Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle)

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Warner Classics - 2564656333

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Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen

Das Rheingold

Juha Uusitalo (Wotan), Franz-Josef Kapellmann (Alberich), John Daszak (Loge), Gerhard Siegel (Mime), Matti Salminen (Fasolt), Stephen Milling (Fafner) Sabina von Walter (Freia), Anna Larsson (Fricka), Christa Mayer (Erda),Silvia Vázquez (Woglinde), Ann-Katrin Naidu (Wellgunde), Hannah Esther Minutillo (Flosshilde), German Villar (Froh), Ilya Bannik (Donner)

Die Walküre

Peter Seiffert (Siegmund), Petra Maria Schnitzer (Sieglinde), Matti Salminen (Hunding), Jennifer Wilson (Brünnhilde), Juha Uusitalo (Wotan), Anna Larsson (Fricka)

Siegfried

Lance Ryan (Siegfried), Jennifer Wilson (Brünnhilde), Gerhard Siegel (Mime), Juha Uusitalo (Der Wanderer), Franz-Josef Kapellmann (Alberich), Stephen Milling (Fafner), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Erda), Marina Zyatkova (Waldvogel)

Götterdämmerung

Lance Ryan (Siegfried), Jennifer Wilson (Brünnhilde), Matti Salminen (Hagen), Ralf Lukas (Gunther), Franz-Josef Kapellmann (Alberich), Elisabete Matos (Gutrune), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Waltraute)

Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, Zubin Mehta

Special-priced DVD und Blu-ray Box including all 4 Operas in a valuable Hardcover Slipcase

Shot in full HD. dts-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround sound on Blu-ray!

La Fura del Baus, famous for their opening ceremony of the Olympic games in Barcelona and opera stagings in Salzburg, Ruhrtriennale, etc., use in their groundbreaking Ring 3D computer projections that evoke computer games, organic structures built of athletic performers that recall the "Cirque du soleil".

This production from 2007/2009 at Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia, Spain, incl. world-class Wagner singers such as Salminen, Kapellmann, Mayer, Schnitzer and promising young talents like Jennifer Wilson (Brünnhilde), John Daszak (Loge) and Juha Uusitalo (Wotan).

Staged by Staged by La Fura dels Baus

Bonus Making of Rheingold, Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung

Running Time Total: 1056 minutes

Operas: 948 minutes + 4 x 27 minutes Bonus

Booklet German, English, French

Subtitles French, German, English, Spanish

“Quite a spectacle, brilliantly sung.” The Sunday Times

“It looks like a landmark Ring cycle, it is outstanding.” BBC Music Magazine

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C Major - 703904

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Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen

Live Recording from The Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar 2008

Das Rheingold

Mario Hoff (Wotan), Erin Caves (Loge), Tomas Möwes (Alberich), Christine Hansmann (Fricka), Renatus Mészár (Fasolt), Hidekazu Tsumaya (Fafner), Marietta Zumbült (Freia), Alexander Günther (Donner), Jean-Noël Briend (Froh), Frieder Aurich (Mime), Nadine Weissmann (Erda), Silona Michel (Woglinde), Susann Günther-Dissmeier (Wellgunde), Christiane Bassek (Flosshilde)

Die Walküre

Erin Caves (Siegmund), Kirsten Blanck (Sieglinde), Hidekazu Tsumaya (Hunding), Catherine Foster (Brünnhilde), Renatus Mészár (Wotan), Christine Hansmann (Fricka), Susann Günther-Dissmeier (Gerhilde), Joana Caspar (Ortlinde), Marie-Helen Joël (Waltraute), Nadine Weissmann (Schwertleite), Silona Michel (Helmwige), Carola Guber (Siegrune), Kerstin Quandt (Grimgerde), Christiane Bassek (Rossweisse)

Siegfried

Johnny van Hal (Siegfried), Catherine Foster (Brünnhilde), Frieder Aurich (Mime), Tomas Möwes (Der Wanderer), Mario Hoff (Alberich), Hidekazu Tsumaya (Fafner), Nadine Weissmann (Erda), Heike Porstein (Waldvogel)

Götterdämmerung

Norbert Schmittberg (Siegfried), Catherine Foster (Brünnhilde), Renatus Mészár (Hagen), Mario Hoff (Gunther), Tomas Möwes (Alberich), Marietta Zumbült (Gutrune), Nadine Weissmann (Waltraute), Silona Michel (Woglinde), Susann Günther-Dissmeier (Wellgunde), Christiane Bassek (Flosshilde), Christine Hansmann (1. Norn), Nadine Weissmann (2. Norn), Silona Michel (3. Norn)

Staatskapelle Weimar & Chorus of The Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, Carl St.Clair (Conductor) & Michael Schulz (director)

NOTE: These Blu-ray Discs are not compatible with standard DVD players.

