Monday, May 03, 2010

LePage Ring

The trailer for the Met's upcoming Ring cycle, designed by Robert LePage, is no longer on YouTube, so see it on the Met web site instead.



Um, wow. And get that brief, brief glimpse of a page full of photos of past singers in Ring costumes.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

holy moly

i wish i could go there

Lisa Hirsch said...

My reactions exactly. I may try to go!

LinGin said...

I'm hoping that the Met will still count me as a Ring subscriber, given that they didn't honor the seats I had for the FOUR previous times I had seen the Schenk production. This looks insanely fabulous.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Fingers crossed for you!

LinGin said...

Thanks! LePage's production looks like it could be a huge hit for the Met. We know the Wagnerians/Wagnerites will be there but I think the theatricality will attract younger people.

It will be interesting to hear the reactions of the old guard. My impression is that the actual interpretation won't be much of a change from the traditional Schenk "Ring." I don't think this is going to be the game-changer that Patrice Chereau's Bayreuth production was.

Henry Holland said...

"Conducted by James Levine". Hmmmmm......

Some of that looks really interesting, it's too bad that I find large stretches of The Ring really boring these days. Hopefully, it won't cause the Met the financial problems that the Los Angeles Ring has/will.

Lisa Hirsch said...

LOL, Henry, but if Jimmy shows up for anything, it'll be the Ring.

Trying to remember if it's being rolled out over a couple of seasons - probably!

Linda, yeah, I agree - big hit.

LinGin said...

"Rheingold" and "Walkure" next season and according to Brad Wilbur, SIEGFRIED, GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG [new productions] with Deborah Voigt/Katarina Dalayman, Stephanie Blythe, Ben Heppner/Stephen Gould, Gerhard Siegel, Bryn Terfel/Falk Struckmann, Eric Owens, Michael Volle* (Gunther), c. James Levine, dir Robert Lepage. Siegfried in the fall of 2011 and Götterdämmerung in January 2012. Complete cycles are scheduled for the springs of 2012 and 2013, the 200th anniversary of Wagner's birth.

Henry - I've already received several mailings inviting me to be a "Friend of the Ring." I think funding is generally in place for the Ring (not just the productions themselves but the performance costs.) As I speculated above, I don't think this is going to be a regie-interpretation; only the staging will be more modern than what the Met audience is accustomed. I admire Placido for going so radical in the LA Ring but I don't know how he managed to get it funded.

Henry Holland said...

I don't know how he managed to get it funded

$14 million in taxpayers money from the County? :-)

Elaine Fine said...

Gosh!

doug said...

I'm thrilled that the Met picked Lepage and I'm super excited that it is broadcasting Rheingold and Walkure on the HD Live series next year. Lepage's Damnation of Faust was beautifully filmed for the HD series a few seasons back. Thanks for the preview Lisa!

Lisa Hirsch said...

Oh, man, I have to get HD broadcast tickets for those, for sure.