This is one of the most stunningly beautiful moments in opera, and this rendition is as great as it gets. As an orchestra player, you’ve been sitting in the pit for nearly 5 hours already, played “Ride of the Valkyries”, etc, and then this gorgeous moment comes along, and it’s like a reward for everything else you been through that night. Incredible moment.
5 hours? They don't let you out in the intermissions? 😉 If anyone's thinking of seeing Die Walkure, I break it up like this: Act 1 is 60 minutes, Act 2 is 90 minutes, and Act 3 is 60 minutes.
I remember watching this production on PBS back in the nineties. Though I was familiar with some of Wagners music, I had never seen an opera before. I decided to tune in to see what all the fuss was about, and they showed all 4 of the ring operas over 4 nights. To say I was blown away would be an understatement. I had never had any art form yank around my emotions like this before, and the complex plot and awesome music is something that made a great impression on me. I have since seen 3 other complete ring cycles, and never get tired of them. This started me out on becoming an opera fan, and I have never looked back.
Craig Hughes: I had the same experience, in watching all those Met "Ring" operas, having it reach down into both my cerebral cortex AND my guts. You might have to look around, but there is a truly dazzling analysis of the Ring Lietmotives AUDIO {I can't read music} I found on several library LPs and copied onto tape. At one time I think I had memorized 30 different leitmotives by sound alone- which is EXTREMELY helpfull when going through the operas, especially the way Wagner deliberately alters them according to the situation {Where do you think practically All movie music comes from?} That analysis was by Derek Cooke
@@colleencupido5125 Never forget that Berlioz and Liszt are essentials for Wagner music, the filiation is there. For instance the main theme of Parsifal was actually composed by Liszt on the piano when Wagner was staying at his home before he exiled to Switzerland, he later used it in the opera without of course telling his father in law. Berlioz has been forunner of many musical ideas; in a masterclass for Romeo and Juliet by Leonard Bernstein the conductor points out that in one of the passages (I think it's the garden and balcony scene) Berlioz already uses the twelve tone structure to simulate Romeo's cry of love. He was in a way a precursor to Schoenberg!
@@colleencupido5125 I suppose Leonard Bernstein in his master class on Romeo and Juliet is a good teacher as well as Alan Walker in his biography of Franz Liszt.
@bigfoot99 I had EXACTLY the same experience! As a young man in his early 20's, I actually knew a fair amount about classical music. But I never cared much about opera. One night, flipping channels on my Sony Trinitron (!) I stumbled midway into this very opera. Three hours later, when it ended, I found I hadn't moved. I'd been transfixed by James Morris, Jessye Norman, Hilde, and James Levine's orchestra. Since then I've been to the opera hundreds of times. I wonder how many of us there are?
In addition to the sheer singing, I absolutely love the gentle warmth in Morris' portrayal of Wotan. That long embrace with Brunhilde is just so beautiful.
Though an opera fan since the late 1970's, never really got Wagner or any other German opera. I recorded (on VHS) the PBS broadcast on 4 consecutive nights of the Met production, but didn't pay any attention to them. One weekend during the mid 90's my family was off on a visit to family. I was alone, had finished the Saturday yard work, nothing else to do, no ball games I was interested in on TV, so put on the tape of Das Rheingold. By Sunday evening had watched all 4 operas. I finally got Wagner. Realized the Ring was easily the greatest single work of opera, and among the crowning artistic achievements of the long 19th Century. Now the DVD/Bluerays of the Met production have pride of place among my opera collection. Great singing actors in four great productions. A number of German operas now are among my favorites. Who knew?
I recently showed this scene to a good buddy - we both have children, including daughters. We both sat there and tried not to show that we were crying. It’s inconceivably heartbreaking to think you’d have to say goodbye to your daughter. Morris’s face at 7:27 says it all, the bottomless regret.
I don't have a daughter but I relate to the feelings of disappointment , then love, then protection, it touches my heart. If had a daugther like you, I'd probably be non-stop sobbing.
Well, I'm child-free and it moves me to tears too. But to my mind, it's not about a bloke saying Goodbye to his daughter. That's just the hook for us to hang it on. It's about a god accepting that the world order he wanted and had existed for is lost forever...... Through his own fault.
Because every director sees a different aspect in Wagner's music and wants to highlight another aspect of the story. Just look e.g. Berliner Staatsoper 2022. Just that you do not like the way the opera is presented, does not mean that it's better or worse. Just that the director saw something different then you. Maybe being open to new productions could be beneficial to something you might like down the road
Love the way the conductor keeps the flow of ravishing music uninterrupted. Plus, the staging so wonderfully expresses the feelings portrayed in the music and the story. Opera isn't just magnificent voices, exquisite music, or acting. It's the entire package. I find this a fine example of that.
@@derek2365 like I said, I had a chance to watch and learn. I believe we human all love beautiful things, so soon I won't be such rare case like you said anymore, when people bend their interests and discover this amazing world.
@@richardfallon5507 thank you for sharing your feeling. I agree with you totally. The newer products often rely on people's immaturity or naive views to squeeze their emotions. This one is different. The masterpiece based its value on the most complex in manifestation yet most simple in nature phenomenon, the fatherly love. My sons is not five yet, but I could already feel the connection and it moves me, like no others did.
As great as many other Wotans have been, I think Morris tops them all. His majestic voice and regal bearing have left countless people in awe, including me. Christa Ludwig, Hildegard Behrens, and Gwyneth Jones said in various interviews that he was the best Wotan they’d heard. I saw him many times in the theater, including several times in the Ring. I also got his autograph backstage at the Caramoor Festival in a Broadway program.
