[Met Performance] CID:19990

New Production

Götterdämmerung
Ring Cycle [11] Uncut
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, January 24, 1899




Götterdämmerung (29)
Richard Wagner | Richard Wagner
Brünnhilde
Lillian Nordica

Siegfried
Jean de Reszke

Gunther
Adolph Mühlmann

Gutrune
Frances Saville

Hagen
Edouard de Reszke

Waltraute/First Norn
Ernestine Schumann-Heink

Alberich
David Bispham

Second Norn/Flosshilde
Louise Meisslinger

Third Norn/Woglinde
Olga Pevny

Wellgunde
Minnie Molka-Kellogg


Conductor
Franz Schalk


Director
Pierre Baudu


Ring Cycle [11] Uncut







Götterdämmerung received four performances this season.

Review 1:

Review in the New York Herald

NIEBLUNG CYCLE COMPLETED

The big audience that witnessed "Götterdämmerung" - the last of the series - at The Metropolitan Opera House last night voted the presentation of the cycle a great success. It was a lengthy performance - that of last night - the curtain rising before seven o'clock and not falling for the last time until midnight, but the audience stayed to the end and enjoyed it all thoroughly, judging from the applause at the end of each act. The house was completely filled by one of the largest and most distinguished audiences of the opera season. It has been a noteworthy achievement for the management and all concerned. The works have been given without cuts, with many improved scenic and mechanical effects, and, best of all, with casts which no European opera house nor even Bayreuth has equaled.

Last night, for instance, M. Jean de Reszke was the Siegfried. From his first note and gesture, to say nothing of his handsome and heroic presence, he made it apparent that his art and personality would remain indelibly stamped upon the work. His performance was worthy to rank with his Tristan as a Wagnerian effort, rising to tragic heights in the death scene in the third act. This scene through M. de Reszke's acting and the eloquence of the orchestra, produced a profound effect.

Mme. Nordica's Brünnhilde in this work was highly spoken of in the HERALD, when she sang it here last season. It has not gained, but it did not need to. It was full of womanly tenderness in the farewell scene with Siegfried in the first act; was fraught with fury in the second act, when Brünnhilde believes herself betrayed by Siegfried, and was highly tragic in the final scene. No one applauded Mme. Nordica more that Mme. Lehmann, who watched the performance.

Photographs of Jean de Reszke as Siegfried and Edouard de Reszke as Hagen in Götterdämmerung by Aimé Dupont.



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