jahrhundertring
how can i put and write and define jahrhundertring in a sentence and how is the word jahrhundertring used in a sentence and examples? 用jahrhundertring造句, 用jahrhundertring造句, 用jahrhundertring造句, jahrhundertring meaning, definition, pronunciation, synonyms and example sentences are provided by ichacha. net .
she appears as waltraute and second norne in the film of the
jahrhundertring
, filmed in 1980 .
both performances were part of the production
jahrhundertring
, staged by patrice ch閞eau and conducted by pierre boulez .
in 1977 schnaut made her debut at the bayreuth festival, singing waltraute and the second norne in the
jahrhundertring
staged by patrice ch閞eau .
jahrhundertring als jahrhundertring wird die inszenierung von richard wagners ring des nibelungen von patrice chéreau zum 100 - jährigen bestehen der bayreuther festspiele im jahr 1976 bezeichnet. am pult stand der französische dirigent und komponist pierre boulez. ✪video ist an blinde nutzer gerichtet ✪text verfügbar unter der lizens cc - by - sa ✪bild quelle im video
she performed the first two parts in the production
jahrhundertring
, celebrating the festival' s centenary in 1976, conducted by pierre boulez and staged by patrice ch閞eau .
from 1978 she appeared at the bayreuth festival, performing parts in the
jahrhundertring
, the centenary performance of wagner' s
der ring des nibelungen
staged by patrice ch閞eau .
the jahrhundertring (centenary ring) was the production of richard wagner’s ring cycle, der ring des nibelungen, at the bayreuth festival in 1976, celebrating the centenary of both the festival and the first performance of the complete cycle .
ortrun wenkel (born 25 october 1942) is a german operatic contralto. she notably portrayed the role of erda in the bayreuth jahrhundertring (centenary ring) in 1976 and was awarded a grammy award as a principal soloist in 1983 .
george bernard shaw s the perfect wagnerite is an analysis of the ring from a socialist point of view. it was a big influence on patrice chéreau' s jahrhundertring, the production for the centennial of the bayreuth festival in 1979 .
she performed several parts in the jahrhundertring, the 1976 centenary performance of wagner' s
der ring des nibelungen
, staged by patrice ch閞eau, sieglinde in
die walk黵e
, and gutrune and the third norn in
g鰐terd鋗merung
.
one of her most noted achievements was her interpretation of br黱nhilde in the bayreuth
jahrhundertring
(
centenary ring
) in 1976, celebrating the centenary of both the festival and the first performance of the complete cycle, conducted by pierre boulez and staged by patrice ch閞eau .
they collaborated in many later productions, including in 1976 the
jahrhundertring
, to celebrate the centenary of lulu
, completed by friedrich cerha, at the paris opera on 24 february 1979, again conducted by boulez and with sets by richard peduzzi, with teresa stratas in the title role .
a major accomplishment was his wotan / wanderer at bayreuth in the
jahrhundertring
(
centenary ring
) in 1976, celebrating the centenary of both the festival and the first performance of the complete cycle, conducted by pierre boulez and staged by patrice ch閞eau, recorded and filmed in 1979 and 1980 .
dark age europe: though really more the time of myths. the jahrhundertring averted this by updating the setting to the industrial revolution. the forges and dark mines of the nibelungen becomes a mine - shaft and factory setting. this was based on the fact that the ring cycle was contemporary to this era .
in his
der ring des nibelungen
, she appeared as two of the rhinemaidens: as flo遠ilde from 1972 to 1974, and as wellgunde from 1976 to 1980 in the production
jahrhundertring
staged by patrice ch閞eau and conducted by pierre boulez, also as the valkyrie grimgerde in all almost all these seasons .
during his time at the festival, he sang loge and mime in the
jahrhundertring
(
centenary ring
) in 1976, celebrating the centenary of both the festival and the first performance of the complete cycle, conducted by pierre boulez and staged by patrice ch閞eau, recorded and filmed in 1979 and 1980 .
at the bayreuth festival he first appeared in 1976 as titurel (
parsifal
), and as hunding (
die walk黵e
) and fasolt (
das rheingold
) in the
jahrhundertring
(
centenary ring
) in 1976, celebrating the centenary of both the festival and the first performance of the complete cycle, conducted by pierre boulez and staged by patrice ch閞eau, recorded and filmed in 1979 and 1980 .
in 1975, she became a member of the bayerische staatsoper where she caught the attention of wolfgang wagner who immediately engaged her for erda in richard wagners
ring des nibelungen
at the bayreuth festival 1976
jahrhundertring
(
centenary ring
) in 1976, celebrating the centenary of both the festival and the first performance of the complete cycle, conducted by pierre boulez and staged by patrice ch閞eau, recorded and filmed in 1979 and 1980 .
