Die Walküre

"Meier is a tower of strength and dramatic ability just as one would expect ... Stemme is properly fearless throughout as Brünnhilde ... She is quite simply the best Brünnhilde since Nilsson, albeit of a very different stamp ... Barenboim is a conductor at once powerful and sensitive".

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"Conductor Christian Thielemann is a fascinating Wagnerian. He is an interventionist conductor who never lets the music just play itself; everything must be sculpted and shaped ... For the amount of Wagner out on DVD these days, it is reassuring that even at this level of technological detail, there is something about the Bayreuth Festival that will always make its productions distinctive".

"Superb playing he draws from La Scala's band, with a rich, rounded sound to match the theatre's fabled acoustic. The cast, though, is less rounded ... Producer Guy Cassiers relies too heavily og effects and projections".

Vurdering (performance): 4/5.

Vurdering (picture & sound): 5/5.

"This is a very well-sung and well-led Walküre that somehow does not manage to win many friends. The confused and unfocused direction, the sets that elicit little except a sporadic admiring glance ... takes this out of the running for top prize".

"A for effort for the production team - but the real interest of this release is musical. Thielemann's fourth recording of this opera assembles his strongest cast yet ... Harteros is a clearly projected, emotional Sieglinde ... Kampe, as always, is bright, forward, intelligent and the centre of attention on stage ... The sound of Thielemann's orchestra, darker-sounding than usual from more Western-based orchestras ... is one of the pleasures of the set ... For that and the cast this set is valuable".

"There is some terrific singing along the way: Stemme's strength of emotion and pinpoint negotiation of vocal intervals, Skelton's clarity and an increasingly heroic sound, Magee's sheer focus tapping the same level as her Strauss Kaiserin ... Pappano delivers a further degree of the Rudolf Kempe-like lyricism - nothing overstated but no lack of power or motion where needed - that he found from this cycle's first Rheingold onwards ... The filming is above all a triumph of fidelity to the show in front of the cameras ... Very warmly recommended".

"På dvd:n från Covent Garden möter vi ett dunkelt scenrum ... Den sparsmakade uppsättningen bjuder på en stjärnspäckad rollista ned till minsta valkyria. John Lundgrens isblå öga fokuserar på oss när Wotan intensivt öppnar akt två. Nina Stemme sjunger upp sig längs vägen och i sista akten är hon magnifik ... Musikaliskt lockar Antonio Pappano fram en fyllig klang. Och det sjungs genomgående magnifikt av hela ensemblen ... Den mogna klangen hos samtliga sångare är en lyx i en operavärld som alltmer värdesätter ungdom och säljande utseende framför konstnärlig fulländning".

"The staging throughout is uneventful, with the occasional nice touch ... Conductor Christian Thielemann and the Bayreuth Orchestra create a ravishing wall of sound ... Perhaps audio-only might be worth it for Thielemann's and the orchestra's contributions, but I can't imagine watching this again".

"Rattle's conducting, though, is easy enough to enjoy - fluent, often sweeping - and, of course beautifully played by the Berliners ... Easier on eye and ear than more grimly Germanic efforts such as Barenboim's, and might interest a newcomer more".

Vurdering (performance): 4/5.

Vurdering (picture & sound): 5/5.

"It's clear from the start that Stéphane Braunschweig's ultra-minimalist staging will be one of slow discoveries ... The whole event feels like a beautifully prepared concert onto which dramatic concerns have scarcely begun to impinge, admirable in its musical representation of Wagner's score but rarely compelling or ecxiting as opera".

"There may be reservations about Haenchen's straight, low-profile interpretation og the music ... or the harshness of Eiko Ishioka's far from conventianla beautiful theatrical cosumes ... but there can surely be few about the freshness of Audi's theatrical thinkins, and his reinvention og "deconstructionist" effects ... Altmeyer goes from strength to strength".

"With enough warmth and grandeur to hold our attention. And it's all beautifully recorded on DVD ... It's the finest Ring on video so far".

Vurdering (performance): 5/5.

Vurdering (picture & sounds): 5/5.

"The Valencia Ring features strong leads but questinable acrobatics ... The youthful Orquestra de la Communitat Valenciana obediently and expertly delivers the plushy textures and stagery rhetoric Mehta requires".