At The Opera Ring 🛟 Cycle begins tonight.

[usonian]

Hear Sean's commentary, and hopefully Anna Russel's brilliant take-off on the cycle. He plays it every year.

Hear all four, or as Anna says, wait for #4 and the first three are re-capped there.

From Sean:

After a fantastic Tiki Lounge at 5pm tune in at 7pm to hear the first installment of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle, Das Rheingold. This year we will have the 1959 Solti recording on DECCA.

Tiki Lounge at 5pm and At the Opera at 7pm.
Rebroadcasts of the Tiki Lounge on Sundays and Friday at 8am and 5pm and At the Opera replays at 10am and 7pm on Sundays and Fridays with a Saturday morning rebroadcast staring at 8am.

PACIFIC TIME

https://live365.com/station/Bianco-s-Opera-Lounge-a27807

Not from Sean.

Of course, having grown up in the 60's, Rheingold is 🍺 beer 🍺 to me always, and

The Estudiantina waltz (or Band of Students Waltz) by Émile Waldteufel, is forever in my musical brain.

The Golden Girls remember it, too

[Aristus]

1. I'm going to see "Das Rheingold" tomorrow at Tacoma Opera.

The first time a Ring opera has ever been performed in Tacoma. History in the making. They plan on doing a Ring opera a year for the next four years. Quite an undertaking for a small opera company.

I saw Rheingold at Pacific Opera in Victoria, B.C. a few years ago. A similarly small company. And they hit it out of the park with a brilliant production. Marvelous.

[usonian]

2. Woo Hoo

Anna Russell is on right now.

Oh, here it is any time.

[Aristus]

3. The opera was incredible.

You can't have a good "Rheingold" without a superb Alberich and Loge, and they were fantastic. Wotan was very good; and it was the singer's first appearance in the role. He's got a great career as a Wagnerian ahead of him.

The one criticism was the orchestra. It didn't do very well. One wonders if it wasn't up to the challenge. The horns kept breaking at the worst possible times, the overall sound was muddy, they were piano when they should have been forte, and forte when they should have been piano.

All in all, an excellent entry for Tacoma Opera into Wagner's "Ring".

[usonian]

4. Too bad about the orchestra.

But glad that the singers shone.

I listened to At The Opera until I conked out.

I often listen to the Operavore channel on WQXR (I use the app). Sure, it's short attention span theatre but it gets me interested in operas I am less familiar with.

Iolanta?

Sean Bianco built a library of performances at capradio before a monster fiscal fiasco was uncovered and his 25 year long show was cancelled in the ruins, but they do maintain the archives. Stopped in 2023.

https://www.capradio.org/classical/at-the-opera/