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The Copenhagen Ring: The Complete DVD Set | 
 enlarge | Actors: Stig Andersen, Irenie Theorin, Gitta-maria Sjoberg, Johan Reuter, Stephen Milling
Studio: Decca
Category: DVD
List Price: $119.98
Buy New: $65.28
You Save: $54.70 (46%)
New (23) Used (7) from $65.28
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 18459
Format: Ac-3, Box Set, Classical, Color, Dolby, Dts Surround Sound, Dvd-video, Ntsc, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen
Languages: German (Original Language), Chinese (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), German (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 7
Running Time: 920
Discs: 7
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.5 x 2.5
UPC: 044007432648
EAN: 0044007432648
ASIN: B0019LZ19O
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
Release Date: August 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
First release of the acclaimed recent Ring Cycle production at the Royal Danish Opera. Striking, memorable and controversial staging by Kasper Bech Holten. The action, experienced as an extended flashback, presents Wagner s epic as a family saga from a feminist perspective. The production is visually stunning, disturbing and at times explicit. Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 A Provincial Ring October 23, 2008
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
If you are a pro-Wagnerian, you probably don't mind spending $80 for a provincial Ring. If you are a novice, Chereau/Boulez's Ring is the one to go. If you do mind spending $80 just for The three Norns and/or the discussion of the Queen and the producer, then save your money for a bottle of Bordeaux or single malt.
 Copenhagen Ring October 7, 2008
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is a very uneven production of the Ring, it is perhaps the best dramatic version of the Ring, but many in the cast are weak, and this is above all true of Brunhilde who is so foolishly made the center of this production. I regret that I bought this and would be happy to sell it.
tjja@verizon.net
 A Ring that makes you think October 6, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
People are calling the Copenhagen Ring the feminist Ring and that is certainly true. The meta-structure is Brunnhilde discovering her heritage at the end of Act II of Gotterdamerung. That is certainly true. But it is also a relational Ring. I have seldom seen the level of interaction between characters in an opera. The video helps (or hurts depending on your prejudices) by its close ups especially of other characters than the one singing. For example in Rheingold Woman and Loge are casing Alberich's realm while Mime whines about his life.
It is also an extremely violent Ring. Many more characters die than in Wagner's libretto. Only Brunnhilde makes it out alive. The death of Siegfried is especially gruesome. But then so are all the deaths.
And finally it is an alcoholic Ring. Alberich gets staggering drunk in the first scene of Rheingold. Woman carries around a liquor flask from which he swigs frequently. Siegfried passes up liquor in the first act. Bit by Gotterdamerung he has developed quite a taste for booze.
The violence and the drink help to make the case for the brutality of patriarchy. Again and again the production team (and this is a team effort) delivers a shock. And then upon reflection you realize that although not in Wagner's libretto it is not against the plot or the music. Indeed some of the actions seem right on.
This is the most exciting Ring I have seen. You can't wait to see what they will do next. And for me most of the things they do add to my understanding of the work. Setting it in the 20th century brings home what it is about. They have taken Wagner's original as archetypes and then enfleshed them in concrete 20th century characters and situations. I feel it works very well. I'm not sure someone with no knowledge of the Ring would make of it, but for this confirmed Wagnerholic was an eye opener.
So what about the cast - the singing and acting. It is not the best sung on DVD. But it is damn good. The only flaw in the cast is Hunding who simply does not have the weight in his voice for the role. This is too bad since they have a great bass in Hunding who is truly menacing in this production. All the singer appear to be Danish or Scandinavian. The only one I know is Stig Anderson and I feel he delivers the finest Siegfried I have ever seen. He manages to incarnate a teenager wonderfully even though his face is a few decades older than Siegfried's 18 years. Then in Gotterdamerung he becomes the oaf: even before the magic potion he is cruising Gutrune. Someone has said that they find this Ring cold. I believe it is the first time I have actually shed tears a Siegfried's death. Brunnhilde almost matches him growing from girl to woman. Above all they can sing.
