The Ring Report 3

Siegfried
Out of all four of the Ring operas, I'm most ambivalent about Siegfried. On the one hand, you've got sword-forgin', anvil-splittin', dragon-killin' and spear-shatterin' action. On the other, it takes ages for these things to happen. And to top everything off, there's the third act, which takes absolutely forever to finish up and contains some of the worst romantic dialogue this side of Star Wars: Episode II. So yeah, I'm conflicted. The good news is that the guy who played the title role (his name is Stig) took a different approach. Most who sing the part opt to play it boisterous, impulsive, bullying and very stupid. Stig was quite a bit more introspective. It was like he was mildly retarded - and fearless, too. I kind of like this Stig-fried fellow. The dragon was good. He had wings and tusks. Mime continued to disappoint. He never seemed to live the role. Alberich made a special guest appearance. He and Mime threw stuff at each other. They are brothers, after all. I'm starting to believe that Alberich is the most important part in the whole cycle - and it's great for people who are particularly evil, spiteful and bitter.

So it's now three down, one to go. I'm really looking forward to Götterdämmerung. That has none of Siegfried's big-ticket items, but it does feature some ultra-kick-ass music - just under five hours of it.

Sunday: Burn everything!