Wagner: Siegfried / St. Clair, Staatskapelle Weimar -St. Clair Ring Cycle Part 3-

Product Description Wagner, Richard;s Ring of the Nibelung reflects the composers autobiography as much as the political turmoil of his times. As work progressed, another figure grew to be as important as the hero Siegfried, the god Wotan, the mouthpiece for Wagners ideas. Review This is the third installment of Wagner's Nibelung tetralogy. We have already reviewed the Rheingold and Walküre. I found this performance almost a comic-book staging--about as far off the traditional Wagnerian production as you can get. Imagine a production with 11 Rhinemaidens in place of the usual three and an Alberich waddling around in magenta boots, not on his feet but on his knees. Nevertheless, there are some substantial pluses-- particularly a rather good singing cast, offering a really fine Erda, sung with remarkable clarity and accuracy by one Nadine Weissmann. This is as fine a presentation of the role as I've heard--at least since Maria Olczewska retired, which was a good long time ago. Mr Moses was pretty much in agreement on the essentials of Die Walküre. Unless I've misunderstood him, we saw the basic aspects of singing, staging, and production in about the same way. Weimar's Staatstheater is a smallish house, and its stage lacks the space and equipment found in New York, London, Vienna, or Dresden. Presenting a Ring cycle there is a challenge. The orchestra is faced with a longer and more difficult score in Siegfried than Rheingold. In the earlier work, one was not even able to observe the orchestra very clearly. But here it is often seen as a whole, and its individual players are easy to observe at work. The orchestra employs around 85 players, and they are really very good. Their conductor, Mr. St. Clair, an American, is a little slim fellow barely five feet tall if his appearance in the final curtain calls is to be believed. But his orchestral control, his shaping of climaxes and his talents as accompanist is on a much grander scale--not merely acceptable but impressive in comparison with much better known musicians who have led this work on records. He fashions a splendid account of the stormy Prelude to Act II as well as the following Wotan- Erda dialog. Frankly, I'd rather have him at the helm than Solti, and he need not fear comparison with most others. Karajan was also, well, vertically challenged. As I recall, he wore elevator shoes to achieve an e