Das Rheingold

Opera review is back! A few months ago @alison and I went to see a simulcast of the Met's production of Das Rheingold. I was a bit skeptical of seeing an opera at a movie theatre, but it turned out tight. Before I get into my plot summary and performance assessment, i've gotta comment about the orchestra and the staging. James Levine conducted the show, and this dude rules. He's got a huge fro, and he's really enthusiastic for an old guy. Apparently he's recovering from a heart attack, but you wouldn't know it from his wild gesticulation. The guys arms were wilder than a coopt up rooster escaped from his cage and on chasing a wacky worm. The stage was crazy too--it has this big lighted struccture that they turned into a river (the rheine obvi), valhalla, and cave underworld.

So the plot is basically about how this dwarf who makes a magical ring that eventually brings down the gods. The first scene starts under the river, where these three chicks are guarding the gold that lies underneath the rheine. They're just kicking it when this dwarf comes along and starts hitting on them. The scene is kind of like Louise's circa 2006, and the rheinmaidens are having none of it. So the dwarf gets pissed, renounces love, and steals their gold. Turns out, this is magical gold, and someone who recounces love can turn it into a ring and become powerful.

Since the dwarf has renounced love and schwangled the gold, he becomes super powerful and starts to rule the underground caves. Instead of being a cool king and giving burritos to his people, he turns into a real grade A jerk and makes all the other dwarves slave away in the mines. Eric Owens played the dwarf and did a good job expressing his bitterness over love and his lust for power and shiny things.

MEANWHILE...Woton, the king of the gods, is kind of a dipass and hired these two giants to build him a badass castle, but like many americans, he didn't have the money to pay the giants. So the giants make like CountryWide and come and demand payment. So Wotan offers them his sister-in-law, but this doesn't go over so well with his wife. So then he calls on Loge, who is this wacky fun loving guy that kinda reminds me of Puck. So Loge tells them about some tight ring he heard about in the underworld that apparently some dwarf preferred to love. The giants decide they'll take the ring as payment, but if they don't have it the next day, then they'll demand Freia (Wotan's sister in law).

So Woton and Loge go into the underworld and see Albrecht the dwarf being an asshole to the other dwarves. Apparently Albrecht wants to make a magical helmet that would make him invisible. Woton or Loge ( i forget) dares Albrecht to turn himself into a toad, and Albrecht is a dipass and goes for it. Woton then puts the toad into a jar and after some hijinks, schwangles the ring. Albrehct is pretty pissed, but couldn't really do anything besides put a curse on the ring. Woton doesn't really care about some dwarf curse, though, and gives the ring to the giants and then Woton and some other gods go into their new castle. Prumably Woton has a big tv in the castle.

Generally i liked this opera. The music was tight, though you've got to be in the right mood. Its not jovial like the italian operas i've seen. My biggest complain is that all the charactors are kind of dipasses, well, besides Loge, who is pretty tight. But I feel kinda bad for the Gods, because Woton seems pretty dumb. I mean, if you're the king of the gods, it seems like you could just tell the giants to suck it, or mint some god coins, or something. The whole plot is based on Woton trying to pay off the giants, and that just seems like a weird power dynamic. But, the music was good and if you're in the right frame of mind its a tight show. B+