Comments on: The Ring of the Nibelung, ranked act by act (Part 1 of 4) http://dfan.org/blog/2009/08/26/the-ring-of-the-nibelung-ranked-act-by-act-part-1-of-4/ Sun, 13 May 2012 04:23:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: dfan http://dfan.org/blog/2009/08/26/the-ring-of-the-nibelung-ranked-act-by-act-part-1-of-4/comment-page-1/#comment-8382 dfan Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:56:27 +0000 http://dfan.org/blog/?p=974#comment-8382 Yeah, I'm with you on most of that, but I actually do like the Wotan scenes that start out Act III; Wagner even manages to make an Erda scene interesting. Then things admittedly grind to a halt for a while before Brünnhilde wakes up - I'm always surprised how long that takes. Yeah, I’m with you on most of that, but I actually do like the Wotan scenes that start out Act III; Wagner even manages to make an Erda scene interesting. Then things admittedly grind to a halt for a while before Brünnhilde wakes up – I’m always surprised how long that takes.

]]> By: Zoe Lang http://dfan.org/blog/2009/08/26/the-ring-of-the-nibelung-ranked-act-by-act-part-1-of-4/comment-page-1/#comment-8375 Zoe Lang Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:49:07 +0000 http://dfan.org/blog/?p=974#comment-8375 Hi Dan, thanks for passing along this list! What I find even more excruciating, actually, is the end of Act II of _Siegfried_ (let's say after the dragon part, which is kind of cool) into Act III (right where Bruennhilde wakes up, actually). There are so many reasons, but here are a few: 1) The bird. The bird is great. Lovely in fact. But it spends too much time giving information, especially considering... 2) At the start of Act III, Siegfried basically ignores any and all information that the bird told him in the previous act ('I wonder who this is atop the hill of burning fire' -- were there numerous hilltops ablaze or something?); 3) There is a point in the overture to Act III where Wagner resorts to a descending chromatic scale. That tells you that you are in for a looooooooooooong act! But it does pick up, in my view, as you go along. Hi Dan, thanks for passing along this list! What I find even more excruciating, actually, is the end of Act II of _Siegfried_ (let’s say after the dragon part, which is kind of cool) into Act III (right where Bruennhilde wakes up, actually). There are so many reasons, but here are a few:

1) The bird. The bird is great. Lovely in fact. But it spends too much time giving information, especially considering…
2) At the start of Act III, Siegfried basically ignores any and all information that the bird told him in the previous act (‘I wonder who this is atop the hill of burning fire’ — were there numerous hilltops ablaze or something?);
3) There is a point in the overture to Act III where Wagner resorts to a descending chromatic scale. That tells you that you are in for a looooooooooooong act! But it does pick up, in my view, as you go along.

]]> By: Liza Daly http://dfan.org/blog/2009/08/26/the-ring-of-the-nibelung-ranked-act-by-act-part-1-of-4/comment-page-1/#comment-4972 Liza Daly Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:12:48 +0000 http://dfan.org/blog/?p=974#comment-4972 <i>the climax with Siegfried and Brünnhilde is great, but it takes so long to get there</i> This is true of many things. the climax with Siegfried and Brünnhilde is great, but it takes so long to get there

This is true of many things.

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