After I saw this third opera of the
Furasic Ring, the publicity stunt by which this DVD-set has been promoted --"
The Ring of the 21st Century"-- crossed my tolerance threshold. Did they see
the Copenhagen Ring before formulating that PR-line?
La Fura dels Baus did manage to produce a mind-blowing
Rheingold. There the timing was perfect, an exquisite combination of their theatrical language with clever ideas that uncovered a different face of that opera. Add to that some superb singing and yes, you may say their Rheingold had set a very high standard and will remain a reference to whoever decides to mount The Ring in the future.
In
Die Walkure, instead, Carlos Padrissa started relying too much on video imagery. I'm not complaining about video if it supported the drama instead of diverting our attention from the lack of theatrical ideas. That second opera was nevertheless wonderfully sung and the verve of the libretto somehow makes you tolerate the excessive use of video.
Siegfried is less crowdy and less busy, and the lack of director's ideas becomes more apparent. Padrisa tries to compensate by throwing the video stuff at you but only to further tickle your annoyance and by the time we reached the hour four of the show, I was
this close to stop the DVD...
On the positive note, this opera is as wonderfully sung as the previous 2, and even if there are a few great moments on the stage, it's hard to forgive too much pointless video trash [
Fura is usually so much better than this Robert Lepage kind of videology].
