Word: gotterdammerung
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...rainbow bridge in Rheingold, the bridge is projected through a transparency onto the rear wall of the stage; Brunnhilde's enchantment at the end of Walkure occurs atop a ladder, wrapped in a crimson cape and defended by a cordon of flashing lights; for the funeral march in Gotterdammerung, Siegfried's body is set in a huge wooden cart that Brunnhilde, haloed by a spotlight, pulls along. Sellars manages these scenes better than many directors with far more money and resources at their disposal...
...decade to combat this problem. Using Andrew Porter's excellent modern translation, the English singers under Reginald Goodall's direction have gained an international reputation for their production. They've also been recording the operas, one by one, from live performances, and with the release last month of their Gotterdammerung (in translation, Twilight of the Gods), the entire cycle is now complete, in English, on record...
...this intellectual dilly-dallying left the actual story line in woeful shape. Particularly in Gotterdammerung, there are major inconsistencies--most spectacularly, it seems the gods who expire in a blaze of flame and music at the very end need not perish at all, since the ring which had doomed them is back in the hands of its rightful owners...
Translating Gotterdammerung just forces casual listeners to notice these troubles, which they could ignore when they weren't following the plot carefully and just revelled in the glorious music. The music is what we respect Wagner for today; his ill-conceived theories about unity of drama and music, based on very frail analogy to classical Greek tragedy, now find few admirers, especially since he himself failed to apply them carefully. And the music is much less well-served by this recording sonically and artistically than by Georg Solti's classic 1964 Decca set. If there is a need for Wagner...
...black holes are gradually "evaporating," leaking subatomic particles and high-energy gamma rays back into the universe and rising in temperature. After billions of years, according to Hawking's calculations, the minuscule hole, unlike its large brother, can no longer sustain the buildup of heat and expires in a Gotterdammerung-like blast comparable to the explosion of millions of H-bombs...