Dumb picture, making the seats look much more partial-view than they actually were. Metropolitan Opera waiting for the 11:00 curtain of Götterdämmerung, the final part of the Ring des Nibelungen, which I've been watching on Saturdays over a lengthy (two-month) iteration of the cycle. Overheard a gent saying "Wagner's the only opera where the line's longer for the men's room than the ladies' room", which while not actually true is meaningful in some way—I guess in it's really more lines oriented to preparing for the future (Act I of this one is two hours long, as is Act III of Meistersinger) than dealing with the present.
Anyway the fact is that it got out at five but I'm still kind of wrecked and beginning to recognize I may not put out a post before midnight, so just saying hi.
I've heard four different Brünnhildes live, believe it or not, all in New York of course and all of them very good, but this one, Christina Goerke, an American who used to be an early music specialist singing Händel before her voice went nuts in her 30s, is by far the most what-you-need with a voice of extraordinary beauty that makes it over the gigantic orchestra without straining and the deep emotional engagement you can hear and see in this little excerpt—she's a real actor—and even a real trill, something hardly any Wagner soprano achieves, kept from her Händel days for the "Hojotoho" in Walkure. I can't begin to tell you how great she sounded today, but take my word for it.
And sexy Siegfried finale! Though the tenor's voice is a little tired.
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