Great singing, spoiled, as usual, by egotistical and insane costume design. Is there a single opera on DVD these days which is not ruined by non-idiosyncratic, grungy Euro-trash design? Why are opera houses acting like the emperor in "The Emperor's New Clothes"? For me, Ms. Polaski is a revelation. I don't think I care for her in Berlioz, but she's dead-on for Wagner. Thanks for posting.
what the f--- is she wearing? This woman/goddess is SUPPOSED to be a WARRIOR--not a circus clown. German people, why are you making fun of your sacred role models???
@windstorm1000 Uhh... I haven't seen a full ring performance, but I've read the liberetto. After Wotan puts Brunhilde to sleep, isn't she SUPPOSED to abandon the whole warrior shin-dig due to NOT being Valkyrie any longer?
@SmartNoob89 Just cuz you stop being a goddess doesn't mean you stop being a goddess (visually or mentally)--know what I mean? This costume production is a total mistake.
I thought it Bayreuth. No magic. Terrible staging. Industrial sets. Costumes not authentic (salon Brunnhilde). Bayreuth cannot seem to shake the Chereau curse of 1976. Luckily the music can't be f--- with. But music is only half of an opera--viewers have to suffer visually through trash like this. Would it be too much to ask for Bayreuth to go back to its roots and put on even a semi-traditional production (ala Wieland W.)? No, they'll never do it--they're in the Chereau opium pit.
This is the stragest staging, and Brunhilde's costume seems a sketch of a Valkirie ruined in both her divinity and her nature as a woman. Yeah, she's ticked, and, unlike Siglinde, she's getting much more than even.
Polaski has no strength of her midrange of the soprano voice and here she needs it, Brunnhilde must dominate the full orchestra or the full universe as Varnay does with Knappertsbusch, sorry, otherwise is a well understood interpretation
i find you comment rather strange, who on this planet can dominate "the full orchestra" if Polaski can't ?? you may be missing something on this recording (i find it much better on headset than on speakers) i have heard her live, as Electra only, but i can assure you voices don't get more strength than hers has
I rectify my own definition, I find rather strange she can not have a full word on the level it should be her first or last two syllables are lost the "midlle of the words" she gives a different dynamic, it breath shortage or just bad breath technic, this direction and scenery made me upset, I claim the Varnay's fluency, this is by headset
ah , that's something entirely different ... singing in german ...(to me) even german singers sometime sound as if it's not their 1st language, or you don't get a word
...it's all matter of personal ideas and preferences... i like Varnay's power too (i think Polaski is the closest to her in a way) , but i also like Polaski's (simple and clear) delivery of the words (and notes) and particularly her 'effortless loudness' - i think, by the time, it will be legendary
Her costume is hideous. What can you make of the hips? And the breast plate looks as if it were designed to highlight a Brunnhilde who's suffered a radical mastectomy. But Deborah Palaski looks better than ever and her voice is heroic. Trash the designer but brava for the singer.
Remeber that old anecdote about Beverly Sills? When she didn't like her costume and kept asking the dresser to make a new one, until finally she just snatched the scissors from around the dressers neck and cut her gown in two? Well, I think La Sills would have taken a lawnmower to this hideous costume! Couldn't she jsut have refused to wear the ugly thing?
Nilsson was so great in this part, but Polaski gives a very good, well-sung performance here. Her voice is fresh and youthful in this 12 year old video. Excellent.
Big voices with a darker, anguished and intense edge is suited to Brunnhilde (dramatic soprano) but many lighter voices have a sharp laser quality that makes the singing equally exciting (Nilsson, Behrens, Moser) I thought she was very good..
haha oui c'est réaliste... Néanmoins elle m'a surpris, je la pensais totalement incapable de chanter cette partie là... Un manque de dynamisme dans la voix, mais un tres fort caractère qui correspond plutot bien au style Wagnérien...
Deborah Polaski is a force of nature. Her gleaming tones just slice through that huge orchestra. Brava!
Pywacket2 5 months ago
Great singing, spoiled, as usual, by egotistical and insane costume design. Is there a single opera on DVD these days which is not ruined by non-idiosyncratic, grungy Euro-trash design? Why are opera houses acting like the emperor in "The Emperor's New Clothes"? For me, Ms. Polaski is a revelation. I don't think I care for her in Berlioz, but she's dead-on for Wagner. Thanks for posting.
franceseattle 11 months ago
Comment removed
franceseattle 11 months ago
@franceseattle
agree; and in these situations we must close our eyes and listen
fastborzoi 10 months ago
Wow this singer... is amazing xD
The costume designer is... interesting! I think I'd like to know what his/her input on this before I start making fun of it, though...
stevtomato 1 year ago
what the f--- is she wearing? This woman/goddess is SUPPOSED to be a WARRIOR--not a circus clown. German people, why are you making fun of your sacred role models???
windstorm1000 1 year ago
@windstorm1000 Uhh... I haven't seen a full ring performance, but I've read the liberetto. After Wotan puts Brunhilde to sleep, isn't she SUPPOSED to abandon the whole warrior shin-dig due to NOT being Valkyrie any longer?
SmartNoob89 1 year ago
@SmartNoob89 Just cuz you stop being a goddess doesn't mean you stop being a goddess (visually or mentally)--know what I mean? This costume production is a total mistake.
windstorm1000 1 year ago
I thought it Bayreuth. No magic. Terrible staging. Industrial sets. Costumes not authentic (salon Brunnhilde). Bayreuth cannot seem to shake the Chereau curse of 1976. Luckily the music can't be f--- with. But music is only half of an opera--viewers have to suffer visually through trash like this. Would it be too much to ask for Bayreuth to go back to its roots and put on even a semi-traditional production (ala Wieland W.)? No, they'll never do it--they're in the Chereau opium pit.
windstorm1000 1 year ago
the voice and singing are amazing (and substantially underrated) but the costume designer needs to kill herself.
raigekimaru 1 year ago
chuck and I were in the audience for this production - gosh those seats are hard!
williejax2 1 year ago
This is the stragest staging, and Brunhilde's costume seems a sketch of a Valkirie ruined in both her divinity and her nature as a woman. Yeah, she's ticked, and, unlike Siglinde, she's getting much more than even.