First ring cycle box set on Blu-ray.

Set Design by Dirk Becker, Costume Design by Renée Listerdal & Dramaturgy by Wolfgang Willaschek.

Outside Germany, the name Weimar tends to evoke mixed feelings and pictures of German history of the last hundred years. Within Germany, Weimar means a town in the state of Thuringia arguably saturated with the “Deutsche Kultur” of the “Weimarer Klassik”, the legendary Bauhaus, and fi nally the life and work of Franz Liszt and his son in law Richard Wagner. In Weimar Richard Wagner began composing the first part of his RING-cycle, “Das Rheingold”. In 2008 the Nationaltheater Weimar started a new production of this unique tetralogy. The conductor is Carl St.Clair, a former student of Leonard Bernstein. With Michael Schulz’ fine and highly intelligent staging this new “Ring” production becomes an outstanding document of contemporary opera theatre.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, dts-HD

Master Audio 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

Resolution: 1080i FULL HD

Menu Language: GB

Blu-ray Disc: 4 x 50 GB (Dual Layer)

Subtitle Languages: DE, GB, FR, IT, ES, Japanese

Running Time: approx. 940 mins

FSK: 6

Region Code: worldwide

Region: all

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Arthaus Musik - 101374

(Blu-ray - 4 discs)

Normally: $121.25

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This item is currently out of stock at the UK distributor. You may order it now but please be aware that it may be six weeks or more before it can be despatched.

Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen

Also contains the film 'Wagner's Dream' - a documentary about the making of the Metropolitan Operas new Ring cycle.

Das Rheingold

Lisette Oropesa (Woglinde), Jennifer Johnson Cano (Wellgunde), Tamara Mumford (Flosshilde), Eric Owens (Alberich), Stephanie Blythe (Fricka), Bryn Terfel (Wotan), Richard Croft (Loge), Franz-Josef Selig (Fasolt), Hans-Peter König (Fafner), Wendy Bryn Harmer (Freia), Adam Diegel (Froh), Dwayne Croft (Donner), Patricia Bardon (Erda), Gerhard Siegel (Mime)

Die Walküre

Jonas Kaufmann (Siegmund, Eva-Maria Westbroek (Sieglinde), Hans-Peter König (Hunding), Deborah Voigt (Brünnhilde), Bryn Terfel (Wotan), Stephanie Blythe (Fricka), Kelly Cae Hogan (Gerhilde), Molly Fillmore (Helmwige), Wendy Bryn Harmer (Ortlinde), Eve Gigliotti, Mary Ann McCormick (Grimgerde), Lindsay Ammann (Rossweisse) Marjorie Elinor Dix (Waltraute), Mary Phillips (Schwertleite)

Siegfried

Jay Hunter Morris (Siegfried), Gerhard Siegel (Mime), Bryn Terfel (Wanderer), Eric Owens (Alberich), Hans-Peter König (Fafner), Patricia Bardon (Erda), Deborah Voigt (Brünnhilde), Mojca Erdmann (Waldvogel)

Götterdämmerung

Jay Hunter Morris (Siegfried), Deborah Voigt (Brünnhilde), Hans-Peter König (Hagen), Eric Owens (Alberich), Iain Paterson (Gunther), Wendy Bryn Harmer (Gutrune), Waltraud Meier (Waltraute), Maria Radner (Erste Norn), Elizabeth Bishop (Zweite Norn), Heidi Melton (Dritte Norn), Erin Morley (Woglinde), Jennifer Johnson Cano (Wellgunde), Tamara Mumford (Flosshilde)

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, James Levine (Das Rheingold & Die Walküre), Fabio Luisi (Siegfried & Götterdämmerung)

The most famous, the most performed, the most thrilling, and the most recorded opera cycle in music history.

A unique and exclusive package, on multi-set DVD and Blu-Ray, of the most successful Ring Cycle production of the 21th century.

Filmed at the world-famous Metropolitan Opera House in New York, in high definition – the award winning Robert Lepage production. Featuring Bryn Terfel as Wotan – universally recognized as the finest bass-baritone – and Wotan – of his generation. Also starring Deborah Voigt as Brunnhilde, and star tenor Jonas Kaufmann as Siegmund.

