Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Duly Noted Epic Ring Cycle broadcast comes to a close with Götterdämmerung
Posted by Andrew Alexander on Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 8:59 PM
We've laughed together, we've cried together, and we've broken out our illicit hummus and Big K colas together. We marveled at the gorgeously undulating planks of "the machine" as the opening notes of Das Rheingold sounded, and then we comforted each other when we realized that the machine's effects were pretty much all downhill from there (Often literally downhill: at one point singers entered the hallowed realm of the gods by sliding down the slanted planks of the machine. I remember thinking: "I can't be 100% certain... It happened so quickly... If someone had told me about this I wouldn't have quite believed them... But if I'm not mistaken.... Yes, it did happen... I think it's true... I believe a soprano just entered the stage of the Metropolitan Opera by sliding in on her belly.")
We looked at our watches in unison as Bryn Terfel's Wotan explained the entire origin and history of the Wagnerian universe in the second act of Die Walküre. And we all fell in love with Jay Hunter Morris, the wonderful and open-hearted understudy who heroically stepped into the punishing role of Siegfried at the last minute: The show must go on... And on.... and on... And I think we all contemplated, at some point, the true meaning of the immortal words of Mark Twain when he said, "Wagner's music is better than it sounds."
All in all, it's actually been a pretty cool journey, and it's one that perhaps everyone should make at some point. I'm excited to round the final lap. The last opera has to do with the end of the world: The old gods have sealed their own doom for sure, and I don't think things will end well for them. A friend of mine refers to the first three operas in the Ring Cycle as merely the "build up" and the last as "the cum shot." That seems to promise quite a lot. We'll see if Wagner and the ever-amazing Metropolitan Opera can deliver this Saturday.
The Metropolitan Opera broadcasts the final opera in Wagner's Ring Cycle live in high-definition to movie theaters around Atlanta this Saturday, February 11, at 12 p.m. For tickets and showtimes visit the Metropolitan Opera.
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