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Sarah Livingstone
[Sarah is a member of the Wagner Society of Western Australia and has kindly sent us a short report on the Somtow Sucharitkul production of the Ring.Members may remember that we covered this ambitious project in an earlier issue - No. 104, June 2006 . Editor]
Thailand was lovely; the two performances of Die Walkure that I attended were really well done with a lot of hard work being put into the production. Unfortunately Thailand is not really ready for Wagner. On the first night, the Theatre was only about 10% full.Twenty minutes after the performance was due to start, Somtow Sucharitkul, the conductor and director, appeared on stage and said ‘Hello, a warm welcome to you all – all fifteen of you! Let's hope the other thousand are stuck in a traffic jam!' He then went on to say that two of the lead singers, due to sing the Sieglinde and Hunding roles were indisposed but would still try and sing their level best. For a minute there I felt sorry for him. I have to say that I could barely notice any glitches in their singing. Most of the singers were young and Brunnhilde was a lovely Taiwanese singer, Jennifer Chen, whose voice and dramatic quality were brilliant. An Australian in the audience remarked that here was a Brunnhilde who looked the part (and sang superbly)!
Most of the cast were in Thai costumes, which worked well – and Hunding was in a military uniform, but didn't look ruthless enough I must confess I could not quite see the Japanese occupation connection, which the opera was supposed to have.
There were quite a few extras – Sieglinde was portrayed as a royal (or high caste) and had a few maidservants to pander to her every need, (very Thai), so did Wotan and Hunding (who had men and boys to attend to them).Valhalla's heroes were slowly being bought to life by the Valkyries, so that was almost pure Wagner.
The sets were quite good, although a bit sparse at times compared to last year's Rhinegold (considering the financial constraints Somtow had to face). The production had a definite Asian feel to it with the Yin-Yang mandala always on the background. There were some video images, but they worked only some of the time, and best at the final scene where red lights portrayed the flame and video images of smoke (unfortunately not directly above the lights).
The orchestra was not quite up to standard as Wagner's music was too much of a challenge at times - but they pulled through and moved the whole opera along.
For the second performance, (this time the hall was about 25% full), which started late again, Somtow appeared once again on stage to apologise for the late start and a technical hitch – a violinist had dropped her bow through the cracks on the orchestra pit and the pit was being raised while the bow was being retrieved. As the pit was being lowered I heard this scream ‘STOP' - it was Somtow.He hadn't quite managed to move away from the descending pit! Visions of a squashed Somtow flashed through my mind!
All things considered, Somtow is a very courageous man and a real visionary. For him to follow his passion in a country that doesn't understand his passion is remarkable. It really was a very brave performance.
Somtow was at the foyer at each interval talking to the patrons, mostly European expats and a few visitors. He invited Peter Bassett and me to the cast party held at his studio in some back alley in the heart of Bangkok . Thankfully we were given a lift – we would have never found this place having to give directions to a taxi!It was good meeting members of the production team and some of the singers, most of whom are American and European. They have great respect and admiration for Somtow and appreciate the enormous effort he puts in his work.
I hope to make it to Siegfried , which is supposed to be staged towards the end of next year. [According to Somtow's plans, the cycle is scheduled for a complete performance with his staging of Gotterdammerung in 2010 – Editor.]
This page updated:
31-Mar-2008
© Wagner Society in NSW Inc 2004
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