# The perfect Ring Cycle production



## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

If you've come to this thread to see an announcement of such a thing, then you're probably new to the Ring Cycle. Hardened fans will know how unattainable such a thing as the perfect Ring Cycle is.

Here I'm not concerned not with great singers, but with the staging and how certain scenes are managed and depicted, plus of course an overall vision and philosophy for the production.

What parts of productions you've seen (live or DVD) thrill you or disappoint you?

What would you do to design a great Ring Cycle?

I'll make a start: Grane. This magnificent steed! So magnificent in fact than many productions never even show him. In the era of Warhorse animatronics, isn't it time this was rectified? The Met's recent production succeeded here, at least in the Rhine journey music.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

I prefer seeing a traditional Ring. I think the first Met Ring was excellent except for the stupid dragon and miscast Sieglinde.

From the photos I've seen , I liked the Karajan production as well.
Dark, mysterious, minimalist. 

I;m not totally against a different take, but the ones I've seen are terrible or laughable.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I've seen a traditional staging live, and although musically it was great, it kinda looked like Lord of the Rings with a lower budget. As long as the action on the stage matches what is going on in the singing, I'm fine with alternative stagings. That doesn't mean that Sieglinde as a housewife in a 50s tenement kitchen is good. But it doesn't have to be papier mache rocks and old timey helmets with horns. It can be stylized. In fact, it's probably better stylized if the design is good.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

A " perfect" Ring production is chimera . It will never exist outside the imaginations of operagoers who love 
Wagner . Perhaps that's all fo9r the better . 
Posibly someone could make an animated or staged for the movies version with say, the legendary Solti Ring 
as a soundtrack , with aall the special effects exactly as Wagner imagined . Completely believable characters from a
visual viewpoint ; an Alberich who is a real dwarf , a tall ,young beefcake muscular Siegfried .
Brunnhilde, the Valkyies , the Rhine maidens, Sieglinde, & Gutrune as incredibly sexy blonde Scandinavian babes ,
REALLY huge giants , a truly terrifying dragon etc . Maybe even with some tasteful nudity for those sexy blondes , etc.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

It just cannot be. Wagner's vocal and stage demands do not allow it. Peter Hall tried it at Bayreuth to generally bad reviews. What we generally get is overweight, aged singers with a director trying to put his own spin on it with no intention of interpreting the score or libretto. I prefer an audio experience.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

DavidA said:


> It just cannot be. Wagner's vocal and stage demands do not allow it. Peter Hall tried it at Bayreuth to generally bad reviews. What we generally get is overweight, aged singers with a director trying to put his own spin on it with no intention of interpreting the score or libretto. I prefer an audio experience.


Agree there's no perfect staging of The Ring, as there's no perfect interpretation of the Jupiter Symphony, the Emperor Concerto, or the German Requiem. That Peter Hall had a failed production is neither here nor there. As with anything monumentally difficult, failure is more frequent than success. But some of us are still happy to wait for the next great Ring production on the horizon.


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## Jobis (Jun 13, 2013)

DavidA said:


> It just cannot be. Wagner's vocal and stage demands do not allow it. Peter Hall tried it at Bayreuth to generally bad reviews. What we generally get is overweight, aged singers with a director trying to put his own spin on it with no intention of interpreting the score or libretto. I prefer an audio experience.


I thought the Boulez Bayreuth 1980 version was excellent; not an overweight, aged singer in sight.

The staging wasn't traditional but it had the essential elements down to a tee.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Jobis said:


> I thought the Boulez Bayreuth 1980 version was excellent; not an overweight, aged singer in sight.


Premiered in 1976, to mark the festival's centenary, but yes, filmed in 1980.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

DavidA said:


> It just cannot be. Wagner's vocal and stage demands do not allow it. Peter Hall tried it at Bayreuth to generally bad reviews. What we generally get is overweight, aged singers with a director trying to put his own spin on it with no intention of interpreting the score or libretto. I prefer an audio experience.


It's funny you should say that, I started playing a DVD (Boulez Gotterdammerung as it happens) last night, and after 15 minutes switched to CD. I could have just turned the TV screen off - as the sound was already going through the stereo - but audio recordings tend to be of far greater fidelity, and there's something about the extra way the brain engages with the music when the visual element is removed. It doesn't help that some of the video quality is rather poor (Barenboim, Boulez).

But in the live situation, I'd much rather have a full production rather than concert, or the 'semi-staged' I saw recently.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

As far as audio...the "Perfect" Ring Cycle for me would have been Bohm's Bayreuth classic with modern Studio sound with no audience coughing throughout.

As far as visual...I would like to see it look like to see a Higher Budget Lord Of The Rings. Actually, just get Peter Jackson to direct it as an actual film with some very good, semi-attractive, physically fit singers and with someone taking notes on Bohm's performance.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

The *use of back projected images *holds great potential with sprawling epics like the Ring, only the designers imagination limits what is possible, the power and dramatic impact of well designed scences that enhance the story is stunning!

The Valencia Ring had some *brief moments *of visual greatness, I especially liked the opening of Rheingold......

Overall other aspects were much less effective (costumes, cranes, singing) making it a mixed bag


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

DarkAngel said:


> The *use of back projected images *holds great potential with sprawling epics like the Ring, only the designers imagination limits what is possible, the power and dramatic impact of well designed scences that enhance the story is stunning!
> 
> The Valencia Ring had some *brief moments *of visual greatness, I especially liked the opening of Rheingold......
> 
> Overall other aspects were much less effective (costumes, cranes, singing) making it a mixed bag


Oh my! Those crane things! That was possibly the worst thing and sadly used throughout. And some very unflattering costumes, particularly for those singers who needed some flattering. I did like the back-projections, such as the Doctor Who style vortex effects such as when they travelled to nibelheim.

I think film projections are the way forward. I'd also like to see some more shadow play. Would love to see an animation house such as Studio Ghibli put their style to a production.


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## Autumn Leaves (Jan 3, 2014)

Oh yes, the perfect _Ring_ is only an ideal abstraction  I have watched countless recordings plus the Mariinsky production live, and I always think that only if one combined different singers and details of different sets could one probably get a flawless staging… And considering the variety of Wagnerians' opinions on WHAT is perfect Wagner…

For example, take the _Ring's_ first opera. I like the Met's _Das Rheingold_ very much, but I think Richard Croft way too lyrical for Loge and also I would prefer a more touching and tragic interpretation of Mime, such as the one there is in the Mariinsky production. On the other hand, the giants in the Mariinsky's _Rheingold_ stand on enormous stones, clad in stone armor with faces barely visible, and practically don't move at all. Boulez's legendary version is splendidly conducted, sung and acted, but I like the Ring more bright and colorful. Otto Schenk's production at the Met was wonderful in that way, as far as I can judge now, but the tempo was too slow… The list can go on and on, and it's only about the first part of the _Ring_!


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

I'm still in two minds about the longevity of film projections. When I go to the opera, do I want to see theatre or do I want to see cinema? Remove the film screen from the Valencia Ring and there's not much left. There was no set design to speak of.


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## Posie (Aug 18, 2013)

I would put the new Met production on my wish-list, except that Debora Voigt's Brünnhilde makes me cringe!


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