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Das Rheingold at Royal Festival Hall (Sat 27 Jan)


sanj2000

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I went to the Das Rheingold gala concert at the at Royal Festival Hall (Southbank) last night on Sat 27 Jan, where there was a full house for this one off semi staged concert.

 

I went with someone who had never heard any Wagner before, although I had; she, like me, was blown away by the performance. Fantastic singing, great orchestra, and excellent conducting by Vladimir Jurowski, who was celebrating 10 years as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

 

The 2.5 hours (with no interval) just whizzed past; after googling this event, there will apparently be 1 semi staged concert every year for the ring cycle, and we will be back next year for Die Walkure!

 

 

Sanjay

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Thanks Sanjay.  Sounds like a great way for the uninitiated to,  or (like me) not very knowledgeable about, Wagner's works to get into them and learn to like them.  I have never managed this, so maybe I should also go to the next one!

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On 29/01/2018 at 10:10, Sim said:

Thanks Sanjay.  Sounds like a great way for the uninitiated to,  or (like me) not very knowledgeable about, Wagner's works to get into them and learn to like them.  I have never managed this, so maybe I should also go to the next one!

Be careful - The Ring is extremely addictive! I've just parted with, to me, a small fortune to see it next October.

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ninamargaret - you're absolutely correct. I never understood why Wagner/The Ring Cycle was so popular - until I went to Gotterdammerung (in Dresden in October 2017) and was, frankly, spellbound for 5 hours.

 

I, too, have spent a lot of money for Oct/Nov, and am still excited about seeing it (as are the people I am going with). When I first heard it was going to be staged in autumn 2018, I expected lots of interest in it, and for tickets to go very quickly; that was the primary reason I became an ROH "friend" - to get priority access to the booking process. Sadly, if one did not have any level of ROH membership, then I think there were no tickets left when they went on general sale (anyone - please correct me if I am wrong).

 

 

Sanjay

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These comments have prompted some memories of more than forty years of going to Wagner. I remember, early on, attending a Ring cycle at ROH with a friend from abroad, sitting up in the old Gods, very hot, and both of us repeatedly falling asleep. But I have kept at it over the years and had many wonderful experiences.

 

A different early experience was seeing an amazing Parsifal at the Met in the late 1970s and being so bowled over that I went back twice in as many weeks. As I could only afford to stand, and it is a long show, this was quite a commitment. Unforgettable.

 

Just one comment on the upcoming Ring at ROH, which I have tickets for but am approaching with slightly mixed feelings. The ROH did not find the resources to commission a new production so this is yet another revival of the old Keith Warner show, one of the worst I have seen. So, newcomers, please don't judge the Ring by this production: it can be so much better. The cast is tremendous, so it is bound to be a fantastic musical experience. 

 

 

Edited by Geoff
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Thank you for sharing your Wagner experiences, Geoff. However, your last para has me a tad concerned - I hope it's going to be a great, albeit demanding, experience this autumn.

 

One last thing to note - I have checked the Southbank website (their programme lists events right up to June 2019!) and Die Walkure is planned for Sunday 27 Jan 2019, with a run time of 300 minutes, and starts at 1600. Members priority booking opens tomorrow (Friday 2 Feb) and General booking Tuesday 6 Feb.

 

 

Sanjay

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4 hours ago, sanj2000 said:

Thank you for sharing your Wagner experiences, Geoff. However, your last para has me a tad concerned - I hope it's going to be a great, albeit demanding, experience this autumn.

 

It's all only IMHO Sanjay, no doubt there are people who like this production (you could check some old reviews online perhaps?) And in any case you may well find more in it, after all tastes differ.

 

I wasn't at the Southbank for the Rheingold so can't comment on how their semi staged style plays for first timers (as against a full production, however successful or not). For a longer show such as Walkure, I suspect people coming to the work for the first time may prefer a full staging. But paradoxically one can sometimes focus more easily when there is not so much to watch, which seems to be what you found on the Southbank. Speaking purely personally, I would go as often as possible, irrespective!

 

 

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On 2/1/2018 at 07:47, Geoff said:

The cast is tremendous, so it is bound to be a fantastic musical experience. 

 

 

Given the increasingly bizarre stagings, I've decided that so long as the  music is good, I can live with the rest. This made me very cross with the Munich staging of Der Fliegende Hollaender in which the closing bars were not played by the orchestra but by a tinny recording from far away.

This will be my very first live Ring, unless I get tickets for the Munich Opera Festival which I'm still hoping for. so I'm very excited about it. 

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