SHORT TAKES : ‘Ring’ Opera Broadcast Scheduled
NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Opera’s new production of the four operas in Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen†will be televised on four consecutive evenings in June, 1990, by Public Broadcasting Service.
“Das Rheingold†will be broadcast June 18, followed by “Die Walkure,†“Siegfried†and “Gotterdammerung,†the Met announced Thursday.
The composer wanted the operas to be seen in four straight nights so that impact could build over the 17 hours. However, even at Bayreuth, the opera house Wagner built for his operas in Germany, the “Ring cycle†is performed Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, so that singers can rest their voices.
Videotaping of “Die Walkure†will be done in March and April this year. The other three operas will be videotaped in March and April, 1990.
The host for the telecast will be F. Murray Abraham. Casts will include Hildegard Behrens, Jessye Norman, Christa Ludwig, Siegfried Jerusalem, Gary Lakes, James Morris, Kurt Moll and Matti Salminen.
This Ring will be released throughout Europe and to the Soviet Union and Japan and for home video.
Funding for the Ring telecast comes from Texaco Inc., the Texaco Philanthropic Foundation Inc., Ailene B. and Pierre Claeyssens, Cynthia Wood and La Sept, the French television system.
PBS telecast the Ring operas from Bayreuth in 1983.
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