#scrambled review

[beckmessering]

not too brief thoughts on the zurich rheingold (2022)

in short: this was entertaining af.

in long:

- zurich is a very smol opera house! the decor is adorable.

- acoustics are something to get used to. they’re quite...dry? as in, you can keep apart the different orchestral melodic lines with relative ease. but the sounds does punch you in the face if desired by gianandrea noseda.

- speaking of: noseda’s conducting is very good. pretty snappy and fast, absolutely no dragging here, but he’s also not rushing the singers. 

- THEY DID NOT USE A GLOCKENSPIEL FOR THE DESCENT INTO NIBELHEIM, THANK ODIN

- the production is Very Zurich. stage: minimalist, acting: maximalist. i elaborate:

- zurich’s stage is relatively small and they use is wisely. the whole set is a rotating circus of three white rooms in which characters are occasionally left along to have private conversations. that’s very convenient for these often slightly unwieldy dialogue scenes in rheingold where three characters are talking and the rest is just...sitting there, listening to them talk?!? nope, the talking people wander into another room to chat. adds a nice element of privacy. 

- IT LOOKS LIKE THE CENTENARY RING. it’s been said before and i can confirm. it’s like someone threw centenary rheingold and centenary walküre into a pot and gave it a good stir. it’s very obvious with wotan’s suit, the dark furniture, the general vibe of the gods being upper-class capitalists that aspire to even more and make other people of slightly lower social standing (the giants, wearing neat but simpler clothes and feathered hats) work for them. 

- the resemblance is purely aesthetic, though. it doesn’t have that same specific thought behind it. the closest i can get to deciphering where this will go is that it might be like an epic saga about the rise and decline of a family, which is...pretty close to what a Ring is. not very specific and not that modern, but not really traditional either.

- the acting is MAXIMALIST in that there is not a single fcking second of boredom onstage. everyone is in character, doing something, all the time. we love it

- this might be a Ring i’ve been waiting for for a long time: i’ve always wanted one that gives the difficult and multifaceted relationship in the Ring a very thorough look, and i don’t care how Regie it is otherwise, but i want a 21st-century ring that looks at the relationships in very thorough depth. 

- they do use a few stage tricks to great effect. loge burns things and people. a large closet/wardrobe apparently has magical properties. much smoke in nibelheim

- (nibelheim is a nightmare version of the villa the gods live in: creepy lighting, burnt-looking furniture, a wardrobe with the potential to transform people (alberich) into a dragon, and alberich himself with a whip that he is quite fond of using.)

- about that wardrobe in the third scene: the dragon is OUT OF the closet, i repeat the dragon is OUT OF the closet, but the toad is IN THE CLOSET (and then they drag alberich out of the closet)

- overall fantastical vibe is there. i like it. kind of like a dark, old-fashioned fairytale book that’s both fantastic and a little gruesome and spills right into the ‘real world’. 

- the singers! the singers!!!

- christopher purves is a classic howling-and-spitting alberich, but to great effect. he initially comes through the window dressed like a chimney sweep to clumsily flirt with bourgeois-looking rhinemaidens in satin pyjamas and gets worse from there. his phrasing is SO detailed! makes me think he understands every single word of what he’s singing, and he has zero accent when he sings, and that is a BIG achievement because alberich is tricky shit and purves is english and you absolutely can’t tell. (i hope this doesn’t sound weird. i’ve just noticed that with many native-english singers, german is particularly hard and tiny lapses in diction can happen even for the best. but no. this man does not lapse. 10/10)

- matthias klink’s loge is a decently drunk jack sparrow variant. i don’t find his voice very pretty and that’s a compliment because he’s a charaktertenor af, and he’s very lively in his drunk mannerisms and occasionally sings straight to the audience (the lights turn on whenever he does??!?)