Dave Glo I've heard varying accounts of Morris in this role. Some even claimed one could hardly hear him at the Met, but his Walkure Wotan was perfectly suited to San Francisco and Chicago. Just curious about where you heard him and how his voice came across there; whether the sound easily rode the orchestra and filled the theater; or was it perhaps not huge, but sufficient for the role. Would very much appreciate your opinions regarding these matters. I never had the opportunity to hear Morris in person, more's the pity --
Steve VanDien He was truly great. I heard in tiny roles, as well as his signature roles. I never had the slightest problem hearing him, even with a blaring Wagner orchestra. The only role I thought he cheated a bit was Iago, but not because of volume. It was simply a bit high for him, so the high notes in the brindisi weren’t really there. But as Wotan, the Dutchman, Scarpia, Claggart, no problem with hearing him clearly at the Met. I saw him as Boris in Miami, no problem there either. I can’t imagine who told you that he was inaudible. They certainly need a hearing exam.
Dave Glo saw Die Walküre Morris-Behrens /Levine live at the Met back in the mid 70's. Morris' Wotan brought the audience to tearful ovation. Behrens debut as Brunhilde was startlingly youthful, a unique vocal quality you couldn't compare to any other legends, and her emotional body language and expressive features really humanized the role.
I was an early opera lover but believed those who told me Wagner was boring and loud. Then i met a guy who without telling me what it was put it on. I was blown away.That is so beautiful, I recall saying. Yes he said , though you don’t like Wagner do you? I went away and spent the next week listening to every single moment. Haven’t ben able to live without his music since!
Let me tell you, it takes balls to sing with this much sensitivity at the end of such a long opera with such a huge orchestra under your feet. This is really great!
After the climactic embrace when Wotan begins singing again the music behind him should unwind like never-ending, ravishing waves of love emanating from God. The vocal is exquisitely tender and soothing while the orchestra delivers a seemingly inexhaustible series of thrillingly sweet caresses. Morris holds up his end quite nicely but the conductor here isn't quite there yet. Wonderful nonetheless. Wagner was a ruthless perfectionist but he may not have had a problem with this.
I saw this production over a few nights in 1990 on PBS. This scene never fails to cause me to weep. Wagner had his finger on universality with his Tristan chord and it sure worked with me. I never tire of watching it. A super, grandiose production by Levine and the NY Met
@@lifeisgood3087 Excellent scene, and I love Verdi, but Wagner brings so much emotion in the scene. Wagner is like you bring the grandness of Beethoven and the emotion of Italian opera composers.
@@nicholasprakash3411 on the other hand, Wotan exiled Brunnhilde and stripped her on her god powers. Why? Because he couldn't bear to be contradicted. But if he did forgive her, we would be poorer without this music.
@@andrewvincenti2664 Wagner's German gods are far more human than the Italian version of Greek/Roman gods. If this was Zeus he'd allow any Joe to get Brunhilde.
This father is a true child-killer, not only he destroys this daughter, he also destroys his other two children earlier, and if he is upset to lose Sigmund, elaborate about Brunhilde, he doesn't even mention Sieglinde. A lunatic at best! Wagner managed to write extraordinary music on the very controversial subjects, well, he was an anti-social anarchist at heart.
This aria is why this opera is one of my all time favorites. Forty years ago I would listen to this opera with my tiny daughter on my knee and a tear in my eye. "So kuess ich die Gottheit von dir"--is there a sadder moment in all of opera?
Himmlisch schöne Musik ! Herrlich rührender Wotan ! Sicherlich einer der Höhepunkte aller Opern !!! Es gibt so viele andere bei dem unübertrefflichen Richard Wagner !!!!!
Ten minutes of Wagner has more emotional effect than ten months of Haydn Wagner had a knack or talent to effect emotions than any other composer and cause you to have very deep thoughts about life and what's it all about or for
Josephine Hammond: Well, to have a father like that you need a mother like Erda. Beside would the father you had abandon you in forever sleep on a mountain top surrounded by fire??
Bravo, Bravo, Bravo in every perspective! This Bariton is giving the Farewell, Wotan, a very sensible and loving feature. Singing in piano, and almost lyrisch, and with a lot of fragile emotions, acting fanatastic or as I said in Person to Robertt Hale, after a performance: He is Wotan and not acting!
Sublime hasta lo fin... Morris es el perfecto Wotan.... valgame Dios.... como quiesiero oirlo en vivo... pero asi es la vida en este mundo... aprendalo bien jovenes... la vida es muy corto... aprovechelo pronto... porque de aqui, quien sabe....
Besides that James Morris is a great Bariton, he interpretates Wotan very vunarable and sensitive with his voice . Usally the words singing and . . of Wotans demonstrates the Zerissenheit of Wotan.....
@@johnpickford4222 As I explained above has very persona/ deep psycological reasons, as I explained on my YT channel in German. I am German. It is a Projection, regarding to CG Jung. It ihas something to do with my father projection snd a Prof where I started a PHD thesis.
This is the best performance I've heard of Die Walküre and unfortunately here it fades out before we hear James sing the famous Abschied. His performance later in this piece is also the best Abshied I've ever heard. I agree with the previous poster, this is as good as it gets. Find it if you can.
The general public gets it wrong. They think Wagner is just real loud. But in fact the best Wagnerians also sing softly and sweetly as you can hear here. That's why Vickers was so great as Siegmund and Toxzi was great as Hans Sachs. Morris sang Wotan many times in San Francisco but I always missed him. I heard Thomas Stewart and Hubert Hofmann and some one else. I heard Morris in several Italian parts but I only heard him live in Wagner at Covent Garden as the Dutchman. He was supernal
I was fortunate to see his very first Wotan (well, not his actual first, because I saw the 2nd or 3rd cycle), in San Francisco with Jeanine Altmeyer as Brunnhilde. It was just as stunning as you would imagine. Altmeyer was a wonderful (and underrated Brunnhilde), and this scene definitely required many tissues. It doesn't matter how many times I hear this, it brings tears every single time. And to think that many critics thought Morris was a rather wooden actor! Thank goodness this is on dvd.
