The Ring of the Nibelung: The Rhinegold & the Valkyrie

Rating:
Summary: Admirable Work!
Review: P. Craig Russell has created a masterpiece of comic book out of a materpiece of Opera. A absolute delight in every opera fan's colelctions! (BTW, I love P. Craig Russell's other opera adaptions, but Ring of the Nibelung is the best by a mile)

Rating:
Summary: Opera Manifests In New Form
Review: The story of one of Wagner's timeless operas, adapted here into comic form. I do not know the original, but this version makes me wish to find out more. It is comprised of 4 parts collected into two books, corresponding to the original 4 operas, which were independant but held together in a loose confederation to make on complete whole.

The first quadrant, The Rhinegold, begins with the founding of the gods and the tree of life, before advancing to when the story begins, in the middle ages. A dwarf, Alberich, is spurned by a trio of mermaids and steals their precious Rhinegold in order to make a ring of power from it, with which he can rule the world. The scene changes to Voton, leader of the gods, admiring his newly built Valhalla. The price for this was his wife's sister, who gives life to the gods, and when the giants come for their payment, Voton attempts vainly to talk them out of it. Finally, an agreement is made; if the god can get Alberich's ring, they will exchange that for the girl. And so Voton and Loge the Trickster climb down into the depths of the earth, where the dwarves are held under cruel sway. They trick the new leader and steal his ring, along with a tiara of shapeshifting and all of his gold, but not before the ring is cursed to bring death upon whomever else wears it. Voton is mesmerised by the power, but finally convinced to give it up by the eldest spirit; immediately the ring brings death, when one giant kills his brother coveting it.

The Valkyrie begins with a hotblooded young man finding shelter from pursuers in a lonely house, telling of deeds done in misguided honor; his host gives him shelter in waiting for a duel on the morn. That night Siegmund and Sieglinde fall in love, the former taking the ancient sword and with it his host's wife. Fricka, goddess of marriage, demands that Voton avenge this, even though they are his children; finally his will is overcome and he demands that a Valkyrie give Siegmund defeat in battle. She defies him, but Voton steps in and lets him die. As her punishment Brunehilde is taken from godhood and locked on a cliff, to be wed by any hero to find her.

The mini-series is continued in Vol. 2.

Even such a long summation can barely do this dense and powerful opera justice. Rather than the standard practice of rewriting or removing speech in parts, nearly everything is kept, translated directly from the original words of Wagner. The translation itself is very nice, keeping an archaic and formal syntax, while remaining accessible to modern readers. It is similar to Shakespeare or any contemporary, high without pretnetion. While the music cannot be included, the songs remain, to be fleshed out instead by lush art. The parallel goes deeper, in fact; as mentioned in the introduction, where Wagner's music has its lietmotifs, quickly recognizable strains that pull the whole together, so does the art include its own repeated motifs.

The story is classic, and told as well as befits a master. The politics between the gods is as fierce or more than that between men, and between them battles and intrigue rage. No major point is left unexplored, nothing forgotten and left to the wayside. Each character introduced comes back to play at least once, most exiting only through death. So much goes on that it is dizzying to keep up, but the intention is never to leave the reader behind, so it isn't overly difficult to follow. Even the reintroductions that catch the reader up on the events of each previous part are handled deftly. The art is vivid and colorful, very detailed and realistically shaded and textured. At times it seems more like acrylic paint than simple color press. The scenery is well detailed, matched by the people, whose actions and expressions are each striking and individual. While characters are seen from many angles and perspectives, anatomy of each is still proper. The story is very visual and cinematic; some places are very dense and wordy, while sometimes pages go by with no words needed. The fights in particular flow this way, becoming very abstract, yet the action clearly laid out. Russel is very comfortable with his ability to tell a tale however it needs to be told, certainly.

Rating:
Summary: Buy This!!!
Review: This is a coupling of the excellent graphic novel of The Ring.
Do yourself a real favor, and buy both parts-immediately.

There is something that hearing this monumental work only hints
at, and that is the graphic, ie. photorealism of the staged work
itself, a precursor to films. If you are new to The Ring, or are an old veteran, this, and other, graphic novelizations of
The Ring, will help bring it to stunning life.