The following summarizes the story line of the third opera of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungs”, with my impressions of three very different approaches to performing the opera, from respectively the Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera and San Francisco Opera. For the two previous features in this series, see: Gods and Nibelungs on the Pacific Coast: the [...]
Entries from June 2011
Gods and Nibelungs on the Pacific Coast: the Three Ring “Siegfrieds”
June 26th, 2011
Tags: 2005-2012: William's Commentaries
Tom’s Tips for the 2011 Santa Fe Opera Festival
June 22nd, 2011
By this time, every opera lover knows that each summer something very special is happening in the world of opera – in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Santa Fe Opera presents a season of five operas all summer in its resplendent outdoor (but covered) opera house-in-the-desert in the hills just north of Santa Fe. It is hard to imagine [...]
Tags: Tom's Tips
“Goetterdaemmerung”: Strong Finish to the First Zambello “Ring” – San Francisco Opera, June 19, 2011
June 20th, 2011
This is the fourth report on the first complete performance of the tetralogy of operas that comprise Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungs”. Although most of concept director Francesca Zambello’s ideas for staging the work have surfaced over the past five years, as the first three of the four operas debuted with Washington National Opera at [...]