The Copenhagen Ring: The Complete DVD Set
by Kasper Bech Holten
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Actor: Gitta-Maria Sjoberg, Irenie Theorin, Johan Reuter, Stephen Milling, Stig AndersenDirector: Kasper Bech Holten
Brand: Universal Studios
Composer: Richard Wagner
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); German (Original Language), DTS 5.1
Format: AC-3, Box set, Classical, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 920 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-08-12
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Decca
DVD Reviews of The Copenhagen Ring: The Complete DVD Set
DVD Review: Spinning In His Grave
Summary: 1 Stars
It might surprise Americans to learn that after all of the years since World War II, there are still many non-German Europeans who are bitter about the Nazis. And since the Nazis liked Wagner, what better way to exact revenge on Germany than to destroy the art of the man who arguably is the most famous and popular German artist known to non-Germans around the world - Richard Wagner. Surely there can be no better explanation for what Kasper Bech Holten has done in a deconstruction and reinvention of a work which, unlike the reinterpretations of men like Kupfer and Chereau, among many others, has destroyed the meaning of Wagner's art.
This "Ring" has been called many things - like the "Alcoholics' Ring and the "Feminists' Ring." But, in truth, it is not any kind of "Ring" at all since the words which Wagner wrote are ignored and the music which Wagner wrote doesn't mesh with the action taking place on stage. Some characters who are supposed to die, don't. Others die at times contradicting the libretto.
Speaking of what happens on stage during this so-called "Ring," it should be mentioned that what Uffe Borgwart, as director of photography, has done in making this "Ring" available to us on video is even worse that what Holten did in designing the monstrosity in the first place. When one sits in a theater, one can focus on what one wants - hopefully what Wagner wanted us to focus on. But, one sees the whole stage and everything on it at the same time. Moreover, as an audience member in a theater with a huge auditorium, one is so far away from the action on stage that one cannot see individual details. In a production like this, individual details like extreme close-ups of the aged faces of Stig Anderson and Irene Theorin (who play Siegmund/Siegfried and Bruennhilde) or the genitals of the nude man who "acts" the role of the Rhinegold itself are to be avoided.
Holten's concept begins stupidly enough thus: "Bruennhilde has just betrayed the man she loves more than anything in the world. Now she wants to find out how it came to this. She seeks back to the beginning, to her father's attic to find the family mementos, and she starts to recall how it all began." This concept is stupid because more than any other character in the "Ring," Bruennhilde already knows exactly why EVERYTHING in the "Ring" happened! At this point in Holten's story, audience members would be justifiably confused as to why Alberich's arm is contained in a jar in Wotan's attic. We see Bruennhilde in the "Ring" videos, at every point when no one is singing, searching through Wotan's many scrap books (which contain many newspaper articles) and photo albums.
Then, Holten takes us back 50 years earlier...and "Das Rheingold" begins. The Rhine is a 1920's speak-easy. The Rhinemaidens are dressed as flappers, who annoy Alberich by pouring vodka down his underwear. In revenge, Alberich removes the heart of a nude young man (using a broken vodka bottle) who had been swimming in a fish tank installed in the wall of the speak-easy. (It can easily be stated that Danny Olsen, as the gold, is the best-dressed performer in this Holten "Ring.")
The next scene is at the gods' camp at the base of the Valhalla (a massive skyscraper) construction site. Donner and Froh remain on stage during this entire scene. All of the gods are smartly dressed - Wotan in a suit. Fricka tells Wotan to "awake," though he is busy working at a table with papers. (The only god sleeping during the scene is Freia, who is having a bad Fasolt dream.) Fasolt and Fafner descend to the gods' camp in a construction elevator. No attempt was made at having either brother appear as a giant. Fafner, grossly obese (a horizontal giant?), wears a white suit and black top hat. He is in a wheelchair. His brother, Fasolt, wears bib overalls. Donner's "hammer" is a shotgun. Fafner lights the chain-smoking Loge's cigarette with a lighter. Loge takes photos as Fasolt and Fafner leave the site with Freia. Otherwise, Loge photographs and writes down in his notebook everything that happens. Wotan finds the strength to visit Alberich's home with Loge because Wotan secretly kept one of Freia's apples, which he alone eats. (Having seen more than a dozen Fasolts in productions all over Europe and in the United States, I must say how impressed I was with Stephen Milling's performance as Fasolt.)
This "Ring" is unique in history for many reasons and it bears mentioning that the "ring" here is not a ring, but a winding arm band.
To get the ring, Wotan cuts off Alberich's whole arm in Wotan's torture chamber. Freia returns to Valhalla with Fasolt and Fafner wearing a wedding dress and veil. Erda flirts with Wotan and she drops her handkerchief for his benefit. Fafner kills his brother with Fafner's cane. Donner's "hammer" sound is the fall of the curtain partially obscuring Valhalla. Loge plays a tape recording of the Rhinemaidens for Wotan. In response, Wotan kills Loge with his spear and he also destroys the tape recorder. (Though not dying off-stage at the end of "Goetterdaemmerung," as Wagner intended, Loge is called-upon by his murderer in the next opera to ring Bruennhilde's home with fire.)
