Thursday, May 5, 2011

DIE WALKURE

DIE WALKURE:

Months ago, my friend Melissa asked a bunch of us if we wanted to get tickets to Die Walkure, the Wagner opera. Not knowing anything about Wagner’s Ring Cycle Operas, I said, “sure, great!” then, “so how long is this?” 5.5 hours of opera seemed epic (two intermissions! and the actual Ride of the Valkeries song – but not in Apocalypse Now or Loony Tunes – you can see how little I know about Wagner) but it was … really good. Really, really good. I’m so glad I saw it.


You can see the evolution of my attitude throughout the evening — this was at the beginning:



There are completely ridiculous moments. Usually the moment when a couple realizes they’re brother and sister is a bit of a downer, but not in this opera! However, I wasn’t expecting Brunnhilde, she of the breastplate and horned helmet fame, to be as complex and sympathetic a character as she was. Or the scene where her father says goodbye to her to be as touching as it was.



Totally converted —- now there’s only 9.5 more hours of the Ring Cycle left to go!



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