Wagner - Die Walküre, Act One, scene 2: Hunding (Salminen)

[Trudetenor]

eine Stimme wie eine Tuba!

[katharinehoad123]

Matti Salminen is superb seen him more than once....... and I adore Altmeyer.. and yes very believable......

[windstorm1000]

Hmmm , hagen looks like a businessman--Set is a victorian house: guess who had their avant garde fingers on this one. One guess the infamous: patrice chereau!!

[glenfagelfors]

Frankly, I belive Fritz Hübner is the better bass of this production, and I'm afraid that you've underestimated the power of his Fafner/Hagen.

[sismischen]

Diese Mimik! Einfach sensationell!!!

[Sieglinde84]

I adore this production. Wonderfully directed and very well cast (apart from Hagen... why couldn't they make Matti sing it too?)

What I like in Matti's Hunding is that he's not just a brute, he has dignity and a commanding presence (plus the beautiful voice).

[VolkgartenBySquirrel]

Hundig was as much manipulated and interfered with as Siegmund, and Sieglinde was little more than a hostage kept safe in case "Wolf" showed up again. He comes home from a roundup of vassals to find his wife and charity guest stitchin' the beast. Puts two and two together and figures that if Wolf pawns have got him cornered someone is going to get chewed. Puts on the most offended face and goes to his hororable bear baiting. Crunch. See how Wagner puts all of his kings in the dog house?

[Maddy4Me]

Fan-feckin'-tastic production! Possibly the best Die Walküre ever, great singing from all. I adore it. And anyone that spoils these vids with pro-Hitler or anti-Semitic comments can piss the hell off. Hitler liked Wagner? He also liked long walks and not doing paperwork (sounds like most people to me), but no one hurries to point that out. Keep Hitler and Wagner irreversibly separate, don't soil this great work!

[Agorante]

When I heard Peter Hoffmann sing this role live his twin sister was played by Jesse Norman - not too believeable. This is just about the best possible casting for video. Altmeyer could indeed be his sister.

I rented this performance from NetFlix a year or so ago on DVD. They should reissue it if possible on Blu-ray with Dolby 5.1 sound. This is an immortal performance.

[wolfgangtheophilus]

@Agorante, all is possible on Blu-ray, I saw a documental of Callas on Blu-ray

[Operaddict]

Brutal ugly singing

[AnonymousWhitePerson]

Judaism is the highest stage of Capitalism.

[AnonymousWhitePerson]

I have the same birthday as Hitler.

[Maggielicious21]

@AnonymousWhitePerson my condolence

[Maddy4Me]

@AnonymousWhitePerson So do I, congratulations. Not terribly proud to be honest. He's not one of my idols, frankly...

[srr10]

One of the great voices of our time, and of all operatic history. He fully lived up to the promise he showed in 1980, and still sings at the same level....

[tzeleustremlennost]

Музыка - невероятной красоты!

Music is incredibly beautiful!

Intonations of personages (in I act) - most human, expressive and fine. The true sense of this opera is mysterious thing, I think.

[CinnAlla]

Is this the scene where he notices the family resemblance between Wehwalt (Siegmund) and Sieglinde?

[cleofide]

@CinnAlla Yes indeed. Salminen is the best and most convincing Hunding ever...

[havetohavemusic]

Fantastic. I thought Kurt Möll was the best ever Hunding, now I'm not so sure.

But who are all these other people milling about the stage?

[mariuscipolla]

@havetohavemusic, It's a weird mise-en-scene. They are meant to be Hunding's retainers, one imagines. Perhaps someone felt the stage was so huge, dominated by the very large ash-tree, that they needed some bodies to fill up the space. They are mostly shorter than the physically rather unimpressive Siegmund, too, which save him from looking dwarfish next to Hunding, even though the seat of his britches hangs rather low :-)

[torhjelm]

Salminen rocks. I like it how he totally dominates the situation and acts like he owns the whole Europe simply by looking like a big bear. He´s born for king and leader roles. :)

[Waldvogel91]

Fort aus dem Saal!

Säume hier nicht!

Den Nachttrunk rüste mir drin

und harre mein' zur Ruh'.

[Waldvogel91]

He makes an amazing Hagen too!

[nclysander]

Great singing; questionable staging.

[dremis1]

Die, Walkure Texas Ranger!

[perskram]

Matti Salminen is one of the best Hundings!

[skinboy8]

Salminen is brilliant in EVERY role he sings!

[Hilarion]

Oh and the visceral drool at 0'47".

[raythetse]

at 1:50 when he grabs the girl, she must feel like a bomb is going off in her face

[plathant]

haha that cracks me up

[Comatose7890]

more please