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slide show of stage set designs for the Metropolitan Opera's Ring Cycle (1987-2000): Die Walküre |
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Das Rheingold | Die Walkure | Siegfried | Gotterdammerung |  |
This truly Wagnerian Ring of the Nibelung reaches heights of romanticism with the technological tools of the space age which Wagner himself surely would have used had they been available in his day.
"In Die Walküre... the difficult task that stood before me was at the conclusion - the magic fire, which is the most feared task for the director and stage designer. We had a device built, from which silvery tongues of flame are blown by ventilators and with which smoke is introduced. Units such as these were installed on several places. I believe, I can say that it was the most beautiful magic fire ever done. The fire was refined with projections,... giving the picture a fantastic realism while at the same time implying ominous repercussions for the whole world....
Front light and back light... everything working together yielded magnificent color effects on the rocks, which were painted only in black and white..."*
[From G. Schneider-Siemssen in conversation with K. Pahlen: Die Bühne, mein Leben , Springer Verlag 1996; (The Stage, My Life - English translation by James Mulder, in press)]
Elsewhere in FanFaire... more on Richard Wagner, The Ring Cycle and the Ring at the Met.