You’re right. There’s a fetish about decibels in singing Wagner. There were no Wagner singers during Wagner’s life - they were bel canto singers, and Wagner himself greatly admired Bellini. Nowadays people scream and bellow the music, and the general public is mesmerized by who has the biggest voice. It’s a little nutty!
Until watching this excerpt I had never understood the deep deep sadness in Wotan but it is a pity it cuts off so abruptly. I wanted to see how he summons Loge, because emotionally there must be a break between the regret and the fixed determination to do what his wife demands. Superb acting, superb singing (so far as I can judge singing) badly let down by whoever designed the costumes with those ridiculous papier mache armour and shield which would hardly pass muster at a children's pantomine. Fire the guy who designed the armour!!
I remember when Morris made his debut at the Met. I always thought that he would develop into a superb artist. This proves it. And the conducting?!! Levine got busted for something he did decades ago and one of the greatest conductor of the 20th century was kicked to the ground. There is a video floating around of Levine in a conducting seminar with Szell. But this performance is for the ages.Wagner never heard it this good.
I was watching a youtube vide,o and one opera expert said that Richard Wagner was the most despicable human being in his age, he explained why and gave lot of reasons, and also confessed that he detested him actually. But he never could not deny what a big artist was Ricard Wagner and how he created this new concept of drama for music, completely parting of traditional concepts of opera on those times and how Wagner understood the music. And based on his thoughts and concepts Wagner was able to imagine and put music that he thought was music. One of this is this opera, this scene. The expert also said that Wagner always looked himself in every opera he composed, like in Tristan und Isolde or Lohengrin or Tannahauser, anyway. Wager was a great artist. One of the greatest artist of western hemisphere and i am totally agree.
Wagner was certainly not the most despicable, what nonsense! He was in fact absolutely harmless and entitled to his views. It's rather a wonder that Karajan who was a true Nazi party member is never spoken of with the same venom as this extravagant composer who was in fact for social justice, fighting in the barricades for it in his youth, for which he had been paying all his life with suffering and misery.
@@cameragiocosa6899 Yeah he used to be a leftist who was friends with anarchists like Bakhunin, but as he got older he became more antisemitic and in the last years of his life spoke positively of Arthur De Gobinau, the guy who’s racist beliefs went on to inspire Hitler
No puedo dejar de escuchar este aria desde que la descubrí, es la voz de Morris! Cuánta ternura! Más los hermosísimos acordes sinfónicos! Conforman un todo de inenarrable belleza que trasciende toda comprensión... Quién dirige?
L`Adeu de Wotan i el foc màgic ès el fracment que mès m`agrada ,sempre m`emociona aquesta versió ès del Met i tinc completa la tetralogia amb Hildegar Berens i Siegfried Jerusalem en els papers de Brünhilde i Siegfried Maria Angels Molpeceres
They say this is a bass baritone voice? Man, he must have an incredible range cause I've been told I'm a bass baritone (and I have a wide range) and I cannot hit the high notes Morris hits here. I've been told Johnny Cash and Steve Kilbey are bass baritones and I can sing along with them so I'm mystified.
His higher range is exactly what makes him a bass-BARITONE as opposed to standard bass (as he was labeled earlier in his career),, making him capable of performing roles like Scarpia, Iago, Amfortas etc.
Tuve oportunidad de escuchar y ver a Morris en Don Carlo de Verdi. Tenía el rol de Felipe II. No lo escuché en roles wagnerianos. Hay una idea equivocada y generalizada sobre la ópera de Wagner. Como que todos se dedican a cantar a todo pulmón tratando de tapar la orquesta y NO ES ASÍ.
He did not have to fall in debt he could not possibly pay to satisfy a vain desire in building a new home, and then succumb to heinous crimes to raise funds. He is a guilty one.
eroupopper Morris had quite a few Bests! His Hans Sachs is also great, and so is his Dutchman. And Claggart in Billy Budd was also terrific. I also have his early Don Giovanni on tape, and he’s so suave, vocally and physically. But maybe you’re right - Wotan is probably his greatest achievement.
He stopped singing Wotan in 2009 and indeed should have retired completely at that time but unfortunately continued to soldier one with an increasingly dry and unsteady voice up to and including the present time.
Sua vida vai mal ? Você não está satisfeito com sua vida? Nada dá certo em sua vida? Fácil de resolver. Faça uma música como esta de Wagner e sua vida vai melhorar. Com toda certeza!
@@selimacast725 I would agree but only up to the point where the aspect ratio of cameras and screens widened to the point where they reasonably matched the proportions of a full stage. If camera operators were versed enough in an opera in order to know when to zoom, and how much, to match the ways our eyes do when we zero in on details while at other times backing up to view the full stage, then the result would be a fair representation of the opera, I believe. Cameras shooting from above and at wild angles is, I think, an effort to replicate what we see in film, but it looks ultra-ridiculous and beco,mes the worst of two worlds: a film that looks like a Buck Rogers movie, and a film that looks nothing like the opera, either. I was lucky to see a production of the Ring cycle at the San Francisco opera years ago, and it was a fairly high-budget staging, and there's no way it would have had the appearance and illusion of immersive reality if it had been filmed from crazy angles rather than from the front, which is how all features of the set were designed to be viewed.
Min. 2 - the moment when the soul of half of humanity separated from human beings with the Covid vaccination. Vaccinated people would now describe this observation as “overinterpreted”. You understand, they think so AFTER the vaccination?!
I saw this Ring several times, and also the newer one with Deborah Voigt. I thought she was good. Of course I thought she was much better as Sieglinde than Brunnhilde, but I was impressed with her acting too.