- the ladies don’t have that much to do but do well. fricka (patricia barton, debut, i think) tries to reign in her husband, to...modest success. freia is pissed as FUCK at her family and doesn’t want to go back to them. “Dünkt euch Holda wirklich der Lösung wert?” was some sarcastic shit. we stan

- tomasz konieczny is fantastic. i feel a new favourite wotan incoming...first of all, he can be LOUD if he wishes, and his phrasing <3 detailed, thoughtful, varied, very fun to listen for the next sentence. (tbh i’m not surprised by that bc i knew of that before - his farewell in walküre is the only one to make me cry on the regular bc its so emotional :,) ) he has a bit of a weird voice for wotan, very much a matter of taste because it has this strong dark undertone but i looooove it. he also has exactly what you need for a character who is essentially a scheming liar 24/7: an apparent jovial manner that absolutely hates when people talk back to him, but more than that, a very cold, menacing streak beneath that just wants people to fucking do as i say or else. koniezcny definitely knows he’s singing a villain. tl;dr abt this guy: i CANNOT WAIT for walküre, i think he’ll rip my heart out

- overall, 9.5/10. had to get used to the acoustics a lil bit, a few people forgot their text (fafner and alberich). WILDLY entertaining, musically first-class, character portrayals were very clever and promising! tangible absolute dedication from everyone!! i stan this

[beckmessering]

moderately brief thoughts on the met’s new lucia (2022)

- ok i’ll be frank: i LOVE this staging. it’s perfect for a lucia first-timer (says a lucia first-timer). perfect because the thoughts/feelings/motivations of the original story are preserved, and the staging is extremely visually engaging. it’s absolutely impossible to run out of things to look at. also the new context fits the story very, very well, adds some further dimensions to it while supporting the idea that the story is universal (we love it). exactly what a ‘new’ staging should do. 

- idk if everyone felt this way but the production also felt familiar. i guess that’s something for if you’ve ever lived in the US, because what’s going on in declining towns and cities across the country (and in the rust belt) is a present part of the newsfeed. 

- i loved also that the characters felt like people i had seen before. anyone could feel they, too, know a lucia or an edgardo (hopefully not an enrico). maybe loads of people know an edgardo, who sings about oaths he’s sworn but also seems like he just trying to get by like everyone else, and loads of people know a lucia: a young girl, sweet, gentle, and likeable, with wishes to be happy and carefree, yet entirely trapped in her surroundings with pressure that’s too much to bear.

- speaking of: i was never ever afraid for nadine sierra’s voice during her high notes. her mad scene was incredibly engaging as well. i applaud not only everyone who can sing this, but also everyone who can hold the audience’s attention so easily and deservedly, and she does both.

- javier camarena does not have my personal preferred tenor voice, i think, but he was a great edgardo, and i really wanted him to be happy with lucia. he was a great choice for this specific production - i don’t think i could image anyone else in his place.

- artur ruciński was also absolutely 11/10. not only was the singing great, but i really appreciate someone’s dedication to the slack body language of a small-town mafia boss who delves into various degrees of drunk and addicted throughout the opera. 

(side note: we as the audience never know if he’s ever really sober throughout. fascinating to think about because it highlights an often-tragic aspect of serious addictions and some mental health problems: they consume you until no one is sure what the personality is and what the addiction is. was enrico always this callous? we don’t know.)

- in general, the dedication to detail in the scenery, the props, and the acting was absolute first-class. 

- bel canto is still not my poison of first choice, but that’s fine - i wasn’t bored for a single second and now know i’d definitely go see a stirring bel canto opera production. 

- LOVED simon stone’s statement about how the end of his imagination should only be the beginning of the singers’ interpretation. YES 

two points of potential criticism:

- the only part in which the production may have been overambitious was in portraying both alcoholism AND the opioid crisis in enrico. doing both of those things in one character of one production is a lot. acting-wise, the alcoholism was emphasised much more, i find, but it’s also not that big of a problem since the production was in no way flippant or trivialising about drugs.

- the production translated extremely well on screen. almost...too well. i started wondering how it must be to see it live. musically, surely thrilling. but is the level of detail in the props even visible from further away? that’s not something that should be corrected by taking away props, though. for a live broadcast, the camera team’s filming proved very helpful because the broadcasters could occasionally switch to their film, and this kept things going. i don’t know how present the camera team is during the whole performance live, though. i hope they’re not there for every single scene because having people follow the singers around at all times is strangely obstructive to the otherwise very real, immediate feel of the production. it introduces a strange artificiality that the whole thing otherwise absolutely doesn’t have.  

final comment:

- THIS is the correct amount of fake blood to be used for a stabbing death. ring cycle (and countless others), take notes. 

