyable.

Really it is. I wonder how enjoyable it might be to listen with the score. But since I can not sight-read, the only possibility is to read synopsis' or libretti. Some issues provide the information about the opera and its translated into English libretto (I also go to the website with translated to Russian libretti).
Once I translated a piece from The Magic Flute myself, but now I am lacking of time, so this wonderful experience is not currently affordable.

[Anne]

  WOW so 14+ hours have become 28+ hours.  As much as I love the Ring I think I would find that a bit too overwhelming.  After 14+ hours of the Ring I usually like to play one of Wagner's calmer operas Die Meistersinger or Parsifal. Like I said before so many ways to appreciate Wagner  !

  marvin

Marv,

I think they are saying 28 hours because they are just learning the operas.  Once they know them, I would imagine they will use 14 hours like you do.

[marvinbrown]

Marv,

I think they are saying 28 hours because they are just learning the operas.  Once they know them, I would imagine they will use 14 hours like you do.

  Very well said Anne.  I do have confession  0:) to make however, I have been known to press the rewind button after watching my most favorite parts of the Ring every once in a while (what can I say the sword forging scene in the 1st Act of Siegfried demands an encore wouldn't you agree??  ).

  marvin 



 

[Anne]

For sure.  I love it!  Also Siegfried's death and procession, and going down into Nibelung in Das Rheingold among others.   

[Solitary Wanderer]

Yes and yes. 

I'm not at the point yet of picking out fave parts.

I will listen [and watch] the entire Ring cycle again soon

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

You want to know my "fave parts" in the Ring?

1) Rheingold - Loge's Narration
2) Rheingold - Descent into Nibelheim
3) Rheingold - from 'Heda! Heda! Hedo!' till the end
4) Walküre - the whole of the First Act
5) Walküre - Dialogue Wotan-Fricka (Second Act)
6) Walküre - the whole of the Third Act
7) Siegfried - Loge's imagination of the approaching Fafner (First Act)
8 ) Siegfried - the whole of the Third Act
9) Götterdämmerung - Siegfried's Rhine Journey
10) Götterdämmerung - Hagen's 'Wachtgesang' (First Act, Hagen guarding Gibich's Palace))
11) Göterdämmerung - the whole of the Second Act
12) Götterdämmerung - Siegfried's Funeral March, Third Act
13) Götterdämmerung - closing scene

[Anne]

Nice list there, Jezetha.  I would agree with you.

I learned the Ring by starting with the choice "bloody chunks" in orchestra only - The Ring Without  Words (Maazel).  After that I listened to Solti's highlights which included the singers for those same bloody chunks.  When I next started learning the operas themselves, it was nice to encounter a friendly piece of music that I already knew.

That method worked for me in non-Wagnerian operas too.  This time there were arias by Pavarotti that I already knew.

[Lisztianwagner]

I have recently completed my journey through the Keilberth Ring following the libretto. A lot of nice music and singing, but I also find this big work a bit exhausting. I wonder, those of you who regularly return to Wagner operas - do you most of the time just listen to the music? Or do you most often follow the libretto? And if you just listen to the music - do you understand the German lyrics?

I've been learning German, so I could understand some of the German lyrics; anyway I've never followed the libretto while I've been listening to Wagner's operas (I read the libretti in any case, Wagner's texts are really poetical and passionate), I prefer to focus and let myself go to the beauty and power of music.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I have been revisiting the Ring these past few weeks. I put the whole thing on my mp3 player and took it one Act at a time (Rheingold in one sitting, though). I know the libretto almost by heart, so I experienced it now like a mind-blowing radio play. No, I don't watch DVDs, I am not used to watching Wagner. Strange, perhaps, but that's how it is. I also like to read plays more than seeing them acted. Wagner wished for an invisible theatre when he got exasperated with the difficulties of staging his visions. I think a stereo/mp3 player and your mind is all you need.

[Karl Henning]

Very interesting, Johan.

Someday, I may just do that: throw the Ring onto an mp3 player . . . .

[marvinbrown]

I have been revisiting the Ring these past few weeks. I put the whole thing on my mp3 player and took it one Act at a time (Rheingold in one sitting, though). I know the libretto almost by heart, so I experienced it now like a mind-blowing radio play. No, I don't watch DVDs, I am not used to watching Wagner. Strange, perhaps, but that's how it is. I also like to read plays more than seeing them acted. Wagner wished for an invisible theatre when he got exasperated with the difficulties of staging his visions. I think a stereo/mp3 player and your mind is all you need.

  Excellent.  Which Ring cycle by the way?.....and if you say the Karajan Ring I am going to throw myself off of a very high cliff.

  PS: I doubt Sarge will be handing me a parachute on my way down!

  marvin

[Lisztianwagner]

  Excellent.  Which Ring cycle by the way?.....and if you say the Karajan Ring I am going to throw myself off of a very high cliff.

I know most of the Wagnerites prefer the Solti Ring; but why don't you like the Karajan Marvin? It's absolutely powerful, thrilling and beautiful!

Ilaria

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

  Excellent.  Which Ring cycle by the way?.....and if you say the Karajan Ring I am going to throw myself off of a very high cliff.

  PS: I doubt Sarge will be handing me a parachute on my way down!

  marvin

Well, it is a Solti Ring, a live one, from the Bayreuth Festival of 1983. It has its moments, but I don't think it's outstanding.

[Sequentia]

I have recently completed my journey through the Keilberth Ring following the libretto. A lot of nice music and singing, but I also find this big work a bit exhausting. I wonder, those of you who regularly return to Wagner operas - do you most of the time just listen to the music? Or do you most often follow the libretto? And if you just listen to the music - do you understand the German lyrics?

I hardly give a damn about the libretto of any opera. I just listen to a piece of music from its beginning to its ending, whether it's an aphoristic work by Webern or Sorabji's 8-hour Second Symphony for Organ.

[Mirror Image]

I approach Wagner from an orchestral standpoint. I tend to not pay much attention to the vocals unless there's something that catches my ear. Operas like Parsifal, Das Rheingold, Gotterdammerung, and Tristan und Isolde have many brilliant orchestral moments. These are my top operas by Wagner.

[marvinbrown]

I know most of the Wagnerites prefer the Solti Ring; but why don't you like the Karajan Marvin? It's absolutely powerful, thrilling and beautiful!

Ilaria

  Hi Ilaria,

  Look at my previous posts, they have been transferred over to the One Ring to Rule them all thread. In a nutshell: 1) too docile 2) not enough vocal power etc etc although I did promise Sarge that I would listen to it a few more times and give it a chance.

  marvin