Sing Faster: The Stagehands' Ring Cycle (1999) Online

Wagner's Ring Cycle is musical nirvana to some; but to others it is the most pretentious, bloated, endlessly boring nonsense ever conceived. Sing Faster takes no real position on the matter, but offers a pragmatic point of view from behind the scenes. The enormity of the San Francisco Opera's project staggers the viewer and the magnificence of the talent impresses, but the stars of the documentary are the stagehands who can do magic with sets and effects while remaining detached enough to play poker or watch the game on TV while one of Western Civilization's greatest spectacles is being recreated. This makes for a fascinating glimpse into the process that is often surreal and hilarious, while still conveying the excitement of the world-class opera company. The singing might be screaming, as one hand explains, but it is often gorgeous. The orchestra is never seen, but provides a continuous soundtrack, courtesy of Richard Wagner, that truly soars. At one hour, the entertainment value never starts to fade. I was hoping they would sing slower!

I have to rate this more highly than the other reviews though my experience with at least more primitive productions of Broadway musicals perhaps made it more interesting to me than to others.

Perhaps the device of having different stagehands narrating the Ring Cycle is rather artificial but it gets the information across. For the most part, we see dress rehearsals for the four "music dramas" from the crew's point of view though plenty of the music comes through even in highly fragmented form.

The names of the gods in the opera give the stagehands endless problems, especially Loge (logeh) which one man pronounces "lohzh" as in a theater section. Another simply says "Loki" which is the Norse form of the name. Similarly with Wotan who one of the grips calls "Wootan" and another calls Odin. (Should be pronounced as "Vohton" as far as I know but Odin is the Norse form of the name.) There is no doubt the work is backbreaking and very exacting and, during these rehearsals, the S-word is used liberally. Steam and fog machines cause a lot of trouble and, though the men play poker a great deal (the stakes look to be very low-grade.), at certain points during the scene changes, they become very active. In the death of the dragon, one young man especially has to push and pull to control the head.

The relationships between the grips and singers are often quite revealing and it is said that some of them are engaged to Rhinemaidens or Valkyries. In one instance, a "traffic manager" (or whatever) is singing, badly, along with the music whereupon Brunnhilde asks if he is being paid to sing.

Of course, I wonder how much of this is true or simply staged for the purposes of this documentary. Nevertheless I find it very revealing for what it is.

I thought this was a great idea but, boy, was it poorly executed. We do get a broad sense of how complex and challenging the backstage operations of a show are, but virtually no specifics about any of it works. The producers don't seem to have found any way to tell a story or give the viewer a "through-line." (Which is not to say they didn't try, but having the stagehands relate a synopsis of the Ring cycle as the program's narrative does nothing to tell us about the job of physically mounting an opera.)

We see lots of things happening, but are told little about what it is that the people are doing and why. There's little sense of who is who, or how the various production departments fit and work together. For instance, several times we hear about a problem of some sort -- one expects then to see the problem and its consequences and/or how it gets resolved. But instead the filmmakers generally just cut to something else (generally, pretty generic footage of people pushing stuff or talking into headsets.)

Overall the film ends up feeling more like a pastiche of images that you'd see run under the closing credits of a show, rather than anything worth watching for its own merit.

Sing Faster: The StageHands'Ring Cycle (1999): Starring The Production Staff, Singers, Chorus And Orchestra Of The San Francisco Opera, Ken Spike Kirkland as Principal Stagehand, Ann Panagulias, Sandra Walker and Mary Mills as Rhinemaidens, Written, Produced And Directed By Jon Else

Filmed in the summer of 1990 at the San Francisco Opera, I remember seeing this documentary on KCET/PBS channel 28. I was only 10-13. This documentary suffered low ratings because it was released at the time of the more successful Ken Burns documentary "The Civil War". But then, about 10 years later in 1999, director/producer Jon Else re-released it as a DVD. This is a behind-the-scenes look at the staging of Richard Wagner's greatest masterpiece based on the ancient Norse saga The Ring of the Nibelung, a series of four lengthy operas- Das Rhingold Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung, in a magnificent San Francisco Opera production, and one which I wished I could have been there to see.

