CAST:
Peter Seiffert
(Siegmund)
Matti Salminen (Hunding)
Juha Uusitalo (Wotan)
Petra Maria Schnitzer (Sieglinde)
Jennifer Wilson (Brünnhilde)
Anna Larsson (Fricka)
Bernadette Flaitz (Gerhilde)
Helen Huse Ralston (Ortlinde)
Pilar Vázquez (Waltraute)
Christa Mayer (Schwertleite)
Eugenia Bethencourt (Helmwige)
Heike Grötzinger
(Siegrune)
Manuela Bress (Grimgerde)
Hannah Esther Minutillo
(Rossweisse)
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Conductor:
Zubin Mehta
Director:
Carlos Padrissa
and
La
Fura dels Baus
Sets:
Roland Olbeter
Running time:
3 hrs. 55 min.
with two intermissions
Sung in German with English
subtitles
Photos:
© Tato Baeza
 |
In the words of
the prestigious German weekly "Die
Zeit," the stage production of
Wagner's "Rheingold" and "Walküre"
by La Fura dels Baus "quite possibly
shows us the path that musical
theater will be taking in the
future." There's no doubt about it:
the city of Valencia is setting new
accents in 21st-century opera not
only with its spectacular new
theater designed by Santiago
Calatrava, but also with its
visually transfixing production of
Wagner's "Ring" staged by Carlos
Padrissa and his theater group La
Fura dels Baus. The Barcelona-based
Fura blends music, dance, acrobatics
and technology into unforgettable
stage events of sometimes raw but
always captivating power. The Fura
made its breakthrough in the
classical establishment with its
production of Berlioz's "La
damnation de Faust" at the 1999
Salzburg Festival.
The Fura's fertile
visual fantasy and endless
combinations of savvy video
technology, lighting and props
(often formed of human beings) are
predestined for Wagner's visionary
expressive world. Wagner's dream of
a Gesamtkunstwerk becomes reality as
this shape-shifting sequence of
tableaux unfolds before our eyes: 3D
computer projections that evoke
computer games, organic structures
built of athletic performers that
recall the "Cirque du Soleil," and
much more. In this production, "the
visual codes of the digital era
become elemental and dazzlingly
employed means of narration" (Opernwelt).
Musically, the first
two parts of Wagner's tetralogy –
"Das Rheingold" and "Die Walküre" –
are on a par with productions from
historically more prestigious opera
houses. Legendary conductor Zubin
Mehta leads world-class Wagner
singers such as Peter Seiffert,
Petra-Maria Schnitzer and Matti
Salminen, and promising young
talents that include Jennifer Wilson
(Brünnhilde), John Daszak (Loge) and
Juha Uusitalo (Wotan), whom the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
hailed as a new "Number one among
the opera gods." Equally outstanding
is the Orquestra de la Comunitat
Valenciana, an ensemble of top
musicians hand-picked by Music
Director Lorin Maazel.
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