unitel, which celebrated its 50 th anniversary last year, was there to document wagner history in the making. the companys film catalogue includes patrice chéreaus ground - breaking jahrhundertring (centenary ring) from the 1976 bayreuth festival and the recent ring cycle staged by la fura dels baus in valencia. the dvd of thielemanns lohengrin, set for international release by deutsche grammophon on 7 july 2017, marks the yellow labels first adventure in ultra hd video. its high - definition images and sound capture the intense drama and emotional power generated by one of those rare wagner ensembles in which all the participants  from beczała and netrebko to the
at the bayreuth festival he first appeared in 1976 (titurel (parsifal), and hunding (die walküre) and fasolt (das rheingold) in the jahrhundertring (centenary ring) in 1976, celebrating the centenary of both the festival and the first performance of the complete cycle, conducted by pierre boulez and staged by patrice chéreau, recorded and filmed in 1979 and 1980. he continued until 1989 adding fafner (rheingold, siegfried), daland (der fliegender holländer), king marke (tristan und isolde), heinrich (lohengrin), pogner (meistersinger), landgraf (tannhäuser) and hagen (götterdämmerung) to his roles there .
pierre boulez was always crossing borders. just as it was second nature to him to move back and forwards between france and germany, he traversed frontiers in his artistic work. he was second to none in the way he continually reinvented and further developed himself and linked various disciplines beyond the boundaries of music. as one of the most prominent figureheads of the post - war avant - garde and a passionate champion of contemporary compositions, there was one thing he could never accept: routine. to him, continuing creativity was the lifeblood of every society and one of the driving forces behind his work. i always admired the courage he summoned in bayreuth in 1976 to produce the “jahrhundertring” (centenary ring), the way in which he overcame borders in his work, his strength, his intelligence and his radicalism, which were his trademarks .
in parallel with his activities as a composer boulez became one of the most prominent conductors of his generation. in a career lasting more than sixty years he held the positions of chief conductor of the new york philharmonic and the bbc symphony orchestra, music director of the ensemble intercontemporain and principal guest conductor of the chicago symphony orchestra and the cleveland orchestra. he made frequent guest appearances with many of the world' s other great orchestras, including the vienna philharmonic orchestra, the berlin philharmonic orchestra and the london symphony orchestra. he was particularly known for his performances of the music of the first half of the twentieth - century—including debussy and ravel, stravinsky and bartók, and the second viennese school—as well as that of his contemporaries, such as ligeti, berio and carter. his work in the opera house included the jahrhundertring —the production of wagner' s ring cycle for the centenary of the bayreuth festival—and the world premiere of the three - act version of alban berg' s lulu. his recorded legacy is extensive and he received 26 grammy awards .
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w. meier; clark, wottrich, grundheber, von kannen; staatsopernchor, staatskapelle berlin, barenboim. production: chéreau. euroarts 2066758, 97 mins. , subtitled
d irector patrice chéreau has not done an enormous amount of work in opera, but his best - known project, the bayreuth centennial production of wagner' s ring (filmed in 1980), is available on video, as is a later production, janáček' s from the house of the dead (filmed in aix in 2007). this wozzeck, filmed in berlin in 1994, fills in the picture a bit more .
one of the few positive elements of the influx of stage directors into opera has been the presentation of even the smallest roles as deeply - considered characters. here, chéreau gives us an appropriately seen - it - all margret, played by dalia schaechter. marie' s son, who has only twelve notes to sing, has been cast with a boy who is older than many in this role, so that he and marie can have a real relationship. the two of them sit lost in thought in identical positions at the end of the third scene. marie has been trying to be both mother and father to him, and he is old enough to be able to understand. the relationship of the drum major, well sung by mark baker, to marie, is similarly detailed in a small amount of time. when she screams
don' t touch me !
to him at the end of act i, he is ready to comply. but she then throws herself at him. this, however, causes him to lose interest in her for a moment; the game was too easily won .
many of the scenes are played on a bare stage. (wozzeck and andres sweep it with push - brooms instead of doing their search for firewood .) sometimes the singers address each other across distances in dialogue. wozzeck even leaves the stage for a moment during his scene with the captain. a few skeletal, interlocking rooms cruise around on occasion, but they are used mostly as a backdrop. this puts an enormous amount of pressure on the two main performers, who deliver the goods. franz grundheber, the wozzeck, avails himself of every possible type of vocal expression, even draining every bit of life from his voice when he is trapped in act ii. he suffers a seizure in the doctor' s office, seemingly because he understands that the doctor would be happy to study it. the end of his confrontation with waltraud meier' s marie in the central scene of act ii leaves both of them crumpled to the ground, exhausted and apart. they simply cannot fight any more. thus when they sit next to each other on the lip of the stage just before the murder scene, the effect is especially creepy. meier is attuned to every orchestral color, responding beautifully to the lushness in the middle of the bible - reading scene .
