# The Ring of the Nibelung: The TV Mini-series



## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

This news merited my very first original thread on TalkClassical:

I just found out PBS will be broadcasting the entire Met Ring Cycle (plus their making-of documentary) on back to back nights, September 10 thru 14!

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/gp-at-the-met-wagner%e2%80%99s-ring-cycle/about-
the-opera/1312/


----------



## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Great news! Thanks.


----------



## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

I was only able to catch _Die Walkure_, and enjoyed it for the most part. I pity any post Jessye Norman soprano taking on the role of Sieglinde - they must inevitably be compared to Norman's magnificent voice, diction, rhythm, phrasing and pitch. Eva-Marie Westbroek was just barely adequate, though she was lovely and touching in her acting at times. Kaufman was good as Siegmund, maybe not as impressive as I had hoped or have heard him on recordings. Bryn Terfel, on the other hand, was highly effective as Wotan, and Act II with Terfel, Voight and Blythe was magnificent (particularly between Terfel and Blythe) - maybe the best I have seen or heard but would have to hear again and compare. Voight proved a very good Brunnhilde, though a bit girlish at the beginning of the Act. On the other, other hand, Act III, Scene I, was ludicrous - The 'Machine' failed to amaze me in this Act alone - the Valkeries looked like children in the Valhalla Amusement Park riding their hobby horse steeds and sliding off these 'winged horses' (so to speak) to land on the stage like Olympic Gymnasts, I laughed out loud, and of course so did they "ah ha ha ha ha ha ha", thankfully the Valkerie's singing was very good. I loved the Machine when it represented the seat of Fricka's throne, the forest Siegmund and Sieglinde take refuge in, and the concluding scene where Wotan takes Brunnhilde's immortality from her and leaves her as Sleeping Beauty on a mountain, surrounded by Loki's Magic Fire. Having said all that: I did have a very good time, and I very much like that Wagner is subjected to the wildest staging of probably any opera - it keeps it fresh and the new productions whether lauded or derided, cause a stir, an argument and I really like this - maintains its vitality and dynamism. The features afterwards, interviews w cast, tour of the Machine, and especially the rehearsal and interviews and excerpt demonstrations of some of the Leitmotifs with the great brass section were a real treat.


----------

