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Wagner Society in NSW Inc
The new Copenhagen Opera House was given to Well, it looks great and functions brilliantly, but it is a little hard to get to. Although on the In addition to the ego of Møller and of course Wagner, we had on display a very egotistical (but very interesting) production by director Kasper Bech Holten and dramaturg Henrik Engelbrecht. In choosing to call the cycle Brunnhilde's Ring, changing the actual dramatic events, inventing whole new scenes and characters, setting Gotterdammerung in Bosnia in 1999, indulging in some way out audience-pleasing but self- referential by-play and writing a big glossy book about it (on sale in the foyer for about $100), Holten and Engelbrecht have brought Wagner into the 21st Century. Actually, much of what we saw was not that original and one could trace a lot back to Chéreau at Bayreuth 1976, through Friedrich's various efforts at Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Helsinki, the Stuttgart productions and of course Kupfer and the Flimm more recently at Bayreuth. It was certainly not anything like what Lars von Trier might have done at The idea, according to a pre-performance talk given by Engelbrecht, was to see the story as Brunnhilde trying to trace the roots of her dysfunctional family and a recurrent visual leitmotif was the bookshelves in Seeing the Ring through Brunnhilde is not that unreasonable. It has often been asked – why does Wotan need to create a free hero when he already has Brunnhilde? However to focus solely on the women and to treat Siegfried as a bit of an idiot sperm donor misses the whole point of what Wagner meant the Ring to be about. In his famous letter to August Röckel of 25 January 1854, Wagner explained the meaning of the Ring drama. Paraphrasing, Wagner said that reality is that which must change, the unreal, or Kantian noumenal sphere, remained constant. Then he said a human being is both man and woman, and it is only when man and woman are united in love that men and women attain full humanity. Only that which is real can be eternal and it is through love that the most perfect manifestation of reality is attained, therefore love only is eternal (but changing). The Ring thus sets forth the necessity of recognizing and yielding to change, the manysidedness, the multiplicity, the eternal renewing of reality and of life. The later, darker Schopenhauerean interpretation gave a more significant importance to Wotan. Wotan rises to the tragic height of willing his own destruction. To will what necessity imposes is the lesson from the history of mankind. To deny the will to power leaves a fearless human being who never ceases to love – Siegfried. In Parsifal, Wagner went further and advocated the denial of the will to sexual love as well, and that is why some have seen Parsifal as the fifth part of the Ring (eg Flimm at The Ring is thus about a lot more than Brunnhilde and she is not really the right central character from a philosophic point of view even though overtly she does seem to develop more than Siegfried. The trouble with Siegfried is that he is drugged for much of Gotterdammerung and even in Siegfried by dragon blood, and Wagner can't really show his main character developing. Nevertheless the Ring is such a great work it can be interpreted in many different ways and the Das Rheingold The first striking feature was that it had six scenes instead of the usual four, although continuous of course. Scene 1 (not the bottom of the Rhine); Brunnhilde's room in the attic of Scene 2 A lounge room in a 1930s middle class basement flat. Rhinemaidens are flappers. Alberich is seducing them. Much byplay eg ice cubes down front of Alberich's pants to cool his ardour. Alberich has drinks cabinet and is getting drunker and drunker. As will become apparent later in act 3 of Gotterdammerung, the set actually is an empty swimming pool. The gold is a real naked man swimming in real water tank. When the gold is stolen, the man is killed by Alberich and the water becomes bloodstained. This is justified. In the text as the Rhinemaidens are swimming around the newly revealed gold, they sing at one point ‘Schaut, er lächelt in lichtem Schein” (See how he smiles in the gleaming light) referring to the gold as he, and at another “Wache, Freund, wache froh, wonnige Spiele spenden wir dir” (awaken friend, awake to joy, gladdening games we'll play with you