June 3’s performance of Siegfried was a disappointment. John Treleaven’s vocal performance as Siegfried was lackluster throughout, and especially in Act I. Graham Clark’s Mime was adequate, but a bit heavy on the comic at the expense of musicality. The supporting characters did a fine job, with strong performances by Vitalij Kowaljow as the Wanderer, Eric Halfvarson as Fafner, Stacey Tappan as the forest bird, and Jill Grove as Erda. Richard Paul Fink gave an outstanding performance as Alberich. Linda Watson’s Brünnhilde was undistracting, but lacked the beautiful vocalism one seeks from the character in Act III. Read More »
Is it possible to write a synthesizer language that can generate every unique waveform, given finite constraints of bitrate, sample rate, and computational capacity?
PS — I haven’t forgotten about the other reviews of the Ring Cycle. I’m just finishing up a class and will get right back on posting them.
Going into Sunday’s performance of Die Walküre I was preoccupied by one question above all: would Plácido Domingo manage to breathe dramatic and musical life into the difficult to like character of Siegmund? The answer was a resounding “Yes!” Not only that, virtually the entire cast gave outstanding performances. Domingo had no trouble getting his voice over the orchestra while still producing a beautiful tone. Though Achim Freyer’s blocking didn’t leave much room for acting, Domingo still managed to lend his Siegmund some romantic charm. Michelle DeYoung’s gripping Sieglinde more than matched Domingo’s Siegmund in both vocal virtuosity, beauty and power, and in dramatic presence. Domingo’s Winterstürme, and the pair’s ensuing duet finale of Act I were the highlight of the evening. Read More »