VolkgartenBySquirrel 2 years ago
I'm sorry, my eyes are inexorably drawn to that shiny nipple.
MrEarwicker 2 years ago 6
cuál es el nombre de esta ópera?
what is the name of this opera?
peque1204 2 years ago
Götterdämmerung- El ocaso de los dioses
Onegin65 2 years ago
Polaski has no strength of her midrange of the soprano voice and here she needs it, Brunnhilde must dominate the full orchestra or the full universe as Varnay does with Knappertsbusch, sorry, otherwise is a well understood interpretation
egymagyar1111111 2 years ago
i find you comment rather strange, who on this planet can dominate "the full orchestra" if Polaski can't ?? you may be missing something on this recording (i find it much better on headset than on speakers) i have heard her live, as Electra only, but i can assure you voices don't get more strength than hers has
branko1b 2 years ago 2
I rectify my own definition, I find rather strange she can not have a full word on the level it should be her first or last two syllables are lost the "midlle of the words" she gives a different dynamic, it breath shortage or just bad breath technic, this direction and scenery made me upset, I claim the Varnay's fluency, this is by headset
egymagyar1111111 2 years ago
ah , that's something entirely different ... singing in german ...(to me) even german singers sometime sound as if it's not their 1st language, or you don't get a word
...it's all matter of personal ideas and preferences... i like Varnay's power too (i think Polaski is the closest to her in a way) , but i also like Polaski's (simple and clear) delivery of the words (and notes) and particularly her 'effortless loudness' - i think, by the time, it will be legendary
branko1b 2 years ago
@egymagyar1111111 I understand her very well
dertanzendefuchs 1 year ago
Her costume is hideous. What can you make of the hips? And the breast plate looks as if it were designed to highlight a Brunnhilde who's suffered a radical mastectomy. But Deborah Palaski looks better than ever and her voice is heroic. Trash the designer but brava for the singer.
Pywacket2 2 years ago 2
actuando se luce
58wotan 2 years ago
do anybody know who is the conductor and where was this filmed?
antoniohammersmith 2 years ago
I am not quite sure, but I think it was filmed at Bayreuth, Barenboim conducting. But as I said: I am not quite sure!!
Pavamingo 2 years ago
It's the Kirchner Ring from Bayreuth conducted by James Levine. Must have been recorded in 95 or thereabouts.
Design by Rosalie.
All remarkably effective compared to what has come since then.
Operataurus 2 years ago
Remeber that old anecdote about Beverly Sills? When she didn't like her costume and kept asking the dresser to make a new one, until finally she just snatched the scissors from around the dressers neck and cut her gown in two? Well, I think La Sills would have taken a lawnmower to this hideous costume! Couldn't she jsut have refused to wear the ugly thing?
tristanchord85 2 years ago
What a laughable costume!
SPTN58 2 years ago
Nilsson was so great in this part, but Polaski gives a very good, well-sung performance here. Her voice is fresh and youthful in this 12 year old video. Excellent.
chris14406 2 years ago
ugh
urgrad03 3 years ago
Ends before the best part! :D I want to see Hagen biting the dust... (if you can use this term in case of drowning)
Sieglinde84 3 years ago
a solid performance. powerful but not exceeding the comfortable volume level of the voice.
PS: the outfit was a tad disturbing but I've seen a lot worse and it wasn't really enough to be a distraction.
raigekimaru 3 years ago
Big voices with a darker, anguished and intense edge is suited to Brunnhilde (dramatic soprano) but many lighter voices have a sharp laser quality that makes the singing equally exciting (Nilsson, Behrens, Moser) I thought she was very good..
AmericanEvita 3 years ago
elle n'a pas l'étoffe vocale d'une varnay ou d'une nilsson (quelques sons un peu bas)mais elle est belle à regarder.
HoD3 3 years ago
haha oui c'est réaliste... Néanmoins elle m'a surpris, je la pensais totalement incapable de chanter cette partie là... Un manque de dynamisme dans la voix, mais un tres fort caractère qui correspond plutot bien au style Wagnérien...
simariato 3 years ago
My fave is Dernesch, but she's very good too.
Laeliapurpurata 3 years ago
Monster low C at 2:34, gives me a hard-on ;)
JMR6916 3 years ago 2
isn't it a B?
jezHB333 3 years ago
It's a C
JMR6916 1 year ago
oh you mean the bass trombone - she sings the b next to middle c just shortly before that - I agree the bass trombone note is a C :-)
jezHB333 1 year ago
Whose stage direction is this... (?)
xav71176 3 years ago
Alfred Kirchner from Levine/Bayreuth DVD
fdaguiar 3 years ago
Kirchner and ROSALIE !!!
LisaKandinskaya 3 years ago
beautiful voice.
agabusdawatchman 3 years ago
its a shame she was such an awesome dramatic soprano but her voice has fallen apart
shriman87 4 years ago
She's singing Brunnhilde at Bayreuth. What/where was your most recent performance?
skinboy8 3 years ago
What rubbish. How dare you say something so ignorant and dismissive! Voices change but her voice has most definitely not fallen apart.
Operataurus 3 years ago
Where is this production from ?
philippeparis 4 years ago
From Bayreuth
Onegin65 4 years ago