1. The Met Live in HD broadcast of Wagner’s Die Walkure was on Saturday. It was simply astounding. I’ve wanted to see the Ring cycle for a very long time, this was the part I most wanted to see, and it was better than I could have ever imagined. The cast was stellar; Bryn Terfel as Wotan was one of those performances it is impossible to forget. All three acts did a marvelous job portraying the central drama—you could feel the twins falling in love in Act 1, you knew exactly what it was like to feel betrayed like Fricka and you could feel the crushing disappointment of Wotan when his plans fell apart in Act 2; and the break between Brunnhilda and Wotan ripped at the very heart of a father with teenage daughters in Act 3. And the Ride of the Valkyries? Stunning. Simply stunning. There is an encore showing on June 1. If you care at all about opera, don’t miss it.
You can see a few short excerpts here. And, if you don’t speak German, don’t worry—the actual broadcast has English subtitles.
2. Next season brings not only the third and fourth parts of the Ring cycle, but the Met is doing Don Giovanni. I’m in opera heaven—after the Ring, that was the opera I most wanted to see. I think I’ll be taking my tutorial to see it. Jeffrey Hart used to make his classes listen to it, arguing that it was not only the finest piece of classical music ever written, but the finest piece of music, period. It’s hard to argue with that assessment—the overture alone is astonishing. But, Mozart’s Dies Irae is also incredible. So is Stairway to Heaven. Can Mozart and Led Zeppelin be compared? You make the call. Here, here and here.
3. And speaking of Wotan, Thor just came out. I am afraid to see it—my expectation for greatness was so high and then the Wall Street Journal reviewer said it wasn’t that good. I am going to be very disappointed if that movie is bad.
No, you must not compare Mozart to Led Zeppelin ever, ever again. Please.
ReplyDeleteOK, I just compared them. Mozart defeats Zeppelin by a wide margin in every important category. That was easy. And if Stairway at first ascended, it went downhill at the end.
ReplyDeletePS: I have seen Thor three times. (I only paid for it twice due to personal economy.) We don't always like the same things, but I can confidently say that I liked it very much every time. The performances are solid and the script is funny and Asgard is beautiful. It's a good superhero film in the Iron Man mode; the people I have talked to who thought it was mediocre generally only like superhero movies in the Dark Knight mode. If that makes sense.
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