[Met Tour] CID:33230



G?tterd?mmerung
Ring Cycle [27]
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sat, March 12, 1904 Matinee





G?tterd?mmerung (49)
Richard Wagner | Richard Wagner
Br?nnhilde
Georgine Von Januschowsky

Siegfried
Andreas Dippel

Gunther
Adolph M?hlmann

Gutrune
Marion Weed

Hagen
Robert Blass

Woglinde
Camille Seygard

Wellgunde
Paula Ralph

Flosshilde
Louise Homer


Conductor
Alfred Hertz








Review 1:

Review from a Philadelphia newspaper

CLOSE OF THE "RING"

Disappointing Performance Given at he Academy of Music.

"Der Ring des Nibelungen" and the Philadelphia grand opera season closed yesterday with a performance of G?tterd?mmerung" disappointing in every detail. Neither Gadski nor Kraus, who were to have sung "Br?nnhilde" and "Siegfried" respectively, were able to appear, both suffering from an indisposition which the little paper slip, to which Philadelphians have grown so accustomed of late, pronounced to be hoarseness. Their places were taken by Mme. Januschowsky and Mr. Dippel.

The performance was to have begun at 1.30 o'clock, but although the audience and orchestra were on time the company was not, and it was 2.15 before Mr. Hertz took his seat at the director's stand. Thus being nearly an hour late in beginning big cuts were made in the second act in order to finish at a reasonable hour. The scene between Hagen and Alberich and the planning of the death of Siegfried by Br?nnhilde, Hagen and Gunther were both omitted.

Mme. Januschowsky, who sang "Br?nnhilde," is not equal to the demands Wagner makes of this great role, vocally, dramatically or in stage presence. Dippel did his best as "Siegfried." but his limitations in the role were very apparent. Mr. Blass as "Hagen" and Mr. Muhlmann as "Gunther" were satisfactory, and Miss Weed made a very pretty "Gutrune" and sang and acted the part well. These three, with the Rhine maidens, were the only redeeming features of the entire opera. The orchestra after it got well in tune, at the end of the first act, also did excellent work, and in the last act Mr. Hertz got some really fine effects out of it. Mr. Hertz's conducting was such that, with all its defects" the opera maintained its dignity and solemnity throughout.

The staging was again very bad. Grane, the horse, was apparently more at home between the shafts of a cab than posing as Br?nnhilde's stallion, the only correct feature of the impersonation being that he was black in color. The ravens, too, that circled over Siegfried's head just before his death were most remarkable fowls and were regarded by the audience more as a source of amusement than as the harbingers of the hero's tragic death. No attempt was made to stage the death of Br?nnhilde or the burning of Siegfried's body and, taken all in all, the opera was a decided fiasco and formed a most dismal close to the Philadelphia season.



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