This is the famous production of the ring cycle that was first produced in the 1970's and booed of stage. The reason was that instead of it being set in around 400AD as intended by Wager it is played in 19th Century gear with Industrial age sets. The production was performed again in 1980 and filmed without an audience. This is the production that we see on this DVD.
The first thing which must be said is that the sound quality is excellent. The film production is also good and does not have the problem that some opera DVD's have of being transferred from VHS to DVD.
The general critical response to this version of the ring cycle has been posative with most of the barbs going to the singing of the role of Siegfried, something of no relevance to this DVD.
The fist DVD of this production I saw was that of Gotterdammerung which was a bit of a shock. Brunnhilde was played by someone far to old (although it was the first woman Siegried saw, he probably wasn't that choosy) and the chorus dressed in French working men's costumes was a shock.
However by this DVD somehow you forget it and if the opening scene is a large hydro dam instead of the Rhine and the Rhinemadens are dressed as prostitutes you don't seem to notice as much. the Gotterdammerung is a reasonably static opera. Probably as the first hour drags into the fourth you have a lot of time to look at people dressed as bank clerks and you have problems suspending disbelief. With this production, its all happeing with Gods and Giants striding the stage and people descending into the underworld the action keeps up. For that reason one forgets that Wotan is wearing a smoking jacket and that the trick about the Rhinemaidens was that they were maidens.
Anyway this retailed where I come from cheaply and it was great value. The quality and timber of the orchestral playing is superb. The signing good and the, I suppose you call it acting okay.
