Wagner - Die Walkure / Boulez, Jones, Altmeyer, Schwarz, Hofmann, Bayreuth Festival (Ring Cycle Part 2)

Rating:
Summary: Immensely enjoyable
Review: Of the 4 Ring operas, I like Die Walkure most. Happily, this is given a brilliant performance here by the excellent cast and the Bayreuth orchestra led by Boulez. The staging is good and the direction is dramatically apt and interesting. This is as good as production as can be in this opera. I found it immensely enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Hugely entertaining production
Review: This is a hugely entertaining production. In fact, this is probably the most successful part of the Boulez/Chereau Ring cycle production for the centenary Bayreuth Festival. The vocal cast is the strongest in this opera and everybody acts convincingly. The Valkyries "rock" is an interesting piece of stage design, too. Brilliant!

Rating:
Summary: A shining performance
Review: This is really a shining performance. The staging, though rather innovative at the time, serves the drama well. And this must be visually one of the most satisfying cast ever assembled for this opera. Hofmann and Altmeyer are just perfect as the Walsung twins, McIntyre is a commanding Wotan and Jones a magnificent and immensely likeable Brunnhilde. The other cast members are very fine, too. The singing is of almost the same high standards. Those who're of the view that Boulez's interpretation is "cool" should really listen to this recording, for his interpretation, a swift moving one, is full of drama, intensity and even sensual beauty. A very enjoyable viewing and listening experience indeed!

Rating:
Summary: Riveting Walkure
Review: We now have two Walkure DVDs on the market, the other being the reknowned Met production, conducted by James Levine. This version from Bayreuth is conducted more briskly, and less broadly, by Pierre Boulez. The production is much more abstract than the Met's realistic scenery and costumes, and it was quite controversial during its first incarnation in the 1970s. Patrice Chereau, the director, lets the eroticism of Act I flow freely. Jeanine Altmeyer and Peter Hoffmann sing beautifully as Sieglinde and Siegmund, and they certainly look their parts, young and beautiful. Hunding is presented as a truly violent and menacing presence, along with his henchmen, an innovative idea not seen in other productions. In Act II, Wotan and Brunnhilde are portrayed by Donald McIntyre and Gwyneth Jones. His singing is commendable, but he is eclipsed by the magestic James Morris of the Met's DVD. Jones has all guns blazing as Brunnhilde, perhaps too much vocal power, but she is a valiant warrior-maiden, perhaps falling short in the heroine's vulnerability, which Hildegard Behrens portrays so eloquently in the Met's DVD. By Act III, everyone's merits are a known quantity -- the father-daughter confrontation is more moving in the Met's version, but this DVD is also quite fine, with Altmeyer's superior Sieglinde vs Jessie Norman's diva-ish Sieglinde. If you're a fan of Wagner's Ring, you really need to have both.