now). The gold is not an inanimate object but a living mythological being. Incidentally, there is another gold like object in center stage that has no part. This is a feature of the production: the director tricking the audience as to which stage prop is the significant one. The curtain falls during transition. Scene: Gods camped in tents, ready to move into Scene 4 Nibelheim is truly scary. Gruesome headless, limbless, otherwise incomplete bodies in plastic bags. Mime's Scene 5 Wotan and Loge's torture chamber. This was an even more scary scene, invented by the director. Alberich is strapped up with arms extended. Wotan and Loge are torturing him. Injections are given. Wotan gives an injection and then slowly cuts off Alberich's whole forearm, with the ring on, with a knife (almost surgically). (Chéreau and Friedrich). The ring is actually a sort of large forearm amulet. Scene 6 When giants come back, descending again from on high, Fafner gets out of wheelchair when he kills Fasolt (see Little Britain). Erda has no blue light but a long plait. She is sung by a fairly large lady. Donner scene is very good. Rhinemaidens' lament is sung on a wind-up gramophone record set up by Loge. Wotan spears it in disgust. The gods ascend to a large skyscraper receding from the audience, on a window cleaners' platform. Wotan kills Loge (invented by director). Musically generally excellent, balanced, clean, dynamic if not particularly cultured interpretation (about 2 hr 25 min). (conductor Michael Schønwandt) All singers except Froh, Erda and Mime very good, others adequate and Erda improved in Siegfried. Theatre has very good acoustics (stalls row 11 central). Cast: Alberich - Sten Byriel - excellent, Wotan - James Johnson good, Donner - Johan Reuter (excellent), Froh - Johnny van Hal (weak), Loge - Michael Kristensen, Fasolt - Stephen Milling (excellent), Fafner - Christian Christiansen (excellent), Mime - Gert Henning Jensen (weak), Fricka - Randi Stene (very good), Freia - Anne Margrethe Dahl, Die Walkure Act 1 We are now in the 1950s, a bourgeois domestic interior, initially a restricted set. Hunding was very powerfully sung by Stephen Milling. Sieglinde was also excellent (Eva Johansson). There was a late replacement for Siegmund, and initially I was disappointed not to be hearing Poul Elming who has sung the role in The spring night scene was done by a beautiful expansion and rotation effect, with a flowery bank, flanked by the ubiquitous bookcases, to remind us that it was Brunnhilde's family history we were watching. Sieglinde pulled the sword out all on her own. The lovers tumbled down the bank in each other's arms (and legs). The horns were wobbly at times in this exposed music but otherwise whole Act carried off with great verve. Act 2 As is now seemingly standard, inside Valhalla Inc. Wotan's office with the window cleaners' gantry prominent. Brunnhilde (and all Walkuren) have wings, although in 1950s dress (cf In the fight, Nothung just breaks on its own without the spear being involved. Hunding does not die, just walks away laughing at Wotan. Wotan himself tries to help Siegmund and falls on his body at the end. Wotan improved in this Act. Fricka (Randi Stene again) excellent, as were Siegmund, Sieglinde and Hunding. Iréne Theorin looked a bit old for the young Brunnhilde, but sang really well. Apparently she sang in the Act 3 The Walkure rock was a hut on top of an alpine meteorological station (? Walkuren: Helmwige- Emma Vetter, Gerhilde- Yiva Kihlberg, Ortlinde- Charlotte Meldgaard, Waltraute- Hanne Fischer, Siegrune- Anna Rydberg (late replacement), Rossweisse- Elisabeth Jansson, Grimgerde- Elisabeth Halling, Siegfried Act 1 This was the most elaborate set in the whole production. Successively a 3 level scene was built up. First, Mime's 1970s kitchen (middle), second, Siegfried's student bedroom (upper), Cohn-Bendit poster bestrewn walls, stereo etc, the third, Mime's basement workshop and library (lower). Mime (now sung by Bengt-Ola Morgny, a great improvement from the earlier incumbent) gives Siegfried (Andersen) his lesson in the facts of life using the blackboard. Siegfried comes in wearing a bearskin. The Mime-Wanderer question and answer took place in the kitchen and basement and was marred by one embarrassing wrong entry of a very loud giants' motif. Mime rushed to his library to look up answers. The flickering fear of the dragon was from a TV set. The forging scene took