The Colón Ring

Orchestras have been performing musical excerpts from Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen for over a century. But the four operas—Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung—are generally staged separately, without cuts. The Colón Ring offers a rare exception—a shortened version of the entire Ring, refashioned by conductor Cord Garben for presentation over the course of a single day, with ample breaks for the audience and singers to catch their breath. This 2012 premiere staging from the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires proves to be a rather unimaginative reworking, musically speaking, simply jettisoning about half of the scores (along with some characters). While true Wagnerites will certainly denounce Garben's fiddling with the master's work, even his seven-hour Ring needs stronger advocacy than the Buenos Aires forces are able to muster. Director Valentina Carrasco works from an intriguing concept, situating the action during the 1970s-era Argentinean military dictatorship and identifying the Rheingold with children who disappeared at the time. But the orchestral playing under Roberto Paternostro is mediocre, the singing is variable, and the sets and costumes are threadbare. Presented in DTS 5.0 (DTS-HD 5.0 on the Blu-ray version) and PCM stereo, extras include a feature-length “making-of” documentary by Hans Christoph von Bock that nicely details the chaotic creation of the production, during which the original director and conductor exited at the last moment. Under the circumstances, it's something of a miracle that the company managed to pull off this mounting at all. Regardless, this is a curio that cannot be recommended. (F. Swietek)