although the sound quality is merely serviceable, it is still possible to hear how attentive conductor daniel barenboim is to balance. he also finds more of the subtle humor in the score than many conductors do, and he and chéreau worked together to highlight the listless quality in the tavern music. but ultimately chéreau' s production is more of an astute commentary on the opera than a performance of it .
in dmitri hvorostovsky' s last recording, made scarcely a year before his recent, untimely death, he tackles the most monumental verdi assignment of all and, on his own terms, magnificently succeeds .
at opera frankfurt made clear how high standards are at this company, now considered one of germany’s best .
eschewing a hack’s against - all - odds psychoanalytic narrative in favor of a thoughtful portrait, simon callow' s book being wagner traces the evolution of an angry young man to an angry old man who, along the way, unalterably changed the dramaturgy of opera forever .
the effect that the ring, like all wagner' s mature dramas, has on listeners is strong enough to make individual weaknesses in performances, which there are bound to be in any staging or even purely concert performance of a work involving so many individuals, and lasting so long, less damaging than they might be .
but there are limits, and the first thing that is required is a great wagner conductor. at present there are none, so it is pointless to hope for a great new recording of the work: and the greatest period of wagner singing, roughly 1920 - 1960, means equally that we must look further back for our choices of great recordings than we might for most works .
the most famous, partly because the first, ring ever released, between 1958 and 1966, is conducted by georg solti with brazen vigour, and has an ostentatiously glamorous sound - in fact it is all sound effects - but its cast consists too largely of great singers not at their peak, and it is a matter of exciting moments at best, rather than a moving whole. it retains immense prestige, but i wonder how many people still manage to survive listening to it through [ decca 455 555 - 2, 14 cds ] .
it was followed closely by the herbert von karajan recording, a very different affair, all refinement and silky textures, except for occasional outbursts of brutality. already, between the late 1950s and a decade later, we can hear a decline in the standard of singing. whatever weaknesses a recording can absorb, the roles of wotan, brünnhilde, siegfried and alberich must be at least fairly impressive, and karajan' s recording, with changes for each of the major roles from one drama to the next, shows that he himself was uneasy with the results, and rightly. marvellous playing from the berlin philharmonic is not enough .
not long after that, the first complete' live' cycle was issued, of performances given at bayreuth in 1966 and the following year under karl böhm. the casting overlaps considerably with the solti ring, but he is more sympathetic to his singers, and so is the balance of the recording, as with anything recorded in the bayreuth festival theatre. böhm is a rapid wagner conductor, to the point of breathlessness. though birgit nilsson is a fantastically athletic and tireless brünnhilde, the pathos and tenderness which are such crucial elements in the role largely escape her. and theo adam is a dull and dry - voiced wotan, in a role that should be electrifying from start to finish. it is nonetheless often a thrilling experience, certainly preferable to the first two recordings - though the prompter plays far too large a part [ philips 446 057 - 2, 14 cds ] .
bayreuth' s next issued ring was of the fiercely controversial' centenary' production of 1976, in which costumes, settings, action were largely updated to the nineteenth century, making the ring a parable of capitalist greed and decline. pierre boulez' s conducting makes böhm sound a slowcoach, and the singing is alarmingly uneven. seen on dvd, it is still a powerful if not a beautiful experience, but it is hard to cope with those ruthless tempi and the pervasive lack of expressiveness. only the dvd version is listed as being available at present .
at roughly the same time that the boulez ring was being conceived, in london a starkly different enterprise was under way: a recording of staged performances, under the by then legendary reginald goodall, with english national opera. he favoured extremely broad tempi, coached the singers for years in their roles, loved every note and yet had a sovereign concern for the architecture of the whole structure. there may be a lack of international stars in this set, but the singing is never less than adequate, and alberto remedios and rita hunter as siegfried and brünnhilde are wonderful and very moving. andrew porter' s translation has weathered the years very well. it sounds implausible, but this is one of the greatest achievements of wagner interpretation on disc, and is indispensable for probing the depths and details of the inexhaustible work .
meanwhile, many people were sensing that the last great period of wagner singing and conducting was the 1950s, which opened auspiciously with furtwängler, the central figure in the history of wagner performance, conducting transcendent performances of the ring at la scala, milan, with some distinguished singers, above all kirsten flagstad as a mature but warm - toned and generous brünnhilde. sonically far from ideal, this cycle is nonetheless extraordinarily moving and thrilling, and cheap into the bargain .
three years later furtwängler conducted the work act - by - act in the broadcasting studios of rai rome, and that is a better - recorded, more consistently sung, less manic view of the cycle, though no - one rivals the sheer muscularity of furtwängler' s wagner [ emi 7671232 ]. both deepen our feelings about the ring and our grasp of its significance and structure more than any others .
