Richard Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen

Richard Wagner's great Ring cycle actually began as an opera about the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, whom Wagner mythologized into the Siegfried of the Germanic mythical cycle Das Nibelungenlied, the story of the magical ring forged by a dwarf from gold stolen from a god (in this case, the Rhine River). (The parallel Scandinavian cycle, Volsungasaga names him Sigurd and takes its own title from his father's name, Volse -- in Wagner's version, "Waelse.") He began in 1848 with "Siegfried's Death," which became Goetterdaemmerung, and then, as he realized that the audience was going to need more background, worked backward in his story outlines, through Siegfried, Die Walkuere, and Das Rheingold. He actually began composing the music in 1853, but left off in 1857 to write Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg. The whole cycle was completed in 1874, but not performed in its entirety until the opening of the theater built to Wagner's specifications at Bayreuth in 1876. I think perhaps the only thing more ambitious than the creation of such a cycle is the actual attempt to perform it.

Frankly, if you want a plot summary, look up the cycle or the individual operas in Wikipedia or someplace because anything long enough to be clear is going to be too long for this review. What is most important about this cycle is that, whatever you may think of Wagner or his music, whatever you have heard from others or whatever your own experience has been, what he put into these four operas is simply everything that matters in human life on earth: trust, betrayal, honor, integrity, love, freedom, joy, grief, responsibility, the uses and misuses of power, all of human life in both its light and dark sides. And the music is without challenge among the most compelling and beautiful ever written.

Clemens Krauss is not a conductor of whom I had heard very much, perhaps because he died relatively young, in 1954, shortly after this Ring was taped. I picked this one for several reasons. I have Solti's recording on vinyl, which was the first complete recording to be issued, and it has always been my standard. Most of the cast is the same in this one, with some notable exceptions: Astrid Varnay, about whom I had heard good things, sings Bruennhilde, and she is an eye-opener. It's a brilliant performance, more intimate than Nilsson's later renderings and a stronger, more capable voice than that of Gwyneth Jones, who is the other Bruennhilde of whom I have strong memories. Ramon Vinay, as Siegmund, and Regina Resnik, in the days before she moved down to mezzo, as Sieglinde, are perfectly matched, and Vinay brings a dark, understated quality to his rendering that not only adds a new dimension in Act I of Walkuere, but turns the end of Act II, the entire Todesverkundigung into one of the most heartbreaking scenes I've ever heard, fully on par with Hans Hotter's unmatched performance of the "Leb' wohl" at the end of Solti's recording of the opera.

Hotter in this recording is at the peak of his vocal power, and it's an education to follow him from the brash, arrogant young Wotan of Rheingold through the more sober lord of heaven forced to make the right decision in Walkuere, to the doomridden god at the end of the cycle who knows he no longer has any control over events. In Solti's recording (in which the role in Rheingold was sung by George London) Hotter's voice was pretty much gone, but his ownership of the role was such that his acting not only carried him through but put his performance on a level seldom achieved by mortals. I'm not sure which I prefer.

Gustav Neidlinger owned the role of Alberich, the dwarf who started the whole thing, pretty much throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s. He delivers all the power the role demands, and in the later operas he is chilling, dark and threatening; one has a sense that the lid is barely on a creature who has become nothing but a walking obsession. It's in the Rheingold Alberich that the most marked differences appear. He is near-perfect in this recording, but in Solti's later version he has a completely unhinged quality in the scene in which Wotan takes the Ring from him -- he is absolutely spitting venom, and the final line of his curse becomes a shriek. Totally scary.

The other major member of the cast who needs comment is, of course, Siegfried. Wolfgang Windgassen, who for me has always been "the" Siegfried, was an innovation when this recording was made. If you've ever heard any of the recordings of the great Heldentenors of the 1930s and 1940s, their voices are somewhat heavier, "meatier." Windgassen projects an amazingly youthful sound, energetic, clear, lighthearted, bumptious and even mischievous. Robert Levine, who wrote the very informative notes, comments that he missed the beat in the forging scene but recovered quickly -- so quickly that I can't find it when I listen. (The Forging Scene, by the way, is just great, even with the oops. Woohoo!)

One thing that I want to stress here, and I think this holds true of Wagner's operas more than most: you can get away with singing a role in Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, even Mozart. You can't in Wagner. You have to act it: Wagner called his works "music dramas," and the emphasis is evenly divided. There are simply times when vocal quality and musicality are of secondary importance to the psychology of the character at that moment, and this cast delivers, again and again.

About the recordings themselves: yes, they are live, from the 1953 Bayreuth Festival. The sound quality is pretty good, although there are some signs of age here and there. Frankly, I've got "vintage" reissues that are much worse. It seems to be the larger orchestral passages that suffer from the limited tonal range sometimes evident in early recordings (which actually, as late as 1953, shouldn't have been a problem), but the close-in vocal parts come through just fine.

And finally, the guiding force behind all this. Krauss seems to have taken what is best about all the other well-known conductors of Wagner and put it together in an amazing Ring. He brings all of Solti's majesty, von Karajan's febrile enegy, Levine's intelligence and Furtwaegler's dark moodiness, and adds his own intimate humanity. While I might prefer some portions, particular scenes perhaps, of other recordings because of a certain characterization or vocal quality, overall this one makes every other recording (and the couple of live performances) I've heard) also-rans. The version I have here is a fourteen-CD reissue of the one actually listed, with stunning Art Deco-inspired illustrations by John Martinez. The booklet is also beautifully done, with a design by Modesty Marie Sablan incorporating Martinez' illustrations, Robert Levine's essay, and clear synopses of each opera by Bill Parker. You can also view a complete libretto with English translation at www.allegro-music.com/opd/ringlibretto.

PS -- this is also one of the less expensive sets available, coming in around $60 complete, and it's worth every penny.