This recording is fascinating! First of all, Gwyneth Jones is magnificent, her Brunnhilde is absolutely thrilling! Overall, the cast from this recording is probably superior to the commercial release on DVD (although the DVD features Jeannine Altmeyer as Gutrune). Boulez was a very good Wagnerian, and the Bayreuth orchestra is excellent. The sound is quite good, and we are fortunate to have these 1976 and 1977 Bayreuth Rings from Opera Depot.

I was delighted to find this release of the original Bayreuth centenary performance. Jones is thrilling, in better form than in the 1980 commercial release. It's also great to have Yvonne Minton's beautifully sung Waltraute - a role she didn't record commercially. I'm a fan of Karl Ridderbusch, although I find his Hagen a bit polite compared with some of the classic, villainous portrayals such as Salminen's or Frick's.Sound is very good - clear and spacious, successfully conveying the Festspielhaus acoustic. There is some tape hiss, but one acclimatises quickly and it doesn't impair enjoyment. Inevitably the Bayreuth prompter is much in evidence.

I now have a complete Boulez ring.....Thank you very very much

Truly excellent singing all round, especially from Gwyneth Jones and Zoltan Kelemen; and Boulez and the magnificent orchestra provide blazing support. The real fascination for me here is Karl Ridderbusch's Hagen. On the face of it, he's a benevolent, kindly, almost Hans Sachs like older half brother, but listen to his exchange with Alberich at the beginning of Act 2. His voice is hollow, the expression almost catatonic while he channels the vicious, poisonous, hateful encouragements from his father, which seem to recharge and harden his resolve to carry through his mission to possess the ring. He doesn't have to snarl and pressurise his half siblings into doing anything as he knows they trust and value his counsel without realising they are being manipulated. The true, evil nature of his actions is only finally revealed when he relaxes his self control completely at the hunting party and plunges his spear into Siegfried's back "Rache rieten sie mir!", when he truly sounds like his father's son. No wonder the vassals sound so genuinely shocked. He does it again when his duplicity is exposed as the wild boar that killed Siegfried, convinced the ring is finally his for the taking. I loved it. Thank you so much for making this fabulously theatrical performance available.

This recording of Götterdämmerung is the best I have heard so far. Pierre Boulez finds a pulse in the score that turns the music into a perpetuum mobile. It is irresistable. Fast without rushing, swift with all ear for detail. Gwyneth Jones is in better voice than on the 1980 video-release (which, for the brilliant Cheréau-regie, I would not like to be without). For me the booiiing (at the beginning of act 3 and at the end) adds to the magnitude of this historical recording. It not only illustrates the hostility towards this production but it is also a reminder of the controversy and scandal that more than once surrounded Wagner's music throughout the years. It is Bayreuth 1976, but I also hear Tannhauser in Paris 1861.

People who don’t know about Chereau’s production will be surprised by the audience reaction after what is, finally, one of the greatest Immolation Scenes in history, both from Gwyneth Jones and from the orchestra whipped up by Pierre Boulez. The boos and whistles are really amusing, and even more so that in five years the whole thing would be recognized by critics and audiences alike as one of the most important Rings of the twentieth century.