yet at bayreuth at that time there was a cast, largely different from and overall superior to furtwängler' s, which performed the cycle year after year under the great wagnerians joseph keilberth and hans knappertsbusch. orfeo has lately released a 1956 cycle under knappertsbusch in excellent mono sound, and with an unrivalled team of singers, at mid - price. tempi are broad, the feeling is of epic spaciousness, and an overwhelming cumulative grandeur .
the year before, the decca team of engineers recorded largely the same set of singers in a great cycle under keilberth, in quite staggeringly impressive sound, and that cycle, now being released on the testament label, will be first choice when it is completed later this year. so far only siegfried is available: hear it and marvel. it is a more lyrical, less grandiose view than knappertsbusch' s, but keilberth rarely fails to rise to the ring' s greatest occasions [ testament sbt 4, 1392, 4 cds ] .
if you are adventurous enough to look round for' pirate' recordings, there is an extraordinary number of them, ranging hugely in price and sound - quality, but if they originate in the 1950s they are almost bound to be worth investigating. there are also several ring cycles of more recent origin on very cheap labels, but don' t be tempted: the casts and / or conducting on them are so uneven as to be frustrating .
there have been several other commercially recorded cycles of more recent date, any of which will excite someone who doesn' t know the ring at all, but hardly any providing sustained satisfaction on repeated listening .
both the emi ring under haitink and the dgg one under levine suffer from major cast weaknesses, which can' t be compensated for by their sumptuous recorded quality .
it' s a sign of the times that when decca attempted to record a new cycle under christoph von dohnanyi in the late 1990s, they abandoned it after the second instalment. best of the modern cycles is certainly that under barenboim, recorded at bayreuth in the early 1990, with a fine cast and idiosyncratic but forceful conducting. several of the leading singers were trained by goodall, and it shows. and if you want sound of stunning depth and fullness, this and the testament cycle are the ones to go for .
patrice chéreau, who has died of lung cancer, is probably best known internationally for two films, la reine margot, his blood - soaked acccount of religious conflict in 16th century france, and intimacy, his sexually explicit adaptation of hanif kureishi' s novel. in his native france he is revered above all for his work in the theatre, but his greatest achievement was his four - year ring cycle at bayreuth .
set in the industrial revolution, and spread over four years, from 1976 - 80, it left audiences bitterly divided. in bayreuth, a history of the wagner festival, frederic spotts wrote :
on opening night there were bloody brawls, wolfgang wagner' s new wife had her dress ripped and another woman had her earring torn off – and the earlobe with it. there were death threats and bomb threats; friendships and marriages were said to have been broken .
but the production, with pierre boulez as music director, led the way in putting opera into challenging contemporary settings. on its final performance in 1980 it received a 45 - minute ovation .
he was born in the lap of the arts, his father jean - baptiste chéreau a painter, his mother, marguerite pelicier, a graphic designer. he grew up in paris, where his father used to take him to the louvre. from an early age he showed a passionate interest in the cinema, theatre, painting and music, and at the age of 12 he was designing sets for the plays he read .
he read german at the faculte des lettres de paris, where he joined the militant youth of the psu (parti socialiste unifie) and attended courses in acting and production. in 1965 the student drama festival in nancy he presented his first production of marivaux, l' heritier de village, and in 1966 bernard sobel invited him to work in his theatre at gennevilliers in a working - class suburb of paris .
with sobel, patrice mounted a musical comedy based on the labiche farce l' affaire de la rue de courcine, in which the bourgeois characters dream they are crooks and at the end wake up greatly relieved to find they are respectable citizens after all. in a superb gesture characteristic of chéreau' s handling of even the most sacred texts, he cut this reassuring ending, creating a very black comedy, a condemnation of petty bourgeois hypocrisy. his work with sobel led to his being appointed director of the theatre de sartrouville, another industrial suburb of paris .
the ambitious nature of chéreau' s plans for sartrouville showed idealism and inventiveness. he wanted his theatre to be a municipal commodity like a hospital, school or sports arena. his theatre became a social endeavour, a focal point for a wide variety of activities with cinema, concerts, poetry productions, lectures and debates about everything from politics to pot .
the same audacity was apparent in his productions, in which he worked with a team he made his own in many future ventures: costumes by jacques schmidt, décor by richard peduzzi, lighting by andre diot, with chéreau working backstage. the public began to flock to his theatre, but in 1969 it ran into financial difficulties and he resigned, disillusioned with the concept of
theatre populaire
. he spoke with blazing honesty about the theatre as the tool of class culture and the upper classes, saying it was now impossible to create a working - class theatre like the german agitprop movement of the 1930s. but he never abandoned completely his progressive social ideals .