[beckmessering]

scrambled review no.2

die walküre / bayreuth 1991/92 / directed by harry kupfer

Characters

Siegmund (Poul Elming) – hard to believe Elming first trained as a baritone. His tenor is very well-controlled and made me think of a metallic golden glow, as far as colour-voice comparisons go. Would’ve wished for a bit more legato in his phrasing sometimes – he tends towards choppiness – and his acting is a bit exaggerated in the beginning. Very sweet with Sieglinde, though.

Sieglinde (Nadine Secunde) – speaks very much through her face and her eyes with a voice to match in intensity. It sounded so voluminous and rich to me, and she manages the spectrum from distressed and scared to utterly fierce and enthralling. The Wälsungs fall for each other a bit too quickly for my taste (I prefer slow-burn incest) but they steal hearts once they’re in love.

Brünnhilde (Anne Evans) – vocally not as rich as Sieglinde’s but instead bright and lithe and strong. I’m well aware that complaining about any aspects of someone’s Brünnhilde is complaining at the highest level, but to me, she was missing a youthful spark, and were it not for her playful relationship with Wotan, I wouldn’t have quite believed that she’s his daughter.

Wotan (John Tomlinson) – took me a bit to figure this Wotan out. A bit smug sometimes, but he seems to honestly debate his wife in Act II rather than try to manipulate her. Is this just the guise of an uber-manipulator? Who knows, I don’t. His low notes are gorgeous and the top very stable and I gladly stand by my Rheingold opinion on his voice. There’s no sharp edge in this Wotan and no venom in his “Nimm’ den Eid!”, but rather a lot of weariness and defeat. Very much had a melancholy air to me, bitter perhaps only towards himself as he sits on the ground in the final scene – we never find out though because his face is turned away. Wotan interpretations vary greatly indeed, and I found this one lovely and fascinating.

Fricka (Linda Finnie) – is definitely very disappointed in her husband and fuelled by righteous anger, but she gives off the air of wanting to actually persuade her husband instead of furiously fighting against his tricks. Therefore, her vocal measures aren’t as drastic and dramatic as sometimes heard and seeing her and Wotan embrace before he promises to kill Siegmund was an interesting surprise. Overall, the relationships so far seem more salvageable rather than shattered in this Ring.

Hunding (Matthias Hölle) – one of my favourite basses said in 2017 that when singing Hunding, he tries to enter the stage with “as much negative energy as possible”. That idea must’ve transpired through time, because this Hunding does the same ca. 25 years earlier. He overdoes it occasionally and a bit of calm rage would do him well, but his singing is rightly terrifying.

Production

First of all, who came up with the idea of Siegmund opening his arms toward Wotan, who then proceeds to push his son into Hunding’s spear? Congratulations, that was awful to watch. But a good idea. Second of all, I’m inclined to say “what production?” because there is barely anything on stage at certain points. It works, though. For much of the most wrenching scenes, there’s little more than some blue light, yet you don’t notice because the singers do so well with each other and fill the stage with their own presence. Have I mentioned I quite appreciate productions like this? Yes. Will I say it again? Probably. Could do with a few more things on stage occasionally. Just occasionally. The stage effects are mesmerising, though, especially the sudden appearance of a pit in Act II.

Conducting

Quite a few people warned me about Barenboim’s tempi and…yep. Not very apparent while there’s singing, but the slowness is obvious anytime an orchestral Leitmotiv appears. Especially Loge’s motif at the end could be a bit faster because it’s supposed to be fiery and flickering. Other parts worked out better, especially vocally, like Sieglinde’s “Oh hehrstes Wunder!”. He balances the sound of the different instruments well and stylistically it felt continuous from Rheingold to me.

Bottom line

To me, Die Walküre is full of highlights – musically, plot-wise, and as a consequence, emotionally, and they came to life marvellously. Onwards to Siegfried!

[beckmessering]

scrambled review no.1

das rheingold / bayreuth 1991/92 / directed by harry kupfer

Characters

Wotan (John Tomlinson) – seems rather friendly and benevolent in the beginning, undoubtedly also due to his costume. He wears sunglasses with only one tinted glass to indicate one-eyedness, an obviously much less martial and less threatening alternative to the usual blinded eye. His greed and arrogance burst forth as soon as he has the ring. Tomlinson is apparently a bass, so at the lower end of the Wotan spectrum. A very warm, powerful sound, excellently suited to the role. I think I liked him best vocally. Somehow his acting evades my current judgement.

Alberich (Günter von Kannen) – also a very powerful voice. could be more detailed in his phrasing, I found, but a very engaging actor. The transition to power-hungry megalomaniac was apparent, and he was very threatening and domineering towards his brother.

