Flimmflam: The New Bayreuth Ring - first
performance 26, 27, 29, 31 July 2000.
Opera Review (From the September 2000 newsletter)
Das Rheingold
The Rhinemaidens (Dorothee Jansen [Woglinde], Natascha Petrinsky
[Wellgunde], Laura Nykänen [Flosshilde]), were well cast, with strong
voices. Kim Begley, as Loge, had a nice tone, but grossly overacted,
as did Gunther von Kannen (Alberich). Johann Tilli [Fasolt], Philip
Kang [Fafner/Hunding] and lesser gods were all satisfactory voices,
if rather unexciting; however, Hans-Joachim Ketelsen (Donner/Gunther)
had a coarse tone. Alan Titus (Wotan) had a pleasantly bland but warm
baritone voice, with minimal stage authority. Giuseppe Sinopoli's
conducting was rather slow and very quiet, rather like chamber music,
which offered an interesting, if 1-dimensional view of the work. The
production (Jürgen Flimm [Director], Erich Wonder [Sets], Florence
von Gerkan [Costumes]) had some interesting ideas, essentially a parallel
with corporate life, with Wotan as the chief executive/architect planning
Valhalla as a new corporate headquarters. A number of ideas were borrowed
from Dickens: the gold was specks scattered amongst debris (Our Mutual
Friend), Scene 3 was taken from Hard Times. The audience was
extremely enthusiastic, although we had doubts: there were too many
ideas thrown together at random, none well thought out and none particularly
successful theatrically. Overall assessment: satisfactory.
Die Walküre
Placido Domingo was very good; however, for those who had heard him
before in this role (as we had, in '97 and 4/00 at the Met), vocal
deterioration was apparent, with the "Wälse" fermata rather
unexciting. Kang was vocally mediocre, with minimal stage presence.
Titus now showed serious weaknesses: the voice sounded unnatural,
as if he was trying to force a heavier sound on a light baritone.
Moreover, this vocal weakness was compounded by his minimal stage
presence and absence of involvement with the character. This created
a gaping hole in the opera, as, during several great scenes in Act
III, Titus simply stood still and sung with no emotion; in contrast,
in the great Act II monologue, the overacting was embarrassing. Birgit
Remmert (Fricka) had a thin tone and was otherwise unmemorable. Gabriele
Schnaut as Brünnhilde had ringing tones, a heavy vibrato, but struggled
to act against the inept Titus.
The standout performance was Waltraud Meier, as Sieglinde, in wonderful
voice with excellent acting which provided a consistent, deep, if
unconventional portrayal. When she appeared to Siegmund in Act I (before
the "Winterstürme"), she was wearing a bridal-style nightgown,
as if trying to extinguish her first marriage with a second, a hint
at incipient madness; by Act II she was deranged, rushing to embrace
Siegmund after he was killed; in Act III she wrapped the broken Nothung
in the bridal veil and cradled it like a baby on her exit, providing
a nice piece of irony as we know she will die in childbirth. The conducting
was on similar lines to Das Rheingold. The production had a few
interesting ideas: the "Winterstürme" was sung to the Northern
lights, an original touch; Act II, Scene 1 was set in a corporate
office. However, frequent scene changes in Act II were accomplished
by a noisy revolve, which destroyed several fine musical passages.
There was also a strange landscape backdrop, which vaguely resembled
the pyramids but had no obvious connection with the Ring, or even
this staging of it. The close of Act III was a gross anti-climax:
a glass tower moved to enclose Brünnhilde, an enchanting view was
given of snow-capped mountains (or perhaps clouds) and then, nothing:
no magic fire (a few red lines on the stage a bathetic substitute),
and no applause either, for an embarrassingly long period. Overall
assessment: very uneven, with a few successes but some fundamental
defects.
Siegfried
Incredibly boring performance by Sinopoli, whose speeds reached
absurd levels. The opera lasted 4 hours and 40 minutes (compared with
an average 4 hours). The riddle scene in Act I almost came to a complete
halt: I spotted many heads nodding off to sleep. The times were much
longer than indicated in the program, which were presumably calculated
from the dress rehearsal (other operas were accurate), implying willfulness
or even malice. Sinopoli was foolish enough to take a solo curtain
call, at which he was overwhelmed by booing (he was so upset by this
he didn't attend the obligatory press conference the next day). Wolfgang
Schmidt (Siegfried) was on quite good form in Act I, with a nice tone,
but the appalling conducting severely strained his voice in the sword
song, from which it did not fully recover. Schnaut had some problems
with an over-wide vibrato (many thought she was out of tune) in the
awakening scene, but finished strongly with golden tones. Titus seemed
to improve in Act I, and the slow speeds produced some fine legato
singing, but his voice deteriorated severely in Acts II and III, with
a vanishing lower register. Michael Howard (Mime) was a nonentity.
Mette Ejsing (Erda) was very good.
