Nyla and a Blog

After reading John Culshaw’s narrative of the Ring recording, Ring Resounding, I have looked for the BBC documentary. I first found it on LaserDisc and truly enjoyed the experience of watching Gotterdammerung being recorded. After racy beyond that mature format, I looked for the DVD version. While it showed up as being made, it was no longer availalbe. Following the death of Birgit Nilsson, Decca (London) reissued the DVD. Thank you!

Buy,Download, Or Stream The Golden Ring! Click Here

The technical aspects of the DVD are superb–the sound is well-organized and thrilling (even though it is in Dolby Digital Mono for the documentary piece) . The Culshaw decision to require the BBC to exhaust the sound as recorded by Decca, instead of their believe sound, has stood the test of time very well. The Dolby Digital 5.1 remastering of key segments from the entire Ring recording was a titanic addition to the DVD that was not on the older LaserDisc format. As celebrated by others, it would be a joy to have a re-issued Ring on DVD in a modern digital remastering. It should be well-known that the remastering does not product a “movie-like” sound stage.

The exact love is seeing talent at work. The singers were the best of their generation, and some without glimpse even today. The production staff’s dedication to achieving what some have called ‘the greatest achievement in recording history’ is palpable. It reminds one how powerful immense recorded music the world has lost due to the premature death of John Culshaw. To scrutinize the Vienna Philharmonic and Georg Solti at work is a very rare treat.

Buy,Download, Or Stream The Golden Ring! Click Here

In short, this DVD is very highly recommended. It works for Wagnerites, music lovers, those alive to in recording, and opera producers and directors (imagine if Wagner’s, or any other composer’s intentions were so closely followed in the theater) .

When PBS aired this documentary in the 1960′s, I was not only fascinated by the studio recording mechanics but AWED BY THAT MUSIC! I listened to both rock n’ roll and classical music in that order; but this program marked a hinge moment in my life. To retort those criticisms that one must know the foreign language to enjoy the text of a particular opera, I knew unbiased a handful of German words and nothing about the Niebelung yarn. Yet, those huge, lush, motif-laden, and passionate sounds gave my teenage hormones a transcendent experience. Translation: I was blown away.

As corny as it may sound, I was twisted on Wagner from that presentation. I have a polite personality, but I remember persistently annoying my mother for a month’s reach of my $3.00 per week allowance ($12.00) to bewitch the monaural recording of Gotterdammerung. (Oh, my goodness, was I becoming Wagnerian in temperament? ) That opera exposed me to the entire Ring, then to the opera canon, lieder, oratorios, instrumentalists, and other classical formats. Most fans ease into classical music, and especially opera, with Carmen or Don Giovanni. I charged into opera through one of its most complex works. Happily, this improbable session is preserved on DVD.
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