Superconductor: Opera Review: The Machine of the Nibelungs.
Opera Review: The Machine of the Nibelungs
We break down (poor choice of words) the Lepage Ring.
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The new Ring cost millions. Hope rich Uncle Pennybags™ likes opera.
Card from Monopoly™ © 1936 Parker Brothers Games. |
So now that
Götterdämmerung has been broadcast in the movie
theaters, it's time to take a look at all four parts of the Metropolitan
Opera's multimillion dollar production of Wagner's
Ring.
Canadian director Robert Lepage came to Wagner's operas with what seemed
to be a deliberately naïve view: to use high technology and digital
projections to recreate a fairly literal version of the Germanic myths
that inspired the composer.
The costumes were directly drawn from old productions of the
Ring, right down to the little metal helmets worn by the Valkyries and Wotan's undersized partisan-shaped spear.
To be sure, this cycle developed over the year and a half it took to premiere, with
Siegfried and
Götterdämmerung
showing advances in technology that solved some of the serious problems
existent in the earlier opera. But the biggest problem with this cycle
is Mr. Lepage's decision to minimize the acting surface of the Met
stage, giving his singers almost nowhere to go except the narrow grey
board-walk of planks that stood on the lip of the stage underneath the
Machine, or a trench underneath that hid the singers' legs from the view
of the audience and made it harder for them to sing.
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The downward spiral: Stunt doubles make the Journey to Nibelheim in Scene III of Das Rheingold.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2010 The Metropolitan Opera. |
Let's talk about singers. Bryn Terfel showed familiarity and steady
improvement as Wotan, as the cycle went on and the role got lower.
Although he sounded harsh in the most lyric pages of
Das Rheingold, he managed a hissing, low sound when Wotan was up to no good. The Welshman was especially fine in
Siegfried
as the Wanderer. However, the best bass-baritone onstage was Eric Owens
as Alberich, a compelling dramatic presence and a rich, dark sound that
had you firmly on Team Nibelung from the get-go.
Deborah Voigt has made a valiant effort at Brunnhilde. There's no
question that she understands the character, the role and its pitfalls.
She had a strong
Walküre, a rough night in
Siegfried and seemed to find focus in
Götterdämmerung
in the opera's second half. Jay Hunter Morris (a last-minute
replacement) remains a Siegfried-lite, capable of embodying the role of
Wagner's muscle-headed hero and singing with (mostly) pleasing tone. But
his voice is small, and the singer skated over the most difficult
moments in the score.
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Deborah Voigt rides the Machine in Act III of Die Walküre.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera. |
Far better: Jonas Kaufmann as Siegmund. This tenor's Wagner debut at the
Met was a big deal, and deservedly so. Physically, he matches the part,
but even better is that ringing, silvery sound when he launched into "
Winterstürme."
It's too bad that the ham-handed direction confined him to a trench
onstage for most of the first act. Hopefully that decision will be
corrected by the April premiere of
Die Walküre in the complete cycle, where the part will be sung by Stuart Skelton. Eva-Maria Westbroek was a strong, lyric Sieglinde.
There are some other fine singers in the smaller roles. Wendy Bryn Harmer displayed flying Wagnerian colors as Gutrune (
Götterdämmerung). Gerhard
Siegel's Mime. Hans-Peter König's Fafner, Hunding and best of all,
Hagen made a case for treating Wagner's villains as a mini-cycle--a feat
also managed by basses Matti Salminen and Erik Halfvarson in the past.
The mezzos of the operas: Stephanie Blythe as Fricka and Waltraud Meier
as Waltraute were also compelling, making one wish both characters had
more to do.
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Jay Hunter Morris battles a balloon in Act II of Siegfried.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2012 The Metropolitan O |
This cycle will probably be known as the "Machine
Ring for the
next century. The device in question (which has led to journalists
breaking out their thesaurii for the words "gizmo", "contraption" and
"cantankerous clattering collection of cogs and camshafts" (thank you,
Dr. Smith) is the central visual focus of the show and its biggest
liability. Twenty-four molded planks in battle-ship gray spun and
reconfigured into mountains, rivers and walls of blazing fire is an
elegant solution, but one prone to stage noises, malfunctions, and worst
of all, potential industrial accidents.
The Machine has been the subject of much comment (and much satire) on
this blog in the last year. The best thing that can be said for it is
that when it does work (usually as a ginormous movie screen for those
digital, screen-saver like projections) it looks pretty cool. (The worst
thing is that those plank-ends do look like cannons, aimed squarely at
the bloggers sitting in the Family Circle.) I will admit that there is a
small thrill in seeing those planks MOVE like a living thing to
Wagner's music, coming alive and seeming to dance (albeit clumsily) to
the score like a huge Frankenstein puppet.
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Act II of Götterdämmerung with Deborah Voigt downstage.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera. |
Puppetry too is a fascination of Mr. Lepage's. So why was the puppet dragon in
Das Rheingold actually scarier (and more effective) than the cheap-looking inflatable Fafner in Act II of
Siegfried? It looked like a leftover stage prop from a Dio concert, or possibly Spinal Tap.
Full reviews of each opera are available on
Superconductor.
Das Rheingold: "Machine Messiah": Oct 5, 2010.
Die Walküre: "Machines (Back to Humans)": April 23, 2011.
Siegfried: "A Man, A Machine and a Big Snake": Oct. 28, 2011.
Götterdämmerung: "The Last Plank": Jan. 28, 2012.
