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

Mike - I read your recommendations in this months Grammaphon - as for
waiting for the Bernstein Falstaff on CD I have it on Cd (It's wonderful) is
it being re-issued????  Richard
"Mike Scott Rohan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 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.
>
> -- 
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>