Wagner's Ring - Siegfried kills Fafner (Matti Salminen)

[laertesdd]

2:53

"Hast du Leberwurst?"

"Brot oder Leberwurst - was weiß ich...?!"

[windstorm1000]

Wonderful production--had the courage to be 'traditional'-- in a garbage can set age. Nice for the audiences.

[FromUSAwithLove]

This is Shelob from "Lord of the Rings"!

[Jonahman10]

Horn=Win!

[kamion53]

for the time Wagner takes to build up one emotion before coming to the next, the actual fight with the dragon is short and quick,.

btw this is a creepy dragon, more a giant spider... good!

[aragorn1780]

@kamion53 from what I heard, Wagner's depiction of the dragon was more literary in nature, the despicable appearance supposed to represent the evil culminated in Fafnir. It was basically depicting Fafnir as a vile and disgusting creature, truly terrifying without being magnificent as dragons have been depicted as of late

[NeverAloneForever]

I've been told that this is the origin of John Williams Star Wars theme but I'm not sure. If it is, I do hear some subtleties.

[Andunain]

Pésima actuación del Sigfried... La música es excelente...

[thisisboland]

@ClassicFrenchHorn Wow Classic French Horn! How lucky we are to have such a virtuoso leave comments on YouTube!! Please!! When you get the chance, oh great one, please post your video of you playing the Siegfried Call at the Metropolitan Opera!!! I'd love to hear it!!

[ClassicFrenchHorn]

@thisisboland @picardkid I adore this horn call. However, I am not saying I could play it any better than the principle horn at the Met. I do not think you understand my previous comment. I am very aware that the E is articulated, and one can take a quick sip of air inbetween the 'E's if necessary. I was referring to the actor on stage 'pretending' to 'run out of air'. I admire this performance greatly and it is the best recording found on the internet of Siegfried's Horn Call.

[thisisboland]

@ClassicFrenchHorn Sorry for my sarcasm... I misunderstood what you meant by "poor" horn player! All is well!

[deusirae76]

Fafner is supposed to be a dragon, not a Lovecraft-like swamp creature.

[ClassicFrenchHorn]

Great horn call! And good acting to boot! Siegfried can easily convince the audience that he's playing. The best part is around 1:21 or so when he's running out of air. That reflects the poor horn player backstage. The horn call is my favorite part of the opera, but maybe becuase I'm a horn player, I'm a bit biased...

[picardkid]

@ClassicFrenchHorn That's not stumbling to breathe, there's actually a repeated note there.

[thisisboland]

@ClassicFrenchHorn Wow Classic French Horn! How lucky we are to have such a virtuoso leave comments on YouTube!! Please!! When you get the chance, oh great one, please post your video of you playing the Siegfried Call at the Metropolitan Opera!!! I'd love to hear it!!

[Ringreader]

Kurt Moll sings Fafnir better on the CD. BTW, that's the correct spelling of the Giant's name with an i.

[Ringreader]

Kurt Moll sings Fanir better on the CD. BTW, that's the correct spelling of the Giant's name with an i.

[singingisall]

Jerusalem looks like SIegfried.....he is Siegfried xD

[saladshootavvv]

Hey he's pretty good at that little hand horn. It sounds just like the french horn! I didn't know opera singers had to play instruments as well.

[ThePenguin1995]

@saladshootavvv

Actually it is an offstage horn player who plays this part.

The singer just pretends.

Btw, that horn could never play in all that range of notes.

[saladshootavvv]

@ThePenguin1995 lol i know, it was sarcasm. I'm a horn player

[zblumz]

Which orchestra was this, and who was the horn player?

[Jtking3000]

rat' es nach meinem Namen: -

Siegfried bin ich genannt.

[Gargantupimp]

That pile of butt cheese is an amazing singer.

[grumpyjellybean]

My parents gave my little brother the middle name Siegfried. My Dad says that Siegfried is a good model for masculinity and bravery. It's so true!

[Gargantupimp]

@grumpyjellybean Your dads a fuckin nazi

[Ringreader]

This is how the current L.A. production ought to look, not that sleazy puppet show by Achim Freyer! Ugh! His stuff makes me want to vomit.

[thelonius53]

It isn't necessarily our concept of what a dragon should look like...the point is, it's the Beast, and it was destroyed..stage productions cannot mimic "special effects" of a movie..therefore, this looks pretty good. MetOp in 2009 used a similar Fafner...the effect was capitulating..excellent, and then, move on to the next scene...

[Bastikalk]

@thelonius53: This is from the Met...

[Bastikalk]

Otto Schenk's "Ring" is the worst stage production that has ever been in the world...

[Jaydoggy531]

@Bastikalk

Quite a strong statement. I'm curious as to what makes you say that? It's incredibly elaborate and detailed. He was a great director and wanted to use the technology and budget available to bring this fantastic world to life.

