Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Some Historical Wagnerians

Emile Fischer as Wotan, 1889.

Luise Jaide as Waltraute, 1876. Possibly a favorite of the guys who drew Bugs Bunny.

Clarence Whitehill as the Wanderer, the guise in which Wotan meets and instructs Siegfried, 1907

David Bispham as Alberich, c. 1900.

Fritz Feinhals as Wotan, 1903.

Edyth Walker as Brunnhilde, c. 1900

If you want an introduction to the Ring cycle you can watch all of Das Rheingold here with English subtitles. The conductor is Pierre Boulez and the staging is by Patrice Chéreau; this production is visually fine and sounds ok, too. There are better sound recordings but opera is drama, not just music, and I have trouble listening without seeing.

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