Harry Kupfer was, basically, a pretty conservative director who would sometimes change the setting but hardly ever the plot and as far as I remember the Götterdämmerung finale was an uncomfortable dinner party with a young boy and girl hinting at a new beginning. So definitely not what's in the script but made sense in the context of the production. I never saw any of his work live but for me it's exactly on the line and I enjoy thr videos. I love his Parsifal even though in the end he lets Amfortas die instead of Kundry (which seems to be one of the most radical changes he ever made)
Comme l'a écrit je ne sais plus quel critique français, la mise en scène de Chéreau est un mythe, avec ce que cela implique de mensonge, tandis que la mise en scène de Peter Hall, magique, mériterait d'être une légende.
Bayreuth was created by Wagner as a sort of temple for the production of his works. He wrote extensively on how he wanted them to be produced. And, in the name of "new" and "modern" directors want to change that. With modern stagecraft there are any number of ways to realize Wagner's visions without turning them into garbage, which is what many productions are.
Yes, I find it most strange, indeed, even grossly hypocritical, that the present fashion for authentic performances (even of music by composers such as Brahms) must, for some reason, exclude performances of Wagner's operas. Why is that, I wonder? Could it be prejudice and double standards?
The thing about Bayreuth is, that after the passing of Wieland Wagner in 1966, Wolfgang Wagner decided to concentrate on the term "Werkstatt" (=workshop) and promote the idea of using the annual repetition of Wagner's last 10 operas to show different points of view from the director's side (as for the musical side, of course - when someone like Boulez, for example, was invited to conduct Parsifal, much to the audience's shock) - and for good reason. The Bayreuth Festival is and has always been very different from any other opera festival in always repeating the same operas, not having published any casting lists until the very same year (that has changed throughout the last few years), therefore anyone, who was attempting to get a ticket, would not know about the details cast, and therefore go there just because of the piece and its interpretation. Because of all the circumstances, Bayreuth is unlikely to be a festival for visitors not acquainted with Wagner's work (and much, much less expensive than other festivals). I think it makes sense to try any different "language" of stye at this special occasion. The idea was, that this could happen under the best possible circumstances, lang rehearsal periods (usually starting in the summer before the actual production), with the full cast at hand for the whole rehearsal period. Unfortunately, much of this has vanished throughout the last couple of years. But one must not forget, that the Wagner brother's revolutionary way of staging Wagner's operas after the war (the "Entrümpelung") caused an enormous scandal after the war, and they became revormative and were much imitaded afterward, to the amount, that, when Chéreau staged the "Ring" in 1976 in a much more realistic way, without the former stylization, he caused a big scandal again (as you can listen to at the beginning of this clip). This production was considered a landmark in opera staging in general, and an unsurpassed example of directional mastership. By the way, the Wagner brothers #s were as daring in their choice of singers, keeping in mind, that, when they started again after the war, singers like Astrid Varnay, George London, Leonie Rysanek, Wolfgang Windgassen were by that time virtually unknown to the public and became famous because of their work at Bayreuth.
Funny how a composer whom built Bayreuth for his productions to be played exactly like he wanted, gets his work changed by many directors. While on the other side, Sir Arthur Sullivan whom wrote many light operas (with serious music, even so serious that sometimes he was refereed as Light Opera's Wagner), whom encouraged people to make words, staging and music evolve, is probably the most traditionally played kind of opera. To be honest I want to see more tradition in classical opera
Going to a Wagner opera at this point is just some kind of public humiliation ritual. It's very evident they dislike his work; so they marry his music and text to the most ridiculous and disgusting ideas their little febrile minds can conjure up. None of it is deep or profound. It's just meant to denigrate. The Chéreau and Kupfer "Ring"s, being unorthodox, at least had some kind of unifying ideology- the rest desperately try to say something with all of the depth and profundity of a 14 year old who barely bothered to read the full wikipedia article of any great philosopher or thinker of the past 100 years. Serious music staged by unserious people.