place on all three levels with much perfectly timed rushing up and down a spiral staircase. Nice touches were Mime typing in the tapping rhythm. Andersen's great acting and tapping as well as singing. When the sword forged Siegfried smashes the TV with it and not the anvil that was also present. All singing and acting excellent, as was orchestra, apart from error noted above. This Act drew loudest applause so far. Act 2 As is now becoming a cliché, we saw the young Mime leads Siegfried on by consulting the Michelin Green Guide to London (? reference to the London manufacturers of the original Fafner head for 1876 Bayreuth that got lost in transit...sent to Beirut instead). Before the woodbird is heard, the real pigeon is seen again. Siegfried (Andersen) really plays the wooden instrument himself (a recorder, not cor anglais in orchestra). However, he does not play horn solo (very well played in orchestra). The dragon speaks through loud speakers initially with a Dalek-like light. Later, we see a lower level set emerge, showing Fafner at a control panel controlling a many tentacled dragon plant. As a homage to Kupfer, a rusty boiler is on stage, playing no part in the action. Siegfried kills Fafner in his chair by thrusting Nothung through the back of he chair into Fafner. Actual woodbird not seen (? or is the pigeon the woodbird, controlled by Brunnhilde rather than Wotan, as in Act 3 Wanderer (Wotan) visits his old flame, Erda, in her 1930s style bedroom. She is asleep, but gets up with a dressing gown on, which later comes off to reveal a rather large lady in a nightie. There is a servant present. Susanne Resmark is better than in Rheingold. Siegfried confronts Wotan before a barbed wire fence with a hole in it. Wotan breaks the spear himself. Siegfried climbs through the hole. The ascent to the rock is effective and curtain does not fall Brunnhilde has her trousseau packed with her in an old suitcase. The rock with the hut rotates a lot while the pigeon (which must be the woodbird) tells Brunnhilde that Siegfried is on the way. The love duet is accompanied by rotations of the hut and running in and out of doors, but Andersen and Théorin bring it off superbly, proving that Andersen was saving himself in Act 2. The bookcases frame the front of the stage. Gotterdammerung Prologue The Norns scene was very clever and brought interpolated applause, rather like the Ride of the Valkyries in After their night(s) of love and presumably some further few months, a heavily pregnant Brunnhilde has made her little hut much more homely, stuffing it with pot plants and other bric-a-brac. After a husbandly-wifely breakfast, she sends Siegfried on his way down the Act 1 The Gibichungs are fairly conventional. An effete Gunther, dizzy blonde Gutrune and really nasty Hagen doing push ups. We are in Act 2 Alberich tutors Hagen is a basement lecture room under a fluorescent tube light, using blackboard and chalk plus duster to explain background to him and audience. The scene finishes with Act 3 The Rhinemaidens have aged 40 years. The set is the same as Rheingold scene 2, but it now looks like an empty swimming pool. The tank where the young man representing the gold swam is boarded up. In the hunt scene, the commandos come in with guns and beer (rather like Brunnhilde sings "Ruhe du Gott" not to Siegfried, but to Wotan seated in an arm chair, after which he dies. The ring is clearly seen as Siegfried's body is picked up. The book piles are set on fire and glow slowly as the stage revolves to show the other gods on fire on the gantry in front of Overall, one of the best Rings I've seen. Hard to fault in any way and Wagner has always shown to be proof against almost any directorial indulgences, which in this case were not too bad and indeed interesting. Orchestra extremely willing and while not absolutely top rate, better than most and right for the acoustic. Although the pit was invisible from row 11, I spoke at interval to someone in row 4 who said he was disconcerted by the movement in and out of the pit of players. For these big operas they rotate brass and other players. It's funny, but when you listen to records and CDs the music and singing is very important, but when watching a production you make allowances. The bars and restaurants all work smoothly, if you don't mind paying about double what you do in Dr Jim Leigh Back to Society Home Page
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