[Bastikalk]

@Jaydoggy531

I don't like Schenk's "Ring". The "Ring" is a drama and tragedy, Schenk's version makes me laugh. It's impressing, but it hasn't to do much with the feelings of the persons.

[Jaydoggy531]

@Bastikalk

Well parts of the ring are actually comical, and it's even suggested in the music itself. Some of the libretto is even witty at moments. At the same time, Schenk's Ring is also incredibly dramatic and tragic when it needs to be. It appears Schenk knew what parts of the libretto were lighter than the others. It's almost Greek at moments, and even Greek tragedy can have moments to stir laughter.

[deusirae76]

@Bastikalk I found worse : Patrice Chéreau's Ring.

[sirfascio]

Aw man, you people and your hentai tentacle rape.

[ironmanboy]

Wagner is sooooo borrrring.... yawn... zzzzzzzz

[Jaydoggy531]

It doesn't look like a dragon because we have to keep in mind that there are still limitations in technology, so we instead have a shadowy blurry mass - which in itself is pretty freakish looking. I think if they tried to make a big dragon, it'd look too fake. So I think it works fine.

Back to the music though, the horn was amazing. Salminen is such a good bass!

[declique]

Seriously now, Wagner's works really suck, lol.

[isabelle070209]

ahhhhhhhhhhh que cela fait du bien une bonne mise en scène. qui sert l'oeuvre.

[magikopa]

This doesn't look like a dragon at all!

Nothing to do with the amazing performance of the singers.

[acaciaxtract]

SEXY HORN SOLO IS SEXY

[GrauenausderTiefe]

@acaciaxtract good comment.! hehe. siegfried is supposed to be sexy.

[WhiteProfondo]

THIS is a dragon??? looks a big slime with arms^^

[oresteus]

the last comment is for fanakaulitz

[Sieglinde84]

I like it better when Fafner changes back into his giant form after being stabbed. It makes the whole scene more human... and it was so in every other staging i saw.

But what's this thing? Look more like a spider crossed with the Kraken... Matti sings like a god though. :D

[fanakaulitz]

whose leit motif is it at 1:07 ??

[skaisaliveandwell]

That's Siegfried's motif, my own personal favourite. Listen to the funeral march for it's most powerful use.

[fanakaulitz]

oh okay thanks, I didn't Siegfried had more than one leit motiv ^^' Of course I'm aware of the divine Trauermarsch !! My favorite motif is Erda's...Siegfried's is not far though !! =)

[skaisaliveandwell]

Yeah, Erda's is brooding and ominous, like much of Rheingold. I just love the epic and ethereal qualities of the Siegfried Motif though.

[GiovanniEMB]

C'est le motif des "Wälsung", les fils de Wotan et de la louve, Siegmund et Sieglinde ainsi que leur descendance en Siegfried, conçus par Wotan pour qu'ils se révoltent à ses propres lois. Le motif parâit tout au long de la Walkirie, en particulier dans la phrase de la fin, signifiant ainsi que Wotan s'engage à laisser Brunhilde au seul Siegfried, pouvant à lui seul défier sa lance et le cercle de feu.

[oresteus]

This leitmotiv first appears at Die Walkure, and I believe it is sung there by Brunhilde narrating to Sieglinde the her future; it's supposed to signify first Siegmund, then his son, Siegfried.

[mariusfelix]

@fanakaulitz Guess whose! "Den hehrsten Helden der Welt hegst du, oh Weib, im schirmenden Schoß!" Hm, who could THAT be?

[etiterum]

I appeal to the league for the protection of endangered species.

[Jitter]

That's a good Siegfried, though!

[Jitter]

Dude, I think I'd actually be scared of that Fafner if I went to that show, if only because it's so...bizarre. And kind of gross, haha.

[tusculum30]

What is Fafner supposed to be in this? I liked this video but they could have done better with fafner.

[RVP57]

I love it, a dragon who sings bass and philosophises!

[pboast]

I agree with utubephobe , i feel they could have made the dragon better , i was witness to a post rehearsal of a production which came to Norwich UK by the Norweigan state opera and they had a great dragon where one of his clawed hands extended on hydraulics high out above the orchestra pit , wonderful stuff.

Feel this production touches all the right notes being a traditional one with great atmosphere.

[Jaydoggy531]

This production was the late 80s, so even though they had this incredible budget and design - technology was still limited.

[iorixs]

yeah, where are the subtitles

[doctorw2]

whenever i see this opera i forget to breath until its over its so awesome too bad wagner was a fascist such beautiful music should never come from a heart tainted with hatred.