Approaching the end of Gotterdamerung every one wonders how they will bring it off, if they will bring it off. They bring it off, but before the transform the Immolation scene beautifully. This is usually a stand and deliver scene. Not here. When Brunnhilde addresses Woman she really does so. He is seated in a huge chair with this back to the audience waiting to die. Before Brunnhilde has addressed Siegfried's corpse. As Siegfried dies Brunnhilde is with him. Put these two scenes together and you have a final love duet - each singing to the silent partner. It you love the Ring you owe it to yourself to see this magical production from Copenhagen.
Absolutely Magnificent September 14, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
In many ways this by far the best Ring on DVD and I have had three others and parts of a fourth. One, the Levine, I gave away. While updated to the 20th century, this is NOT Euro-trash and all in all as drama it works splendidly, particularly in the so called "boring parts". A group of singing actors soar into the drama with no holds barred and they play to a very knowing camera crew who keep the drama of the moment alive by at times focusing appropriately on how an other character respond to what is sung as well as on the singer in question. Each singer is in character at all times. And the singing, with one minor exception, is first class. The staging is spectacular. Thus this is by far the best Sigfried I have ever seen. And I mention this because, before seeing this DVD, I had thought Sigfried the weakest of the dramas. You may have read of some of the gimmicks in this production such as the rheingold being a nude male swimmer. The fact is, though, that within the context of this production the so called gimmicks work. Everything is well thought out, even the makeup. It is surely one of the great opera sets on DVD.
The best DVD production of the Ring September 2, 2008
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
This Ring is different from all other Rings on DVD and is mostly successful in what it aims to bring. It is wonderful to have this pinnacle of operatic spectacles in a staging worthy of the subject, a stage with `actors who can sing' as Wagner wished it. The singers do act as if in a movie and the DVD has been filmed as a dramatic movie, not as a static stage performance though a live stage performance it of course is. This may at times be a bit tiresome as images and image angles may seem to switch a bit too often but most of the time by far this cinematographic approach pays off well and enhances the drama without disturbing the operatic enjoyment. The result is an experience unlike the live experience in the opera house itself but I'm inclined to say the choice was well made. After all, a film on DVD is not a stage performance even if it is based on one.
Staging and acting, all of the visuals are evidently extremely important in a DVD release and the Copenhagen Ring gives you decors to relish and acting on a very high and convincing level indeed. As in the Boulez Ring, the acting closely follows the music and specifically the text though it may sometimes appear to stretch the imagination a little too far. The film quality in itself is superb and so is the sound.
Speaking of sound, the orchestra is more than up to the task. No one I think expects this orchestra and this conductor to give the best-ever performance of Wagner's Ring on record. It is however more than adequate to deliver a good reading that never disappoints and often impresses.
There are moments when the singing (never less than adequate, often quite good) struggles without really succeeding to rise above the orchestra. It is noticeable and thus it is a blemish albeit a small one and more forgivable in a live performance than in a studio recording.
A few remarks on the side : Hagen acted splendidly but his voice was less impressive. Siegfried in Goetterdaemmerung was not that strong either. Bruennhilde was great.
There was one scene that I thoroughly disliked : the Norns in the introduction to Goetterdaemmerung really knew how to irritate me, making by exaggerated playacting a parody out of what could have been an original idea (casting the Norns as members of the audience), it simply does not fit in the whole and to me it stands out as a black spot on this otherwise quite excellently directed Ring.
I feared for even worse when the curtain rose on Siegfried and Bruennhilde's farewell scene and uncovered a sight that awakened horrified memories of Konwitschny's Goetterdaemmerung (for those who watched it in the Stuttgart Ring) : you will see Siegfried donning an apron to start doing the washing-up (a la Konwitschny) but then Bruennhilde gestures him not to be silly and to take it off again, and the story starts at last to unfold again in a Wagnerian mould. So was this only a director's joke ? If so, I find it out of place in a production such as this one.
In short, this is a very good production and a very good DVD release with some weak moments that do not fundamentally alter the overall impression of a rewarding experience. If it weren't for the Norns, I'd give it overall five stars despite of a number of imperfections here and there. The first three parts of the cycle deserve five stars, the fourth only four (without counting the Norns) or three (when counting the Norns).
Should you watch this Ring ? Yes, absolutely.
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