Richard Wagner: Die Walküre 

(2007) 

- The idea behind this unusual Ring production comes from Spain's La Fura dels Baus, the ensemble that has wowed audiences in most European capitals with its spectacular performance.

Few new opera houses would dare tackle Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen their first season. But Valencia's Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia has already shown a tendency to rush in where others fear to tread — with astoundingly good results. So now it's taken on the grandest and most complex undertaking of the opera world. The new Ring is a co-production with the Maggio Musicale in Florence, which undoubtedly defrays some of the huge costs.

 

Zubin Mehta conducts the new Orchestra of the Comunitat Valenciana, a hand-picked group of musicians gathered from auditions held on both sides of the pond. On stage, Finland's legendary bass Matti Salminen straps himself into a towering robot-like construction and sings Fasolt. And no giant could hope for a better fate. In The Valkyrie (Die Walküre) he returns as a formidable Hunding.

Fellow Finn Juha Uusitalo is Wotan, a role debut that proves the powerful bass-baritone can do just about anything superbly well. Juha joins Anna Larsson (Fricka) and Cartherine Wyn-Rogers (Erda) as deī ex māchinīs — gods who tower over the stage in their custom-built cherry pickers. The hand-operated hydraulic boom lifts in which the singers perch and are raised and lowered, at times with alarming speed. It is an effective and ironic bit of staging but limits the actions of the singers.

 

The idea behind this unusual Ring production comes from Spain's La Fura dels Baus, the ensemble from Barcelona that has wowed audiences in most European capitals with its spectacular performances. La Fura director Carlus Padrissa sees the Ring in terms of Greek tragedy in which the gods descending onto the stage in machines is synonymous with a hopeless situation in which Richard Wagner's gods find themselves.

 

The Rhine Gold (Das Rheingold) opens with the Rhine Maidens (Silvia Vázquez, Ann-Katrin Naidu and Hannah Esther Minutillo) in tight-fitting glass tanks filled with water. They have just enough room to somersault underwater before surfacing to sing. Franz-Josef Kapellmann, forceful and pliable as always, is compelling as Alberich.

John Daszak, another role debut, is suitably conniving and treacherous as Loge. He zips around the stage on a motorized scooter, hidden under his tent-like costume, but remains focused and never looses his heroic tonal luster despite a light squeak when he hits the brakes and the frantic movements required of him.

 

The success of this Ring relies heavily on the multi-media scenic magic of La Fura dels Baus. Their style is immediately recognizable in the razzmatazz visual effects. Franc Aleu's high resolution videos, which replace bulky scenery throughout most of the Ring, reach moments of pure brilliance, reminiscent at times of the enigmatic art of Bill Viola.

The gold of this production is abstract. It is metal and man at the same time. Franc Aleu spins the gold ring into a fetus and golden child that La Fura multiplies into a mass of slithering 24-karat humanity.

Wotan has to pass through a flaming planet earth to reach Nibelungen, giving at times the impression this is Wagner via Star Wars. In The Valkyrie (Die Walküre) Siegmund, valiantly sung by Peter Seiffert, is foreshadowed by a wolf raging through the forest. The imagery is violent and vibrant, a fitting accompaniment to Wagner's soaring music.

 

Source: Opera News

 

 

Richard Wagner: Die Walküre, sacral, choreography, opera, Live Visuals

Reading

Notation. Calculation and Form in the Arts (2008) is a comprehensive catalogue (in German) edited by Dieter Appelt, Hubertus von Amelunxen and Peter Weibel which accompanied an exhibition of the same name at the Academy of the Arts, Berlin and the ZKM | Karlsruhe. (ZKM)

Expanded Cinema (1970) - In a brilliant and far-ranging study, Gene Youngblood traces the evolution of cinematic language to the end of fiction, drama, and realism. New technological extensions of the medium have become necessary. Thus he concentrates on the advanced image-making technologies of computer films, television experiments, laser movies, and multiple-projection environments. Outstanding works in each field are analyzed in detail. Methods of production are meticulously described, including interviews with artists and technologists. (John Coulthart)

 

SEE ALSO

Synchronous Objects (2009) is an interactive exploration of choreographer William Forsythe's One Flat Thing, reproduced. It is the result of a collaboration between The Forsythe Company, based in Germany, and researchers at The Ohio State University from design, dance, computer science, geography, statistics and architecture who work together at OSU's Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD). (Synchronous Objects)

psychic communication 2 (2009) by Turkish drummer, producer and visual artist Volkan Ergen. He calls psychic communication 2 a "fantasia". (Volkan Ergen)

© Center for Visual Music

 

Composition in Blue (1935) - original title: Komposition in Blau. Surfaces dominate in the abstract animated film Composition in Blue by Oskar Fischinger. Colorful geometric figures are set in rhythmic motion. The music from Otto Nicolai's The Merry Women of Windsor is impressively visualized through a blending of form and color. (William Moritz: "Oskar Fischinger", in: Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main, Optische Poesie. Oskar Fischinger Leben und Werk, Kinematograph Nr. 9, 1993, p. 42)

playZero (2010) by Victor Morales was originally part of an opera called Playzero made at Festspielhaus St. Pölten in June 2010. Music by Wolfgang Mitterer.

Michel Gondry (*1963) is a French film, commercial and music video director and an Academy Award-winning screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène. Michel Gondry's career as a filmmaker began with creating music videos for the French rock band Oui Oui, in which he also served as a drummer. The style of his videos for Oui Oui caught the attention of music artist Björk, who asked him to direct the video for her song Human Behaviour. The collaboration proved long-lasting, with Michel Gondry directing a total of seven music videos for Björk. Other artists who have collaborated with Michel Gondry on more than one occasion include Daft Punk, The White Stripes, The Chemical Brothers, The Vines, Steriogram, Radiohead, and Beck. Gondry has also created numerous television commercials. (Wikipedia)