Good evening owls,
Siggy kicks off at 6 PM
JSA Storytime: Ring Cycle
Adam Clark
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Aiden Morris
metopera.org
Previous thread
Samuel Moore
things to think about:
1) Siegfried is a comedy
2) It's the least frequently done of the four operas because
3) the title role is fucking impossible and the opera requires him to carry everything in it
4) Wagner took a long break between acts 2 and 3 and wrote two other operas and it shows
5) the last scene is hard going unless they're both amazing singers and alas, they are not
Brody Phillips
Comedy in the "ha ha" sense or comedy as defined by my Shakespeare teachers ("everyone gets married")? Or both?
Angel Reyes
Yes
hitting play
Anthony Robinson
>2) It's the least frequently done of the four operas because
What's the most frequent? Is it actually unusual to get the full cycle done?
Christopher Wood
So operatically, we have this long moody intro depicting the location, which is near Fafner's lair "Neidhöle". PCR, instead, is giving you the depiction of what happened after Sieglinde was saved. This is never depicted on stage, but is talked about.
Brandon Wood
Excellent!
Looking forward to this.
Jordan Cook
Most frequent is Walküre--it stands alone well enough, especially the first act, it doesn't involve the chorus so it's a bit less expensive.
A full cycle is a very expensive undertaking that is often years of prep for a house--they'll often mount the operas individually one per year and then sell a cycle
Okay I lied, I forgot this production DOES choose to stage this part, sorry
James Torres
so musically we have Mime's hammering music, which we've heard before with the Nibelungs in Rheingold
Christopher Harris
I find it interesting how DC hasn’t commented on diamond shutting down
Gabriel Morris
It's the laugh-a-minute origin story of a psychopathic ubermensch.
Brayden Wood
Landon Cooper
Hello, Storyteller.
Okay, time for the adventures of the inbred ubermensch, I guess!
Isaac Walker
What is there to say?
>"The industry was fucked, now maybe dead"
Caleb Nguyen
With a once-in-a-lifetime tenor, like the one last year at the Met, you can pull it off, but it's SO HARD
Adam Rodriguez
I really like PCR on the closeups.
Nathaniel Hall
Mime, like everyone else, wants the Ring. Note that he knows exactly what the sword is, who Siegfried is, etc.
David Miller
yes, it's always a dude in a bear suit
Evan Cruz
understandably PCR really enjoys these sequences
Anthony Mitchell
Hey OP.
John Taylor
>pops out of the womb
>immediately starts flexing
And we are already off to a fun start.
To be fair, what could they possibly say?
>Yeah, our idiotic business practices that led to the creation of a distribution monopoly has possibly destroyed the entire industry. Sorry about that.
Bentley Gomez
>"A bear? Bears are sweet!"
Michael Johnson
Xavier Sanchez
Mime is also an extremely hard role because it's talky, jagged, and less is so much more in terms of making him interesting and funny--it brings out every bad tendency in character tenors, mugging and making it too obvious
Logan Richardson
Costuming in opera is something I really don't get. Sometimes it seems important, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes they get all abstract with it, other times it's very literal.
Brandon Martin
I liked goofy animated Mime, that actually got a little bit tender-hearted.
Parker Phillips
This is the one where he kills the wabbit, right?
Tyler Powell
So the Valkyrie stream is full on down now. Oh well.
James Gutierrez
That was last night, sorry
It has a lot to do with the style of the production, and there are a lot of different approaches, etc. I can try to open up my Wagner folder and show some ranges of approach.
Yeah, Mime and Siegfried have a complex relationship that can be played a number of ways, but in the opera, Mime is ultimately out to exploit and murder him, it's not ambiguous.
Jonathan Perry
>Mime is afraid of vagina
The Ring Cycle is the original Incel Revolution. Prove me wrong. Alberich's motivation is 100% Love Me or Die.
Logan Price
Yeah, it kind of sucks when you're not in a US time zone.
