Richard Wagner - Das Rheingold - Terfel, Plowright, Langridge - Pappano 2005BBC
Cast:
Wotan - Bryn Terfel, Fricka - Rosalind Plowright, Alberich - Günter von Kannen, Loge - Philip Langridge, Fafner - Phillip Ens, Erda - Jane Henschel, Freia - Emily Magee, Fasolt - Franz-Josef Selig, Froh - Will Hartmann, Donner - James Rutherford, Mime - Gerhard Siegel, Woglinde - Sarah Fox, Wellgunde - Heather Shipp, Flosshilde - Liora Grodnikaite
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Antonio Pappano
This production looks the best I have ever seen and sounds the best that I have ever heard. The use of modern camera techniques means that the action is shown very much in close-up, even though it is a live broadcast. This means that it tells the story more clearly than the 1992 film. I suspect that we see even more than the punters sitting in the gallery of the ROH. The frog and the Ring itself must have been very indistinct to them. The BBC make the mistake of using Michael Portillo to introduce the film and to make inane comments about the performances at the end. At least he does not talk during the performance but, with three more parts to go, I am sure they are working on that. One thing he does say, which is not apparent from watching the film, is that Erda, the Earth Goddess, is on stage throughout the opera, observing everything. During the closing bars, Fricka, Wotan's wife and the goddess of marital fidelity, tries to coax Wotan to join her in Valhalla. At the last moment he changes his mind and returns to bestride Erda: a portent of events in Die Walküre. -IMDB
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