Nor can she sing - at least by the time she performed Brunnhilde at the Met. Dreadful performance from her when Nina Stemme was wowing them all in San Francisco.
I agree with Crazy organist. Hotter’s Wotan is not nearly as great as Morris’. His voice was a wobbly, woofy mess. He couldn’t sing a steady tone even in his 1944 Flying Dutchman when he was only 35. Rudolf Bing basically told him after a 1950 Dutchman that he should focus on secondary character parts. Hotter was furious, and left, never to return. He recorded Walküre Wotan under Solti when he was 56, and ruins the set. When I listen to a complete Ring, it’s Solti Rheingold, switch to Leinsdorf/Nilsson GEORGE LONDON Walküre, then back to Solti Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. Hotter is simply unendurable in Walküre. As the Wanderer in Siegfried he’s tolerable, but Windgassen and Nilsson steal that show.
@@jeffreymiller4814 hard to believe that about Hotter, I have his CDs and he is great, an absolutely unique amazing voice and singing. A well-known fact is that he gave a finger to Adolf and nothing happened to him, so much of a star he was. It's unlikely that it was for nothing in Germany. He did not have an advantage to live in a quality sound-recording age.
@@jeffreymiller4814 you complain about a wobble in Hotter's voice but you like London? Hotter had a huge beautiful voice. I don't get the impression that Morris had a big enough voice but I can't tell from this recording.
I'm a 63 Year old retired forklift driver and I have always loved this
This is one of the most stunningly beautiful moments in opera, and this rendition is as great as it gets. As an orchestra player, you’ve been sitting in the pit for nearly 5 hours already, played “Ride of the Valkyries”, etc, and then this gorgeous moment comes along, and it’s like a reward for everything else you been through that night. Incredible moment.
5 hours? They don't let you out in the intermissions? 😉
If anyone's thinking of seeing Die Walkure, I break it up like this: Act 1 is 60 minutes, Act 2 is 90 minutes, and Act 3 is 60 minutes.
More than 5 hours. But this includes Das Rheingold and the 2 first acts from Die Walküre
I remember watching this production on PBS back in the nineties. Though I was familiar with some of Wagners music, I had never seen an opera before. I decided to tune in to see what all the fuss was about, and they showed all 4 of the ring operas over 4 nights. To say I was blown away would be an understatement. I had never had any art form yank around my emotions like this before, and the complex plot and awesome music is something that made a great impression on me. I have since seen 3 other complete ring cycles, and never get tired of them. This started me out on becoming an opera fan, and I have never looked back.
Craig Hughes: I had the same experience, in watching all those Met "Ring" operas, having it reach down into both my cerebral cortex AND my guts. You might have to look around, but there is a truly dazzling analysis of the Ring Lietmotives AUDIO {I can't read music} I found on several library LPs and copied onto tape. At one time I think I had memorized 30 different leitmotives by sound alone- which is EXTREMELY helpfull when going through the operas, especially the way Wagner deliberately alters them according to the situation {Where do you think practically All movie music comes from?}
That analysis was by Derek Cooke
@@colleencupido5125 Never forget that Berlioz and Liszt are essentials for Wagner music, the filiation is there. For instance the main theme of Parsifal was actually composed by Liszt on the piano when Wagner was staying at his home before he exiled to Switzerland, he later used it in the opera without of course telling his father in law. Berlioz has been forunner of many musical ideas; in a masterclass for Romeo and Juliet by Leonard Bernstein the conductor points out that in one of the passages (I think it's the garden and balcony scene) Berlioz already uses the twelve tone structure to simulate Romeo's cry of love. He was in a way a precursor to Schoenberg!
@@jvdesuit1 Ya don't know then what 12 tone structure is, Berlioz wrote MELODY, to say Wagner ripped off Parsifal from Liszt is naked jealousy
@@colleencupido5125 I suppose Leonard Bernstein in his master class on Romeo and Juliet is a good teacher as well as Alan Walker in his biography of Franz Liszt.
@bigfoot99 I had EXACTLY the same experience! As a young man in his early 20's, I actually knew a fair amount about classical music. But I never cared much about opera. One night, flipping channels on my Sony Trinitron (!) I stumbled midway into this very opera. Three hours later, when it ended, I found I hadn't moved. I'd been transfixed by James Morris, Jessye Norman, Hilde, and James Levine's orchestra. Since then I've been to the opera hundreds of times. I wonder how many of us there are?
In addition to the sheer singing, I absolutely love the gentle warmth in Morris' portrayal of Wotan. That long embrace with Brunhilde is just so beautiful.
A father saying goodbye to his beloved daughter, brings the audience to tears.
Weird! Today 2025, I was in tears driving in my car remembering 30 years ago in San Francisco. Why I tuned into this.
I recommend purchasing the box set even if you are behind on your rent
haha love it
I did.
What is the name of the Conductor and Orchestra?
@@nachotolchefffernandez231 James Levine and the Met Orchestra
where?
One of most beautiful pieces of music ever written. Simply glorious!
One of the best scenes ever !
Without a doubt one of the most painstakingly beautiful moments in the entire orchestral repertoire
Though an opera fan since the late 1970's, never really got Wagner or any other German opera. I recorded (on VHS) the PBS broadcast on 4 consecutive nights of the Met production, but didn't pay any attention to them. One weekend during the mid 90's my family was off on a visit to family. I was alone, had finished the Saturday yard work, nothing else to do, no ball games I was interested in on TV, so put on the tape of Das Rheingold. By Sunday evening had watched all 4 operas. I finally got Wagner. Realized the Ring was easily the greatest single work of opera, and among the crowning artistic achievements of the long 19th Century. Now the DVD/Bluerays of the Met production have pride of place among my opera collection. Great singing actors in four great productions. A number of German operas now are among my favorites. Who knew?
