List Price: $119.98You Pay Only: $72.97 You Save: $47.01 (39%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0044007432648
Format: AC-3, Box set, Classical, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen
Label: Decca
Manufacturer: Decca
Number Of Discs: 7
Number Of Items: 7
Publisher: Decca
Release Date: August 12, 2008
Running Time: 920 minutes
Sales Rank: 24882
Studio: Decca
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
First release of the acclaimed recent Ring Cycle production at the Royal Danish Opera. Striking, memorable and controversial staging by Kasper Bech Holten. The action, experienced as an extended flashback, presents Wagner s epic as a family saga from a feminist perspective. The production is visually stunning, disturbing and at times explicit. Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A Provincial Ring
If you are a pro-Wagnerian, you probably don't mind spending $80 for a provincial Ring. If you are a novice, Chéreau/Boulez's Ring is the one to go. If you do mind spending $80 just for The three Norns and/or the discussion of the Queen and the producer, then save your money for a bottle of Bordeaux or single malt.
Rating:  - Copenhagen Ring
This is a very uneven production of the Ring, it is perhaps the best dramatic version of the Ring, but many in the cast are weak, and this is above all true of Brunhilde who is so foolishly made the center of this production. I regret that I bought this and would be happy to sell it.
tjja@verizon.net
Rating:  - A Ring that makes you think
People are calling the Copenhagen Ring the feminist Ring and that is certainly true. The meta-structure is Brunnhilde discovering her heritage at the end of Act II of Gotterdamerung. That is certainly true. But it is also a relational Ring. I have seldom seen the level of interaction between characters in an opera. The video helps (or hurts depending on your prejudices) by its close ups especially of other characters than the one singing. For example in Rheingold Woman and Loge are casing Alberich's realm while Mime whines about his life.
It is also an extremely violent Ring. Many more characters die than in Wagner's libretto. Only Brunnhilde makes it out alive. The death of Siegfried is especially gruesome. But then so are all the deaths.
And finally it is an alcoholic Ring. Alberich gets staggering drunk in the first scene of Rheingold. Woman carries around a liquor flask from which he swigs frequently. Siegfried passes up liquor in the first act. Bit by Gotterdamerung he has developed quite a taste for booze.
The violence and the drink help to make the case for the brutality of patriarchy. Again and again the production team (and this is a team effort) delivers a shock. And then upon reflection you realize that although not in Wagner's libretto it is not against the plot or the music. Indeed some of the actions seem right on.
This is the most exciting Ring I have seen. You can't wait to see what they will do next. And for me most of the things they do add to my ... Read More
Rating: - Absolutely Magnificent
In many ways this by far the best Ring on DVD and I have had three others and parts of a fourth. One, the Levine, I gave away. While updated to the 20th century, this is NOT Euro-trash and all in all as drama it works splendidly, particularly in the so called "boring parts". A group of singing actors soar into the drama with no holds barred and they play to a very knowing camera crew who keep the drama of the moment alive by at times focusing appropriately on how an other character respond to what is sung as well as on the singer in question. Each singer is in character at all times. And the singing, with one minor exception, is first class. The staging is spectacular. Thus this is by far the best Sigfried I have ever seen. And I mention this because, before seeing this DVD, I had thought Sigfried the weakest of the dramas. You may have read of some of the gimmicks in this production such as the rheingold being a nude male swimmer. The fact is, though, that within the context of this production the so called gimmicks work. Everything is well thought out, even the makeup. It is surely one of the great opera sets on DVD.
Rating: - The best DVD production of the Ring
This Ring is different from all other Rings on DVD and is mostly successful in what it aims to bring. It is wonderful to have this pinnacle of operatic spectacles in a staging worthy of the subject, a stage with `actors who can sing' as Wagner wished it. The singers do act as if in a movie and the DVD has been filmed as a dramatic movie, not as a static stage performance though a live stage performance it of course is. This may at times be a bit tiresome as images and image angles may seem to switch a bit too often but most of the time by far this cinematographic approach pays off well and enhances the drama without disturbing the operatic enjoyment. The result is an experience unlike the live experience in the opera house itself but I'm inclined to say the choice was well made. After all, a film on DVD is not a stage performance even if it is based on one.
Staging and acting, all of the visuals are evidently extremely important in a DVD release and the Copenhagen Ring gives you decors to relish and acting on a very high and convincing level indeed. As in the Boulez Ring, the acting closely follows the music and specifically the text though it may sometimes appear to stretch the imagination a little too far. The film quality in itself is superb and so is the sound.
Speaking of sound, the orchestra is more than up to the task. No one I think expects this orchestra and this conductor to give the best-ever performance of Wagner's Ring on record. It is however more than adequate to deliver ... Read More
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