I am at Bayreuth right now, attending the Ring. It's the 2022 production again. I cannot tell you how bad it is. It has been my dream for years to listen to the Ring at Bayreuth, I cried when I finally managed to get tickets. And yesterday, I cried at the end of Das Rheingold, because I was torned apart by how bad it was. The production is just pure shit. That fucking Valentin Schwarz wanted to make a "Netflix serie". It would not even make a good serie, it's beyond pathetic. It's like a parody. I considered throwing myself off the galerie where my seat is when Donner took a golf club during Heda, hedo aria, and faked a back pain in the worst way possible for "comedy" purpose. And the worst thing is the fact that musicians are barely good. Some singers were really bad (Donner, Froh, Wotan) and the orchestra has some troubles : wrong notes, bad volume, out of sync many times with singers. My dream has been destroyed and I'm not sure I will ever get through this. May sounds a bit exagerated, but you just can't imagine how I'm feeling right now.
Some things are better left undone. Returning to Venice and ever going to Bayreuth. Ofcourse the season never would be able to happen for people like me. It's hilarious to relive the 1976 Ring closing curtain, it was a riot that I heard love on a clock radio. Luckily my dream has not been shattered. The good thing is, everybody had a good time screaming and booing it sounds like and I hope you did. Fun read.
I empathize with you but do not despair. Unfortunately our idea of how the Ring should done will never more be done in traditional ways, or any Wagner opera for that matter. I saw a horrendous Tristan in Vienna in Feb with singers rolling around in pools of water, cutting their wrists, throwing furniture and ripping paper walls. But we go on. I leave next week for Bayreuth and for the last Ring Cycle and Parsifal which is also a mess by all accounts. Then I’m off to Prague to see Carmen, Figaro and Cav/Pag. The Otto Schenck Tannhauser returns to the Met in Nov. That’s a fabulous beautiful traditional staging so here in the USA management still listens to their audience and keeps good productions of many works to please us. Good listening.
My profound sympathies to all those who spent energy and cash on lamentable opera productions. It's bad enough on RU-vid! I've never quite recovered from the Salzberg Giulio Cesare, which verged on the obscene...
It is deeply misguided to think that all new productions are bad, or that booing hurricanes are the norm. If a performance in Bayreuth is good you'll hear the loudest, longest and most heartfelt applause ever. I attended Parsifal and Tristan this weekend. Both were an overwhelming experience at really high standards, and the audience was unanimous in their praise. Many people who also attended Der Fliegende Holländer and were deeply impressed, so I will go and see it next year. Yes, some productions are a dud, and the audience in Bayreuth is critical enough to give that feedback too, which is great. I like that more than people just applauding at everything they see.
Exactly, I also saw Tristan this year and the audience absolutely loved it. I’m glad that the Bayreuth audience is capable of expressing their true opinion, in other opera houses you will never hear a boo
these ppl waited 10+ years to get a lottery ticket to have a chance to get in Bayreuth, or paid a huge markup. On top of that they are sitting on creaky, 250 year-old wood chairs (Wagner wanted aged wood even when it was new) with no cushioning for 16 hours. Thank god for youtube, I can watch from home for free and pause and FFW anytime, sitting in my couch eating a pizza. :D
The question is: if modern productions in Bayreuth are so often booed, why do they keep proposing them? Why is it fashion? To be talked about? Why do superintendents have bad taste?
To be booed is the point. These directors hate Wagner, everything he represents and especially the type of person who enjoys his work. They are actively trying to offend and humiliate the Wagnerite to gain the approval of their cynical little clique of "Radicals" feeling oh so transgressive and revolutionary, failing to realise that their tired brand of rebelliousness has become the very stagnant status quo they imagine their stagings are challenging.
@@fhotzelthat has nothing to do with traditional productions. Cosima wasn't a "Nazi" but insisted on tradition, not every traditional Wagner production has to do with Nazism. This is such a bad reason for justifying modern Regietheatre. Do you see Nazism in Otto schenk's productions of Wagner operas?
