Thursday, June 02, 2011

Die Walküre the Movie

I didn't stay for the whole of Die Walküre from the Metropolitan Opera at my cineplex last night. I went for the love scene at the beginning, of course, and I was not disappointed. The sound was a bit loud in my theater, but the fated twins were spectacular.

The Met is very proud of its machine. We started on time, but I know that in the live performance the start was delayed for 40 minutes. In the break someone explained that one of the tiny computers that control each arm had died.

The planks look sometimes flat, sometimes round, sometimes like planks of wood, sometimes like tree trunks. In the house this was not a distraction, but in the movie theater it was obvious that the different looks were achieved by projections that shown also on the clothing and faces of the singers.

Also in the intermission were bits of a film about James Levine which showed him coaching Placido Domingo, both in the recent Simon Boccanegra and in preparations for Placido's first Otello years ago. I love to watch musicians working. I always want to know how the rabbit got into the hat. This film is supposed to show on PBS, but I couldn't find it.
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4 comments:

John Marcher said...

It seems you saw the repeat broadcast? Did that include Kaufmann drooling or did they cut it/use another angle for the re-broadcast?

It was pretty disgusting. Unforgettable, but disgusting.

Dr.B said...

He was definitely drooling. He wiped his mouth on his hand while hugging Eva. It's interesting to see that all those annoying German consonants can get the better of a real German, too.

It will be edited out for the DVD. I know they filmed the performance I saw in New York.

stray said...

James Levine doc streams here:
http://video.pbs.org/video/1963748401

marie said...

You must be joking ! he is so hot when he is drooling and it is such a proof of his involvement in the music ! In fact it's so cute !