Mime – didn’t see much of him, but promising. Power-hungriness hidden behind a weaselly, subservient demeanour.

Fricka (Linda Finnie) – not all that much distrust or venom here yet, but that might be a development left over for Walküre. Her relationship with Wotan seems more intact in this Rheingold than in other versions I’ve seen.

Erda (Birgitta Svendén) – made me realise all over again how beautiful her music is and how thrilling alto voices are. Vocally akin to an appearance of an angel.

Fasolt (Matthias Hölle) and Fafner (Philip Kang): literal examples of three owls in a trench coat. I mean:

I wonder how many people were under the coats? Costumes strongly limit acting options and showing the dynamics between the brothers. Nonetheless, they’re very impressive.

Rhinemaidens – very seductive, in fact. Hypnotically synchronised in physical movement and in singing and remarkably physical.

Loge (Graham Clarke) – save the best for last, they say. Loge is visibly an elemental force of nature. Hard to describe, but you can see it in his eyes in the end. Delightfully mercurial and taunting and nonetheless a clever and farsighted character. Good visual distinction between him and the rest of the gods.

Production

Set design is wonderfully surreal, timeless. Full of illusions and light. Nice balance between concrete objects (apple, Donner’s hammer) and abstract landscapes. Requires lots of movement by the singers, who rise to the challenge. I have to mention Wotan and Loge snatching the Ring from Alberich. It was an almost violent scene (which I’ve always thought it to be) and to me perhaps the most engaging one.

Conducting

Fair warning: I’m extremely terrible at describing someone’s conducting style. Would’ve chosen some tempi differently, for example sped up Loge’s Scene 2 monologue and slowed down Alberich’s megalomanic ranting and threats. On the other hand, Daniel Baremboim really dials up the orchestra sometimes, i.e. when the giants enter. That’s an agreeable choice and the prelude is well-balanced with an uncharacteristically growling, threatening sound in the first few measures. Interesting sound, though.

Bottom line

I said I wanted these things to be short. Oh well. Blame it on the shit ton of characters. Visually a fascinating production (I very much appreciate this timeless vein for my Ring cycles). Somehow left me a bit colder emotionally than I’d been hoping for – I don’t even know why – but nonetheless interested in the rest.

[beckmessering]

scrambled review no.5

das rheingold / bayreuth 1980 / directed by patrice chéreau

Characters

Alberich (Hermann Becht) – overall, far less animalistic than others. Vocally demonstrates an actual romantic effort in the opening scene, and otherwise stays far away from howling or barking. The few times he does snarl, it works to great effect, as it does when he curses love. Remains a calm maniac when determined to take over the world, although his transformation is well-audible. Vocally, his best scene is his cursing the ring – suspenseful, varied in colour and phrasing, and losing the ring is visibly a near-traumatic experience for him. No wonder he haunts the rest of the cycle.

Wotan (Donald McIntyre) – slightly lighter than a bass, but very buttery, especially the top notes. Very self-assured and suave bordering on smug without the air of a master manipulator. The self-satisfaction wears off very quickly after he gives up the ring and watches Fasolt’s murder, though. Donner and Froh come off as his lackeys, which was a funny touch. By now I know that it takes me at least the length of a Rheingold to get used to a new Wotan, so a longer verdict will be out when Walküre is over.

Fasolt (Matti Salminen) and Fafner (Fritz Hübner) – height-wise just one and a half owl in a trench coat this time. Still, Wotan shrinks next to them, and they sound unusually persistent and almost threatening in their demands. Fasolt particularly was very lively in the formulation of his phrases, which I’ve found thus far only rarely among basses. 

Loge (Heinz Zednik) – sprightly and light, and while his costume makes him look a bit physically awkward, he’s more playful and silly with small notes of Schadenfreude than mercurial and unpredictable. Textually also very clear, and his last lines are sung with some massive sarcasm.

Fricka (Hanna Schwarz) – vocally assured and poised and more than capable of asserting herself, although her husband consistently ignores her. Her relationship with Wotan seems cool and cordial with little affection for each other.

Mime (Helmut Pampuch) – didn’t manage to get much of an impression of him. Whenever I say that, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, although he felt vaguely pale.