"Die Walkuere" is set in the `50s. Sieglinde and Hunding live in an upper-class house (with no trees indoors). Sieglinde appears in a period dress with lipstick, a pearl necklace, bracelet, and earrings. Siegmund arrives in a three-piece suit with a tie and coat. Hunding is likewise dressed - only his coat has a fur collar. Siegmund breaks the wall of windows with a chair to get into the courtyard, where the tree and sword are to be found. Sieglinde pulls the sword from the tree herself without Siegmund touching it. (This, among other things, is why some call Holten's "Ring" "vision", the "Feminist Ring.") Bruennhilde, until later defrocked by her father, wears black angels' wings. In Wotan's huge Valhalla factory floor are four white tombstone-like objects with the letters S, S, F and H on them. Wotan smashes the Siegmund stone during his long conversation with Bruennhilde. Sieglinde is awake and attentive during Bruennhilde's conversation with Siegmund. (More empowerment of women.) Sieglinde sleeps only after Bruennhilde leaves Siegmund and Sieglinde alone before the battle with Hunding. Hunding stabs Siegmund in the back with a knife. Hunding does not die.
The Walkuere sisters drink wine from a bottle. They wear bloody evening gowns. Wotan carries a suitcase in one hand as he approaches the Walkuere's rock.
According to Holten: "Sieglinde is the first woman to break the male dominance...And she becomes a kind of role model for Bruennhilde."
"Siegfried" is set in 1968. Mime's house is two stories and a basement. The opera begins with Mime tapping at his manual typewriter, rather than at the newest sword for Siegfried. When Siegfried demands a sword, Mime hands him a table knife. Wotan visits, bringing pastry for his grandson, but no spear. Throughout the first Act, Wotan, Mime, and Siegfried go up and down the home's spiral staircase - for no apparent reason other than to show-off Siegfried-the-teenager's bedroom. Mime hallucinates that the flickering TV screen is Fafner the dragon. Siegfried cuts the TV in half with his newly forged sword.
At Neidhoehle, a young Hagen waits with Alberich at the entrance to Fafner's cave. Alberich tape-records Wotan's promise not to interfere. Wotan takes pictures of Alberich and Fafner's cave with his camera. Fafner, from his underground cave, speaks to Wotan and Alberich through above-ground loud speakers. Mime warns Siegfried of Fafner's murderous traits by reading to Siegfried from the Neidhoehle travel guide. Siegfried is thirsty before the fight with Fafner and he tries to take the poisoned thermos from Mime, who gives him a bottle of water instead. Siegfried brings a flute, as well as his horn, with him to Neidhoehle in his backpack. Hagen approaches Siegfried to hear him play the horn and Hagen, unnoticed by Siegfried, pretends to shoot Siegfried with an imaginary pistol, as he had earlier done with his father. Mime, Alberich, Hagen, and Wotan watch on-stage as Fafner initially communicates with Siegfried through the loud speakers. Siegfried climbs down into Fafner's cave. Fafner sits at a control panel, which operates tentacles which attack Siegfried. Fafner, in human form, wears the "ring" bracelet. Siegfried stabs Fafner in the back with his sword. Back above ground, Mime prepares a picnic for Siegfried. Mime briefly has both the ring and Tarnhelm in his hands before being killed by Siegfried. Siegfried neither brings Mime's body to Fafner's, nor Fafner's to Mime's, though he sings that he is doing so. Siegfried has to keep repeatedly licking Fafner's blood on his shirt in order to understand the woodbird. The woodbird is a white dove who flies about perfectly as the scene ends.
Wotan brings a bunch of roses and a bottle of champagne to Erda's apartment. He knocks on her door in the middle of the night. Erda is old and very ill and needs her nurse to help her walk. Erda caresses a framed picture of Bruennhilde. Erda quickly goes back to bed after showing Wotan his face in a hand mirror. As he is leaving Erda's apartment, Wotan places Bruennhilde's photo on the dying Erda's breast.
Wotan sits at a roadside table drinking beer as he waits for Siegfried. He's had several by the time Siegfried finally arrives. It's quite an unusual path on which Wotan and Siegfried meet. The walls of the path are lined with large books. And the path is bordered with a high chain-link fence with barbed wire on top. Wotan wears no hat, though Siegfried mentions it, until Siegfried places it on Wotan's head. Wotan stumbles around - drunk - and he breaks his own spear in half before Siegfried can touch it with his sword. Siegfried goes through a hole in the fence to get to Bruennhilde's apartment - a tiny room on a snow-covered roof of a much larger building. Siegfried removes the black wings on Bruennhilde's breast which Wotan had torn from her body and placed over her at the end of "Walkuere." They are NOT made of iron, as Siegfried says as he cuts them with his sword. Siegfried is so afraid as Bruennhilde awakes that he hides outside the roof-top room to wait for her to appear. Bruennhilde opens her suitcase, from which she examines a wedding veil. (There is no clue as to how the suitcase got there...or whom had packed it and when.) Bruennhilde undresses as Siegfried takes a blanket out of his backpack and lays it on the floor, where they eventually embrace.