I assume they are Booing the 'production' not necessarily the artists.... I get the idea of 'pushing the envelope' with 'New productions/staging/costuming ...Coupled with this need to foist (modern) social realities on the Audience (esp. Wagner for whatever reasons).... But I want to escape reality or whatever some of these Producers/Directors are trying to push.... To me there needs to be some sort of (visual) context to what's going on... Siegfried wielding a giant Banana is a bit much (lol) .......Anyway call me a 'Traditionalist' as it were But the Sets /Costumes should not distract the audience from the Gesamtkunstwerk like Wagner intended
They boo the entire direction and production team when they arrive for curtain calls. They also boo singers. Brünnhilde's singer in 2022 flipped audience the bird because she couldn't stand being booed.
In Britain we don't have much in the way of lavish opera and we don't have many opportunities to listen or see different Productions so I think that's the reason we don't have a lot of booing here. but I can see why in a country where there are lots of different Productions that the audience might want their say 😊
I saw a crazy Parsifal some years ago at the ENO; the first act took place in what looked like a bomb site and the third act had a length of railway track across the stage. Very odd.
The 1983 Ring got off to a rocky start, but it was at least, a laudable attempt to stage a visually beautiful production, and in places it succeeded spectacularly, as can be seen here. Sadly, it has been all but written out of the Festival's history, and a handful of stills is as much as one is ever likely to see.
What was the problem with the production? I heard it was a traditional production but there was a problem specifically with Siegfried's singer (Manfred Jung).
Eagerly awaiting Tristan and Parsifal 2024 (managed to get tickets in October). "Mirror for the degeneration of our time", "deconstructed stagings". All the more reason to see these productions.
Indeed. The ‘76 cast was definitive, though the staging had some questionable aspects. Nothing wrong with Boulez’ conducting, either, though there was better before him. Today, I would not bother trying to get a ticket.
@@phil2u48 cast if 76 was terrible. Donald McIntyre and Gwyneth Jones were awful. Gwyneth Jones never recovered either. She just sounded strident and metallic for the rest of her career. She should never have sung Brünnhilde.
@@kevinmurray1324 agreed. They get applause for the effort, the singing is mostly awful but the absolute worst disasters are these ludicrous stagings brought about by “movie directors”. No no no no no.
I never found any aspects of the Chereau staging questionable. It was the first staging I saw as a child, and I had read the original stage directions meticulously so I was very much aware of the differences. But it all made perfect sense, showed the Ring in the time in which Wagner lived instead and turned it into the political and social drama. I still think it is the best modern production I have ever seen. The Kupfer staging a few years later was also not bad, but dragged down by an awful set design.@@phil2u48
I think the 2010 'Lohengrin' was less booing. And it was such a successful production that they finally extended the run for a year. I remember that Kupfer & Barenboim's 'The Ring' was quite unpopular in the premiere.
And the commentator explained who was being booed. It was not just Schwarz for his staging. But also Meister for his conducting. That is quite an achievement for a conductor to get boed at the end of the Götterdämmerung.
I will be returning to Bayreuth for the Ring and Parsifal in Aug. Thrilled to be returning to beautiful,friendly Upper Franconia. Gorgeous music, superb beet, great food and wonderful German people.
@@flimpjekijken Thanks, I’m seeing it on the 23rd next week. I liked the production set in the Middle East . A week in Bayreuth is the highlight of my year. Then I’m off to Prague for 3 operas.
@@flimpjekijken it was ok. Parts I liked. It wasn't as offensive as The Ring. The singing was exceptional in all performances. The auditorium was horrible hot. Much warmer than my last visit in 2018.
The problem with booing is that it's not clear what aspect of the booers' experience has incurred their displeasure. I once went to a truly execrable Welsh National Opera production of 'Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria', produced, I think, by one of the loathsome Alden twins, which played the dark tragedy for laughs. The lady in the next seat to me left at the interval and didn't return. 'Opera' magazine subsequently absolutely savaged the production. Yet the singers and orchestra were excellent. I felt I had to stay to the end for their sakes, and how could I have booed when it would have appeared that the singers and musicians were taking the blame? On the other hand, the "producer" presumably took the polite applause for approval.
