It began with a scandal, became the object of heated discussions, turned
into a sensational success and finally blossomed into a legendary, standard
setting production: Pierre Boulez' and Patrice Chéreau's epoch-making
"Ring" cycle in Bayreuth, the "Centennial Ring". When the production was
premiered in 1976, there were brawls in the venerable Festspielhaus, with
the audience divided into one mob roaring in favor and one screaming
against. The main reason for the protests was Chéreau, who set the work in
the time in which it was written and focused on the all-too-human passions
that motivate gods and men alike. The grimy industrial era with its robber
barons and suffering masses supplied the ideological underpinnings of
Chéreau's concept. Musical conservatives felt betrayed and cheapened by
this association. The tide began to turn in 1977. Certain features were
altered and the production began to have a more homogeneous feel. Finally,
in 1980, its last year, the Ring concluded with a 90-minute ovation and 110
curtain calls. By the time Philips released the complete recording of this
production in 1992, its legendary status had already begun to take shape:
"Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Boulez not only wrote a major new chapter in
Wagner interpretation with their Ring, but also carried out a revolution
that affected all of musical theater. Since then, no production of the Ring
has been able to come near to the concept put forward by Chéreau and
Boulez." (FonoForum) Unitel's production, the first complete recording on
film of Wagner's Ring, marked the beginning of Unitel's exclusive
association with the Bayreuth Festival.
The DVD is also released within the complete "Ring" DVD package which is available in selected stores worldwide and through Amazon or JPC.