My Ring Cycle Dream Cast

This is a response to the audience question in the past few Met Opera quizzes. Audiences were asked to cast their dream Ring and came up with pretty secure choices: Furtwängler, Melchior, Nilsson…

The Met quiz required that the cast be assembled from artists no longer active. I’m going to reserve the right to choose current/recent artists as well. In those cases where I’ve implemented the cop-out of multiple choices, I’ve forced myself to asterisk the artist I would choose if I had to.

I hope I can get John to weigh in but in the meantime, here’s what I’d do if someone died and made me Wolfgang (and gave me a time machine):

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Wolfgang Wagner Decides Not to Decide

Wolfgang Wagner will step down on August 31, leaving Bayreuth in the hands of BOTH his daughters, Eva and Katharina.

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A Dream Tristan I Never Dreamed Of, But Should Have

Every winter it seems like “something’s going around at work” but this is ridiculous! Six singers have made unscheduled Met debuts in the past two weeks, and one, the American tenor Robert Dean Smith, offered a Tristan that ought to go down as one of those “Were you there?” moments.

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The Levine 1997 Gotterdammerung -A "Holde-Review" -With a Few Comments Pertaining to Same

Reviewing Wagner’s Gotterdammerung, conducted by James Levine at the 1997 Bayreuth Festival, with Deborah Polaski as Brunnhilde, Wolfgang Schmidt as Siegfried, Eric Halfvarson as Hagen, and Hanna Schwartz as Waltraute. Staged by Alfred Kirchner, with sets and costume design by Rosalie. On DVD. Watch a video preview of the Immolation scene.

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Pilgrim's Music By Berlioz and Wagner

There are at least two moments of indisputable greatness in Wagner’s Tannhauser: The act 2 intervention by Elizabeth to save Tannhauser’s life from the likes of Biterolf and his cruel and cowardly cohorts, and Tannhauser’s act 1 epiphany in the valley of the Wartburg, with the unforgettable, immortal counterpoint of the shepherd boy’s lovely melody, fresh as May: “Der Mai! Der Mai!”

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This is Insane

Updated on Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 05:54 by John Gibbons

According to the NY Times for Tuesday, July 31, Katharina Wagner’s new production of Die Meistersinger for the Bayreuth Festival featured topless dancers, complete male nudity, plastic phalluses, and “a bizzare auto da-fe” In the third act. My wife related to me a production (this one?) that had Hans Sachs made up as Hitler. One doesn’t have to have seen the particular production to comment. We’ve all seen eurotrash productions. For years I’ve vacillated back and forth about the validity of such productions. I’ve been reluctant to condemn this sort of thing outright out of cowardice (just like many, many critics), a reluctance to appear to be a close-minded reactionary. But enough is enough. Some operas may potentially benefit from deconstructionst treatment, and some you should leave strictly alone. Here’s a partial list.

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