Wagner's Dream

Great backstage look at the Met and the Machine
I will start by saying that I wasn't a great fan of this production, having seen the first two operas onscreen and the second two at the Met -I found the Machine ultimately limited the production in that it dominated the stage. Having said that, I found this to be a fascinating film, both to see how the Machine was designed (started as a wood model with strings), its construction, and its installation and use at the Met. You really get a great look at the Met and its facilities, but more importantly see many of the people involved in putting on the Ring, from stagehands to leading singers. There is real human drama here as you watch singers (and body doubles) rehearse and perform on the Machine, and react to it. It is amazing to see the Rhinemaidens get used to swimming in front of it as they hung from cables, with at least one maiden seemingly scared to death. One segment that draws attention is seeing Deborah Voight take a rather nasty slip as she started up one of the planks,...

THIS IS ALREADY INCLUDED IN THE DVD & BLU-RAY SETS!
This lovely 2-hour documentary on the making of the 2011/2012 Met Ring is already included in Wagner: Der Ring Des Nibelungen [Blu-ray] and Wagner: Der Ring Des Nibelungen. You do NOT need to purchase it separately.

This documentary is also a "Wagnerian's Dream"
Wagnerians are fortunate to have some skillfully produced documentaries about recording the Ring. One is The Golden Ring, a 1965 BBC film on Sir Georg Solti's legendary audio recording of the Ring. Another famous one is about Patrice Chéreau's 1976 Bayreuth production, The Making of Der Ring des Nibelungen. Both documentaries attracted new audiences to the music of Wagner and to the world of opera. Unfortunately, we don't have a documentary film about the beloved romantic production by Schneider-Siemssen and Otto Schenk that lasted 20 years at the Met; the only testimony is the excerpts from the book "Die Buhne-mein Leben" by Schneider-Siemssen and K. Pahlen (2001), published in English as "The Stage- My Life" (2009).

This deocumentary is included in the box set that Deutsche Grammophon ia distributing with the entire "Ring of the Nibelung" (8-DVDs and 5 Blu-ray discs). The movie follows an almost chronological order, from January 2008 (Quebec City) to the opening...

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