This is a long way from the worst Walkure on DVD, it is much better than the Stuttgart and Weimar performances. But for the best Walkure, the Chereau-directed Bayreuth performance is your best bet. As for this, I was mixed. When it comes to the visual side of things, the sets are reasonable, and while occasionally too dark the lighting suits the tone of the story well. But I didn't like the costumes, Siegmund looks like someone who stepped out from the Stone Age by mistake, Hunding is a mix of someone from a Kurosawa film and a Russian commissar and his henchmen(yes you saw right) have helmets in a shape of a dog's head and act like mannequins that are as non-threatening as you can possibly go.
With the staging, there are some bright spots. Siegmund's murder is genuinely shocking and the monumental Farewell scene is heart-wrenching. But much of it is stand and deliver quality that is not directed enough to each other on stage and when done so it feels awkward. Ride of the Valkyries is a cluttered mess, a common problem actually. And why have Hunding have henchmen when they hardly do anything? Or have a telegraph pole as a prominent feature on stage but little is done with it and it is more an obstacle for the singers? Musically, it does fare much better. The orchestral playing is powerful, rousing and ravishing in equal measures, and the Walkures do have fine voices each and every one of them that blend nicely together. Christian Thielmann's conducting is musical enough with some elegant phrasing, but at times a little too clinical and the tempos sound as if he had a train to catch.
As for the performances, they are solid but not great. I will also say that they were better vocally than they were dramatically. Albert Dohmen has all the notes and the right range, and I really like the tone to his voice. But part of me felt that it was too small for Wotan. On the acting front, there are some nice moments like with the Farewell scene and the Act 2 monologue but too much of it is stolid and unmotivated. Linda Watson has all the abandon for Brunnhilde and sings with heft and intelligence, having no difficulty being heard over the large orchestration. Her downside was that I could never believe here that Brunnhilde was Wotan's daughter, it was too much older-sister quality for me. Johan Botha offers the production's best singing with a thrilling ring to his voice, but it doesn't match his completely uninvolving stage manner. Edith Haller is a vocally radiant Sieglinde, and interacts well with Botha, but like Botha she is lacking as an actress, though more of a try-too-harder rather than somebody who's not trying. Kwangchul Youn is appropriately threatening as Hunding, he and Watson are the best actors on stage and sings with a resonant if slightly stentorian bass voice. The Fricka of Mihoko Fujimura is the weak link of the cast, her basic sound is far too breathy, her diction unintelligible(in all fairness Thielmann's rushed conducting didn't help matters) and everything just felt too frantic.
Overall, a mixed bag with some good assets as well as too many bad ones. 5/10 Bethany Cox
With the staging, there are some bright spots. Siegmund's murder is genuinely shocking and the monumental Farewell scene is heart-wrenching. But much of it is stand and deliver quality that is not directed enough to each other on stage and when done so it feels awkward. Ride of the Valkyries is a cluttered mess, a common problem actually. And why have Hunding have henchmen when they hardly do anything? Or have a telegraph pole as a prominent feature on stage but little is done with it and it is more an obstacle for the singers? Musically, it does fare much better. The orchestral playing is powerful, rousing and ravishing in equal measures, and the Walkures do have fine voices each and every one of them that blend nicely together. Christian Thielmann's conducting is musical enough with some elegant phrasing, but at times a little too clinical and the tempos sound as if he had a train to catch.
As for the performances, they are solid but not great. I will also say that they were better vocally than they were dramatically. Albert Dohmen has all the notes and the right range, and I really like the tone to his voice. But part of me felt that it was too small for Wotan. On the acting front, there are some nice moments like with the Farewell scene and the Act 2 monologue but too much of it is stolid and unmotivated. Linda Watson has all the abandon for Brunnhilde and sings with heft and intelligence, having no difficulty being heard over the large orchestration. Her downside was that I could never believe here that Brunnhilde was Wotan's daughter, it was too much older-sister quality for me. Johan Botha offers the production's best singing with a thrilling ring to his voice, but it doesn't match his completely uninvolving stage manner. Edith Haller is a vocally radiant Sieglinde, and interacts well with Botha, but like Botha she is lacking as an actress, though more of a try-too-harder rather than somebody who's not trying. Kwangchul Youn is appropriately threatening as Hunding, he and Watson are the best actors on stage and sings with a resonant if slightly stentorian bass voice. The Fricka of Mihoko Fujimura is the weak link of the cast, her basic sound is far too breathy, her diction unintelligible(in all fairness Thielmann's rushed conducting didn't help matters) and everything just felt too frantic.
Overall, a mixed bag with some good assets as well as too many bad ones. 5/10 Bethany Cox