I recently showed this scene to a good buddy - we both have children, including daughters. We both sat there and tried not to show that we were crying. It’s inconceivably heartbreaking to think you’d have to say goodbye to your daughter. Morris’s face at 7:27 says it all, the bottomless regret.
I don't have a daughter but I relate to the feelings of disappointment , then love, then protection, it touches my heart. If had a daugther like you, I'd probably be non-stop sobbing.
I hear you. This and the movie Interstellar.
Well, I'm child-free and it moves me to tears too. But to my mind, it's not about a bloke saying Goodbye to his daughter. That's just the hook for us to hang it on. It's about a god accepting that the world order he wanted and had existed for is lost forever...... Through his own fault.
How one could not be moved to tears by this is beyond me. It's like the entire philosophy of opera is synthesized into a few minutes.
Why can’t we have beautifully done productions like this one today instead of the modern nonsense that completely destroys Wagner’s spirit?
Because these fancy directors want to impose their rubbish on us
They have an agenda. Wagner is a Prophet of God.
Liberalism in arts is the answer you’re looking for
Because every director sees a different aspect in Wagner's music and wants to highlight another aspect of the story.
Just look e.g. Berliner Staatsoper 2022.
Just that you do not like the way the opera is presented, does not mean that it's better or worse. Just that the director saw something different then you.
Maybe being open to new productions could be beneficial to something you might like down the road
And btw. What is "Wagners Spirit" anyway?
Wagner himself said after the first time the ring was direct "next time we do everything different" 🤷
Love the way the conductor keeps the flow of ravishing music uninterrupted. Plus, the staging so wonderfully expresses the feelings portrayed in the music and the story. Opera isn't just magnificent voices, exquisite music, or acting. It's the entire package. I find this a fine example of that.
I have always called it the earliest multi-media package. Opera was made for a live audience. . . the experience.
Schneider-Siemssen and Schenk--unbeatable combo!
It’s not the conductor, it’s the composers style. It was written to flow, unlike any music before it.
How very well put on Opera.
Not to mention earlier operas also had ballets. Really the ultimate art form, entirely dedicated to expressing every facet of the human heart.
This is my Fathers G.Schneider-Siemssen Ring with Otto Schenk, but here one can see Schenk's typical Vienna Emotions , what a wonderful Director.
Dear Alexander,
Bravissimo for your father too!!!!
The best!
Yes, his Ring is still the best. I knew him personally, in Seeham and 55 or so years ago his Ring was the first I saw on stage.
We saw so many of his productions in Wien. A true master! Danke
I did not know Otto Schenck directed this! I loved him in the NYE Die Fledermaus when I was a kid. Vielen Dank! Schneider-Siemssen und Schenk.
one of the best musical moments of the history of the musical art.
O YES‼️‼️‼️
I never imagine a grown man like myself could shed so much tear in one sit.
@@derek2365 like I said, I had a chance to watch and learn. I believe we human all love beautiful things, so soon I won't be such rare case like you said anymore, when people bend their interests and discover this amazing world.
this is one of my favourite teary moments, no other production will ever beat this one. (certainly not any of these modern rubbish productions)
@@richardfallon5507 thank you for sharing your feeling. I agree with you totally. The newer products often rely on people's immaturity or naive views to squeeze their emotions. This one is different. The masterpiece based its value on the most complex in manifestation yet most simple in nature phenomenon, the fatherly love. My sons is not five yet, but I could already feel the connection and it moves me, like no others did.
I agree and I never had kids.@@nguyenvpicipmu
Morris is the best Wotan.
Stood through Morris’s Wotan at the Met in the early 2000s. Was stunned and still am
As great as many other Wotans have been, I think Morris tops them all. His majestic voice and regal bearing have left countless people in awe, including me. Christa Ludwig, Hildegard Behrens, and Gwyneth Jones said in various interviews that he was the best Wotan they’d heard. I saw him many times in the theater, including several times in the Ring. I also got his autograph backstage at the Caramoor Festival in a Broadway program.
Dave Glo I've heard varying accounts of Morris in this role. Some even claimed one could hardly hear him at the Met, but his Walkure Wotan was perfectly suited to San Francisco and Chicago. Just curious about where you heard him and how his voice came across there; whether the sound easily rode the orchestra and filled the theater; or was it perhaps not huge, but sufficient for the role.
Would very much appreciate your opinions regarding these matters.
I never had the opportunity to hear Morris in person, more's the pity --
Steve VanDien He was truly great. I heard in tiny roles, as well as his signature roles. I never had the slightest problem hearing him, even with a blaring Wagner orchestra. The only role I thought he cheated a bit was Iago, but not because of volume. It was simply a bit high for him, so the high notes in the brindisi weren’t really there. But as Wotan, the Dutchman, Scarpia, Claggart, no problem with hearing him clearly at the Met. I saw him as Boris in Miami, no problem there either. I can’t imagine who told you that he was inaudible. They certainly need a hearing exam.
Bienaventurado Dave... Qué privilegio tuviste...
Dave Glo saw Die Walküre Morris-Behrens /Levine live at the Met back in the mid 70's. Morris' Wotan brought the audience to tearful ovation. Behrens debut as Brunhilde was startlingly youthful, a unique vocal quality you couldn't compare to any other legends, and her emotional body language and expressive features really humanized the role.
Cindy Halik do you mean the mid 90’s? He first sang it at the Met in 1989
I was an early opera lover but believed those who told me Wagner was boring and loud. Then i met a guy who without telling me what it was put it on. I was blown away.That is so beautiful, I recall saying. Yes he said , though you don’t like Wagner do you? I went away and spent the next week listening to every single moment. Haven’t ben able to live without his music since!
