Opera Review - Gotterdamerung

Last weekend I spent 10 hours watching two recordings of Gotterdamerung. One was the Barenboim Bayreuth edition on DVD that I'd picked up in Hongkers HMV over Christmas, that I enjoyed on Friday evening. Perhaps the sight of Philip Kang encased in black leather, stabbing Seigfreid with his enormous lance was the key to my enthusiasm.

On Saturday Evening the BBC were screening the Royal Opera House's production recorded in 2005. As this is delivered to my computer on a slightly unreliable digital broadcast system I felt I had to nurse it onto my hard drive in-case of equipment failure early on Sunday morning. Well, I'd had enough about midnight and dumped the last two hours to the hard drive unattended. What I played the following morning was truly magnificent.

Wagner just doesn't come in small doses, does he.

..Try watching the whole Ring Cycle over 4 nights! Live!
Done it once and it was an expierience.
The dramatic impact of Gotterdamerung is much greater when you see the whole story.

Oh we live in hope, sadly Asia has turned out be a big distraction for me, but there is, and please dont titter in the cheap seats, but coming soon near a concrete bunker called the Hong kong Cultural Centre is Renee Fleming doing Richard Strauss. The performance will include the metamorphosen (something for aunty I can only assume) the last four ditties, and selections from der Rosenkavalier under David atherton, I havn't booked but might. Just so I can air my tuxedo, I think the moths have had a party in there.
Anyone know if it might be any good? I assume she will do, or has done Bangkok Tokyo and what not.

Renee Fleming doing Richard StraussWill she be wearing something tastefully reminiscent of Eva Braun, as a reminder of his political sympathies?

Renee Fleming doing Richard StraussWill she be wearing something tastefully reminiscent of Eva Braun, as a reminder of his political sympathies?

I think your are in a muddle, surely its Wagner you are thinking of and not Richard. Its that or you woke up with Hitler gut, did you take the little pink tablet with the others, or are you saving it under your tongue? Come swallow like a good boy.

..Try watching the whole Ring Cycle over 4 nights! Live!

It may well come to that. I'll be down in that part of the world in June for something even more histrionic and complex. I'm time poor at the moment and only get into Thailand a week at a time. I don't want to "do" the Bayreuth thing till I'm deeply familiar with the four pieces.

My first Opera in Hong Kong was "La Boheme" produced by Lo King-man in City Hall (before the Cultural Centre was even thought of). I'd seen Te Kanawa in the same piece at Covent Garden only a few months earlier.

The Cultural Centre was only a short walk along Kowloon's "corniche" from my last flat in HK so we'd do pre-performance GTs in my place before taking our pews.