for his first opera, rossini' s l' italiana in algeri for the spoleto festival, he employed his usual team. in 1970 he was invited to marseilles to produce richard ii, a character he felt deep sympathy with, identifying himself so intimately with him that when the actor playing richard gave up the part chéreau took it on. he and his team worked for a couple of years at the piccolo teatro de milan, producing pablo neruda' s
revolutionary oratorio
the splendour and death of joaquin murieta .
back in paris chéreau was invited by roger planchon to share the direction of the théâtre de la cité at villeurbanne. he was conscious of the revivifying power of the boards, and often used earth, sand, water or mud that his actors would pace out and trample in rehearsal to familiarise themselves completely with that
earth spirit
that gave truth to their movements, for he believed that finding the right way to move in a part was the secret of its authenticity. in the 1973 production of marivaux' s la dispute, the young lovers roll and moan in the sand, grass and water like wild animals while the snobs of the court in high heels and formal clothes pick their way delicately towards clean, dry, elevated positions .
in 1974 he made his first film, la chair de l' orchidee (the flesh of the orchid), based on james hadley chase' s no orchids for miss blandish with a starry cast including charlotte rampling in the title role giving a performance of extraordinary intensity. it was an almost operatic version of the misunderstood 1948 british film .
in 1975 he produced edward bond' s lear as a kind of personal howl of despair, set in a derelict industrial landscape strewn with piles of slag, with lear as a baron krupp in evening dress and top hat. wagner' s ring at bayreuth took four years of his life, from 1976 to 1980, during which he also was able to make his second film, judith therpauve, create the final integral version of alban berg' s lulu at the opera de paris and participate in the foundation of a progressive, militant intellectual and artistic group, aida, (association internationale de defense des artistes). he always made copious notes on the progress of rehearsals and textual analyses, and it is fortunate that his direction of lulu has been recorded in a small book, si tant est que l' opera soit du theatre (if opera can really be considered as theatre) .
in it one can detect a certain weariness of heart and growing dislike of the dramatic form of grand opera. certainly the hard work connected with his wagner productions and the hostility aroused by his unconventional treatments and unusual castings had worn him out. but he directed an amazing peer gynt for villeurbane and paris in 1981 .
after bayreuth ,
he said ,
i felt the need to work on a theatrical project of some breadth... i have never put on little things. i am interested only in spectacles that rise above themselves
. he had considered goethe' s faust, but chose ibsen. as in his wagner productions, he sought, he said ,
an incandescence of theatrical experience, a global spectacle .
some critics felt he was suffering from megalomania, but the result was an unforgettable triumph .
chéreau' s boundless energies were expended further that year when he played camille desmoulins in wajda' s danton, alongside gérard depardieu in the title role. in 1982, he was at last given, after years of wandering from theatre to theatre, his own stage, the theatre des amandiers at nanterre. he felt finally that he had come home, and that he could settle down to years of sustained creation. the same year he made his third film, l' homme blessé (the wounded man), a subject with which he identified completely .
the film' s writer, herve guibert, was a close friend who had often interviewed him, and was able to draw out chéreau' s secret self as no other writer had done. in a 1977 interview in les nouvelles litteraires he told guibert ,
i describe the things i want to see or the lives of people whose secrets i want to penetrate. i have long since given up trying to teach audiences a lesson... it is more urgent, it seems to me, to simply try to describe things very exactly, or to show precisely how characters behave, and why, to interest myself in all kinds of personalities – and to make them live on stage .
chéreau collaborated closely with guibert on the scenario and the film won an oscar for best screenplay .
in 1983 chéreau mounted the first production of a new writer with whom he will forever be associated, bernard - marie koltès. the play was combat de nègre et de chien; the meeting of chéreau and koltès might be compared with the meeting between verlaine and rimbaud, each giving the other something they had lacked in emotion and intellectual passion. koltès became the idol of the critics and the younger generation of french theatre enthusiasts, and chéreau went on to produce most of his plays. in 1984 he directed mozart' s lucio silla at la scala, yet found time and energy to play the part of napoleon in youssef shahine' s film adieu bonaparte, hailed by critics as a brilliant portrayal of the hero during his egyptian campaign .
his 1994 film la reine margot, starring isabelle adjani and daniel auteuil, was a box office success at home and abroad and won the jury prize at cannes. dealing with the marriage of convenience between the catholic margot (adjani) and the protestant henri de navarre (auteuil), it was erotic and violent, and offers poured in from hollywood, but, he said ,
i was always being offered films based in the renaissance and involving a massacre ,
he recalled .
i even had an offer from the uk to do a film about guy fawkes .
intimacy (2001), starring mark rylance, timothy spall and marianne faithfull, was a tale of sexual obsession which sparked a debate about unsimulated sex on screen. but, chéreau said ,
it is not like a porno film, not at all erotic sometimes, but it is beautiful because it is life .
in 2007 chéreau teamed up with daniel barenboim for tristan und isolde at la scala. the conductor called him
my ideal partner
and said he
breathed new life
into the opera, with its sparse choreography and industrial sets. he made a belated us debut at the met in 2009 with janacek' s from the house of the dead .