Let me tell you, it takes balls to sing with this much sensitivity at the end of such a long opera with such a huge orchestra under your feet. This is really great!
God, I LOVE this!
After the climactic embrace when Wotan begins singing again the music behind him should unwind like never-ending, ravishing waves of love emanating from God. The vocal is exquisitely tender and soothing while the orchestra delivers a seemingly inexhaustible series of thrillingly sweet caresses. Morris holds up his end quite nicely but the conductor here isn't quite there yet. Wonderful nonetheless. Wagner was a ruthless perfectionist but he may not have had a problem with this.
"The conductor" was the usual suspect with a ruthless stranglehold on the Wagnerian repertoire at the Met for almost 4 decades.
I saw this production over a few nights in 1990 on PBS. This scene never fails to cause me to weep. Wagner had his finger on universality with his Tristan chord and it sure worked with me. I never tire of watching it. A super, grandiose production by Levine and the NY Met
It was designed by Otto Schenk. Levine is the conductor.
The only music that captures the anguish of a father losing his favorite daughter.
What about Rigoletto's very last scene where Gilda dies in Rigoletto's arms?
@@lifeisgood3087 Excellent scene, and I love Verdi, but Wagner brings so much emotion in the scene. Wagner is like you bring the grandness of Beethoven and the emotion of Italian opera composers.
@@nicholasprakash3411 on the other hand, Wotan exiled Brunnhilde and stripped her on her god powers. Why? Because he couldn't bear to be contradicted. But if he did forgive her, we would be poorer without this music.
@@andrewvincenti2664 Wagner's German gods are far more human than the Italian version of Greek/Roman gods. If this was Zeus he'd allow any Joe to get Brunhilde.
This father is a true child-killer, not only he destroys this daughter, he also destroys his other two children earlier, and if he is upset to lose Sigmund, elaborate about Brunhilde, he doesn't even mention Sieglinde. A lunatic at best! Wagner managed to write extraordinary music on the very controversial subjects, well, he was an anti-social anarchist at heart.
This aria is why this opera is one of my all time favorites. Forty years ago I would listen to this opera with my tiny daughter on my knee and a tear in my eye. "So kuess ich die Gottheit von dir"--is there a sadder moment in all of opera?
Incredible. Mesmerizing. One of the great Wotans.
I never dreamed to see/hear this again in my life. I cried, in the balcony circle in San Francisco, so long ago.
Himmlisch schöne Musik ! Herrlich rührender Wotan ! Sicherlich einer der Höhepunkte aller Opern !!! Es gibt so viele andere bei dem unübertrefflichen Richard Wagner !!!!!
Ten minutes of Wagner has more emotional effect than ten months of Haydn Wagner had a knack or talent to effect emotions than any other composer and cause you to have very deep thoughts about life and what's it all about or for
Than ten YEARS of Haydn!
Apples and oranges
Everytime I think of Wotan/Odin, Morris is the guy I see. For now and forever.
God help me! This must be one of the best recording of Wotan,s farwell. Very very beutyfull singing from James Morris.
I'm speechless. A father I never had.
Josephine Hammond: Well, to have a father like that you need a mother like Erda. Beside would the father you had abandon you in forever sleep on a mountain top surrounded by fire??
Bravo, Bravo, Bravo in every perspective! This Bariton is giving the Farewell, Wotan, a very sensible and loving feature. Singing in piano, and almost lyrisch, and with a lot of fragile emotions, acting fanatastic or as I said in Person to Robertt Hale, after a performance: He is Wotan and not acting!
So beautiful, tender and profound.
Stunning 💗🥰
james Morris the best
This is so touching. I love the comment about 'the rent'. A true music lover.
One of the great Wotans. Actually greatest Wotans. Behrens is testament why all lawyers should study singing
Sublime hasta lo fin... Morris es el perfecto Wotan.... valgame Dios.... como quiesiero oirlo en vivo... pero asi es la vida en este mundo... aprendalo bien jovenes... la vida es muy corto... aprovechelo pronto... porque de aqui, quien sabe....
This Ring Cycle, This Box Set. PERIOD.
Besides that James Morris is a great Bariton, he interpretates Wotan very vunarable and sensitive with his voice .
Usally the words singing and . . of Wotans demonstrates the Zerissenheit of Wotan.....
Uno de los momentos más hermosos de "" La Walquiria"".!!
Gloriously wonderful... bravo
This scene always brings tears to my eyes. The only other opera that made me really
cry was Madam Butterfly in the Met a few years ago.
Une des plus belles "Tétralogie" avec des voix splendides !
When I hear this piece of music, or see this performance, it gets me every time!
Same here..but I have for this also very personal deep psychological reasons
BV L: “It gets me every time!” From where to where does it get you?
@@johnpickford4222 As I explained above has very persona/ deep psycological reasons, as I explained on my YT channel in German. I am German. It is a Projection, regarding to CG Jung. It ihas something to do with my father projection snd a Prof where I started a PHD thesis.
@@johnpickford4222 From Wagner's heart to ours, I imagine.
This is incredible.
Amazing!
Heartbreaking…
This is the best performance I've heard of Die Walküre and unfortunately here it fades out before we hear James sing the famous Abschied. His performance later in this piece is also the best Abshied I've ever heard. I agree with the previous poster, this is as good as it gets. Find it if you can.
ua-cam.com/video/NnlL16pKBpM/v-deo.html
Just learned my mom went to middle school with James Morris, Dunbarton Middle in Baltimore MD, life's interesting!
The general public gets it wrong. They think Wagner is just real loud. But in fact the best Wagnerians also sing softly and sweetly as you can hear here. That's why Vickers was so great as Siegmund and Toxzi was great as Hans Sachs.
