Opera archives of the production (bottom of the page)

(most of) The Götterdämmerung Super Corps

The corps presenting George with his very own Notung, signed by the corps, for his retirement

Götterdämmerung (The Twilight Of The Gods), is the final opera of the cycle. Tipping the scales at five and a half hours, it's not just an opera, it's an experience. Act I (including the Prologue) is two hours and five minutes all by itself. To loosely quote Maestro Graham Jenkins, "Remember that this was written before the time of television, movies, the Internet...this is a full evening's theater...I suggest that (the attendee) must prepare for it on the performance day, much like we who are performing it must prepare."

It's a full evening, but well worth the effort. You get

• The Ring (and yes, this was an inspiration for that other most excellent Ring cycle)
• Spear and magic helmet, just like Elmer Fudd told you when you were a kid
• Betrayal and cold-blooded murder
• Horses, funeral pyres, more death, destruction, and ultimate redemption
• And of course, some of the most compelling music ever written (Real Audio format)
  • Siegfried's Rhine Journey
  • Hagen's Call To His Vassals and his men's response, Was Tost Das Horn? (very exciting, the only chorus in the entire Ring)
  • Siegfried's Funeral Music
  • The Immolation scene

Performances:

• Thursday, January 10, 2002 - 6 PM
• Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 1 PM
• Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 6 PM
• Saturday, January 19, 2002 - 6 PM

The Dallas Opera's Götterdämmerung page

George Gray (Siegfried) & Sean

Eric Halfvarson (Hagen) & Sean

Other stuff

 Most photos moved here

The Super Commandments, the unwritten rules by which all supers must abide - but aren't told

1/13: We get our own curtain call, before the principals!

The supers perform a bewildering variety of roles in this opera; we have seven pages of typewritten staging notes! I have no less than 10 entrances myself. We're Gibichungs, humans (a distinct minority in the Ring) whose allegiance is to King Gunther, with his evil half-brother Hagen.

A typical page of staging notes

Our timing sheet

In an opera of this scale there's a lot of sitting around:

Working out Dead-Siegfried-lifting details with Brian, assistant director

And of course we have to take pictures of ourselves in costume, wigs, and makeup! (NOTE: the images behind these thumbnails are up to 1200x1600 so the guys can download them and have them printed at www.ofoto.com if they wish. But they're not very friendly for web viewing or modem downloads!)

12/26: In staging rehearsals at the Karyanis Rehearsal Production Center, using the production's raked stage.

Kurt and Meredith, assistant stage managers, vacuuming (yes vacuuming) and wetting the deck to keep the dust down.