Any production of Wagner’s Ring cycle needs some kind of coherence, so it is logical for a staging of Die Walküre to continue where the previous instalment, Das Rheingold, left off. In the case of the Royal Opera’s new production, though, that turns out to be not such a good thing at all.
Die Walküre
Royal Opera House, London
Andrew Clements [The Guardian, 7 Mar 05]
Any production of Wagner's Ring cycle needs some kind of coherence, so it is logical for a staging of Die Walküre to continue where the previous instalment, Das Rheingold, left off. In the case of the Royal Opera's new production, though, that turns out to be not such a good thing at all.
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Bryn Terfel's First Wotan as Horns and Hounds Bay
By PAUL GRIFFITHS [NY Times, 7 Mar 05]
LONDON, March 6 - The new Covent Garden production of Wagner's "Ring" revolved Saturday night into its second quadrant, with a performance of "Die Walküre" every bit as exciting as the "Rheingold" in December. Once again, the excitement was thoroughly and fundamentally musical, its dual sources in the singing and in the pit, where the company's music director, Antonio Pappano, made the score consistently intense and animated.
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Wo sich Wotan die Finger verbrennt
VON PETRA HAIDERER [Die Presse, 08 Mar 05]
Covent Garden präsentiert eine neue "Walküre" - Vorhang auf zum Sammelsurium lächerlicher Einfälle!
Der "erste Tag" von Wagners Büh nenfestspiel knüpft optisch direkt am "Vorabend" - Rheingold (Pre miere Dezember 2004) - an. Hunding hat offenbar den Göttern die Möbel abgekauft (Bühnenbild: Stefanos Lazaridis). Er ist bekanntlich ein rauer Bursche, die Ledersessel sind aufgeschlitzt, die raumhohe Terrassentür ist zerbrochen. Schmächtig statt "mächtig" haben die Wurzeln der Esche Platz. Den schönen Marmortisch der Götter hat der Haudegen unversehrt gelassen. Ein Glück, denn über den kullert Siegmund abgehetzt ins Zimmer. Sieglindes Gemach hängt schräg im Raum, einige Stufen führen hinauf. An der Decke surrt leise ein grosser silberner Ventilator.
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Royal season centrepiece leaves much to be desired
By Andrew Clark [Financial Times, 7 Mar 05]
After a decade of famine, London is feasting on Richard Wagner's four-part epic Der Ring des Nibelungen.
The longest and most ambitious work ever completed for the opera stage is packing in the crowds not just at the Royal Opera House, where Die Walküre opened on Saturday, but at the Coliseum, where The Twilight of the Gods will next month complete English National Opera's long-gestated Ring.
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Amid the nonsense, a towering Terfel fulfils his destiny
[Daily Telegraph, 8 Mar 05]
Rupert Christiansen reviews Die Walküre at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden
No opera begins with more tense expectancy than Die Walküre, as Wagner's orchestra depicts the fugitive Siegmund running desperately through a storm.
Illustrating this breathtakingly dramatic music with strobe lighting is the first of many shallow theatrical clichés that mar Keith Warner's new staging - an infuriating mixture of the corny and chic, littered with gimmicky special effects (some of which went horribly wrong) to the detriment of grandeur and credibility.