Die Walkure
Dec. 6th, 2012 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnSo, you know, Wagner was a very, very not-nice man, and this shows up in his operas (Siegfried, ugh)... and yet he wrote Die Walkure, which I am just utterly utterly in love with. I've been remembering how much I adore it lately... it's got a dense and fascinating story, it has the Valkyries (who, okay, are mostly kind of ninnies, but ninnies who ride around in armor and pick up dead men, how cool is that, and the Ride of the Valkyries Yes, and Brunnhilde is by no means a ninny) , it has Brunnhilde, it has deep mythic tragic overtones, it has the angst of gods... And yes, oh yes, it has Issues, but I'm willing to look beyond that.
I imprinted but hard on the Boulez version, which was the first one I watched and the one I now own. The gods are presented in this one as early-20th-century(?) aristocracy (a step up from their prehistoric roots in Boulez's version of Rhinegold). I really loved Donald McIntyre's restrained despair and anger as Wotan. I'm totally in love with Peter Hoffman's Siegmund; his Siegmund is young and beautiful and passionate and desperately in love with Sieglinde and kind of an arrogant jerk, as he should be. I love Gwyneth Jones, who is a valiant and moving and totally awesome Brunnhilde. I was blown away by the scene where Wotan comes in and causes Siegmund to be killed -- although I suppose I was spoiled for this years ago, it's not like I'd never heard the story before watching it, I had forgotten about it and it totally totally blindsided me and stopped my heart, and then where he kills Hunding? AGH. Just amazing. The Valkyries are a little weird in this one, but once Brunnhilde shows up they're quite fine. The Brunnhilde/Wotan scenes are electric, Jones and McIntyre have all kinds of (parental, nonromantic) chemistry, Wotan's anger at Brunnhilde that is really redirected self-loathing comes across so clearly that it's just, just... *flails* Altmeyer is a really amazing singer/actor, and I fell in love with Sieglinde's arc even though Altmeyer's interpretation of it is rather too emotional for my taste, and Jones and Altmeyer together have amazing chemistry.
Link to the Boulez version on youtube. Unfortunately, has no subtitles. 5/5.
And then I watched the Sawallisch version, and fell in love with Julia Varady as Sieglinde and the interpretation they've given to her character: Hunding's house is a, oh, maybe early-twentieth-century setting, with very clearly defined gender roles: Sieglinde is the proper, dignified upper-class wife who exists to serve her husband. And Siegmund (Robert Schunk's is a very different interpretation than Hoffman's, if only by virtue of the fact that Schunk is much less hunky than Hoffman, and he's also acted a bit less arrogantly, but by the end I was a fan) takes her out of that -- and she has to go with him, she is swept up in that need for family and love, but she's also undone by being removed from the setting she's known. I really like this interpretation. I also liked that (although the role is a bit of a thankless one in terms of initiative) the directing and/or Varady's acting let her be just a little more proactive than the text implies, like when she tries to separate Hunding and Siegmund, and her monologue of despair to the Valkyries has a certain arrogant pride and dignity that I think Altmeyer's interpretation lacks, and which I prefer (I mean, Sieglinde is a Volsung, for crying out loud, even if Wagner himself forgot that). Varady is not as good a singer/actor as Altmeyer (there's at least one key place where she completely meanders off the orchestral beat, and Altmeyer always makes it look really easy, whereas there are places where Varady is clearly expending a lot of effort) but I just love the character in this version. I also liked some of the things they did with Brunnhilde, like the way she appears to Siegmund; and Behrens is excellent, though I think I prefer Jones. Though the fact Brunnhilde did not actually fight in the Hunding/Siegmund battle was a little, um, weird? Also, Wotan with Siegmund at the end was heart-breaking. Although it's a little more unclear what he's doing there than it is in the Boulez version, at least to me. Hale doesn't rivet me like McIntyre does, he doesn't have anything like the presence either visually or aurally, though also the weird hats distracted me. The hats are really weird.
Link to Part I of the Sawallisch version on youtube.
Part II.
3+/5.
Anyway, although the Boulez is clearly superior, I loved both. I think I would recommend watching the Boulez first, unless you think it would distract you to see Wotan and Fricka in suit and evening gown (though I'm telling you, it's way less distracting than the weird hats in the Sawallisch), with the caveat that I found the first act way more compelling in the Sawallish due to the different interpretation of Sieglinde.
...I might have to ask for Ring!fic next year for yuletide... (I almost did this year, and at the last minute changed my mind.)