As "Goetterdaemmerung" begins, the Norns stand from their seats in various locations in the audience. There is no rope. Instead, they tell of the past by reading from production programs, Wagner books and libretti. The Norns eventually all meet on-stage - in front of the curtain. They sing of a future Wotan plunging his spear splinters into Loge's chest - the fire from which causes all of the world ash tree logs in Valhalla to ignite, destroying the sacred hall of the gods, as well as the gods themselves. (They say this in spite of the fact that Wotan, according to Holten, had murdered Loge on-stage at the end of "Rhinegold.") One of the Norns shows a picture of Cosima Wagner when the Norn sings of going to her mother. Another Norn dons a metal helmet.
Bruennhilde's one-room apartment, which had, earlier in the opera, been very drab and contained only seven wooden chairs and a table, now looks like a botanical garden with live plants all over the place. The dove from the last opera is now in a cage in the apartment. Bruennhilde's hair, which was white in the last opera, is now blonde. Siegfried listens to the baby in Bruennhilde's womb. Siegfried wears an apron as he waters the plants.
Now-adult Hagen is working out - doing push-ups and pressing weights in the Gibichung penthouse. He wears the uniform of a general. Beret-wearing soldiers with automatic weapons stand guard on the balcony. Having arrived in Gibichung, Siegfried tries to call Bruennhilde on his cell phone and leaves a message. Siegfried drinks a bottle of whiskey and can barely walk as he leaves the penthouse with Gunther to fetch Bruennhilde. After Siegfried and Gunther leave, Hagen holds his open hand over a burning cigarette lighter for a long time.
Back at Bruennhilde's home, she keeps the "ring" on her kitchen table and only puts it on after Gunther talks of wedding her. Minutes earlier, when Bruennhilde was visited by her sister, Waltraute had shown Bruennhilde photos of the depressed gods, but Bruennhilde still refused to give the "ring" to the Rhinemaidens. When Gunther arrives, a shocked Bruennhilde tries to call Siegfried on her corded phone. Bruennhilde shows Gunther her baby-swollen belly, but it does not affect him. Gunther takes off the Tarnhelm and reverts to Siegfried's form as the scene ends. He's surprised to see his own picture on Bruennhilde's kitchen table.
The second act of "Goetterdaemmerung" begins in a well-lit classroom. A standing Alberich lectures his seated son, Hagen, from the blackboard. Hagen kills Alberich with a knife as the scene ends. Siegfried arrives back in Gibichung driving a new convertible. Hagen summons the vassals with a walkie-talkie. The Gibichung men are dressed as terrorists - with faces covered and with automatic weapons. The "beasts" the vassals are told to kill to celebrate Gunther's wedding are blindfolded hostages. Hagen shoots all of the hostages in their heads. Hagen gives cocaine to the vassals. Hagen's "spear" is a rifle with a bayonet attached.
During the hunt, Siegfried falls asleep in the ruins of the speakeasy from "Rhinegold." The now-homeless, aged Rhinemaidens appear to Siegfried in a dream. In the dream, Siegfried gives the "ring" to the Rhinemaidens. But, they give it back to Siegfried. Hagen surreptitiously gives Siegfried's sword to a soldier, who hides it. Immediately after Hagen mortally wounds Siegfried with the bayonet, everyone leaves the stage excepting Siegfried and Bruennhilde. Siegfried sings his dying words to her alone. Back at the Gibichung penthouse, Gutrune tries to call Bruennhilde on her cell phone before the hunting party arrives with Siegfried's body. Hagen shoots Gunther with a pistol and then runs away when Bruennhilde prevents him from taking the "ring" from Siegfried's body. The scene changes to Wotan's attic. Wotan sits with his back to the audience in a high-backed chair with his broken spear in his lap. Siegfried's body is on the attic floor. Bruennhilde sings to Wotan and he dies. (Holten gives us no clue as to how Bruennhilde and Siegfried's body get from Gibichung to Valhalla.) Two of Bruennhilde's Walkuere sisters arrive in Wotan's attic and discover their dead father. They weakly try to prevent Bruennhilde from using a lit candle to set fire to the books in the attic after Bruennhilde removed Siegfried's "ring" from his arm and placed it on top of a stack of books. Then, Bruennhilde leaves Valhalla to deliver her baby. The whole attic is quickly in flames. Hagen appears in the burning attic and searches for the "ring." The final words sung in the "Ring:" "Away from the ring," according to Holten, are sung not by Hagen to the Rhinemaidens, but by Hagen to the fire. Hagen grabs the burning ring and his arm catches on fire and he dies. No Rhinemaidens appear. In silhouette, we see the gods burning.
After the fire, we see Bruennhilde standing on a bare stage in front of a huge sun. She is holding her naked baby and smiling. Holten justifies ignoring Wagner's intent with the following words: "We could not bear the idea that Bruennhilde was to meet her death on her husband's pyre, as is traditionally the case. The purpose of a woman's life should be far greater than simply to perish with her husband. And we need to put an end to the librettists' traditional habit of redeeming masculine sexuality by sacrificing heroines..."
What a mess! Surely Wagner is spinning in his grave. Surely that was Holten's intent.
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