MET Das Rheingold

I attended the MET production of Das Rheingold on May 5th.  I had already seen it in HD Live in 2010.  Here is my review and what I felt were different between the two.

Singers

• Wotan (Bryn Terfel). My favorite Wotan aria comes at the end of the opera. Terfel did a decent job.
  
• Loge (Adam Klein). In the HD Live version, Richard Croft sang this part. I read that his voice was tiny although in the HD broadcast, his voice came through. Klein's voice was smaller than say König's and Terfel's but it was still good volume.  I thought he sang really well and I thoroughly enjoyed his body language. I also thought the projection of fire onto him looked absolutely fantastic.
  
• Freia (Wendy Bryn Harmer), Fricka (Stephanie Blythe). Great singing, both have big voices.
  
• Alberich (Richard Paul Fink).  In the HD Live version, Eric Owens sang this part.  I felt Fink did a good job but Owens was more expressive.
  
• Mime (Robert Brubaker).  In the HD Live version,  Gerhard Siegel sang this part.  I couldn't get into his Mime because I felt his timbre and style was too tame. I think Brubaker did a great job here; his voice was surprisingly large.  His Mime is much closer to the lowly groveling dwarf that I'm accustomed to. 
  
• Fasolt (Franz-Josef Selig), Fafner (Hans-Peter König).  Of the two giants, König had the bigger and more penetrating voice.  But both sang well. Selig gives the audience a treat after his demise.
  
• Donner (Dwayne Croft), Froh (Adam Diegel). Nothing to complain about. The cloud effect around Donner for his aria Hedo! Heda! was cool in the theatre but even cooler in the opera house.
  
• Rhinemaidens (Eric Morley, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Tamara Mumford). In the HD Live version, Lisette Oropesa sang the role of Woglinde. I read their voices were tiny so I was quite taken back when I heard how loud they were in the opera house. Great singing.
  
• Erda (Patricia Bardon). I've read that her low notes were soft, but I heard her just fine. Her lowest notes were C4s and they were all clearly produced.
  

The conductor was Fabio Luisi. The HD Live was James Levine. It is difficult to compare the two since (1) the sound was so different between the theatre and opera house and (2) I'm not that familiar with the orchestral parts. I did enjoy both. However there was one point that I didn't like from Luisi. Looking at the score and hearing other recordings, the orchestra is supposed to play softly and gradually crescendo as the Rhinemaidens sing their last (dramatic) notes. But on this occasion, the Rhinemaidens were pummeled with a giant fortissimo from the orchestra.

Experience

• The brass and woodwind droning begins the opera and when the cellos enter, the beauty of it made me shiver. I did not feel this in the theatre.
  
• The theatre is 2D and the opera house is 3D. Duh, this is obvious I guess but there were parts where the contrast was large. The most dramatic difference came as the Rhinemaidens make their appearance. At the theatre it looked as if they were simply lifted up from above. But in the opera house, you can see in fact that the Rhinemaidens were attached to the bottom half of the planks of the Machine on the side facing the back of the stage. As the planks rotate 180 degrees upwards, the Rhinemaidens appear suspended. It was quite dramatic to me. I thought it was awesome.
  
• Projections onto the Machine are more vivid in the opera house.
  
• At the theatre, the voices are far more prominent than the orchestra and the orchestral sound was very one dimensional. In the opera house, both voices and orchestra were more vivid and more balanced although I think it slightly leans towards the orchestra. I was high up in the Family Circle (ie 5th floor).
  
• One thing in favor of the theatre was the orchestral balance. From where I was in the opera house, the orchestral sound was brass heavy and the brass was in my face. I prefer the sound of brass at a distance; as if emanating from the heavens or from the valley. The ending of Das Rheingold was where this problem was most prominent. The strings had less presence where I was positioned. So for example, at the theatre the opening droning was more like that in a recording while the at the opera house it sounded odd.
  

Even for the HD Live presentation, I thought Das Rheingold presented the Machine in the best light. It seemed worth the expense here. Bravo to the Machine. Overall I had a wonderful experience. The opera house experience truly is best.

(Image from the Associated Press article "Lepage 'Ring' comes full cycle at Met" in the Times Union)