Funny, I wanted to attend the centennial production at Bayreuth but couldn’t get tickets. I settled for the Munich production with Wolfgang Sawallisch at the helm. It was fantastic.
Just back from the 2024 production. The booing was saved for the appearance of the directors at the end of Gotterdammerung, the musicians and singers were spared (rightly I think as they were magnificent). There were occasional aspects that I thought worked dramatically using this staging (Fafner as a kind of Howard Hughes figure, desperate to cling to life in Act 2 of Siegfried for example, and removing the distinction between gods and humans was an interesting idea). But for the most part it was just confusing because the words just did not fit the action or the 'revised' timeline. Surely, in these days of sophisticated projections and video installation, it would be possible to represent the 'unstageable' in virtual form? Often I just closed my eyes, that improved things enormously. So, I am not disappointed by the experience, no 'look at me' director is going to distract me from the music its performance, they don't have that power.
Imagine waiting 10 years just to have to close your eyes or look at the floor because of Valentin Schwarz. I'm not a traditionalist but this is disgusting
@@jaykauffman4775 I luckily did and avoided Schwarz this year. But not everyone reads reviews and then there was the Premiere at some point too. You have to be scared to go to Bayreuth these days, you must prepare and inform you to not get totured (the problem is not the music for me, and thats the most important aspect). It's btw just my opinion, if someone likes Schwarz, that's ok (sry for bad english)
@@nyquist5190 yes, I get annoyed by these trivialising, pretentious staging-Kitsch when it comes to Wagner. But if you like Ring as a "netflix Show" (how contemporary and deep) as Schwarz describes it, and if you like Bayreuth to become some dumb and banal culture event, go for it. I'm no Traditionalist, I just find it bad
I understand those people. Nothing has changed. Never been there but today you pay 300 euros minimum for a Bayreuth ticket and should expect excellence, not a hit or miss experience
Of course, a distinction must be made here. There are (i) productions in which I don't understand everything, but which have obviously dealt intensively with the work. And so perhaps they understand the work better than I do, perhaps they are in some point mistaken, perhaps we are both mistaken in some points. And there are (ii) those that clearly only reflect the overconfidence of a clueless director who above all wants to stage himself. The last Ring was an exemple for this. And there are (iii) those who actually mean well but are completely wrong. This year's Ring is probably an exemple for this last group.
Yikes! Such booing. And all so unnecessary. Just produce traditional beautiful stagings that the public wants instead of reinventing the wheel that the composer would be horrified at seeing. I’ll be in Bayreuth in 2 weeks. Lord help me get The Ring.
Junichi writes (in Japanese) - ''Bayreuth, an experimental theater, has been nurtured by people who love Wagner''..............Okay Junichi....Everybody knows that ! So what ?
To this day, I don't understand what so horrified people at Boulez-Ring. He is a prime example of how to tell a story brilliantly and still track down the psychology of the characters without twisting the story.
You know about the 83 million coaches who will tell you exactly what is wrong with the national football team and what mistakes they made in the previous match and what an idiot the present coach (whoever that may be at any given time) is? That is exactly what you find at Bayreuth. Many have precise ideas of what the productions MUST look like, and if a production doesn‘t fit their vision, it‘s rubbish. Most of the time, you will hear just about as many people screaming „Bravo!“ as booing (some exceptions). Remember that the Chereau Ring was heartily booed (and bravoed) at the first performances, but was only a a few years later the most popular production ever mounted on the Green Hill and hailed as groundbreaking. Bayreuth audiences are passionate. It‘s one of the things that make going there such an experience.
Je me demande si Wagner et ses contemporains aimaient les petits garçons et les petites filles autant que certains metteurs en scène actuels, qui en exhibent partout. Comme dans Rheingold 2022, par exemple. J'ai du mal avec çà... Quand aux autres déguisements, vivement Wagner au sports d'hiver, on pourra toucher les bonnets à ponpons!
