A Tale Full of Sound and Fura: Roland Matthews does find substance in a triumphant fusion of cutting-edge technology and stagecraft

In the field of Wagner performance the first decade of the new millennium is set fair to be remembered as the era of the filmed Ring. Almost as many complete cycles have been released on DVD to date as there have been issues of this journal. The first to test the waters, in 2001, were Unitel and Philips with the issue of the Chéreau centenary Ring from Bayreuth, appropriately enough for a production which so famously set the benchmark for all subsequent stagings. Encouraged by the higher resolution offered by the new medium as well as the latest advances in recording technology, opera houses around the world, beginning with the New York Met and Stuttgart, started to dust off their videotapes and transfer them, often with remastered sound, onto DVD.