Wagner's Die Walkure opens tonight, Thursday, June 10 at San Francisco Opera and runs through June 30. Francesca Zambello directs. She directed Porgy & Bess last summer and since then has been appointed to Glimmerglass. Die Walkure slideshow below. Pictured above, the Valkyrie Brunnhilde spearheads the downfall of her father the god of Valhalla, Wotan. Nina Stemme and Mark Delavan. Photo: Terrence McCarthy.
It's part two of the apocalyptic epic about the perils of literally sacrifycing one's family in the pursuit of gold. SF Opera announces casting for 2011 Ring Cycle.
Meanwhile I have to ask, does putting a curse on the gold ring mean an answer to predatory lending . . . anybody with a subprime mortgage or school loan should hang on as the meek shall inherit the Earth?
Makes for a soul searching summer where another has also sold out, selling his soul for immortality as SF Opera presents Charles Francois Guonod's Faust with Secco, Racette, Relyea . . . or where it takes a cowgirl with a heart of gold to save the soul of the bad man, as Puccini's La Fanciulla del West opens with Wagnerian Deborah Voight.
The Wagner costume contest will be held before the Sunday matinee on June 13, the contest being at eleven. Click here for more information: Wagner Ring Cycle costume contest.
Tickets to Die Walkure cost $15 to $360 or $10 for standing room.
Meanwhile, Richard Burton portrayed Richard Wagner in a glorious BBC biography and here's a video clip: Wagner DVD. More commentary and quotes: Who is more Wagnerian than thou?
For more information: www.SFOpera.com.
SF Opera supers to fly in Die Walkure
SF Opera casts supers as slaves, cowgirls, Nibelungen
Die Walkure director Francesca Zambello appointed at Glimmerglass
Wagner's Die Walkure: SF presents international cast with Stemme, Delavan, Westbroek
Berkeley Opera announces major stars to perform abridged Ring Cycle (in one evening)
Berkeley Opera Gala 2010 a charming, irreverent family affair
Puccini's La Fanciulla del West opens with Wagnerian Deborah Voight
SF Opera presents Charles Francois Guonod's Faust with Secco, Racette, Relyea
Seattle Opera's Ring Cycle:
Greer Grimsley--Seattle Opera's Wotan--appears on cover of Opera News June 2010
Seattle Opera's Ring Cycle: Women warriors need heroes and protection from cowards
For more articles by this writer, check out the San Francisco Theater blog.
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Comments
Zambello's stage direction and sets were ridiculous throughout. She seems to want the audience to pay more attention to her inanities rather than to the Ring itself.
In Porgy and Bess, Zambello did not dress her characters in lederhosen to "Germanize" them, so what's the point (beyond grandstanding) of "Americanizing" Wagner's characters?
That said, the orchestra was great and Act I, Siegmund/Sieglinde, was the best I can remember. The only flaw was Hunding's "Americanized" acting, trying to turn him into Stanley Kowalksi.
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