This award-winning and ground-breaking production has been seen by over 150,000 people at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and subsequently by a remarkable 800,000 people in cinemas and movie-theatres around the globe

Features some of the most remarkable and memorable music of all time – including “The Ride of the Valkyries” and “Siegfried’s Funeral March”, as heard in countless Hollywood blockbusters and global TV commercials over the last forty years.

Subtitles in English, German, French, Spanish and Chinese

“Kaufmann and Westbroek project the right kind of sexual and emotional intensity to carry the drama in the very bare setting that they're in, a tension matched elsewhere only by Waltraud Meier's masterclass of a Waltraute...Elsewhere there is solid singing from the 'baddie' basses...and much evidently enjoyed hard work from Deborah Voigt's Brünnhilde” Gramophone Magazine, January 2013

Region: all

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DG - 0734771

(Blu-ray - 5 discs)

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Gramophone Awards 2009

Wagner - The Copenhagen Ring

Wagner:

Der Ring des Nibelungen

Das Rheingold

Johan Reuter (Wotan), Michael Kristensen (Loge), Sten Byriel (Alberich), Randi Stene (Fricka), Stephen Milling (Fasolt), Christian Christiansen (Fafner), Anne Margrethe Dahl (Freia), Hans Lawaetz (Donner), Johnny van Hal (Froh), Bengt-Ola Morgny (Mime), Susanne Resmark (Erda), Djina Mai-Mai (Woglinde), Ylva Kihlberg (Wellgunde), Hanne Fischer (Flosshilde)

Die Walküre

Stig Fogh Andersen (Siegmund), Gitta-Maria Sjöberg (Sieglinde), Stephen Milling (Hunding), Irene Théorin (Brünnhilde), James Johnson (Wotan), Randi Stene (Fricka)

Siegfried

Stig Fogh Andersen (Siegfried), Irene Théorin (Brünnhilde), Bengt-Ola Morgny (Mime), James Johnson (Der Wanderer), Steen Byriel (Alberich), Christian Christiansen (Fafner),Susanne Resmark (Erda), Gisela Stille (Waldvogel)

Götterdämmerung

Stig Fogh Andersen (Siegfried), Irene Théorin (Brünnhilde), Peter Klaveness (Hagen), Guido Paevatalu (Gunther), Sten Byriel (Alberich), Ylva Kihlberg (Gutrune), Anette Bod (Waltraute), Djina Mai-Mai (Woglinde), Elisabeth Meyer-Topsøe (Wellgunde), Ulla Kudsk Jensen (Flosshilde), Susanne Resmark (1. Norn), Hanne Fischer (2. Norn), Anne Margrethe Dahl (3. Norn)

Royal Danish Opera, Michael Schønwandt

Production by Kasper Bech Holten

Seven-DVD set of Wagner’s gargantuan Ring Cycle – the celebrated, critically-acclaimed production at the Royal Danish Opera, come to be known as the Copenhagen Ring. Striking, memorable and controversial staging by Kasper Bech Holten. The action, experienced as an extended flashback, presents Wagner’s epic as a family saga from a feminist perspective. The production is visually stunning, disturbing and at times explicit.

“The first of several wonders in this new set… is the intuitive performing skill of a genuine house ensemble. …Copenhagen has achieved a class Ring with just one guest, James Johnson's Walküre/Siegfried Wotans. Moreover, if Stockholm is the Venice of the north, the Royal Danish Orchestra must be the Vienna Philharmonic of the north with its forward, rich woodwind timbres (a Nielsen sound, wholly suitable for Nibelung music) and cool-sweet string tone, the whole integrated, balanced and paced with a Kempe-like swiftness and attention to rhythmic detail by their chief Michael Schønwandt. ...the visual editing is busy, justifying allusions to the hand-held operation rediscovered by Danish art cinema directors. It gives the films a breathless close-up quality, the absolute inverse of the accustomed best-seat-in-the-stalls approach. Kasper Bech Holten's production... is... costumed and situated between (approximately) 1920 and the 1990s, and - through ever-ingenious lateral thinking - finds latter-day equivalents for Wagner's geography, properties and dramatic violence. In addition to the sheer zip of performance and filming, the sound picture is warm, resonant and true, the English subtitles... give an unsually revealing and detailed insight into Wagner's text, and, winningly, the "extra" item consists of a discussion between the stage director and his country's opera-loving head of state.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2009