in 2011 he lit up the avignon festival with a production of jon fosse' s i am the wind that had played at the young vic, his first uk production. stylistically daring and stripped - back, it attained a hypnotic intensity. his final production, richard strauss' s elektra at the aix - en - provence festival in july, won a standing ovation. the production has been scheduled for the met' s 2015 - 16 season .
although he was gay, it wasn' t a theme he dwelt on .
i never wanted to specialise in gay stories, and gay newspapers have criticised me for that ,
he said .
everywhere love stories are exactly the same. the game of desire, and how you live with desire, are the same .
patrice chéreau, actor, producer and theatre, opera and film director: born lezigne, maine - et - loire 2 november 1944; died paris 7 october 2013 .
janáček' s from the house of the dead, directed by patrice chéreau at the vienna festival in 2007. photograph: ho / afp
patrice chéreau had had very little experience of directing opera when he was invited in 1976 to stage a new ring at bayreuth, conducted by pierre boulez, to mark the centenary of the first production there. the result, though deeply controversial at the time, proved to be a landmark in the history of wagner production .
two aspects of the staging deserve particular attention. in the first place, chéreau attempted, and successfully achieved, a daring interplay of the mythological and contemporary planes on which the work is constructed. he set the action in an industrialised society, with a hydro - electric dam taking the place of the free - flowing rhine; there were also occasional 20th - century costumes and props. he was not the first to invoke a modern setting for the action – roughly the century framed by the history of the work to date, 1876–1976 – but the incisive social critique of chéreau' s production was regarded by some of the ultra - faithful as an outrage, and created a scandal of unprecedented proportions. performances were disrupted by jeering and whistling, and confrontations between supporters and opponents spilled over from the foyer to the grounds of the festspielhaus and even to local guesthouses .
the second revolution initiated by chéreau lay in the degree of naturalism he brought to the acting style. his staging of the incestuous love scene of die walküre, for example, with peter hofmann and jeannine altmeyer as the stunningly attractive libidinous twins siegmund and sieglinde, was sexually charged to a degree not previously experienced on the opera stage. since then, new generations of directors have built on this advance, with the result that audiences have come to expect dramatic conviction as well as vocal expertise from singers .
chéreau' s own considerable acting skills were drawn upon in this production on one occasion in 1977 when rené kollo, playing siegfried, broke his leg and was obliged to sing his part from the wings. the director acted the role on stage, a performance that few who witnessed it will forget .
by the end of the run in 1980, enthusiasm for the production vastly outweighed disapproval, the audience' s thunderous ovations after the final götterdämmerung lasting longer than the third act had done. the staging was subsequently released on dvd and broadcast on television in both britain and america. when the dvd was screened at the barbican in may of this year, in the presence of dame gwyneth jones, who starred as the brünnhilde, many marvelled at how fresh and undated the production still seemed more than three decades later .
in 1979 chéreau staged the world premiere of the friedrich cerha completion of berg' s lulu at the palais garnier opera house in paris, but then, apart from mozart' s lucio silla in nanterre (in a co - production with la monnaie, brussels, and la scala, milan, in 1984), did not work in the medium for some years. perhaps fearing that nothing could match the ambition or éclat of the bayreuth ring, he avoided wagner, eventually tackling berg' s wozzeck (paris, 1993) and don giovanni (salzburg, 1994) and then, after another long gap, così fan tutte (aix - en - provence, 2005) .
if the last of these was indeed a disappointment, the reuniting of chéreau and boulez for a production of janáček' s from the house of the dead at the vienna festival in 2007 (subsequently also at the holland and aix festivals, as well as the met and la scala) was welcomed with unbridled approbation. chéreau' s meticulously detailed direction drew exceptional performances from the entire cast .
his long - delayed return to wagner, a tristan und isolde for la scala (2007), also offered a far from radical approach. it was an opera he had balked at directing for many years (it was originally intended to follow the ring at bayreuth) on the grounds that it was predominantly a musical rather than a theatrical work, but his sombre, subtle direction – with waltraud meier an acutely vulnerable isolde – was intensely moving nonetheless .
chéreau' s last production, richard strauss' s elektra at aix this year (due to travel widely), designed by his longstanding collaborator richard peduzzi, was another powerful piece of theatre. it featured in small roles franz mazura and donald mcintyre, veterans of the 1976 ring – a touching acknowledgment that chéreau' s greatest success was to haunt his work until the end of his days .
