Today was the Sitzprobe for Twilight of the Gods. Since I have a reputation to uphold as a lowbrow blogger commenting on a high art, let me live up to expectations by pointing out that a Sitzprobe is not a German proctologist (the word for that, I am told, is not surprisingly "Proktologe"). No, a Sitzprobe is a "seated tryout" (and in the pronounciation of both German words, the final "e" is not silent). It is a rehearsal with the full orchestra and cast, where the singers sit and sing.

In the frenetic world of rehearsals, where every day in the theatre is precious and there is no time to be wasted, a sitzprobe is a rare luxury. The singers don't have to worry about blocking, staging, or costumes, and for perhaps the only time, the orchestra gets to rehearse all the way through with the singers being totally focussed on the music. This the the first chance for both groups (who have, until now, largely been rehearsing separately), to get together and suss each other out. Up until now, the orchestra rehearses in it's own space, while the singers rehearse to piano accompanyment. In the months-long multi-tracked rehearsal timetable, this Sitzprobe has 3 hours blocked out (not much longer than the opera itself).

This version of the Ring is not the complete Wagnerian epic (the San Francisco Opera has done it in 17 hours), but rather an abridged version. Is this a good or a bad thing? I'd offer a vote for abridging. Wagner likes recitative, which keeps us from enjoying his music. This production has more music per minute, and as my Mother (who was a child refugee from Nazi Germany) points out: Wagner may have been an anti-Semitic old bastard, but he sure could write music!

By way of comparison, let's look at Shakespeare. The tragedy of Hamlet (perhaps the most famous play in the English language) can be told in epic proportions or sparely. Kenneth Branagh's version is gorgeous, and is over 4 hours long, yet the script for the Skinhead Hamlet is only 580 words long (more than half of that is stage direction, and of the remaining 313 words nearly 15% are a popular expletive). Yet both versions fully and completely tell the convoluted tale of the Prince of Denmark. So instead of an "abridged" Ring cycle, why don't we just call it "judiciously edited"?

I have done a lot of combing of the web to write this blog, and I have found some fun items. Here's one: the BBC Radio 3 offered a competition to synopsize the Ring in 100 words or less (no mean feat, I assure you). One of the winners, Graham Saxby, came up with four Haiku:

Das Rheingold Magic gold stolen Project finished on schedule God strikes bad bargain		Die Walkure Incest is punished A Valkyrie intervenes Now she pays the price
Siegfried Boy forges weapon Kills dragon and retrieves Ring Finds love at first sight		Gotterdammerung Hero tricked and slain Heroine is betrayed too It all ends in flames

Fortunately, this judiciously edited Ring has not been trimmed quite so thoroughly as these haiku nor as brutally as the Skinhead Hamlet. It retains the glory and grandeur of Wagner's music, without some of the boring talky bits. Scholars and purists may object, but I am not counted in their number.

Following the Sitzproben are the partial dress rehearsal. The singers are fully clothed and costumed (my lowbrow humor surfaces again, as there is no direction from the gutter but "up"), but they are not in wigs or makeup. After that come the full-dress, and then final dress rehearsal. I also see that there is a "fight call on stage". I suspect that this is not a venue for frustrated singers to call each other out with Marquess of Queensbury rules, but rather a chance to practice the stage fight. However, I will have to wait a few days to report on that... stay tuned!