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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the one to see, 4 April 2006
By A Customer
Every aspect of this 'Rheingold' is simply awesome. In the beginning, a loose crowd of people stands on the empty stage, with smoke hanging in the air. They turn and walk away, a single green laser beam pierces the darkness, and Wagner takes us back to the beginning of his world. By the time the prelude ends, the laser beam has spread out into a tunnel of light, defining the gloomy space at the bottom of the Rhine - a stunningly beautiful stage design.Producer Harry Kupfer handles the stage with incredible skill, moving smoothly from the laser tunnel Rhine to a dark open space for the gods' mountaintop, then to a web of neon-lit scaffolding for the caves of Nibelheim. The huge Bayreuth stage is never cluttered, and the staging never detracts from the telling of the story through words and music. Nevertheless, there are clever, witty touches throughout, my favourite being that the gods arrive on stage in holiday clothes and carrying suitcases - obviously ready to come 'home' to Valhalla for the first time. The singing and acting are superb. There is a great physicality to the acting - constant movement, some of it almost acrobatic, always provides something to watch and ensures that there is never a dull moment. Wotan is the star of the show. John Tomlinson's voice is strong, resonant and rock-solid at every moment of every scene. Tomlinson himself is a powerful, authoritative figure, with seemingly limitless energy and agility. His only rival for sheer presence is Graham Clark as Loge. Clark's appearance - in an all-black costume and with a bleach-blond quiff - makes him part dandy, part punk-rocker, and he plays up to the part with lightning-quick movements and a clear, sharp-toned voice. Daniel Barenboim conducts the Bayreuth orchestra with a clear sense of dynamics, phrasing, and of the architecture of the piece as a whole. The tone of the orchestra is warm and lyrical, and the unique 'Bayreuth sound' comes across throughout the recording. I cannot recommend this recording highly enough: watching it was like seeing and hearing the 'Ring' for the first time again, and during the final credits I found myself reaching for my copy of 'Die Walkure'....
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