“superbly acted, more than decently sung and executed with a technical bravura that puts recent London stagings to shame” Sunday Times

“Vocally, the main players are formidable, with Iréne Theorin’s accurate and tireless Brünnhilde an even match for Stig Andersen’s genuine Heldentenor contributions...Klaveness does not supply an ideal bass gravitas for Hagen but he’s quite the nastiest exponent of the role one could encounter. This is a wonderful Ring to watch as well as to listen to, a must-have for Wagnerians anywhere.” Opera

Best of Category - DVD

Gramophone Magazine

DVD of the Month - April 2009

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Decca - 0743264

(DVD Video - 7 discs)

$100.00

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Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen

Das Rheingold

James Morris (Wotan), Siegfried Jerusalem (Loge), Ekkehard Wlaschiha (Alberich), Christa Ludwig (Fricka), Jan-Hendrik Rootering (Fasolt), Matti Salminen (Fafner), MariAnne Häggander (Freia), Alan Held (Donner), Jean-Mark Baker (Froh), Heinz Zednik (Mime), Birgitta Svendén (Erda), Kaaren Erickson (Woglinde), Diane Kesling (Wellgunde), Meredith Parsons (Flosshilde)

Die Walküre

Gary Lakes (Siegmund), Jessye Norman (Sieglinde), Kurt Moll (Hunding), Hildegard Behrens (Brünnhilde), James Morris (Wotan), Christa Ludwig (Fricka), Pyramid Sellers (Gerhilde), Martha Thigpen (Ortlinde), Joyce Castle (Waltraute), Sondra Kelly (Schwertleite), Katarina Ikonomu (Helmwige), Diane Kesling (Siegrune), Wendy Hillhouse (Grimgerde), Jacalyn Bower (Rossweisse)

Siegfried

Siegfried Jerusalem (Siegfried), Hildegard Behrens (Brünnhilde), Heinz Zednik (Mime), James Morris (Der Wanderer), Ekkehard Wlaschiha (Alberich), Matti Salminen (Fafner), Birgitta Svendén (Erda), Dawn Upshaw (Waldvogel)

Götterdämmerung

Siegfried Jerusalem (Siegfried), Hildegard Behrens (Brünnhilde), Matti Salminen (Hagen), Anthony Raffell (Gunther), Ekkehard Wlaschiha (Alberich), Hanna Lisowska (Gutrune), Christa Ludwig (Waltraute), Kaaren Erickson (Woglinde), Diane Kesling (Wellgunde), Meredith Parsons (Flosshilde), Gweneth Bean (1. Norn), Joyce Castle (2. Norn), Andrea Gruber (3. Norn)

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus, James Levine

Subtitles in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese

"DVD's second 'Ring' cycle deserves a warm welcome, however qualified. None of the video-recorded versions can be called ideal; but the Met cycle has plenty of strong points. It's the only one Wagner would have recognised - no small consideration. Here, Otto Schenk and designer Gunther Schneider-Siemssen preserve the Romantic imagery, often beautifully, as Brian Large's cameras reveal; but unimaginatively, with too many tired compromises." - Gramophone

