The Met's new Ring on PBS

I got a nice surprise last night when I looked at the "To-Do List" on my TiVo and discovered that PBS is broadcasting the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung during the week of Sept. 10. They'll start with a documentary about how this production was put together called Wagner's Dream on Monday, Sept. 10, and follow that with the four parts of the immense music-drama on the next four nights.

These performances, like the rest of PBS' Great Performances at the Met series, are rebroadcasts of the "Live in HD" series of complete broadcasts of Saturday matinee performances into movie theaters and other venues. The Met staggered the premieres of each of the Ring operas over two seasons and did the HD broadcasts shortly after each premiere.

That led to some interesting personnel changes, the most notable of which is that the first two parts (Das Rheingold and Die Walküre) are conducted by the Met's longtime music director and noted interpreter of Wagner, James Levine. By last season, when Siegfried and Götterdämmerung debuted, Maestro Levine's back problems had forced him to put down the baton, and he was ably replaced for the Ring performances by the Met's principal conductor, Fabio Luisi.

This is the much-talked-about (in the opera world, anyway) Robert Lepage production of the Ring that uses for its sets what has become known as "The Machine" -- a series of 24 rotating steel planks that altogether weighs 45 tons and required extra reinforcement underneath the Met's stage. The planks are moved (by a combination of computer and manual labor) into various positions, which through the use of lighting and projections create trees, rocks, a hut, a forest, a castle, what-have-you.

Many critics were not pleased overall with how the Machine performed. It was sometimes viewed as a distraction. But musically, with only a few exceptions, this Ring got glowing reviews.

I will not be so bold as to implore you to watch all 16 hours of this masterpiece (18 if you include Monday's documentary) unless you're ready to be taken under Wagner's spell for a week of one of the most ingenious and magical landmarks of music and drama ever conceived.

By happy coincidence, I'm on vacation that week with not much planned. If you phone me, be assured your calls will go straight to voice-mail.