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Das Rheingold: A Review
Yes, the films do have English subtitles, which is a blessing to me and others who get almost nothing from oral German.
Was the film any good?
It depends on what you mean by any good. I would rate it higher than either John Carter or Wrath of the Titans but below The Hunger Games as a film. But this is not a normal film but rather a film of a live theatrical production without retakes. It would be unfair to compare it with a film where one might expect the director to say to Eric Owens who played Alberich, “You looked a little nervous when singing at a 45 degree angle dangling from the safety wire. Could we do it again, perhaps a few times again?” And all special effects are done live in viewing order, or they just don’t happen.
If you can make allowances for that, this was an excellent film.
You already know from reviews of the live performances that the vocals were excellent, if you like Wagner at all and if you have read the reviews. And you already know that the electronic staging was controversial.
On that matter I think that sometimes it was problematical and sometimes worked magnificently. It was especially effective in the Nibelheim scene where “the machine” which had heretofore served as a floor became the ceiling, enhancing the idea that Nibelheim was down below and also magnificent in the final scene where the gods (actually stunt doubles of the gods) walked up a section of the machine representing the rainbow bridge at an angle greater than 45°.
The leads were all excellent, especially Richard Croft as Loge, Stepanie Blythe as a magnificently fat but sympathetic Fricka, and Eric Owens as Alberich. Loge’s hands were enhanced by a fiery red glow at times and by a fiery glow on the ground wherever he walked. Fricka was beautiful with magnificent red hair and a gorgeous green gown and a very gentle and unharsh manner. Alberich was captivating after the first scene where too many of his slides down “the machine” didn’t work for me.
Bryn Terfel played the one-eyed Wotan with a lock of hair falling over the right side of his face to hide the supposedly empty socket, but in one of this first appearances the eye could be faintly seen through the hair. One of Wotan/Óðinn’s titles is Grey-beard but this Wotan had only black stubble, although a lot of stubble.
Donner had the red hair that fits his character, but no red beard as he should have, since one of Thor’s titles in the Norse Eddas is ‘Red-beard’. His hammer also has a handle like a sledge hammer whereas in the Prose Edda the only fault attributed to Thor’s hammer is that its handle is too short.
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