The Seattle Opera's 2013 production of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen was presented during the international celebrations of the composer's bicentennial year and recorded live, making it the company's first audio recording of the tetralogy since 1975. The sumptuous traditional staging and compelling performances received critical raves, and the 2014 release of the recording on Avie earned its own round of glowing reviews. Seattle Opera has been mounting productions of the Ring in its core repertoire since 1973, staking a claim on the operas that is unmatched by other opera houses in the United States, and it has presented an alternative to the controversial avant-garde productions at Bayreuth. Leading the cast are Greer Grimsley as Wotan, Stefan Vinke as Siegfried, Alwyn Mellor as Brünnhilde, Richard Paul Fink as Alberich, and Stephanie Blythe as Fricka, all offering some of the strongest Wagnerian singing heard since the 1980s. The Seattle Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Asher Fisch, provides rich sonorities and vibrant tone colors, so fans of Wagner's brilliant orchestral writing will hear many passages with new ears. Avie's reproduction is remarkable in its clarity and depth, and despite the festival conditions, the sound is quite clean and relatively free of extraneous noises. Issued as a 14-CD box set with complete libretti and color photographs, as well as a digital download, and as online streaming, this release gives Wagner fans options that are usually unavailable for other Ring recordings.
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