Has anyone actually listened to all four operas? If so, I take my hat off to you! I wouldn't have the patience!

I watched a bit of Siegfried and I thought it was more of a comedy than an epic! Siegfried was a total nutter who set a bear on the man who'd looked after him from childhood! He'd lived with the man nearly all his life, and yet still hadn't found the corpse of his dead mother lying in the corner of his home! Wierd or what?

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"Too many notes!"

its long as hell but its marvelous music! being a horn player its hard not to like the wagner ring cycle.

Well... there is this thing... the Bayreuther Festspiele.

...

They kind of play the whole cycle over and over, and over again.*

So I guess YES. Someone MUST have listened to all four operas.

Take your time, if you like opera you will surrender to The Ring sooner or later.



*Good bless them for this.

I've heard the operas separately, seen a couple on TV but I doubt I have the aural stamina to sit through the lot over a weekend at Bayreuth. Costs a large fortune too.

I agree with Edward Elgar's comments about Siegfried! And all on the say-so of some bird that creeps into the mise en scene!

I haven't heard all of them, what I have heard I love.

Die Walkurie is on at the Lincoln Center next month (or was it this month) I believe... I hope to attend.

I would definitely listen to all of them if some one could maybe suggest a good recording =)=)
(is there a good one with James Morris?? I'm a sucker for his Wotan!!)

~Pace e Gioia~

Bayreuth 1952. Keilberth conducts the whole Ring, and it's awsome.

Probably better to rent DVDs - or buy them as they compete easily with CDs and you do see some action (not a lot but you know Wagner. As Verdi said.....).

Siegfried is an entirely male cast except for a woodbird who takes up a couple of minutes.

Hello! This Wagner aficionado has come out of lurk today! I agree with you, Senor M, regarding "surrendering" to the Ring. As Bill Parker once wrote: "you can waste time walking around it, but it would be better to just climb up and explore it." For preliminary explorations of the Ring, a "tour-guide" can be of help. The best one I know of of Deryck Cooke's two-CD "Introduction."

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The hardest knife ill us'd doth lose his edge. Shakespeare- Sonnet 95

I've been listening to Solti's Ring cycle, and it is highly recommended.

Kudos for striking out from base camp and campaigning towards the summit! If there are observations you wish to share, feel free to post them. In terms of scale, you have to make an interdisciplinary comparison to do justice to The Ring (examples: Proust's Remembrance of Things Past or Michaelangelo's painting of the Sistene Chapel). It's that significant in Western Art. The exploration might raise questions, too. I'm just one person- but I'll apply what I know to responding.

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The hardest knife ill us'd doth lose his edge. Shakespeare- Sonnet 95

碟买了好久了，只是到现在还是对这部大作提不起兴趣...

Uhuh Care to translate this for us, sufeyang?

I just mean that I bought the CDs several years ago, but each time when I tried to get down to it ,I always lose my patience.Maybe Wagner is too heavy for me.

Yep, sure have! - They are wonderful but you're absolutely right - what a mammoth task. Having said that, I'd much rather spend a few days savouring the magnificence of the Ring than any number of shorter Italian opere serie o buffe...