Wagner Die Walkure Levine Behrens Norman Metropolitan Opera Levine Ring Cycle Part 2 Music Cd

Kelly Joyce - Wagner Die Walkure Levine Behrens Norman Metropolitan Opera Levine Ring Cycle Part 2

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Wagner - Die Walkure / Levine, Behrens, Norman, Metropolitan Opera (Levine Ring Cycle Part 2)      List Price : $39.98 USD        Your Price : $27.97 USD      ProductGroup: DVD      Actor(s): Hildegard Behrens, James Morris, Jessye Norman, Christa Ludwig, Gary Lakes      Director(s): Brian Large Movie      Release Date : 2002-11-12      Studio : Deutsche Grammophon      Label : Deutsche Grammophon      Avg. Customer Rating : (31 reviews)      Running Time : 241

Reviews Customer Reviews for Wagner Die Walkure Levine Behrens Norman Metropolitan Opera Levine Ring Cycle Part 2      Skip Act One      Rating:      Gary Lakes is about as interesting as a half-eaten bowl of soggy cornflakes. Jessye Norman does not function as a "rescue-me" soprano. Kurt Moll is totally unable to play stupid characters. He always sounds like what he is--a natural musical genius. This is also a problem when he sings Osmin and Baron Ochs.     Customer Reviews for Wagner Die Walkure Levine Behrens Norman Metropolitan Opera Levine Ring Cycle Part 2 Cd      Jessye Norman's voice TOO BIG for Sieglinde!      Rating:      Yes I know Jessye Norman has a magnificent voice and anybody who dares to say otherwise is beyond the pale, but her voice is TOO BIG for Sieglinde. You should be able to close your eyes as you listen and imagine Sieglinde as a slip of a girl, a teenager. The end of Act III is perfect. James Morris and Hildegard make a perfect team. I cannot watch them in this scene without tears. And everything else works well: the set, the changing light in the backdrop, the fire, even the flakes of ash that start falling shortly before the curtain. And it helps that Morris looks like a big tall norse god and Behrens looks like a valkyrie. I have a quibble. In "Wer meines Speeres Spitze fürchtet, durchschreite das Feuer nie!", Morris runs the word Feuer and nie together, as if they were one word. I think there should be distinct break between the two words, thus giving a terrible finality to "nie". Can someone tell me if he did this deliberately, as a sort of style? Editorial Reviews for Wagner Die Walkure Levine Behrens Norman Metropolitan Opera Levine Ring Cycle Part 2 Audio Cd      Amazon.com      It's no surprise that the second opera in Wagner's epic Ring cycle, Die Walküre, is the one Deutsche Grammophon released first on DVD: it's by far the most popular of the four parts of The Ring, from the thrilling Act I love duet for its brother and sister lovers, Siegmund and Sieglinde, to the spectacular finale of the "Magic Fire Music," as the god Wotan puts his beloved but disobedient daughter Brünnhilde into a deep sleep (no jokes, please!), over four hours later. This 1990 Metropolitan Opera production, originally broadcast on PBS to great acclaim, has been stunningly transferred to digital disc. Musically, of course, is where any worthy Ring earns its keep, and under James Levine, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra makes the most sumptuous Wagnerian sounds of any current orchestra, as the dazzlingly fresh-sounding "Ride of the Valkyries" makes abundantly clear. The ravishing music is not solely instrumental, of course; the principal cast--Gary Lakes (Siegmund), Jessye Norman (Sieglinde), Hildegard Behrens (Brünnhilde), and especially James Morris (Wotan)--more than handles the vocal and acting demands, even those long stretches of unbelievably difficult singing passages that Wagner demands. This Otto Schenk production has taken its lumps for its conventional approach to Wagner's mythic music-drama. But it's an easy first approach for newcomers, and it's actually a rarity nowadays--among countless deconstructionist approaches--that many Ring-lovers will enjoy Die Walküre in its original setting and context. --Kevin Filipski