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f. paul driscoll salutes the french director of theater, film and opera, whose revolutionary, transformative work on the opera stage is being honored with a posthumously bestowed opera news award .
p atrice chéreau believed that
staging a work is a question, first and foremost, of knowing how to tell a story .
that was just what chéreau did — in films, in theater and in opera — in a career that began when he was in his teens and lasted almost fifty years. he often quoted the advice he was given by his early mentor, playwright roger planchon :
never stop working .
chéreau continued to work until shortly before his death from cancer in october 2013; his last opera - house project, a staging of richard strauss' s elektra, opened to great acclaim in aix in july 2013 and arrives at la scala next month .
chéreau' s work was nearly impossible to classify: he didn' t have a signature visual style or specialize in the work of a particular composer or playwright. he could direct on an epic scale or an intimate one. what set him apart was his intelligence, his rigorous discipline and — despite his abundant charm and personal warmth — the melancholy that charged his uncompromising examination of human relationships. isabelle huppert, the star of chéreau' s 2005 film gabrielle, once said ,
there is pain in his art — in his art, in his cinema, in his theater and the way he puts on opera, too .
chéreau wanted his actors, whether on film or in the opera house, to do what they had not done before .
i don' t care if [ actors ] surprise me, although it is nice. it is their job to surprise the audience .
chéreau' s work was unsettling: just as he wanted his artists to look deep within themselves — to
hit bare bones ,
as huppert described it — he wanted his audiences to be as completely present as his actors .
this is real theater ,
he said ,
when the audience and the artists are engaged in the story together .
when chéreau was invited by wolfgang wagner to come to bayreuth, his first instinct was to refuse the offer: he had directed only two operas, neither of them by wagner, and would have just four months to prepare the full ring cycle for rehearsal and performance. chéreau decided to ignore the risks and tell the story as simply as possible .
he set the ring operas against the background of the industrial revolution, signaling its debasement of mankind with scenery that evoked a dammed - up river, a coal mine and a nineteenth - century tenement. the production was vibrant, witty and unapologetically political: chéreau' s ring was so specific, so profoundly human, that he restored the cycle' s viability as drama. chéreau treated his singers like actors, explaining ,
i discovered that it was not only possible but necessary to have [ the ring singers ] act. then i was in my element. it was not an opera — it was my work .
although the chéreau ring is now properly regarded as a historic achievement, it was not an immediate popular success: the selection of a thirty - one - year - old french leftist (who chewed gum during staging rehearsals) to direct at bayreuth was seen by some as an act of sacrilege. but the controversy proved stimulating: even winifred wagner, who told chéreau that she loathed his production, admitted ,
isn' t it better to be furious than to be bored ?
in later years, chéreau was always swift to counter praise for his bayreuth triumph with the memory that he had been booed in 1976; a modest man, he left it to others to point out that by the time the cycle had its last bayreuth performance, in 1980, it was greeted with a forty - five - minute standing ovation. thanks to the worldwide television broadcast of brian large' s brilliant 1980 film of the chéreau ring, the staging was seen by millions — the biggest audience that the ring had ever had .
when the met presented chéreau' s staging of janáček' s from the house of the dead in 2009, i attended six of the seven performances; each time, i was profoundly unsettled by the bleak world that chéreau and his designers had created yet exhilarated by the clarity of his vision and the firm, swift cut of its execution. the break between acts i and ii was marked with a stunning coup - de - théâtre: the ceiling of the set collapsed, filling the stage with debris and the air with rising dust. the profound, shocked silence that greeted that moment at every show stopped time. the audience was completely engaged — it was real, unforgettable theater .
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patrice chéreau, a director whose iconoclastic theater, opera and film productions sometimes offered broad social critiques that made them both provocative and influential, died on monday in paris. he was 68 .
the cause was cancer, a spokeswoman for his manager, artmedia, said .
mr. chéreau, who also acted and wrote for the screen, came to international prominence in 1976, when he staged a production of wagner’s operatic tetralogy, “der ring des nibelungen, ” at bayreuth, the german festival wagner founded, on the centenary of the first “ring” cycle .
wagner’s epic told of the ruthless interplay of ancient norse gods in a world of mortals, giants, dragons and dwarves. but in his production, which was conducted by pierre boulez, mr. chéreau updated the action to the mid - 19th century — wagner’s time — and replaced some of the mythological scenery with industrial age machinery .
for mr. chéreau, the story was a marxist allegory of capitalism and the exploitation of the working class. it was an approach he based partly on ideas that george bernard shaw explored in “the perfect wagnerite, ” in 1898, but his staging — in bayreuth, no less — was unlike anything wagner fans had seen. moreover, its audience was magnified when a film of the production was broadcast around the world (by pbs in the united states) and released on home video .
audiences were split between those who were outraged and those who regarded mr. chéreau’s approach as unalloyed genius. that production, in any case, helped open the floodgates of directorial reinterpretation of opera, in which the original settings and relationships were reconfigured to represent a director’s viewpoint. the approach quickly became accepted in the opera world, and when his “ring” cycle had its final performance at bayreuth, in 1980, it was given a 45 - minute standing ovation .
