Word: br
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...mmerung, the ear reverberates with leitmotivs; and Wagner's gods, earthlings, dwarfs and dragons seem familiar, necessary, among the mind's permanent emotional reference points. One gasps at the death of Siegfried, even if he is the sort who will take a drink from anybody. One worships Brünnhilde as the lover and idealist...
...high beauty of a monster that requires eight stagehands to operate. London's conception is not perfect: he may not put the Valkyries on wheels, but having them cavort like chorus girls is not an improvement. There is no bear for Siegfried to tug, alas, nor does Brünnhilde ride a horse into the pyre. But she does sleep on a genuine jagged peak-not just some symbolic platform. Reversing another current fashion, London puts light rather than gloom on everything, and the operagoer does not have to view the whole show through a front scrim...
...cast is strong. At 6 ft. 10 in., Harvard Graduate Noel Tyl, 38, is easily the most imposing Wotan in the business. Since there are few good Wotans around now and since Tyl has a rich Heldenbariton, he seems to have a bright future. As Brünnhilde, Norway's Ingrid Bjoner sings the music with yearning and power. Germany's Herbert Becker (Siegmund and Siegfried) is not the most passionate Heldentenor around, but he sings all the music-and that in itself is no small achievement-with taste and control. The character parts are well cast, particularly...
...Orchestra Hall for Solti's concert performance of Act III of Wagner's Die Götterdämmerung They witnessed a true musical event. Tenor Jess Thomas died magnificently as Siegfried, and the audience could almost feel the flames as Soprano Helga Dernesch submitted herself to Brünnhilde's immolation. It was a remarkable performance, a fitting finish to Solti's successful spring stint in Chicago. If Chicagoans needed any reminder, the spirited and darkly dramatic rendition of Götterdämmerung demonstrated anew that there is not an opera house orchestra anywhere...
...bleakly enough, with none of the smiles and handshakes that had characterized the autumn meetings. No one greeted Kissinger when he arrived at the Communist villa in exurban Gif-sur-Yvette on the first morning, and he had to open the door himself. Next day at St.-Nom-La-Brêteche, the Americans received the North Vietnamese with similar coolness. By midweek, however, a measure of outward courtesy had returned. On Saturday morning, for the first time in the talks, Kissinger sent for an American-embassy photographer to take pictures at a closed session-a move that was interpreted...