Jace Bennett
you're going to have so much fun in act 3 and the last opera, lol
Xavier Gonzalez
You're pretty much right. This is actually the least incel part though, IMO.
Logan Kelly
>Story of ubermensh
>Requires unbelievably talented standout star, in a field full of people who are already incredibly skilled
That tracks.
Anthony Cox
Also: generally speaking, Siegfried is worst boy.
Jacob Robinson
I am. Hell, I'm in New York's time zone.
I just couldn't watch last night and am Essential.
I got as far as Siegmund drawing the sword.
Jonathan Cooper
It's...I just can't express how fucking hard this stuff really is. You're also supposed to look 16 and hot, and no one is ever singing this before 40.
that's the Walsungen music there, in a minor variation
Hunter Harris
>the chad siegfried vs the virgin mime
Angel Reyes
For totally unrelated reasons one time I ended up looking at how long opera singers stayed in the game and I was surprised that even historically, like way back, some of them were around for a long time.
Ryan Cruz
Now I'm just thinking of The Revenant, and Decaprio winning an Oscar for being raped by a bear.
Julian Green
oh my god, it's absolutely true
There are some crazy things like how young Varnay sang Brynnie, or Regina Resnik's career, too. Sopranos often age into the character roles, which are the most interesting women
Parker Gutierrez
Does the Met ever use live steel? These swords are pretty fake looking, (I know, not a super valid complaint)
Logan Phillips
>no fish was ever born of toad
I am almost certain there's Sonic issue one could point to that proves this statement wrong.
Evan Lopez
CHADfried
>breaks every sword he finds
>has a pet bear
>kills dragons
>bitchslaps fire for pussy
Xavier Turner
Probably not, just dangerous. Fights are variously well-staged depending on the people involved, the director, what affect they're going for (stylized versus more realistic)
Evan Rivera
why do people always say he was raped by the bear
Bentley Price
is this a bit like Midnighter and the alien owls?
Lucas Hall
I've watched enough Forged in Fire at this point to say the crystalline structure of that sword was not good. That or Mime forged in a delamination.
Nathan Nguyen
So this is one of my favorite scenes in the whole cycle, but it's also hard to pull off just the level of trolling that needs to be communicated. Also, this is where your sharp ears will be rewarded if you catch all the themes.
Xavier Brown
I have got to find a photo from when Volle sang this role last year because he looked exactly like Geralt, lol
Jeremiah Gonzalez
Wotan is trying to be nice (for a reason), and Mime keeps refusing him, so things escalate. It's very formally call and response here.
Jaxson Martinez
When Morris played this, the "I'll just sit down" is when he swept off his giant hat, and gave this fantastic grin.
Grayson Thompson
The Machine really is a pretty damn impressive piece of stagecraft.
Easton Murphy
And now we get a tour of the cosmology of the world, via Mime's questions. Note: Mime does not know who he is talking to.
Also, keeping everyone front of the stage like this helps with visibility and acoustics
Jaxon Flores
You. So far, I am inclined to believe you.
Like, I was talking shit about Odin this whole time, but goddamn.
James Flores
Not every semi-feral superman is gonna be a Tarzan.
Easton Taylor
see, Wotan is King Troll
Michael Jones
Yeah. Like first scene of Rheingold I was thinking, neat gimmick but actually they get SO MUCH use out of it.
Kayden Sanchez
Does this cycle have a best boy? They're all pretty garbage.
Robert Garcia
no, the men are all pretty much trash
Brandon Powell
Is it ever explained how Fafnir turned into a dragon, or is it just a greed metaphor? I'd say it was the ring, but the curse didn't seem to specify transformation.
Charles Wilson
Brunnhilde?
Michael Scott
Fafner has the Tarnhelm as well as the Ring
IMO she's awful in her own way, but we'll see that in action and musical commentary
Alexander Morris
my quints cannot lie!!!
Ian Collins
See, Mime knows EXACTLY what has happened