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Siegfried Jerusalem

Siegfried Jerusalem

Acting

Known For

The Ring Cycle: Gotterdammerung
8.0

THIRD DAY OF THE RING CYCLE. GĂĽnter, the lord of the Rhine people, gives Siegfried a love potion that causes Siegfried to forget BrĂĽnnhilde and fall in love with GĂĽnter's sister Gutrane. Siegfried has given BrĂĽnnhilde the Ring as a token of their love, but her Valkyrie sister urges her to destroy it, because their father Wotan has lost his spear and power and is hiding out in Valhalla. Instead, BrĂĽnnhilde keeps it, and under the influence of the potion, Siegfried steals it from her. Enraged, BrĂĽnnhilde helps Alberich's son murder Siegfried, but Siegfried's memory returns, and he dies thinking of BrĂĽnnhilde. BrĂĽnnhilde repents and orders a funeral pyre to be built. She rides into the fire herself, and the Rhinemaidens get the ring back. The story closes with flames flickering about Valhalla in the background. Filmed at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in June & July 1991.

The Ring Cycle: Gotterdammerung

1991Movie
Wagner: Das Rheingold
7.1

This is a beautifully conducted and thoughtfully staged performance of the first opera (the prologue) in Wagner's Ring Cycle. As soon as the clouds of mist have dissipated, while the daring, long-held opening chord is still reverberating, the screen clears to show not only the River Rhine and the three maidens (dressed like prostitutes in this production) assigned to guard the gold hidden there. It also shows an enormous dam (not mentioned in Wagner's text). This is the underwater base of a hydroelectric plant, and its presence tells us two things immediately: that this production takes the story out of the vaguely medieval fantasy world in which Wagner had placed it, and that a basic theme of the four-opera cycle would be power. Alberich, the Nibelung, is willing to renounce the love of women, after stealing the gold from the Rhine, to become the ruler of the world. Another basic theme is greed.

Wagner: Das Rheingold

1980Movie
The Gypsy Baron
9.0

In the Temesvar Province, a landowner returned from exile marries a gypsy girl who is revealed to be the daughter of a Turkish Pasha and the rightful owner of a hidden treasure. Next to "Die Fledermaus", DER ZIGEUNERBARON is Johann Strauss’s most popular operetta. The libretto gave Strauss the chance to revel in such contrasting musical forms as the Csárdás and the Viennese waltz. The style of the lied forms and ensembles is so original and finely balanced that the "Gypsy Baron" can truly be called a comic opera. Among the leading names of the stellar cast in this exuberant 1975 film of the operetta are Wolfgang Brendel, Ivan Rebroff, Janet Perry, Ellen Shade, Martha Mödl and, in the role that launched his career, Siegfried Jerusalem as Sándor Barinkay.

The Gypsy Baron

1975Movie