I have seen the Ring Cycle several times over the past two decades, and have enjoyed them immensely. So, with much anticipation, I went to Das Rheingold last night at the Royal Opera. As with any great opera, there is much room for interpretation even when the current production was first staged as individual operas a couple of years ago. The musical passage that depicted Fasolt's longing for Freia was played out with much tenderness, though I was not sure about Albericht pricking his eye with Wotan's spear after the former had cursed the infamous ring. The set looks more bedded in without the initial awkwardness. The Valhalla / Rainbow music was magical with a bit of restrain that gave an inkling of what is to come.
Those of us London-centric folks easily forget there are great concert halls in other parts of the world. I remember as a young kid buying DG LPs with von Karajan on the front cover conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. So as my first visit to the city, a visit to the Philharmonie to listen to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was a must. Ivan Fisher started the evening's concert with Haydn Symphony 88. A light and delightful work. As I'd expected, the acoustic of the hall was amazing - probably a good 2.5 second of reverberation - and much more generous than the Royal Festival Hall in London. The strings sounded sweet and the timpani came through clearly with definition. The audience was then treated to Béla Bartók's Seven Pieces for Choir and Chamber Orchestra: the Berlin Phil reduced in size occupying only half of the stage while the Netherlands Youth Choir took the other half. These young performers (all female) sang in Hungarian from memory - not easy at all - and rea...
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