“None of the four video-recorded versions can be called ideal; but this Met cycle has plenty of strong points. It's the only one Wagner would have recognised – no small consideration. It's frequently assumed these days that he chose myth primarily to convey political allegory, but this is misleading. Myth inspired Wagner as directly as it did, say, Sibelius; and producers who ignore or mock this, like Patrice Chéreau on Pierre Boulez's rival set, miss a vital dimension.
Here, Otto Schenk and designer Gunther Schneider-Siemssen preserve the Romantic imagery, often beautifully, as Brian Large's cameras reveal; but also unimaginatively, with too many tired compromises. Some, such as the Rhinemaidens' non-swimming contortions and the feeble dragon, are embarrassing, and the costumes often look poor on screen. Individual performances, too, sometimes don't fit into a satisfactory ensemble.
This set can also claim musical superiority; but again, not conclusively. Boulez mistakes speed for energy, drying out the richness of the score; Levine, with the magnificent Met orchestra, tends to wallow in it, especially in a disappointing Rheingold. Matters improve from Walküre onward, but he's prone to sudden wheelspinning accelerations, sometimes wrongfooting his singers.
Boulez remains invisible at Bayreuth; Levine is too much with us, to the detriment of atmosphere.
Nevertheless, his monumental approach does bring out The Ring's sheer beauty and grandeur, where Boulez simply seems glib.
Levine's cast is superior, too, although the pivotal roles are the closest. Both Brünnhildes are splendid, spirited and deeply moving, but Boulez's Gwyneth Jones has the fuller voice; Hildegard Behrens, lithe and nervy, must force an essentially lyric instrument – quite successfully, but the effort shows. James Morris, aspiring to be a bel canto Wotan, has a richer voice than Boulez's Donald MacIntyre, but his diction and his acting are less incisive – partly the producer's fault in Rheingold; he improves thereafter.
Siegfried Jerusalem, though, eclipses Boulez's inadequate Manfred Jung. More lyrical and vocally more heroic, he's a finer musician, less liable to strain and distort the line, and an impressive stage figure.
Jerusalem's surprisingly characterful Loge, despite his galia melon headgear, is probably the best thing in Rheingold. It's rewarding to hear the 'Narration' in this kind of voice. Otherwise this is lacklustre. A superb Rhinemaiden trio is left earthbound, writhing unconvincingly round Ekkehard Wlaschiha's buffoonish Alberich, short on menace until the final curse. Christa Ludwig's once definitive Fricka looks and sounds tired.
Levine's tempi in Rheingold rival those of Reginald Goodall, but without his structure and pacing; the Giants' entrance is marked molto pesante, not funereal. They, the Rhinemaidens and the lesser gods – especially Birgitta Svendén's keenvoiced Erda – outclass their betters.
Levine handles Walküre more successfully. Act 1, though, isn't a success. Gary Lakes' massive but rather lean-toned Siegmund is ill-matched with Jessye Norman, whose vocally searing Sieglinde is subverted by her grande dame manner, robbing the love scenes of any real involvement.
Behrens, however, injects Act 2 with life, and though Ludwig's Fricka still sounds tired, Morris begins to make an impact, singing rather than declaiming the Narration. With a ringingly athletic Valkyrie band, Levine rushes the Ride, but brings the act to a moving Farewell.
Siegfried is visually and musically the best, with Levine at his liveliest, and a Romantic forest out of Altdorfer or von Schwind. Jerusalem's ardent hero may lack Heldentenor heft, and suffer some constraint at the top, but he carries off the forging and lyrical scenes with credit. The Wanderer often suits basses' range and personae, and Morris's commanding, world-weary god dominates Zednik's veteran Mime (mercifully not Chéreau's cute victim), Wlaschiha's now mordant Alberich; and Svendén's eerie Erda. Levine's protracted 'Awakening' stretches Behrens, but she and Jerusalem infuse the love duet with appealing life.
Levine's expansiveness suits Götterdämmerung, which opens with a powerful trio of Norns and a radiant Dawn duet. Chez Gibichung, though, the temperature drops, with Anthony Raffell (a fine Wotan) a miscast, bumbling Gunther, and Gutrune sadly unseductive. Matti Salminen's brutish Hagen, though richly sung, lacks the essential supernatural undertones. Ludwig is much better as Waltraute, but Jerusalem and especially Behrens carry the performance with involving intensity. The Immolation strains her voice, but remains satisfyingly cathartic, aided by appropriate stage spectacle, though Valhalla's downfall is disappointing.
All told, while this set may be less stimulating than the Boulez, it's also less distracting – without, as an eminent colleague once remarked, someone forever shouting in your ear. As well as the original digital stereo, remixed surroundsound tracks convincingly evoke extra ambiance and detail. The image also remasters well, although you may want to turn up the colour.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

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DG - 0730439

(DVD Video - 7 discs)

$82.50

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Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen

Recorded live at the Staatsoper Stuttgart

Das Rheingold

Wolfgang Probst (Wotan), Motti Kastón (Donner), Bernhard Schneider (Froh), Robert Künzli (Loge), Esa Ruuttunen (Alberich), Eberhard Francesco Lorenz (Mime), Roland Bracht (Fasolt), Phillip Ens (Fafner), Michaela Schuster (Fricka), Helga Rós Indridadóttir (Freia), Mette Ejsing (Erda), Catriona Smith (Woglinde), Maria Theresa Ullrich (Wellgunde), Margarete Joswig (Flosshilde)

