# San Fran's Americana Ring, by Zambello.



## AmericanGesamtkunstwerk (May 9, 2011)

I want to know more about this production. does anyone have an insider information i.e. they're near San Fran and they managed to see it? I am very interested in it. What are the chances of it getting a dvd? is it more of a draw musically or conceptually/visually or does it pull off both equal? Are they running it ever again after the 2011 season?


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

No clue. I'd be curious to learn about it as well.


----------



## MAnna (Sep 19, 2011)

I didn't attend the full ring cycle as I am not a Wagner fan but I did attend the Das Rheingold production twice (once in an earlier year) and I also attended the Die Walkure production from the year before.

The Valhalla concept was taken from the 1930s skyscrapers that spoke to the American dream - and eventually the misuse of it. Earlier concepts focused on economic and political decline. Here the the emphasis was on despoliation of the environment. The idea is that, at the beginning of the Ring, an idealized landscape is shown and as the cycle proceeds it darkens and decays to the point where the world is void of anything known to live - destroyed by our own making. 

Admittedly, I have not seen any other Ring Cycles but I was quite impressed by the underground caverns of Nibelheim, the capture of Alberich and the use of children as Nibelungs. 

The finale of Die Walkure employed real fire created by a perforated pipe filled with gas running around the edge of the set which was progressively lit. Wotan and Brunnhilde wore special flame-retardant costumes. As the world of the gods was considered a war zone, the actual images of American soldiers who died in the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Iraq and Afghanistan were projected in the background during this scene. 

Marl Delavan sang Wotan and improved from the first time I saw him sing the role. He had stamina issues in Die Walkure. Nina Stemme sang Brunnhilde and was nearly universally well-received. For me, Stefan Margita's singing as Loge was to die for. Larissa Diadkova was supposed to sing Fricka but bowed out due to personal reasons.

Don't have any information on whether it will be released on DVD but I imagine I would have heard something by now if so. The facility does have HD recording capability and I have seen some rebroadcasts of SFO's recent productions, but none of them come from the Ring Cycle.


----------



## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

Nice paragraph, this:


MAnna said:


> The finale of Die Walkure employed real fire created by a perforated pipe filled with gas running around the edge of the set which was progressively lit. Wotan and Brunnhilde wore special flame-retardant costumes. As the world of the gods was considered a war zone, the actual images of American soldiers who died in the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Iraq and Afghanistan were projected in the background during this scene.


... and pretty much characteristic of the general flow there. You're not so much guided through the producer's conceptions as dragged through them, at the end of thoroughly-cinched tether.


----------

