# Another Ring Massacred!



## Guest (Aug 1, 2013)

Hope nobody paid money to see this!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-01/boos-boos-and-more-boos-greet-bayreuth-ring-director.html

This part is really funny: "In "Siegfried," two crocodiles creep across Berlin's Alexanderplatz square, mating on the move, while Siegfried and Brunnhilde sing of their passion. One crocodile swallows a whole show-girl, live." If anybody finds a picture of these crocodiles please post!

At least the donner kebab stand is open:









Yum yum!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

'She awakes in a socialist utopia Mount Rushmore with the faces of Stalin, Lenin, Marx and Mao carved into the rock.'

No utopia if those gentlemen are in charge!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

'She awakes in a socialist utopia Mount Rushmore with the faces of Stalin, Lenin, Marx and Mao carved into the rock.'

No utopia if those gentlemen are in charge!

The question is how these talentless jerks get away with it!


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

I found this hilarious/depressing interview with director Frank Castorf (http://www.dw.de/ring-director-castorf-1-artistic-terrorism-in-bayreuth/a-16973627):

_You're known for your dislike of linear stagings and for taking liberties with a work. Yet, with the "Ring," you have to stick to the libretto. That doesn't suit your style at all._
Right. And that's often held me back from staging opera. I've had a lot of offers to do opera and have turned most of them down because I don't have the freedom to move a storyline through time and space the way I want. That's how I decide whether to do something or not. Otherwise, I could just as well work for the railway system and make sure the trains run on time. I'm more interested in the detours. I talked about this with conductor Kyrill Petrenko, who conducts the "Ring" here, and he said: "I really request that that we stick to the score."
That's one way to look at it. But you can also tell a story a different way: more complex, yet maybe even more accurately, without damaging the original. That's what we're trying to do here. It's also about, as Wagner termed it, "artistic terrorism."


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## david johnson (Jun 25, 2007)

I want my $$ back and I did not even attend!


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

DavidA said:


> 'She awakes in a socialist utopia Mount Rushmore with the faces of Stalin, Lenin, Marx and Mao carved into the rock.'
> 
> No utopia if those gentlemen are in charge!
> 
> The question is how these talentless jerks get away with it!


As far as I know, they get their financing from the state, not from opera goers, that's why they couldn't care less if their whole audience boycotts them (not that everybody would).


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

BPS said:


> At least the donner kebab stand is open:
> 
> View attachment 22040
> 
> ...


They bring this multiculturalist crap even into the Ring... I imagine Wagner would be wielding a battle-axe by now, if he knew about it...


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

SiegendesLicht said:


> They bring this multiculturalist crap even into the Ring... I imagine Wagner would be wielding a battle-axe by now, if he knew about it...


I'm not sure that the director deciding that some of the opera is set in a place likely to have a doner kebab stand counts as "multiculturalist", unless you have a different definition of the term than I do?


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## Garlic (May 3, 2013)

SiegendesLicht said:


> They bring this multiculturalist crap even into the Ring... I imagine Wagner would be wielding a battle-axe by now, if he knew about it...


More evidence of what conservatives really mean when they're going on about "multiculturalism".

Would Wagner have approved of Barenboim conducting The Ring recently?


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## apricissimus (May 15, 2013)

The Ring is still relatively new to me, so I'm satisfied by traditional productions, but I can see how people might want to try something different after 140 years or whatever.


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## apricissimus (May 15, 2013)

Nereffid said:


> I found this hilarious/depressing interview with director Frank Castorf (http://www.dw.de/ring-director-castorf-1-artistic-terrorism-in-bayreuth/a-16973627):
> 
> _You're known for your dislike of linear stagings and for taking liberties with a work. Yet, with the "Ring," you have to stick to the libretto. That doesn't suit your style at all._
> Right. And that's often held me back from staging opera. I've had a lot of offers to do opera and have turned most of them down because I don't have the freedom to move a storyline through time and space the way I want. That's how I decide whether to do something or not. *Otherwise, I could just as well work for the railway system and make sure the trains run on time. I'm more interested in the detours.* I talked about this with conductor Kyrill Petrenko, who conducts the "Ring" here, and he said: "I really request that that we stick to the score."
> That's one way to look at it. But you can also tell a story a different way: more complex, yet maybe even more accurately, without damaging the original. That's what we're trying to do here. It's also about, as Wagner termed it, "artistic terrorism."


He may or may not succeed, but the bolded above is noble sentiment.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Nereffid said:


> I'm not sure that the director deciding that some of the opera is set in a place likely to have a doner kebab stand counts as "multiculturalist", unless you have a different definition of the term than I do?


Well, maybe these establishments selling meat of doubtful quality in doubtful hygienic conditions really do have a place on the streets of modern Germany, but they certainly have none in the prehistoric Rhine Valley. Same with Mount Rushmore with the faces of Stalin, Lenin, Marx and Mao.

Garlic, what does this have to do with Barenboim? Barenboim is a fine conductor (I have at least three recordings of his Wagner) who has done a lot to promote the Master's music. This here is more like as if a bricklayer came and tried to conduct Wagner.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I used to be steadfast on the side of traditional stagings, but I've seen a few modern stagings that I thought worked well. However every modern staging I've seen that worked, stuck close to the spirit of the stage directions. It's one thing to design a science fiction themed set that still tells the story well. It's another to throw everything out and rewrite the whole thing. If I wanted that, I could put on a CD of the Ring along with a TV set with the sound turned off.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Garlic said:


> More evidence of what conservatives really mean when they're going on about "multiculturalism".
> 
> Would Wagner have approved of Barenboim conducting The Ring recently?


Why not? Wagner's conductor for Parsifal was Herman Levi. Wagner loved anyone who fawned over his music.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Nereffid said:


> conductor Kyrill Petrenko, [...] said: "I really request that that we stick to the score."


come on, that's so passe.


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## Rapide (Oct 11, 2011)

BPS said:


> ... "In "Siegfried," two crocodiles creep across Berlin's Alexanderplatz square, mating on the move, while Siegfried and Brunnhilde sing of their passion. One crocodile swallows a whole show-girl, live."


Regie-trash again. What rubbish.


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## Geo Dude (May 22, 2013)

SiegendesLicht said:


> Garlic, what does this have to do with Barenboim? Barenboim is a fine conductor (I have at least three recordings of his Wagner) who has done a lot to promote the Master's music. This here is more like as if a bricklayer came and tried to conduct Wagner.


I think the key to the Barenboim statement is his previous statement: "More evidence of what conservatives really mean when they're going on about "multiculturalism"."

Just think about it for a second and you'll discover the accusation he's lying at your feet.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

It was bad, but was it bad enough? I was hoping for the unmitigated disaster that would see Katharina Wagner kicked out on her worthless ***.


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