Re: Burning questions about the Ring's symbolism and leitmotifs

The message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Canyon Rick) contains these words:

{snip}

(btw, does anyone remember
> the picture on the cover of the Jankowski (sp?) low budget GD?  No one
> ever mentions this particular cycle and as I recall when it came out
> 30+ years ago, reviews weren't all that bad.  I think Fritz Uhl--a
> perfect low budget heldentenor--was in it.)

Oh, it does get mentioned, and often favourably. Its fate is that of the
quite good sandwiched between the superb and the dire, hence passed over
in both directions. It also suffers from a Wotan whom many, myself
included, can hardly bear (on disc -- I liked him on stage, at least as
the Dutchman) and who is heard to better effect on the Bohm Bayreuth
set; also a decent but rather colourless Brunnhilde, as well as some
mediocre East Germans in the lesser roles. But despite all that I quite
like it. It was the first all-digital Ring, and went all out for clarity
of sound; and Janowski's conducting, for me, is also very direct and
clear, free of affectation and artifice. And to offset the bad voices
there's some enterprising casting -- Peter Schreier, for example. The
result is fresh and mercifully unponderous, and as such achieves
everything Boulez was trying to and to my mind fails to.

Afraid Uhl wasn't in it, though. He sang Loge in the Swarovsky Ring, the
one that was originally released on Westminster LP with their truly
remarkable covers. Walkure I remember as a naked girl clutching two VW
hubcaps to her bosom. Gotterdammerung would no doubt have been similar,
so I presume that's the one you're referring to -- with some relevance
to CR's post on male chauvinism! The Janowski was originally released on
LP opera by opera  in some rather snazzy packaging, in Europe at least.
Rheingold featured illos by some German of the Edwardian years, quite
vivid and atmospheric but rather hilariously gender-bending, everyone
half-naked, but, as with Michaelangelo, all the women looking like
bodybuilders with breasts. The CD packaging restored the balance by
featuring Rackham's delightful young Rhinemaidens......

Oh god, I *am* an MCP.**

Oh well, might as well enjoy it. Those Westminster covers -- the one
that sticks in my mind was for "An American in Paris". It featured a
swarthy, unshaven individual in beret and striped jersey, leering and
cringing into camera while holding open his coat to reveal swathes of
"feelthy postcards". Or Berlioz' Romeo et Juliette, the superb Munch
version -- double LP sleeve showed reclining and starkers young couple
in direct imitation of the Zeffirelli film pose that was so iconic at
the time, vaselined lens and all. Except that when you turned to the
back cover, showing Romeo's feet, he'd kept his socks on. I can only
imagine what Munch would have said -- or for that matter Berlioz.

Cheers,

Mike

**P.S. be that as it may, I'm also married to a devoted Wagnerian who
STOOD through the Ring when she was studying in Vienna. Indeed that was
the basis of our first acquaintance, and I've been favoured with the
feminine perspective ever since. Opinions she has, she just doesn't seem
too interested in posting them. Maybe other women feel much the same --
not uninterested, just leaving the boys to their games.

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