Richard Wagner DIE WALKÜRE, recorded live from the Bayreuth Festival, 19 and 21 August 2010. OA1045D
- Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra
- Christian Thielemann, conductor
- Tankred Dorst, stage director
Christian Thielemann, “by common consent the leading Wagner conductor of our time” (Die Presse), returns to Bayreuth for this radiant account of Die Walküre filmed at the 2010 Festival. Appearing on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time, it provides the only audio-visual document of Tankred Dorst’s Ring production, and follows the hugely successful release of the whole cycle on CD. Two new singers join the cast: Johan Botha as Siegmund, who was showered with praise by the press (“ideal vocal casting” in the words of the critic on the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) and Edith Haller, with her “beautiful, strong soprano voice” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) as his sister and lover Sieglinde.
Cast
Siegmund – Johan Botha
Hunding – Kwangchul Youn
Wotan – Albert Dohmen
Sieglinde – Edith Haller
Brünnhilde – Linda Watson
Fricka – Mihoko Fujimura
Gerhilde – Sonja Mühleck
Ortlinde – Anna Gabler
Waltraute – Martina Dike
Schwertleite – Simone Schröder
Helmwige – Miriam Gordon-Stewart
Siegrune – Wilke te Brummelstroete
Grimgerde – Annette Küttenbaum
Rossweisse – Alexandra Petersamer
Special Features
- The making of Die Walküre
- Cast Gallery
NTSC FORMAT
Region 0 (All Regions)
Review
"Die Walküre was filmed on August 21, 2010, two years after the audio-only version was recorded with a different cast. While Albert Dohman, Linda Watson, and Kwangchul Youn reprise their roles here, Thielemann has a new Fricka and a different pair of incestuous twins to work with. John Botha is an A-list Heldentenor—he replaces Endrik Wottrich, who portrayed Siegmund in 2008—and sings with power and commitment. A high point is Botha’s scene with Brünnhilde in act II: It’s poignant, even majestic, as he declines the Valkyrie’s offer of a cushy afterlife in Valhalla. Edith Haller, who was an excellent Gutrune and covered the thankless role of Friea back in 2008, is a womanly and full-voiced Sieglinde, replacing Eva-Maria Westbroek….Mihoko Fujimura sings a firmly moral, dignified, and sympathetic Fricka…
As for the returnees, Albert Dohman performed the role of Wotan about 40 times for Thielemann at Bayreuth and understands completely the complexities of his character. The end of act III is especially treasureable: “Lebwohl!” is exultant; “Der Augen leuchtendes Paar” is emotionally potent but never crooned. Linda Watson again demonstrates that she’s got the goods for a complete representation of the title role, from her confident battle cries right through to her negotiations with Wotan in the final act. There, while Watson subtly shades her singing as she softens the heart of her furious father, she still manages to maintain something of the proud and assertive demeanor that, we assume, made her Wotan’s favorite in the first place. Dohman and Watson’s collaboration in this scene is profound; by the time Watson gets to “Der diese Liebe mir ins Herz gehaucht, dem Willen” (Inwardly true to the will which inspired the love in my heart), we have a powerful sense that Brunnhilde and her father have the beginnings of an understanding, that they are fashioning a solution that they can both live with. Kwangchul Youn seems to come off as a darker, more dangerous Hunding than he did on CD, perhaps thanks to the quasi-Gestapo costume he’s in, or the posse of similarly dressed extras he arrives with in act I. Which gets us to the production itself…some very slack stage direction undermines theatrical potency.
It’s Thielemann and the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra that make any such issues largely irrelevant. The sense of musical coherence and continuity is extraordinary. Further contributing to the success of this undertaking is the high-resolution sound that, especially in multichannel, comes closer than ever to reproducing the singular aural experience of the Festspielhaus. Voices and instruments register as equally significant, amplifying the meaning of, for instance, Wotan’s long second-act speech…
The 23-minute extra feature, “The Making of Die Walkure” is very worthwhile, especially if you’ve never been to Bayreuth. There are terrific shots of the famed recessed orchestra pit and other aspects of the theater. We see Katharina Wagner’s democratizing innovation of showing the drama on a large screen, in real time, set up in the Festplatz. And many of the singers and others involved with the production (sadly, Thielemann doesn’t participate) speak to the unique cooperative milieu that the festival fosters each summer. As I write this, my second visit to Bayreuth is 10 weeks away. I can hardly wait." Fanfare