A Television ‘Ring’

Now I have heard and seen a Siegfried who not only can sing the part and act the part but who looks the part (even in close-up). The PBS broadcast was of a live performance, and I will take the physical lumps of performance conditions and the physical believability of Morris, Jerusalem and Behrens over the recording studio perfection of singers who look like pork bellies any time. I have endured Sieglindes who could have been rolled on and off the stage.

The fact that these singers are physically appropriate to their roles gives me a new understanding of the rings within rings of “The Ring.”

ANITA R. SHAW

Pasadena