[SonarcticAngel]

ah come on thats complete nonesense.

if you would really appreciate the music you would ignore the fact that politicians of a later age abused his music for their purpose - who cares if he was, indeed antisemitic? i certainly do not and thats why i love the music without a bad conscience.

easy as that

[doctorw2]

i do enjoy his music very much but, i dont understand how someone who writes such beautiful music could have a heart full of hate beauty and evil do not make good bookends.

[martinthemillwright]

Why do you write about the beauty of the music then? You hide your hate within love?

You should only write about what interests you. It clearly is not the art before us. You seem to choose to abuse the memory of the great artist.

Is it because you are nothing?

[doctorw2]

i hide nothing i was just making a point in fact. i love the music but such beauty shouldnt emerge from someone with an evil heart. i am not abusing the memory of no one and only a nobody like yourself included would assume so.

[billjhyt]

I too share your sentiment. I guess it is because humans are both noble and cruel. We must choose to invest in noble acts and thoughts more than cruel ones, so that the balance favors the noble at the end.

[doctorw2]

wow great comment! i wonder how you could see my comment when its been scratched with so many thumbs down. i didnt expect people to dislike my simple comment that much.

[zezinhozeppelin]

where are the subtitles

heheh

[utubephobe]

This would be better if the set were darker and the dragon looked more like a wiggling brush pile. Five stars.

[odinnshred]

I love Wagner, particularly this opera, but Fafner is absolutely hilarious to the eyes. He's a fine bass, but he looks like something out of the children's program 'Trap Door'.

Siegfried Jerusalem is on top form, as is Matti Salminen, it's just that the prop man should be sacked. Mind you, the rest of the set is perfectly fine, and creating a dragon onstage can't really be the easiest thing to do.

[Quy]

I am German and i dont understand much of what he is singing... its not a very clear language, but thats the way it is with operas.. you have to know at least a bit of the text before u watch one... xD

[wotan20]

The way I know Quy, the libretto was deliberately written in archaic German to project a certain dignity and autenticity, because the story supposedly is in prehistoric times.

Despair not though! English speakers feel the same way about Shakespeare. ☺

[Novaheart1998]

It's good, but I don't understand a word of it, I don't know German.

[songsof4ever]

Does anyone know where I can find the French Horn sheet music for this?

[patadeurso]

i must say i prefer Stefan Vinke as Siegfried way more convincing in the fearless aspect.

[nclysander]

Who on earth is Stefan Vinke?

[patadeurso]

He did the Siegfried role in the opera that was shown in Portugal last year, in São Carlos Theatre in Lisbon.

[prchristman]

That "dragon" looks like something that crawled out from an old radiator in my apartment last week. I went to my first "Siegfried" in January 1962 at the old Met in New York. I remember feeling cheated out of a real dragon then. But I was only 10.

The dragon shows foresight as he warns Siegfried, "The one who prompted you to blindly kill me now plots your death as well." But Siegfried needs to taste the dragon's blood to fully understand Mime's intent.

[Chrshonore]

I felt the same when I first saw this; it's nothing like a dragon. More like a cross between an octopus covered in kelp and a very ugly eel

[prchristman]

Cross between an octopus and an ugly eel? Yes! (I think I ate something like that at a Long Island restaurant recently.)

Looking at this again, I was thinking it had the face of that talking tree in "Wizard of Oz" (on the way to the Emerald City, who nastily said, "How would you like it if someone came along and stole YOUR apples?") and the body of a fiddler crab.

I'm going to have dreams tonight. I'd better leave the light on.

[joshrosen66]

Who is the french horn player, the french horn player is quite good.

[qw1234erty]

Below the thunders of the upper deep.....

[wilhiamas]

Great design for Fafner! Conventional dragons are too pretty. This truly represents the filth, horror, and greed of the corrupted giant who turned himself into a dragon. Delightfully repulsive!

[bassmajor]

@wilhiamas

Very true. The last one I saw was some strange looking guy with a Flak cannon... I mean come on :D

[mrnack]

i want one for a pet!

[Sieglinde84]

Poor Fafner looks like Shelob married with the Kraken, but Matti sound awesome.

[JanekJG]

thats a really cool stage design

[100yearoldWhiskey]

TheGreatPerformers, can you post a sequence in Siegfried Act Two, in which Alberich and Mime have a silly argument about who should claim Fafner's treasure? I would very much appreciate it.

[skinboy8]

Philistine.

[lovelymess]

I am very afraid of spiders, and when this came out that's what it reminded me of.

Scared the hell out of me.

Matti's voice however was awesome!

[codonauta]

O que é isso? Um chupa-cabra?

[osc200]

RESPEITE WAGNER!!!

[IceMasterEasthamJazz]

Easily the weirdest looking dragon I've ever seen. I would actually be scared of this thing if I were at this performance probably, just because it looks so...disgusting.

[nibelungensohn]

LOL. It looks like a giant octopus.