5/5 Wonderful sets and costumes. Solid singing!!
  by Operafilly (Fallbrook, Ca United States)
This is the only Wagnerian opera I can get thru 2/3rds of in one sitting. It moves right along until Wotan shows up and he's always tedious. But the dialogue between Sigfried and Mime get the opera off to a rousing start up to the incredible "forging song". This must be the most wearing tenor role in opera requiring stentorian singing and banging an anvil at the same time....for a long time. Yeah, its one of the longest arias in opera, but also one of the most exciting (in fact, I keep hoping it won't end) requiring great endurance. Jerusalem is up to the task, and he looks very athletic too. In fact, the typical fat Wagnerian type singers are absent here. Everyone looks good, except Mime who's supposed to be ugly anyway.

But after our hero slays the Dragon the opera goes on for 2 more hours.

If you want love duets go to Puccini.......this one is like cement setting.

All the singers are well up to the task and Morris has always been a favorite bass of mine. However, this role is pretty dull and doesn't show his characterization abilities.

I am no Wagnerite, but perhaps some of the tempi were a bit slow?? I've noticed in Italian opera, Levine is occasionally so slow as to diminish the lilt of the music, making a bouncy character ponderous.

5/5 glorious
  by rusalka (Boston, Ma)
If you are interested in seeing this by all means buy it and forget those yahoos with their negative reviews. I have the first three operas of the Ring Cycle and hesitated on buying the third because of some of the opinions stated here but it is wonderful. And I will buy the fourth. I watch it on my 37" HDTV and feel like I'm sitting in the first row of the Met and enjoy them all immensely. So a big raspberry to those cynical reviewers and a big hand for Levine and company. You give so much joy.

2/5 is that you, siegfried?
  by Romualdo A. Monteclar (new york)
I do really like Wagner's "Ring Cycle" but this particular segment done
by Jerusalem & Co. is, put bluntly,atrocious. I can't figure out why the
casting director (or whoever it is responsible) chose this guy Jerusalem to play and sing the hero of heroes--Siegfried. I would put him in some
Rossini opera, for he lacked the vocal and physical power of this Wagner hero. Excuse me, Mr. J.--no offense intended!

5/5 DESPITE FLAWS, A VERY GOOD PRODUCTION WITH GREAT SOUND AND PICTURE
  by Jesse Knight (woburn ma usa)
This Met production returns to Wagner's original intentions, after decades of Bayreuth regietheater productions. While these were interesting, they make what is already a complex story harder to grasp, at least for those new to opera. Although I know the ring quite well, I find regietheater Wagner gets annoying with repeated viewing. It tells me more about the stage director's ego than Wagner's hidden messages. Regietheater can be very good when the director has a worthwhile plan.

I have been able to watch many Wagner opera DVD. This Siegfried is much better than the others despite flaws in singing and staging.

Vocally this Siegfried is good by today's standards, but it's Brunnhilde and Siegfried do not compare to Nilsson and Windgassen on the 1962 recording conducted by Solti. In compensation, we get James Morris as the Wanderer on this DVD who out sings his mentor Hans Hotter on the 1962 recording. The remaining voices are equally good on both these versions.

Visually things are very good except for a Fafner which looks like a heap of dirty rags proped up with broken broomsticks. Act one is as perfect as any Wagner staging could be with very realistic forging of the sword, lots of smoke and sparks, plus superb acting by all, provided you accept a very impulsive Siegfried.
Act two before Fafner appears and after his demise is fine too. Act three has spectacular projected fire, followed by Brunnhilde awakening on a realistic rocky plateau. Behrens and Jerusalem do better than I thought they would with the duet. What's more they look good compared to some other wagnerian singers who shall be nameless. The total effect is very exciting.

This is the only Wagner opera DVD I have that stands up in the long run. The Met orchestra plays very well in this performance with only a few flubbed notes in act two. Otherwise it holds it's own despite (sound only) competition from Solti, Boehm and Furtwaengler. Levine has not always been a favorite conductor, but here he is inspired from beginning to end.

I have only checked out the stereo LPCM sound option which is clean, highly dynamic and demanding of playback equipment. Voices are a bit forward, but not enough to rob power from the orchestra. Again, this is as good a balance as one can expect live.

Considering that this is a great period for Mozart opera, but not for Wagner, this is a very welcome release.

2/5 Mediocre production
  by Jackie Lawson
I must first admit that Siegfried is my least favourite opera in the entire Ring cycle. Maybe it's because of this reason that I'm disappointed by what I see and hear on this DVD recording, as there's nothing which can make me like this opera more.

I have nothing really against the staging and direction. However, these come across as being rather perfunctory. At times, the singers are left with nothing much to do for a long period of time. Things are sometimes too static for the music, which are often much more lively than the stage action.

The singing is mediocre. I like James Morris's Wanderer. Siegfried Jerusalem, though musical and mostly accurate, is a little too slender in tone for the hero. I'm not impressed by the Brunnhilde of Hildegard Behrens. The other performers are adequate but no more. The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra under Levine gives a good though not transcendant performance.

Maybe I'm being a little too harsh. But I think this opera has much potential that has been unexplored by the performers and the director here.