Wagner’s Die Walküre is 5 hours and 18 minutes. That is a lot of opera. Rebecca bought her ticket many months ago, but a trip to Hazelton, B.C. came up so I enjoyed her ticket and sat beside her colleague for whom this is his first opera at the movies. In fact he said it has been about 20 years since he went to the Tillicum Mall and he left a lot of time to get there, so he arrived at 8 am – time to have coffee at Tim Hortons and a breakfast sandwich, but making it an even longer day for him.
We compared notes as to how we had prepared for the opera. I spent last night reading the libretto, one that has German and English side by side, but the English is translated into archaic prose. Still, I needed to refresh my memory about the plot. Bob said he did the same thing. As well, I told him, I went out and listened to the Ride of the Valkyries, just so that I could get that melody in my mind again. He said he usually buys the CD for an opera and then listens to it a few times before he goes. And he has a few compendiums at home that are all about opera which he consults, so I think I may not have been Bob’s equal, but still there was lots for us to share.
He loves opera when it is live and he is often travelling to San Francisco or London to hear opera live. In fact he is going to Russia in a couple of years and has tickets to see something there. And I think he is going to see the whole ring cycle in Germany the year after that. He was a bit skeptical about seeing it on the screen, but it is Wagner’s longest work and it is not done that often, so he thought he would give it a try.
After the first act he said that NT Live does give close-ups that a person can’t see from the opera floor, even when they buy the best ticket that is available.
I agreed with him.
Watching the singers shape their vowels or carry the melodic lines with such craft makes the opera fly by.
We agree that the best place to hear the human voice soar over 80 instruments is in the opera house, but even NT Live tells you that what they present is good, but to please come to the opera house and her this for yourself.
I didn’t tell Bob, but I also took a page in my daytimer and sorted out the characters, which families they were from, which of them were mere mortals and which of them were Gods. Norse gods, that is.
The themes are painful. Fricka, the Goddess of Family Values or maybe the Goddess of Marriage makes some demands that have a distastrous impact on Brünnhilde, Sieglinde, Siegmund, Wotan, Hunding, and even on her relationship with Wotan.
Bob does a lot of work with law students when they do moot court. Because I was sitting beside him I might have been thinking along the line of how clear the arguments are as the Gods and the mortals argue with each other, both giving their gifts to one another and then taking them back.
The Valkyries stole the show. One of the reviews I read was critical of their costuming, saying that it was hard to tell them apart. Not if a person does a lot of sewing. The flounces in the skirts of their costumes were so individualized – such a joy to look at. And while I am at costuming, who wouldn’t love the broach that Wotan had on his cloak. I think it was about the size of a man’s fist and it was the skull of an antelope, maybe.
And when Fricka arrives in her chariot, one reviewer said that her chariot upstages any other means of transportation in the opera. Well, the Valkyries riding their horses is good. But I have to say that Fricka was sitting in a dream chair, each side of it appearing to be a ram.
Bob and I wanted to talk about the themes of the opera – we should have done that for every act. Family values, love, opposition, adultery, incest, power, dominion, loss, fear, revenge, all of that was there. And Wotan’s need to punish Brünnhilde? That was pretty harsh. I know – old Norse myths, stirred in a pot by Wagner. I shouldn’t expect to have the complicated plot all tied up in a neat bundle since this is only part of the ring cycle.
The opera makes me emotional. I can feel a few tears run down my cheeks, either in the overture, or just when I heard “maestro to the pit”. And this opera had its high moments – Wagner’s colour and then grappling with difficult themes.
You can read about what MetOpera says about it here. Oh, do come to the opera, one and all. I think the next one is the Dialogues of the Carmelites. Also a show not to be missed.
Arta
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| Sieglinde and Siegmund |
He loves opera when it is live and he is often travelling to San Francisco or London to hear opera live. In fact he is going to Russia in a couple of years and has tickets to see something there. And I think he is going to see the whole ring cycle in Germany the year after that. He was a bit skeptical about seeing it on the screen, but it is Wagner’s longest work and it is not done that often, so he thought he would give it a try.
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| Brunnhilde see interview with her from MetOpera |
I agreed with him.
Watching the singers shape their vowels or carry the melodic lines with such craft makes the opera fly by.
We agree that the best place to hear the human voice soar over 80 instruments is in the opera house, but even NT Live tells you that what they present is good, but to please come to the opera house and her this for yourself.
I didn’t tell Bob, but I also took a page in my daytimer and sorted out the characters, which families they were from, which of them were mere mortals and which of them were Gods. Norse gods, that is.
The themes are painful. Fricka, the Goddess of Family Values or maybe the Goddess of Marriage makes some demands that have a distastrous impact on Brünnhilde, Sieglinde, Siegmund, Wotan, Hunding, and even on her relationship with Wotan.
Bob does a lot of work with law students when they do moot court. Because I was sitting beside him I might have been thinking along the line of how clear the arguments are as the Gods and the mortals argue with each other, both giving their gifts to one another and then taking them back.
The Valkyries stole the show. One of the reviews I read was critical of their costuming, saying that it was hard to tell them apart. Not if a person does a lot of sewing. The flounces in the skirts of their costumes were so individualized – such a joy to look at. And while I am at costuming, who wouldn’t love the broach that Wotan had on his cloak. I think it was about the size of a man’s fist and it was the skull of an antelope, maybe.
And when Fricka arrives in her chariot, one reviewer said that her chariot upstages any other means of transportation in the opera. Well, the Valkyries riding their horses is good. But I have to say that Fricka was sitting in a dream chair, each side of it appearing to be a ram.
Bob and I wanted to talk about the themes of the opera – we should have done that for every act. Family values, love, opposition, adultery, incest, power, dominion, loss, fear, revenge, all of that was there. And Wotan’s need to punish Brünnhilde? That was pretty harsh. I know – old Norse myths, stirred in a pot by Wagner. I shouldn’t expect to have the complicated plot all tied up in a neat bundle since this is only part of the ring cycle.
The opera makes me emotional. I can feel a few tears run down my cheeks, either in the overture, or just when I heard “maestro to the pit”. And this opera had its high moments – Wagner’s colour and then grappling with difficult themes.
You can read about what MetOpera says about it here. Oh, do come to the opera, one and all. I think the next one is the Dialogues of the Carmelites. Also a show not to be missed.
Arta
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