Took the kids to see Rhinegold last week and oldest was blown away by the music from the Journey to Nibelheim (realm of the dwarf-esque Nibelung). This video is from a production (not the one we saw) that has extra cool visuals as Wotan and Loge (God of Fire) descend in this rather sci-fi staging. Wagner's score actually calls for anvils to make the clanking rhythm you hear - crank up the volume and I defy you not to have goosebumps as this builds to a crescendo
That video clip is fantastic. The sort of thing you might get in Valencia I guess.
Long boring post here:
Valencia Cultural Centre seems to have been newly opened (2005) when your clip of Rheingold was recorded. The conductor is Zubin Mehta with Orquesta de la Comunitat Valenciana.
Fantastic looking production on the video. I went to the ENO Rhinegold last week and was confused, what with the tree man at the beginning, and Wotan trying to snog Erde towards the end.
The best bit of the ENO production for me was the end - the gods boxing themselves up in a prison of their own making. Very Freudian - and not something that occurred to me before.
The Valencia region seem(ed) to have a lot of pride in their new Cultural Centre - from their website
Let's hope it doesn't suffer the same fate as the ENO and get death threats by government cuts.
Zubin Mehta has been a regular at Valencia. Still kicking about as I write, a veteran of 86 (born 1936 in Bombay)
I first encountered Zubin Mehta as a school boy. In 1970 or so I bought the ultimate Decca HiFi LP — Also Sprach Zarathustra - the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta.
I guess Decca had rushed it out in 1968/9 to cash in on the fascination with Kubrick's 2001 A Space Oddesy - although funnily enough the vesion Kubrick used for the film was also in the Decca catalogue - by that time a mid-price re-issue on the Ace of Diamonds label). The the Karajan recording was made in 1959 by Decca's master classical producer Jon Culshaw - also responsible for Decca's block-busting Ring of the Neibelungen recordings - including Das Rheingold. (now up to £499 as an original vinyl set)
Back to Zubin Mehta - here is someone on Youtube "upping" 1969 Los Angeles Philharmonic vinyl Also Sprach Zarathustra (I think you can hear the needle go down right at the beginning?)