I imprinted but hard on the Boulez version, which was the first one I watched and the one I now own. The gods are presented in this one as early-20th-century(?) aristocracy (a step up from their prehistoric roots in Boulez's version of Rhinegold). I really loved Donald McIntyre's restrained despair and anger as Wotan. I'm totally in love with Peter Hoffman's Siegmund; his Siegmund is young and beautiful and passionate and desperately in love with Sieglinde and kind of an arrogant jerk, as he should be. I love Gwyneth Jones, who is a valiant and moving and totally awesome Brunnhilde. I was blown away by the scene where Wotan comes in and causes Siegmund to be killed -- although I suppose I was spoiled for this years ago, it's not like I'd never heard the story before watching it, I had forgotten about it and it totally totally blindsided me and stopped my heart, and then where he kills Hunding? AGH. Just amazing. The Valkyries are a little weird in this one, but once Brunnhilde shows up they're quite fine. The Brunnhilde/Wotan scenes are electric, Jones and McIntyre have all kinds of (parental, nonromantic) chemistry, Wotan's anger at Brunnhilde that is really redirected self-loathing comes across so clearly that it's just, just... *flails* Altmeyer is a really amazing singer/actor, and I fell in love with Sieglinde's arc even though Altmeyer's interpretation of it is rather too emotional for my taste, and Jones and Altmeyer together have amazing chemistry.
Link to the Boulez version on youtube. Unfortunately, has no subtitles. 5/5.
And then I watched the Sawallisch version, and fell in love with Julia Varady as Sieglinde and the interpretation they've given to her character: Hunding's house is a, oh, maybe early-twentieth-century setting, with very clearly defined gender roles: Sieglinde is the proper, dignified upper-class wife who exists to serve her husband. And Siegmund (Robert Schunk's is a very different interpretation than Hoffman's, if only by virtue of the fact that Schunk is much less hunky than Hoffman, and he's also acted a bit less arrogantly, but by the end I was a fan) takes her out of that -- and she has to go with him, she is swept up in that need for family and love, but she's also undone by being removed from the setting she's known. I really like this interpretation. I also liked that (although the role is a bit of a thankless one in terms of initiative) the directing and/or Varady's acting let her be just a little more proactive than the text implies, like when she tries to separate Hunding and Siegmund, and her monologue of despair to the Valkyries has a certain arrogant pride and dignity that I think Altmeyer's interpretation lacks, and which I prefer (I mean, Sieglinde is a Volsung, for crying out loud, even if Wagner himself forgot that). Varady is not as good a singer/actor as Altmeyer (there's at least one key place where she completely meanders off the orchestral beat, and Altmeyer always makes it look really easy, whereas there are places where Varady is clearly expending a lot of effort) but I just love the character in this version. I also liked some of the things they did with Brunnhilde, like the way she appears to Siegmund; and Behrens is excellent, though I think I prefer Jones. Though the fact Brunnhilde did not actually fight in the Hunding/Siegmund battle was a little, um, weird? Also, Wotan with Siegmund at the end was heart-breaking. Although it's a little more unclear what he's doing there than it is in the Boulez version, at least to me. Hale doesn't rivet me like McIntyre does, he doesn't have anything like the presence either visually or aurally, though also the weird hats distracted me. The hats are really weird.
Link to Part I of the Sawallisch version on youtube.
Part II.
3+/5.
Anyway, although the Boulez is clearly superior, I loved both. I think I would recommend watching the Boulez first, unless you think it would distract you to see Wotan and Fricka in suit and evening gown (though I'm telling you, it's way less distracting than the weird hats in the Sawallisch), with the caveat that I found the first act way more compelling in the Sawallish due to the different interpretation of Sieglinde.
...I might have to ask for Ring!fic next year for yuletide... (I almost did this year, and at the last minute changed my mind.)
no subject
Date: 2012-12-06 09:19 pm (UTC)Oh man, yes to Volsungasaga! (It was probably as a result of having read it that I was enticed to watch Wagner at all.) I did knuckle down and get the Penguin translation of the Nibelungenlied, which I've been trying and failing to read for a while; nothing against either the source or translation, but more to do with lately being bad about any reading that requires sustained effort, bah. I have never even heard of Þiðrekssaga, which sounds awesome.
So funny story: I got to Volsungasaga through William Morris's verse retelling (Sigurd the Volsung), which I found completely randomly in my grad school library (which had a small but eclectic humanities section) and fell in love with. Have you seen this? I mean, it's over-the-top rhyming couplets ("There was a dwelling of kings ere the world was waxen old;/ Dukes were the door-wards there, and the roofs were thatched with gold"), but I guess I am just all about over-the-top; I just utterly love it.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-08 08:43 pm (UTC)Hatto is fairly reliable, but I didn't say "super readable." :) And a surprising-to-me number of medievalists who work on literatures of relevant linguistic continua haven't heard of Þiðrekssaga, FWIW. If I figure out a cost-effective way to scan my old photocopies--over a dozen filing feet worth--I can send it your way, if you'd like. I mean, I really need to figure out something for the bulk of my photocopy collection anyway.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-10 04:47 pm (UTC)And YES, if you ever do scan those in, I would love it :)