Colon Ring: Wagner in Buenos Aires [Blu-ray]

A Fascinating Story!
Who woulda thunk it? Take Richard Wagner's masterpiece 16 hour Ring Cycle and shrink it down to around 7 hours so it can be seen in one day! And who woulda thunk that Katharina Wagner would approve of this? Well, it was thought of and she did aprove, at least until she got to Buenos Aires and saw the total disarray the opera was in. She then withdrew from the project but wished the Colon Theatre well if it wanted to go ahead. Which it did.

This DVD focuses on those last weeks, from the appearance of Ms. Wagner and her anger at the complete mess everything was in to the dropping out of certain stars and the need to get replacements quickly to the set design that had to be accomplished "yesterday," to the hurry up rehearsal schedule to the moment the production is about to begin.

Whether or not you approve of the idea of shrinking the Ring Cycle down, this is an exciting and fascinating documentary of what happened. And it is a real cliff hanger--will they be able...

A colonoscopy on living Wagner!
This doco may be the best thing, even the only good thing, about the Colon Ring, (how aptly named for a truncated lump of semi-processed Wagnerian flesh!) Argentina has had a very mixed relationship with her German immigrants and some of their values, particularly in the decades following the war and up to the Falklands defeat, with some terrible goings-on that even the Spanish Inquisition would have been ashamed of. German attention to detail and Wagner in particular would not normally seem a good fit with the rather laid back Latin American approach to life and so it is not much of a surprise this "Mini-Ring" met some heavy weather. This is not the place to comment on the Colon Ring itself but it is certainly going to be a Ring that will garner a host of comments and I suspect not a lot will be favourable to the concept regardless of the performance. This doco covers a most interesting and highly controversial event and many Wagner lovers may like to see it because of its special...



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