Die Walküre

Robert Gambill (Siegmund), Attila Jun (Hunding), Jan-Hendrik Rootering (Wotan), Angela Denoke (Sieglinde), Renate Behle (Brünnhilde), Tichina Vaughn (Fricka), Eva-Maria Westbroek (Gerhilde), Wiebke Göetjes (Ortlinde), Stella Kleindienst (Waltraute), Helene Ranada (Schwertleite), Magdalena Schäfer (Helmwige), Nidia Palacios (Siegrune), Maria Theresa Ullrich (Grimgerde), Margit Diefenthal (Rossweisse)

Siegfried

Jon Fredric West (Siegfried), Heinz Göhrig (Mime), Wolfgang Schöne (Der Wanderer), Björn Waag (Alberich), Attila Jun (Fafner), Helene Ranada (Erda), Lisa Gasteen (Brünnhilde), Gabriela Herrera (Der Waldvogel)

Götterdämmerung

Albert Bonnema (Siegfried), Luana DeVol (Brünnhilde), Roland Bracht (Hagen), Hernan Iturralde (Gunther), Franz-Josef Kapellmann (Alberich), Eva-Maria Westbroek (Gutrune), Tichina Vaugh (Waltraute), Janet Collins (First Norn, Flosshilde), Lani Poulson (Second Norn), Sue Patchell (Third Norn), Helga Rós Indridadóttir (Woglinde), Sarah Castle (Wellgunde)

Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Lothar Zagrosek

Legendary performances from the Staatoper Stuttgart with four different sets of directors (Joachim Schlömer, Christoph Nel, Jossi Wieler & Sergio Morabito and Peter Konwitschny) and singers.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Subtitles: D • GB • F • I • E

Running time: 15 hours 1 mins

FSK: 0

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EuroArts - 2057368

(DVD Video - 7 discs)

$99.00

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Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen

Live Recording from The Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar 2008

Das Rheingold

Die Walküre

Siegfried

Götterdämmerung

Orchestra and Chorus of The Staatskapelle Weimar, Carl St.Clair (conductor) & Michael Schulz (director)

Set Design by Dirk Becker, Costume Design by Renée Listerdal & Dramaturgy by Wolfgang Willaschek.

Outside Germany, the name Weimar tends to evoke mixed feelings and pictures of German history of the last hundred years. Within Germany, Weimar means a town in the state of Thuringia arguably saturated with the “Deutsche Kultur” of the “Weimarer Klassik”, the legendary Bauhaus, and finally the life and work of Franz Liszt and his son in law Richard Wagner. In Weimar Richard Wagner began composing the first part of his RING-cycle, “Das Rheingold”. In 2008 the Nationaltheater Weimar started a new production of this unique tetralogy. The conductor is Carl St.Clair, a former student of Leonard Bernstein. With Michael Schulz’ fine and highly intelligent staging this new “Ring” production becomes an outstanding document of contemporary opera theatre.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1

DVD Format: 7 x DVD 9, NTSC

Picture Format: 16:9

Subtitle Languages: DE, GB, FR, IT, ES, JP

FSK: 6

Running Time: about 940 mins

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Arthaus Musik - 101373

(DVD Video - 7 discs)

$112.00

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Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen

Das Rheingold

Die Walküre

Siegfried

Götterdämmerung

Bayreuth Festival Chorus & Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim

Directed by Harry Kupfer, with designs by Hans Schavernoch.

This legendary Bayreuth Festival production of Wagner’s 'Der Ring des Nibelungen', directed by Harry Kupfer, with designs by Hans Schavernoch, and conducted by Daniel Barenboim, is considered perhaps the finest video recording of these four operas ever made. For their innovative modernist staging, Kupfer and his team turned away from the work’s time of origin and located The Ring at a “road of history”, a meeting-place of past, present and future, which sets the scene for the story’s struggles of power and love. Barenboim’s authoritative yet highly responsive reading of the immense score and the extraordinary performances of the cast help to make this a truly memorable Ring.

Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian (operas) - French, German, Spanish, Italian (bonus feature)

“If a cycle is going as well as the Harry Kupfer/Daniel Barenboim Ring was, the super-test of Götterdämmerung brings out the best in everyone… Barenboim manipulates his orchestra with Furtwänglerian virtuosity, huge rits, pauses and all, tailor-made to the stage drama. This is the strongest of Hohlfeld’s four Ring filmings. It captures the Fritz Lang-like atmosphere of terror that Kupfer gets from this work, and is at the right angles for the moving depiction of Siegfried’s death and funeral march…” Gramophone Magazine

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Warner Classics Daniel Barenboim Complete Wagner Operas - 2564688804

(DVD Video - 7 discs)

Normally: $64.75

Special: $47.00

Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days.