The documentary is narrated by the Union production crew of Local 16, a cast of carpenters, grips, electricians, prop people, stage managers and assistant directors. The chief stagehand Ken "Spike" Kirkland (who had previously worked as a grip with the rap group Run DMC) summarizes the plot/story of the opera while wearing a B-52's shirt, lounging on a card table and discussing it with the other stagehands. For people who are not singers, teachers or even music majors, they certainly GET THE ESSENCE OF THE RING OPERAS! Its a fantasy soap opera-opera about man's lust for power, greed, corruption, a huge tragedy of the death of the gods and the new age of love and mankind. This is the documentary that hooked me into opera! It provides the viewers with an exciting, refreshing look at the making of an opera. There is a lot of movement and physical action as the production crew move heavy sets up and down the stage and organize the special effects- dry ice/fog, fire, thunder and lightning. While the singers rehearse, and when they are on their break, they play cards, take naps, and watch basketball on television. During the entire documentary, all we hear is the music and singing from Wagner's Ring, as the cast laboriously rehearse weeks before opening night. Scenes include the ever famous Ride of the Valkyries, Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla, The Rhimaiden's Lament, The Slaying of Fafner the Dragon by Siegfried and Brunhilde's Immolation Scene which triggers the Twilight of the Gods- Valhalla bursts into flames. The innards of the human-powered mechanic dragon is just one of the highlights. There are numerous funny moments such as the funny conversations about the Ring by the crew, the dramatic soprano singing Brunhilde (who was she?) enjoys herself backstage, socializing with the crew, making jokes and humming along to Wagner's music. My favorite scene, however, is the ending, in which after the long and arduous process of producing this 17 hour long opera cycle, it's finally opening night and an impatient crowd run into the San Francisco Opera house to get to their seats. They are as excited about the Ring as they are the Super Bowl! Finally, we observe the whole production unfold in a sixty-second time lapse, which for me, is totally unfair. The entire documentary is only 1 Hour long and quite brief. It would have been terrific to see a longer lapse, even if they cut from scene to scene and show the "Highlights" of the Opera Cycle. But overall, it's a wonderful documentary, even if it feels rushed, and I wish they had sung slower and prolonged the documentary to at least 2 hours.

I like this movie because it shows what life is really like backstage at a live show. Many of the other reviewers seem to think that it SHOULD be about something else, like stagehand basics or the history of opera. Those would be great ideas for other documentaries, but it's just not what this one is about. I've been a professional stagehand for many years and love the way this film captures backstage dynamics. A bell rings and everyone springs into frenzied action for five minutes. Then back to waiting. You have a choice between solitary pursuits like crocheting a smock, or you can bore your fellow stagehands with stories. The lighting and costumes are really beautiful in this production, so you get a dose of that as well if that is is your focus. And it's really interesting how desperate the performers are to impress stage managers before going on stage. I've always thought that must be their way of boosting confidence before facing the audience directly. The woman playing Brunhilde just won't leave the cue caller alone, and he is obviously about to come completely apart from anxiety! In a nutshell, the movie is about people and how they interact in a work environment that is alternately boring and terrifying.

I got the DVD from the library in the expectation of getting a good idea of how things go on in the background at a major opera production. I have to say, I was very disappointed. The subject had so much potential. The sets in a Wagnerian production must, of necessity, be elaborate and impressive and the story behind their creation and use could have been an excellent educational experience. Instead, what we get it a hodgepodge of clips of people moving around big items of scenery, vaguely help together with a commentary which failed to hold my attention. I found myself listening primarily to the background clips of music from operas. I was impressed by the sheer enormity of the effort required to put on such a production - that did come across fairly well and next time I am at the opera I am sure I will remember that part if this video - but was left feeling somewhat cheated by the lack of detailed commentary and explanation.