Morris sang Wotan many times in San Francisco but I always missed him. I heard Thomas Stewart and Hubert Hofmann and some one else. I heard Morris in several Italian parts but I only heard him live in Wagner at Covent Garden as the Dutchman. He was supernal
I was fortunate to see his very first Wotan (well, not his actual first, because I saw the 2nd or 3rd cycle), in San Francisco with Jeanine Altmeyer as Brunnhilde. It was just as stunning as you would imagine. Altmeyer was a wonderful (and underrated Brunnhilde), and this scene definitely required many tissues. It doesn't matter how many times I hear this, it brings tears every single time.
And to think that many critics thought Morris was a rather wooden actor! Thank goodness this is on dvd.
@@gattiniregola This scene brings me to tears too!
You forgot the soft sounds of Ludwig Suthaus's voice...pure Wagnerian lyrical singing, I highly recommend listening to him
You’re right. There’s a fetish about decibels in singing Wagner. There were no Wagner singers during Wagner’s life - they were bel canto singers, and Wagner himself greatly admired Bellini. Nowadays people scream and bellow the music, and the general public is mesmerized by who has the biggest voice. It’s a little nutty!
The best f Wotans farewell i´ ve ever heard!!! Greatissimo !!!
Audiovisual de gran força evocadora. Gràcies.
the sadness of a father leaving his daughter forever
This father chose to leave the daughter, sacrificing her to his own vanity and criminal behavior. He is a schizophrenia sufferer.
Poor Hildegard Behrens, she died in 2009 of a sudden aortic aneurysm, at only 72. R.I.P.
Moment émouvant et grandiose
From a time when people knew how to stage these music dramas. Classic.
Alonside Hans Hotter the very best on this opera,I saw him once in concert in Madrid and he was truly impressive,regal and heartfelt
Imprresionante interpretación.!!
Until watching this excerpt I had never understood the deep deep sadness in Wotan but it is a pity it cuts off so abruptly. I wanted to see how he summons Loge, because emotionally there must be a break between the regret and the fixed determination to do what his wife demands. Superb acting, superb singing (so far as I can judge singing) badly let down by whoever designed the costumes with those ridiculous papier mache armour and shield which would hardly pass muster at a children's pantomine. Fire the guy who designed the armour!!
if this video ever gets deleted i will be so broken
Download it!!!
James Morris has famously said that the sets still exist-in a warehouse
I remember when Morris made his debut at the Met. I always thought that he would develop into a superb artist. This proves it. And the conducting?!! Levine got busted for something he did decades ago and one of the greatest conductor of the 20th century was kicked to the ground. There is a video floating around of Levine in a conducting seminar with Szell. But this performance is for the ages.Wagner never heard it this good.
BEST...
Handsome man
I was watching a youtube vide,o and one opera expert said that Richard Wagner was the most despicable human being in his age, he explained why and gave lot of reasons, and also confessed that he detested him actually. But he never could not deny what a big artist was Ricard Wagner and how he created this new concept of drama for music, completely parting of traditional concepts of opera on those times and how Wagner understood the music. And based on his thoughts and concepts Wagner was able to imagine and put music that he thought was music. One of this is this opera, this scene. The expert also said that Wagner always looked himself in every opera he composed, like in Tristan und Isolde or Lohengrin or Tannahauser, anyway. Wager was a great artist. One of the greatest artist of western hemisphere and i am totally agree.
Wagner was certainly not the most despicable, what nonsense! He was in fact absolutely harmless and entitled to his views. It's rather a wonder that Karajan who was a true Nazi party member is never spoken of with the same venom as this extravagant composer who was in fact for social justice, fighting in the barricades for it in his youth, for which he had been paying all his life with suffering and misery.
@@cameragiocosa6899 Yeah he used to be a leftist who was friends with anarchists like Bakhunin, but as he got older he became more antisemitic and in the last years of his life spoke positively of Arthur De Gobinau, the guy who’s racist beliefs went on to inspire Hitler
@@mynameisjack0618Gobinau wasn’t anti-Semitic
No puedo dejar de escuchar este aria desde que la descubrí, es la voz de Morris! Cuánta ternura! Más los hermosísimos acordes sinfónicos! Conforman un todo de inenarrable belleza que trasciende toda comprensión...
Quién dirige?
La orquesta es quien cuenta la historia en realidad.
James Morris ranks alongside George London, Hans Hotter, and Thomas Stewart as one of the greatest Wagnerian bass/baritones of all time.
No Donald McIntyre?
Una delle migliori interpretazioni di Morris
Mike Rowe recommends this man.
I hear her crying at the embrace, no?
Bel momento ❤️❤️
L`Adeu de Wotan i el foc màgic ès el fracment que mès m`agrada ,sempre m`emociona
aquesta versió ès del Met i tinc completa la tetralogia amb Hildegar Berens i Siegfried Jerusalem en els papers de Brünhilde i Siegfried
Maria Angels Molpeceres
A mí también y lloro!!
singing virtually every note by pushing it up: is it really acceptable?
They say this is a bass baritone voice? Man, he must have an incredible range cause I've been told I'm a bass baritone (and I have a wide range) and I cannot hit the high notes Morris hits here. I've been told Johnny Cash and Steve Kilbey are bass baritones and I can sing along with them so I'm mystified.
His higher range is exactly what makes him a bass-BARITONE as opposed to standard bass (as he was labeled earlier in his career),, making him capable of performing roles like Scarpia, Iago, Amfortas etc.
If I'm not mistaken the his highest note here was E4, basses can hit this pretty easily.
JOHNNY CASH!?!? Talk about a different “ring of fire”!!
Tuve oportunidad de escuchar y ver a Morris en Don Carlo de Verdi. Tenía el rol de Felipe II.
No lo escuché en roles wagnerianos.