So it is true what they said. Yes there was booing in the past, but the storm that break out at the end of the Schwarz Ring was unprecedented. Since the state of Bavaria is involved and have a board and are publicly funded things have been going downhill. Now I just read they are planing to shrink the size of the chorus by 40%, citing that they should have a comparable size to other houses like Munich for example. What kind of bulshit. Bayreuth is not a theater like any other. They don't play all year long, they play works by only one composer, who also happened to make ludicrous musical demands when it came to sizes of orchestra and stage music etc. This is the one place in the world where you don't compromise on such matters just to cut spending. Maybe don't have so many deconstructed stagings of the operas that the audience doesn't want to see and rather make sure you are sold out all the time.
Le plus ridicule et le plus triste en même temps pour les amateurs d'opéra, c'est que ces mises en scène qui se veulent modernes, qui veulent proposer des relectures ou des transpositions à d'autres époques que celles prévues par le livret, sont en réalité répétitives dans leur geste et fondamentalement académiques. Il s'agit d'un académisme non conscient de lui-même, et jamais interrogé. On prétend révolutionner quelque chose qui a été revolutionné depuis longtemps ! J' ai 40 ans, j'aime Wagner depuis 20 ans et je n'ai jamais vu un Ring monté selon les vieux canons wagnériens, avec lance, armures et casques ailés. Les metteurs en scène prétendent s'attaquer à un académisme qui est en réalité mort depuis 50 ans. L'avant-garde aujourd'hui consisterait non à ridiculiser Wagner, mais à le prendre au sérieux : là, il y aurait un vrai défi ! On se plaint que les jeunes ne vont pas à l'opéra, mais ils ont raison : comment pourraient-ils apprécier la relecture au troisième degré d'une œuvre qu'ils découvrent? Le meilleur moyen de faire revenir le public serait de profiter de l'imaginaire des œuvres, avec décors et costumes, et d'exploiter les ressources des technologies modernes pour les servir. Avec une utilisation intelligente de la vidéo, des lasers et de l'éclairage, quelles merveilles ne ferait-on pas pour l'Anneau du Nibelung (Arc en Ciel 🌈 du Walhalla dans l'or du Rhin, murmures de la forêt et dragon 🐉de Siegfried...)?
@@illyaismaili6413 I most certainly wouldn't. Over the years I've seen many productions I didn't like, and listened to singers who weren't to my taste. But not once did I forget my manners and I never will. People who can't behave in a civilized manner should go to a football match instead.
Yes. Me. I bought orchestra seats for a Saturday matinee and couldn’t believe how horrible it was. Heppner and Voight were glorious but the Kabuki like staging was mind numbing
Imagine being on a waiting list for 10 years, jumping through all the loopholes to get into Bayreuth, sitting through 15 hours of the ring cycle and then decide to boo it.
It's not a decision... it's a reaction when a stage director actually decides to feed the audience crap! stage directors have got to stop hating Wagner! among others.
Imagine being on a waiting list for 10 years, jumping through all the loopholes to get into Bayreuth, sitting through 15 hours of the ring cycle staged so horrendously and hatefully by a marxist director who hates opera. No wonder you decide to boo it.
Just got the tickets for the 2023 Ring (same production as in 2022). I am very eager to see it in August. It has been so mercilessly thrashed by the traditionalists and the booers of this world that there simply must be something good and interesting in it. A late summer trip to Germany, glorious music and a slice of culture war and provocation, what's not to like?
I’m right behind you. I’ve tickets for the last cycle starting 8/21 with a Parsifal added in on wed. Even though the production not to my taste I can least revel in incredible sound and life changing ambiance that only a Bayreuth experience offers us poor mortals. Have fun . Safe travels.
Hey, I am attending at the Ring right now at Bayreuth. I saw Rheingold yesterday and Die Walküre tonight. Good luck with the staging. It's so bad, I just wanted to cry during the whole thing.
