The End of the World

            The absolute first thing must be an awed appreciation of the voices tonight! Everyone was incredible! The Norns were dramatic and eerie, Brunhilde was powerful yet sensitive, Siegfried dynamic and mellifluous by turns, the Gibbichungs intense and expressive, Hagen was magnificent! His rich bass was practically left a treacly trail of evil in his wake! Waltraute was impassioned and the Rheinmaids lilting and exquisite.

            We’ve made no secret of the fact that we do not care for the director’s “concept” for this cycle, so we won’t belabor that too much. I felt that this one was the least tedious and the most coherent since das Reingold. As for some of his “interpretations” and liberties, I will simply say that I do not believe that the Ring requires additional violence, sexual assault, or incest. It was also a little disappointing the world ended here with a literal whimper (from Hagen when the Rheinmaidens chucked the ring into a trash can fire). As bleak, despondent, and generally nihilistic as this production was, I really thought the director would be (and I was personally looking forward to) all about burning it all down.

            Just to clarify, when we are trashing this cycle we are only attacking the direction and the director’s overall “vision”. The performers have been amazing, the production values have been incredible – the lighting, sets, costumes, etc. have all been excellently done; however little they may have served the actual story, they alone served to somewhat hide the nakedness of the Emperor’s concept. I leave out the video, because we truly loathe the incorporation of video into so many productions. The extremely rare moments when it adds anything positive are so overwhelmed by the all the times it is a distraction, a disruption, or just a lazy way to work around exposition.

            The last thing we want to laud is the Bayreuth audience! The Ring is the endurance trials of opera and this crowd was gold medal grade all the way through. Not a single cell phone went off, I think I might have heard two sneezes, and six coughs over the entire 19+ hours. No one sang along (HGO production of La Boheme), tapped feet or wrist watches to the music (SFO Ring), or squirmed endlessly (squeakily) in those little wooden school desks (every production ever – except our seats are plush and squishy). Seriously, as soon as the lights dimmed you’d have thought they were magically transformed into waxworks (well, statues – wax would totally have melted in that sweat box). They took their hours of pent up potential energy and used to it vociferously acknowledge the performers. My pet peeve (okay, one of them!) with so many American audiences is that they treat the performance like the opening ceremonies for the REAL event – the race to see who can get to the parking lot first. There was none of that here – curtain call after curtain call, they roared like lions, and just when you thought it was time to seek medical attention for the blistering of your palms, here comes the conductor and the thundering made me genuinely afraid for the fabric of the building.

Although we obviously would have preferred a production we didn’t hate, loathe, and despise, the music was splendid. So as Brad insists on saying, we have no Bayreuth’s remorse. All angst and bad puns aside, we have loved all that we have experienced of Germany! The landscape and the marvelous cultural heritage have been tremendously enjoyable! We plan to finish strong with a visit to the 3^rd of Ludwig II’s fantastical pleasure palaces, Herrenchiemsee!

Regensburg and We Start Planning Another Huge Trip

            Apologies for being out of order, but the Siegfried post was ready to go and this one was yet to be written. After the Munich museum marathon, we spent the night in Hohenlinden, a nice little village outside of town. On our way back to Bayreuth, we went to Regensburg, a city on the Danube River which was little damaged by World War 2.

             Regensburg, another UNESCO World Heritage site, takes its name from Castra Regina, or Regen Fortress as the Romans called it in AD 179. Today you can still see a bit of the wall and gate from that time (rather, it is possible that you could see it – we couldn’t see anything except the Tyvek & scaffolding it was under!). We were sad to be on such a tight schedule, but we had to get back for a performance and assured ourselves that we would dedicate more time to this town when we biked through!

            We arrived and lucked immediately into a bakery selling warm quarkballchen and coffee, thus breakfast was achieved. The spires of the Dom of St. Peter loom over Regensburg with relatively little scaffolding. (Though the front door stands behind a plywood wall, so obviously you can’t have everything.) Inside, there are far more brightly colored stained glass windows than we have seen anywhere else in Germany. Perhaps the most striking element is the altar. It looks to be made entirely of intricately wrought silver and gold and is so bright that it probably glows in the dark. It was a truly beautiful centerpiece of the church.

            Ambling down the hill towards the river along narrow, winding streets, we discovered the famous Stone Bridge almost entirely under scaffolding. Most of the span was actually paralleled by a temporary bridge. The Stone Bridge is 900 years old, so I suppose it is due for some upkeep. Still, it was disappointing to miss out on the classic view of Regensburg - the bridge, river, and array of church spires.

            I cannot remember exactly how we heard about the Donauradweg, or Danube Bike Trail. It runs the length of the Daube River from the Black Forest to the Black Sea, a distance of about 1,800 miles, and to a pair of former Appalachian Trail thru-hikers like us, it immediately captured our imagination. Zada, however, is less enthralled with the prospect and please by the idea that she’ll be out of the house well before we can pull it off! Near the Stone Bridge, we saw a number of people clearly who were clearly on their way along the river trail. There is a set of guide books that are rather difficult to find in the US and it occurred to us to ask for trail information in the tourist office. They directed us to a bookstore near the Rathaus that specializes in travel books and maps. Not only did they have the guide books, they had them in English! We bought them, because, you know, it’s never too early to start planning another epic summer trip.

            It truly is a lovely town, and its excellent state of preservation allied with its gorgeous situation on the Danube make it a very popular stop for river cruises. We were so glad we’d arrived early as we beat the enormous herds of tour groups! As we were treating ourselves to ice cream and apple strudel wave after wave of tour groups began to appear. We were really confused by this until we recalled the Viking River Cruises ads we’d seen (we love those commercials – although in those it is never you and 40 other people with audio guides slung around your neck following a guy with a flag). There must have been a ton of boats stopped out there – the crowds looked more like the volume from a monster cruise ship!