mr. chéreau was born on nov. 2, 1944, in lézigné, maine - et - loire, in western france, to parents who were both painters. he developed a passion for the theater as a child, and became manager of his high school theater when he was 15. when he was 19, and a student at the sorbonne, he directed a production of victor hugo’s “intervention” that was so successful that he left the university to start his own theater company in paris .
he began directing in italy and germany in the early 1970s, and he had a few opera productions under his belt, including a staging of offenbach’s “contes d’hoffmann” at the paris opera, by the time he undertook his bayreuth “ring. ”
mr. chéreau’s other opera productions include both of berg’s operas — “wozzeck” in paris and berlin, the three - act version of “lulu” in paris — as well as mozart’s “don giovanni” (at the salzburg festival) and “così fan tutte” (at aix - en - provence) and wagner’s “tristan und isolde” (at la scala). but he professed ambivalence about opera .
“once or twice in your life, it’s a great opportunity to take on a 14 - hour work, ” he told the new york times in 1985. ”you learn to have reflexes of steel. but opera consists merely of works from the past — and for audiences i don’t particularly like. directing opera provides a pleasure akin to reviving the dead. ”
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mr. chéreau’s many films include “flesh of the orchid” (1975), with charlotte rampling; “queen margot, ” starring isabelle adjani, which won the 1994 cannes film festival jury prize; “intimacy” (2001), with mark rylance, which won the berlin film festival golden bear award; “his brother” (2003) and “persécution” (2009) .
he gave master classes in film at columbia university, the city college of new york and the school of visual arts in 2003, and was president of the jury at the cannes film festival the same year. he was a guest curator at the louvre in 2010 .
peter gelb, the general manager of the metropolitan opera, where mr. chéreau’s production of janacek’s “from the house of the dead” was staged in 2009, described mr. chéreau as “one of the most influential european directors of theater and opera of the last 50 years. ”
“he once jokingly told me, ” mr. gelb said of mr. chéreau in an interview, “that he was responsible for the movement disparagingly referred to as ‘eurotrash, ’ because his production of the ring at bayreuth, which is now legendary, was the first kind of high - concept operatic production that radically transformed the action. ”
mr. chéreau’s most recent production, a staging of richard strauss’s “elektra, ” which had its premiere this summer in aix - en - provence, is on the metropolitan opera’s schedule for 2016 .
with the headline: patrice chéreau, director who broke traditions in opera staging, dies at 68 .
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götterdämmerung (10 / 19) - wagner ,
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i was deeply saddened to learn of the death of pierre boulez. he died in baden - baden, his adopted home town which made him an honorary citizen .
pierre boulez put his stamp on an age. he was a pioneer of his generation, unpredictable in the best sense of the word and independent in his thinking. he consciously broke with tradition and ideological constraints without ever losing sight of history. his creativity will resonate for a long time to come.
the jahrhundertring ( centenary ring ) was the production of richard wagner 's ring cycle , der ring des nibelungen , at the bayreuth festival in 1976 , celebrating the centenary of both the festival and the first performance of the complete cycle . the festival was directed by wolfgang wagner and the production was created by the french team of conductor pierre boulez , stage director patrice chéreau , stage designer richard peduzzi , costume designer jacques schmidt and lighting designer andré diot . the cycle was shown first in 1976 , then in the following years until 1980 . it was filmed for television in 1979 and 1980 . while the first performance caused " a near-riot " for its brash modernity , the staging , termed the beginning of regietheater ( director 's theater ) , established a standard for later productions . 
the jahrhundertring (centenary ring) was the production of richard wagner's ring cycle, der ring des nibelungen, at the bayreuth festival in 1976, celebrating the centenary of both the festival and the first performance of the complete cycle. the festival was directed by wolfgang wagner and the production was created by the french team of conductor pierre boulez, stage director patrice chéreau, stage designer richard peduzzi, costume designer jacques schmidt and lighting designer andré diot. the cycle was shown first in 1976, then in the following years until 1980. it was filmed for television in 1979 and 1980. while the first performance caused " a near-riot " for its brash modernity, the staging, termed the beginning of regietheater (director's theater), established a standard for later productions.
the jahrhundertring (centenary ring) was the production of richard wagner's ring cycle, der ring des nibelungen, at the bayreuth festival in 1976, celebrating the centenary of both the festival and the first performance of the complete cycle. the festival was directed by wolfgang wagner and the production was created by the french team of conductor pierre boulez, stage director patrice chéreau, stage designer richard peduzzi, costume designer jacques schmidt and lighting designer andré diot. the cycle was shown first in 1976, then in the following years until 1980. it was filmed for television in 1979 and 1980. while the first performance caused " a near-riot " for its brash modernity, the staging, termed the beginning of regietheater (director's theater), established a standard for later productions.