@@fabptitpom I saw the video of RHEINGOLD yesterday on You Tube. It was horrible. I’m expecting the worst but I’ll close my eyes and let the music enfold me. I pray one day all lovers of W music will protest en masse and force the decision makers at Bayreuth to change their view of interpretation. Was there much booing?
Ce n'est pas seulement la mise en scène le problème, c'est aussi la musique et parfois les chanteurs, c'est la vision générale qui n'est pas à la hauteur de l'ambition initiale...
This week after Rheingold there was lots of booing . The first night was so hot inside a man got sick in the row directly behind me , row 23 and fainted. There was a lot of scuffles and in 1 minute a team of ushers came and lifted him up and got him outside to help. Thankfully he would be ok as I spoke to a security staff there who told me he was brought to the hospital and was recovering . All the ushers there are trained to handle these emergencies. Also there is a small police office and emergency room on sight at the theater.
I've seen five of these productions live at Bayreuth. The 2013 and 2022 Ring cycles, by Castorf and Schwarz respectively, both totally deserved to be booed. Castorf had one good idea, namely that oil is the new gold, but failed to develop it with any insight. Schwarz's idea that the innocence of children is the most precious commodity was not viable and led to some uncomfortable moments between adults and children on the stage. Katharina Wagner's 2007 Meistersinger was infantile and perverse, and also deserved to be booed. Kosky's 2017 production was also booed, but was WAY better than Katharina's. However, Neuenfels' 2010 Lohengrin (with the rats) felt "right" to me throughout, even though I cannot verbalise why that is. And Kratzer's 2017 Tannhaeuser was absolutely superb: it made far more sense than many recent productions where the directors seem content to create outrage simply by showing as much sex as possible in the Bacchanale. Neither of these productions deserved to be booed.
Bayreuth is making modern productions because the vast majority seems to appreciate them. You could not miss the enthusiasm in last night’s Siegfried, for instance. Sure, some things in the production were odd and confusing but they gave you reason to think and reflect - instead of lulling you into a false illusion of ’true Wagner’
I was at that performance also. The production is a mess and makes no sense at all. Still, the singing especially from Schaeger was excellent after singing Parsifal the previous night. The man is super human.
Considering the shrinking number of people interested in Bayreuth, I find it a bit absurd to claim that "the vast majority seems to appreciate them". On the contrary, it seem the vast majority is put off by many modern productions and Bayreuth is currently in the process of killing itself.
No they don't appreciate them. It's just that the pretentious posers are very vocal and pop up endlessly in comment sections showing off their imagined intellectual superiority.
IT WAS ABOUT TIME to keep the traditional, stupid productions !! No matter how "disrespectful" some ol'music lovers find the new productions, please KEEP STRONG !!❤❤
@@heliogabagool7847I think it means it is better to have a performance "ruined"in the eyes of an audience member who regards booing as being disrespectful than by committing a greater disrespect to oneself by succumbing to a collectively imposed rejection of booing for fear of offending that collective. "Everybody thinks I'm wrong to boo, so I won't boo even if I think I'm right to do so. I'll let you know what I think of the performance after everybody else tells me what I should think" This can also apply if you suppress your enthusiasm based upon an audience's expectation, even if it's endorsed by the notion that this is what "Wagner wanted". "I don't care if custom condemns and insists on people refraining from the heresy of applauding the sacred presentation of the first act of Parsifal. My own feeling of being blessed urges me to express my pleasure with this feeling by applauding the artists who provoked it in me." Nevertheless, all these years after I boo'd June Anderson after a few too many drinks before the performance, I regret my individual urge to boo and scream "would you just get off that stage?", and continue to feel that they were quite right to have me removed from the performance despite my American freedom to boo and scream at anybody I felt like booing and screaming at. I eventually grew to hold Anderson in great esteem as I gained a better understanding of her true talents and capabilities, and if she's reading this today, I hope she accepts my gratitude for a well-learned lesson.
Its seems like the strongest booing comes from one and the same person, e.g., the very first solo "boo" at Ring 2013 and Tannhauser 2019...Probably a very conservative and frustrated die-hard Wagnerian.