Hay una idea equivocada y generalizada sobre la ópera de Wagner. Como que todos se dedican a cantar a todo pulmón tratando de tapar la orquesta y NO ES ASÍ.
@@Sougabrielfelix then maybe I'm a bass without the resonance
Dear Fpo Oat: Don't lay it all on Wotan. Poor man, he had to obey the witch wife Frika.
He did not have to fall in debt he could not possibly pay to satisfy a vain desire in building a new home, and then succumb to heinous crimes to raise funds. He is a guilty one.
eu amei essa voz...
Could you share all the ring dvd with me? Please
@Peter Baum -- Does James Morris still sing, or is he retired?
still active
@@gergelycsallo5133 this has to be his best if not greatest performance he has ever done.
eroupopper Morris had quite a few Bests! His Hans Sachs is also great, and so is his Dutchman. And Claggart in Billy Budd was also terrific. I also have his early Don Giovanni on tape, and he’s so suave, vocally and physically. But maybe you’re right - Wotan is probably his greatest achievement.
He stopped singing Wotan in 2009 and indeed should have retired completely at that time but unfortunately continued to soldier one with an increasingly dry and unsteady voice up to and including the present time.
Moving.
Sua vida vai mal ? Você não está satisfeito com sua vida? Nada dá certo em sua vida? Fácil de resolver.
Faça uma música como esta de Wagner e sua vida vai melhorar. Com toda certeza!
Where’s the leb wohl itself?
Why must we see camera shots that no one in the house would view and are not how the opera was designed or presented?
Because full stage doesn’t translate well to film. You might as well just listen to it instead of watching it at that point
@@selimacast725 I would agree but only up to the point where the aspect ratio of cameras and screens widened to the point where they reasonably matched the proportions of a full stage. If camera operators were versed enough in an opera in order to know when to zoom, and how much, to match the ways our eyes do when we zero in on details while at other times backing up to view the full stage, then the result would be a fair representation of the opera, I believe. Cameras shooting from above and at wild angles is, I think, an effort to replicate what we see in film, but it looks ultra-ridiculous and beco,mes the worst of two worlds: a film that looks like a Buck Rogers movie, and a film that looks nothing like the opera, either. I was lucky to see a production of the Ring cycle at the San Francisco opera years ago, and it was a fairly high-budget staging, and there's no way it would have had the appearance and illusion of immersive reality if it had been filmed from crazy angles rather than from the front, which is how all features of the set were designed to be viewed.
This Met production had its flaws, but there is no doubt that Morris was a great Wotan.
@TheAbstraction Totally so.
FLAWS!?!? Compared to planks of s**t that replaced this production. Get a life!
Grande y eterno.a muerte .
But who's the conductor? The orchestra? The Opera House? Don't they deserve a mention too?
Oh Wagner, why couldn't you just make music and never speak out loud?
👍👍👍😭😭😭
UNA REGIA SUBLIME!!!!!!
Min. 2 - the moment when the soul of half of humanity separated from human beings with the Covid vaccination. Vaccinated people would now describe this observation as “overinterpreted”. You understand, they think so AFTER the vaccination?!
How did he lose his eye? What happened?
In Germanic Nordic beliefs the story tells of how Wotan sacrificed his eye at the well of wisdom for a sip of its waters
@@ludwigvanbeethoven9021 but Wotan says he sacrificed an eye for Frika?
Oh you could have gone to the end.....lol
Not bad for a man who sang out of the side of his mouth
Did he mimic London?!
@@marksmith3947 no not at all .
I have this and the newest with Deborah Voight. Voight cannot act. She looks like she will start laughing at any time.
I saw this Ring several times, and also the newer one with Deborah Voigt. I thought she was good. Of course I thought she was much better as Sieglinde than Brunnhilde, but I was impressed with her acting too.
Nor can she sing - at least by the time she performed Brunnhilde at the Met. Dreadful performance from her when Nina Stemme was wowing them all in San Francisco.
5:08
9:03
This is how I want daddy to kiss me to sleep every night.
*Shudder*.
Couldn't Wotan have brought Grane in and let him sleep beside Brunn? Where is Grane?
He does.
He even realized he falll slept because was grazing.
I don’t understand, He is a God and easily could have blended the law and forgive his daughter. No pain.
Not how it works...
Kind of like Biden/Hunter situation. Biden would lose respect if he bends the law. For Trump, there are no laws.
LISTEN to HANS HOTTER as WOTAN
MrSkylark1 nowhere near James Morris
2 idiots, they are all great, stop comparing, shut the fuck up and appreciate them!
I agree with Crazy organist. Hotter’s Wotan is not nearly as great as Morris’. His voice was a wobbly, woofy mess. He couldn’t sing a steady tone even in his 1944 Flying Dutchman when he was only 35. Rudolf Bing basically told him after a 1950 Dutchman that he should focus on secondary character parts. Hotter was furious, and left, never to return. He recorded Walküre Wotan under Solti when he was 56, and ruins the set. When I listen to a complete Ring, it’s Solti Rheingold, switch to Leinsdorf/Nilsson GEORGE LONDON Walküre, then back to Solti Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. Hotter is simply unendurable in Walküre. As the Wanderer in Siegfried he’s tolerable, but Windgassen and Nilsson steal that show.
@@jeffreymiller4814 hard to believe that about Hotter, I have his CDs and he is great, an absolutely unique amazing voice and singing. A well-known fact is that he gave a finger to Adolf and nothing happened to him, so much of a star he was. It's unlikely that it was for nothing in Germany. He did not have an advantage to live in a quality sound-recording age.
@@jeffreymiller4814 you complain about a wobble in Hotter's voice but you like London? Hotter had a huge beautiful voice. I don't get the impression that Morris had a big enough voice but I can't tell from this recording.