Copenhagen Ring

Having finally received my press copy of the Copenhagen Ring on Decca, I've watched about half of it and am fascinated by the production. Has anyone else seen it and would like to comment?

I found both the production and the performance quite exceptional - the former bids fair to supplant that by Ruth Berghaus (many years ago in Frankfurt) in my estimation, and the singing far surpassing the singers in Frankfurt, New Bayreuth or the Met, in my opinion. I have never heard or seen such a Siegfried (if one excepts Melchior, of course, whose live performance transcends anything ever heard by a Wagner tenor). My partner, German by birth, has always expressed her dislike of Wagner's language & the way it is sung, preferring orchestral excerpts, but with the German subtitles on she was converted, both by the production and the language, comparing the latter to Dr Erika Fuchs' German translation of Donald Duck comics, which she perceptively saw as influenced by Wagner's crazy alliteration; in other words, this production above all others grasps the comic aspect of Wagner, something often ignored in all the solemn bickering about the exact amount of anti-Semitic elements in the portrayal of Mime etc. This will probably be my preferred way of experiencing the Ring for the foreseeable future (not now living near an opera house). Just occasionally I missed Furtwängler's sweeping power or Gielen's laser-light on the music, and the Hagen, a superb actor, lacked the true stentorian basso required for the full overwhelming power of the scenes with the vassals. But this production is overall a real comédie humaine.

MJ wrote:I found both the production and the performance quite exceptional - the former bids fair to supplant that by Ruth Berghaus (many years ago in Frankfurt) in my estimation, and the singing far surpassing the singers in Frankfurt, New Bayreuth or the Met, in my opinion. I have never heard or seen such a Siegfried (if one excepts Melchior, of course, whose live performance transcends anything ever heard by a Wagner tenor). My partner, German by birth, has always expressed her dislike of Wagner's language & the way it is sung, preferring orchestral excerpts, but with the German subtitles on she was converted, both by the production and the language, comparing the latter to Dr Erika Fuchs' German translation of Donald Duck comics, which she perceptively saw as influenced by Wagner's crazy alliteration; in other words, this production above all others grasps the comic aspect of Wagner, something often ignored in all the solemn bickering about the exact amount of anti-Semitic elements in the portrayal of Mime etc. This will probably be my preferred way of experiencing the Ring for the foreseeable future (not now living near an opera house). Just occasionally I missed Furtwängler's sweeping power or Gielen's laser-light on the music, and the Hagen, a superb actor, lacked the true stentorian basso required for the full overwhelming power of the scenes with the vassals. But this production is overall a real comédie humaine.

No prodution,Recording,Or live performances will ever surpass the Decca recording of Der Ring Des Nibelungen as the Solti one.That is unserpassable,and done as composer intended it to be heard