Friday, March 20, 2020

Free the Opera Now Week 2: All Wagner!

Have you been enjoying the Met's free opera broadcasts? I've found it difficult to watch them at 7:30 pm...because it's Jeopardy! time, and Jacqueline does not miss Jeopardy!...and we're a one screen family here. And it's story-time after that, and usually a tv show with Joe after that, and then allofasudden it's 9:30, time to check on Rachel Maddow, and then oh my, it's time for bed, isn't it?

But I usually get a little start in the mornings, then finish up in the afternoon. I'd rather watch straight through, of course, but with two autistic adult children stuck in the house for most of the day, it's pretty hard to find 3+ hours of uninterrupted time. Well, actually that's not true...it's impossible. But I've managed to watch all of them so far (4)...and they have been deLIGHTful. The only bad thing about it was that I figured the jig was up come Sunday night with Eugene Onegin.

But guess what?

I just found out that The Met is going to be doing a second week! Here's the schedule:

Monday, March 23 – Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde
Conducted by Simon Rattle, starring Nina Stemme, Ekaterina Gubanova, Stuart Skelton, Evgeny Nikitin, and René Pape. Transmitted live on October 8, 2016.

Tuesday, March 24 – Wagner’s Das Rheingold
Conducted by James Levine, starring Wendy Bryn Harmer, Stephanie Blythe, Richard Croft, Gerhard Siegel, Dwayne Croft, Bryn Terfel, Eric Owens, and Hans-Peter König. Transmitted live on October 9, 2010.

Wednesday, March 25 – Wagner’s Die Walküre
Conducted by James Levine, starring Deborah Voigt, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Stephanie Blythe, Jonas Kaufmann, Bryn Terfel, and Hans-Peter König. Transmitted live on May 14, 2011.

Thursday, March 26 – Wagner’s Siegfried
Conducted by Fabio Luisi, starring Deborah Voigt, Hunter Morris, Gerhard Siegel, Bryn Terfel, and Eric Owens. Transmitted live on November 5, 2011.

Friday, March 27 – Wagner’s Götterdämmerung
Conducted by Fabio Luisi, starring Deborah Voigt, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Waltraud Meier, Jay Hunter Morris, Iain Paterson, Eric Owens, and Hans-Peter König. Transmitted live on February 11, 2012.

Saturday, March 28 – Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Conducted by James Levine, starring Annette Dasch, Johan Botha, Paul Appleby, and Michael Volle. Transmitted live on December 13, 2014.

Sunday, March 29 – Wagner’s Tannhäuser
Conducted by James Levine, starring Eva-Marie Westbroek, Michelle DeYoung, Johan Botha, Peter Mattei, and Gunther Groissböck. Transmitted live on October 31, 2015.

Yup, it's an ALL WAGNER specTACular.

I have a few thoughts on that.

1. Most excellent! I don't know if there are a lot of people who are going to be down with Wagner...he's not nearly as accessible as Puccini and Verdi and Donizetti and Tchaikovsky...and he tends to be a lot longer winded...but hey, it's not like there's anything else to do, right? You can only walk so much each day.

2. When I saw that The Met and Lyric Opera of Chicago were both doing The Ring Cycle this year, I started looking at both of their schedules to see if I could scratch this one off of my bucket list. I finally decided that Chicago was the better option for me and got down to nailing up the details...tickets for me and Jacqueline and Joe (I made them watch a video of Das Rheingold to make sure they were woman and man enough --respectively--for it, and they knocked it out of the park; who says autistic people can't focus for long periods of time?)...and then I started to look for a hotel that (a) I could afford for the six days we would need to be there (b) was close enough to the opera house that transportation costs wouldn't be insurmountable and (c) was in an area wherein we'd have access to affordable food, museums, etc. And I couldn't find anything. But I guess it's a moot point now, isn't it? Everything is cancelled. But now...ta da! I can see The Ring Trilogy from my own living room...and I don't have to wait until intermission for a bathroom and / or whiskey break. 

3. If you're a fan of The Lord of the Rings, you will probably enjoy the story of The Ring Cycle. It looks to me like Tolkien pretty much just lifted the plot from Wagner. Who, of course, lifted it from Norse Mythology. There's even a Gollum guy. Plus Thor and Odin and allathat.

4. When I went to Germany in 1982, I wore a Wagner t-shirt. The image on it was based on this photo:



But it was cropped a bit, more like just a head shot...and a little bit washed out in terms of detail...and blue...kind of like this:


And I remember that a lot of people asked me if it was John Wayne. Even some people in Germany, which I thought was kind of funny. I mean, FF'sS, he's just one of the most famous composers in the history of the world, y'know? (#5 according to Britannica.com,#8 according to ClassicalMusic.com--but what the fuck do THEY know?). 

So there you have it. I'm anxious to have another week of free opera (Thank you, The Met! I'm going to make this up to you in the near future!), and I'm delighted that I'm going to be able to see The Ring over the course of four days. Only one thing bothers me: No Der fliegende Holländer? I mean...I know there were some hard choices, but how was this even on der Tisch?

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