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Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen -- Metropolitan/Levine (NTSC)
starring: Siegfried Jerusalem, Hildegard Behrens, James Morris (IX), Heinz Zednik, Birgitta Svendén
directed by: Brian Large

List Price: £70.99

Off The Bookshelf's Price: £40.98

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Used Price: £38.00
Third Party New Price: £40.98

Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Exempt
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0044007304396
Format: Box set, Classical, Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Number Of Discs: 7
Number Of Items: 7
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: October 14, 2002
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Theatrical Release Date: 1990
Sales Rank: 19535
MPN: 073043

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
The James Levine cycle of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen is humane and emotionally powerful rather than monumental or spiritual; Levine is more interested in finding our sympathy for the characters than inspiring pity or terror. These are very traditional productions in which you see a rock where you need to see a rock, a dragon where the libretto says a dragon (the Metropolitan Opera has never been a place for experiment). What Levine and the Met can and do offer is excellent orchestral playing and some of the best singers in these roles in the world. Siegfried Jerusalem is boyish and naive and touching as Siegfried, and he is also surprisingly good as the detached mischievous Loge of Das Rheingold. James Morris is uniformly impressive as Wotan and makes the character evolve from the young ruthless god of the first opera to the tired old god of Siegfried, who seeks nothing more than his own necessary defeat and death. As Brunnhilde, Hildegard Behrens makes a convincing shift from goddess to woman, from callousness to tenderness and on to vindictiveness and self-sacrificing wisdom. Overall, this is an attractive Ring cycle, well-cast and beautifully played; others have greater strengths in some areas, but Levine is reliable across the board.

On the DVD: Der Ring des Nibelungen has all four operas, which are also available individually, contained in a single box. All the DVDs come with a photo gallery of the Metropolitan Opera productions and with menus and subtitles in German, French, English, Spanish and Chinese. It's a little disappointing, though, that they are presented in American NTSC format, not European PAL, and the picture ratio is standard TV 4:3. On the plus side, they all have an excellent clear acoustic in the three audio options: PCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1. --Roz Kaveney

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- I am not sure how good this is
This is the Ring how Wagner imagined it would/should be. Every stage shot and directorial decision follows what 'The Master' had in mind and wrote down. The director is Otto Schenk and 2009 marks the last time this landmark Ring Cycle will be shown at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Hopefully, it will be filmed in glorious HD!

Nonetheless, having this on 'ordinary' DVD still preserves what is a most enjoyable and watchable version. There are recordings of this out there that are simply unwatchable (Naxos/Lothar Zagrosek) and others that will challenge your mind (DG/Boulez) and are highly recommendable, but for wanting to know what Wagner had in his mind, this is the one.

Having said that, some of it looks very silly. ... Read More:

Rating:

- Traditional MET production with a great Wotan
James Levine takes a relatively expansive view of the score, and this combined with the MET acoustics and superb sound recording reveals wonderful orchestral detail.

The main reason for buying this set must be the outstanding Wotan of James Morris, a commanding figure portraying every aspect of the role.

Hildegard Behrens is a mixed blessing as Brunnhilde, she simply cannot cope with the role as a Valkyrie, but is pretty good when the role changes to daughter in Walkure Act 3 and throughout Siegfried and Gotterdammerung.

However all is definitely not perfect when we examine the individual music dramas separately:

RHEINGOLD - The stage set and costumes are like animated illustrations from a Victorian ... Read More:

Rating:

- A Triumph of Directorial Ingenuity
Could it be possible to transform one of the most exciting stories in opera into 15 hours of purgatorial tedium? If you really want to find out, have a look at Levine's inconceivably stodgy production from 2002. As other reviewers have noted, the staging is entirely traditional: where there should be a rock, there's a rock. The problem is that the singers seem to be carved from rock too - they stand almost motionless throughout. When they do act, their petrification seems preferable - they are ludicrously inept.

On DVD Barenboim, or Boulez, is preferable by far.

Rating:

- Dull isn't the word
I don't know what is, but it's impressive quite how dull these performances manage to be.

Musically, Levine takes very slow tempi. This isn't inherently a bad thing: Knappertsbusch's Wagner was hardly quick, but he found something magical in the score. As a rule, if you go to extremes of tempo, be they fast or slow, it is necessary to find something very special there. Levine, to these ears, doesn't. Singing is a mixed bag. Siegfried Jerusalem is fine as his namesake. So too is James Morris as Wotan, but Hildegard Behrens lacks power as Brunnhilde. True, this is hard to find in a modern singer, and yet she stands no comparison to Christine Brewer's concert performance in Gotterdammerung at the 2007 BBC Proms.

Of course, no Ring ... Read More:

Rating:

- Stretching credibility too far
It seems churlish to disagree with all the praise heaped on this production here but, having bought it at full price when it first came out, I have only watched it once because I found it boring at best and unbelievable at worst. (I have seen the 'Ring' in its entirety three times since then, in three different productions so it's not Wagner's fault). The acting is leaden and operatic in the worst sense of the word, the costumes are all enormous and make the, already large, cast look as though they all came from Riesenheim. Levine's conducting lacks drive and subtlety. Are we really expected to believe that Gary Lakes and Jessye Norman are twins and children of James Morris? It seems to to me typical of Met. productions - they suffer from having too ... Read More:

DVD : Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen -- Metropolitan/Levine (NTSC)