Recording Recommendation: The Shoe-String Ring

Valhalla on just $1.50 a day.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The original cover of Die Walküre. Clearly not marketing the music.
All Photos by Christopher Whorf © 1968, the artist.

Hans Swarowsky's recording of the complete Ring Cycle was made in 1968 in Nuremberg. The sessions were a by-product of the Soviet invasion of Prague, which forced most of the Czech Philharmonic to flee to southern Germany. Under Mr. Swarowsky, the so-called "South German Philharmonic" dashed off these recordings quickly, releasing the entire cycle on the budget Westminster Gold label as a bargain-basement alternative to the Decca Ring with Georg Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic.

Opera Review: The Ghost in the Machine

With a clank and a clatter, the Met revives Das Rheingold.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

"Whaddya mean it's busted?" Wotan (Mark Delavan, standing) assaults
Alberich (Eric Owens) in Scene Four of Das Rheingold.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Robert Lepage production of Wagner's Ring has returned to the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. Yes, the "Machine" is back, that multi-million dollar unit set with 24 rotating planks that serve as acting area and projection surface for Mr. Lepage's digital scenery. And for the first half of Das Rheingold on Saturday afternoon, things were going pretty well. Mr. Lepage's high-tech story-book approach proved surprisingly engrossing, carried along by the brisk conducting of Fabio Luisi.

Then the Machine malfunctioned.

Recording Recommendations: Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen

"What's the best recording of the Ring cycle?"
by Paul Pelkonen

Birgit Nilsson as Brünnhilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Photo by Siegfried Lauterwasser © 1970 Bayreuth Festspiele

Richard Wagner's four-opera cycle (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung) re-tells the story of the Norse gods and heroes. The four operas (Walküre remains the most popular) have entertained listeners since 1876. Starting in 1927 at Bayreuth, the Ring has provided a challenge for recording engineers. The first attempt at a "complete" cycle was made on 78s. The result: a "potted" version of the cycle that left out some of the music and switched singers and conductors from opera to opera.