The production ran out of ideas: Act I was set
in the ruins of Hunding's hut. The vague backdrop reappeared, now
looking like Los Angeles, a bombed Dresden, or Auschwitz, depending
on which audience member you questioned. The dragon looked impressive,
but did nothing. One production quirk, which had been in evidence
before, was that of introducing stray characters, particularly at
the ends of Acts. For example, Alberich and Mime had appeared at the
end of Das Rheingold. These strays appeared to be a substitution for
character interaction or development. In Siegfried this quirk became
tiresome, with the Wanderer appearing at the ends of Acts I and II,
and a schoolboy Hagen at the start of Act II. However, the best set
so far was at the end, where Brünnhilde's cave opened up to form a
sun disc, a simple idea, linked to the text, theatrically effective
without additional clutter. Overall assessment: the inept conducting
destroyed the performance.
Götterdämmerung
Schmidt was good overall, although his voice alternated between a
fine heldentenor with clean tone, and a coarse, slightly flat sound.
Schnaut had major problems in Acts I and III, with a severe wobble,
although Act II was better. Embarrassingly, Wolfgang Wagner came in
front of the curtain before Act II, to announce that she was ill,
but would sing anyway. Apart from the German equivalent taking several
minutes (most thought he was announcing a substitute), he was treated
with extreme disrespect by the Bayreuth audience, with "Speak
up, you fool" (in German) audible. John Tomlinson (Hagen) was
rather bland, but produced a nice pleasant tone, and indeed, was in
better voice than we have heard him before. Ketelsen was woeful, with
a weak voice, and once forgot his lines, unfortunately out of hearing
of the prompter, so simply fell silent for several crucial bars in
Act II. Violeta Urmana (Waltraute) was excellent. The conducting returned
to normal speed, so that Götterdämmerung was 5 minutes shorter than
Siegfried! Sinopoli was obviously determined to escape booing and
avoided taking a solo curtain call. The production returned to the
concept of corporate life, with Gibichung Inc. in a modern office
tower. However, there were very few ideas, none of them new, and even
fewer were successful. The ending fell completely flat, with a few
projections on a scrim to show Valhalla and the Rhine (in each case
to the other's music), and a final tableau showing a young boy (Parsifal,
we were instructed), standing on a white stage. After the last note
there was a long, embarrassing pause, followed by desultory applause.
Boos for the production team outnumbered cheers by about 3 to 1. Worse,
the applause was very short, lasting only 5 minutes, with most walking
away subdued, quite unlike any other Ring we have encountered. Overall
assessment: too many weak performances, and a production that died.
Some General Thoughts
The underlying idea behind the production, an analogy of corporate
life, was not itself too bad. One can quite easily imagine Valhalla
as a corporate headquarters, and this approach would link Wagner to
the idea of capitalism as creative destruction. The Ring is definitely
concerned with endless renewal, and the limits to freedom and property
are also quite reasonable as related themes. The ring itself could
be portrayed as man's endless search for economic goods. Properly
followed through, this could create some fruitful connections, and
make the Ring appear quite contemporary. However, not all the operas
fit in with this idea, indeed whole stretches of the tetralogy could
be lost in this approach. Modernity is also currently rather old-fashioned,
as Chéreau and many derivative productions have explored this approach
over the last 25 years. The more fundamental objection is that the
Ring is simply too large to fit into any particular theory, whether
Socialist, Capitalist, Sophoclean, Freudian, ecological or whatever,
and that an attempt to do so diminishes the work and, paradoxically,
makes it appear less, rather than more, relevant. I suspect Wagner
understood this point very well, and it is precisely why he set the
cycle in mythological times (unlike the Nibelungenleid itself, and
his other operas, which are set in historical, if distant, periods).
If Wagner had wanted to show a parable of modern life, he could have
prescribed a contemporary drama (as Verdi did with La Traviata). Traditional
productions allow, indeed encourage, the singers to explore deeper
interpretations.
However, whilst I might prefer traditional productions, I am
prepared to enjoy alternative stagings. The problem in Bayreuth was
the fatal combination of technical ineptitude and insufficient original
ideas. This contrasted sharply with the amount of pre-performance
production propaganda: TV programs, newspaper articles and so on.
This puffery would be risible anywhere except Germany, and it went
unnoticed by the critics that the actual staging bore little resemblance.
Flimm, in an interview, stated that the interrelationships between
characters were critical, but the production was characterised by
their lack of interaction (I thought this deliberate, until I read
the articles, after which it appeared merely incompetent).
The acoustics at Bayreuth justify their fame. The singers are
crystal clear throughout the house; the orchestra seemed very quiet,
but perhaps this was Sinopoli's fault. However, there are no free
lunches, even in music, and the favourable environment for voices
carries a risk, namely that it allows mediocre singers with small
voices to sound quite acceptable. For an opera house that purports
to be of the first rank, there were far too many B-grade singers with
uninteresting small voices.
Richard Mason
August 2000
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