Erda (Ortrun Wenkel) – a very flexible voice, not extremely dark in the low notes. Altogether doesn’t manage to command a completely standstill in time (though that’s not really aided by her entrance. It’s difficult to look imposing when you’re literally wearing a see-through sheet over your head reminiscent of the ghost emoji.) Nonetheless, she delivers an effective, eerie warning.

Rhinemaidens (Norma Sharp, Ilse Gramatzki, Marga Schiml) – textually very clear, voices crystalline and lively and finally, finally a production in which they physically attempt to stop Alberich’s theft with admirable effort.

Production

Fundamentally completely opposite to the Kupfer Ring. Beginning in the time shortly before the Industrial Revolution, the forging and first theft of the ring sets off the transformation of the gods into participants of the Industrial Revolution, a time Wagner himself experienced and expressed (presumably) more than enough of his own thoughts on. Rheingold seems to still take part in pre-revolution times, but there are rudimentary machines looming already in the very first scene, and it seems labour is about to be revolutionised from the moment Alberich begins ordering the Nibelungs around.

Conducting 

A very continuous soundscape right from the first few measures of the prelude. Ebbing and flowing between different Leitmotifs and instruments. Pierre Boulez keeps his tempi breezy and the spirit of his Rheingold overall sprightly and light without letting the sound get thin. The singing is very well-adapted to this – especially Wotan and Alberich resort to quiet more often. Gives it the air of an intimate chamber drama, which is in turn well-suited to the production as the set physically brings the singers closer together anyway and doesn’t require thundering across to fill it with more life.

Bottom line 

A convincing start to the cycle, and I’m very interested to see where this interpretation of gods vs. Nibelungs in the Industrial Revolution, aka possibly capitalists vs. working-class, will go. 

[beckmessering]

scrambled review no.9

okay okay sorry this is such a long read (hope it’s a good one though) i just had some thoughts™

Characters

Alberich (Johannes Martin Kränzle) – emerges from the shadows with a slightly playful side as he clumsily flirts with the Rhinemaidens. It doesn’t last long. Something decidedly unhealthy manifests in his eyes when he sees the Rhinegold, and “Der Welt Erbe…” isn’t a question – it’s a formulated plan already. Soars over the orchestra with a very vindictive renunciation of love, but then stays far from overconfidence and instead walks the line between self-control and total abandon into his plans to subjugate not just the Nibelungs, but the world. One scene later, he spits the bitter unhappiness of his own existence at the gods in the form of acerbic but sharply accurate sarcasm the way only a thoroughly intelligent being can do. That intelligence is perhaps what makes him a standout because it permeates every part of the interpretation. He’s on the lighter-voiced side but rounded and sonorous. Carries no automatic snarl in his voice, but varies the colours of his voice into infinite shades, diving into blackened depths only when necessary. Pays meticulous attention to the meaning of each word and speaks with his face even when not singing.

Wotan (René Pape) – lends his characteristically clear and crystalline voice to the lord of the gods. His top notes are almost more thrilling than the lower register and he shares Alberich’s detailed phrasing. Audibly becomes more authoritative and bossier when the Ring is first mentioned – he’s tempted by something he hasn’t even seen, and so his pursuit of the Ring is inevitable. Provides stoicism tinged with arrogance as he stalks around, but at the same time he’s almost a bit too stoic in his acting, though the production does him no favours there.

Loge (Stephan Rügamer) – is the prime example of a smooth-talker rather than a flickering, mercurial flame of a demigod. He’s no Charaktertenor but doesn’t struggle the slightest bit – instead uses a very legato style to give Loge a distinct sound. Stable, well-audible low notes and his warm middle register form his clever, smug contemplations in Scene 2 into a lyrical treat. Very unusual sound indeed, but perfectly fitting.

Fricka (Doris Soffel) – brings across an accusatory, pointed tone when dealing with her unfaithful husband. Vocally lithe and metallic, almost made to nag with a fast vibrato, but nonetheless capable of delicate high notes when desired.

Fasolt (Kwang Chul Youn) and Fafner (Timo Riihonen) – finally no oversized costumes that make their heads look awkwardly small. There’s great emotional seriousness especially to Fasolt, who sings of Freia with exceptional tenderness. His phrasing reveals the breadth of Fasolt’s emotions from the pain of unrequited love to biting injustice, and it adds humanity, depth, and intelligence to the sometimes brutishly played giants. Fasolt is a tragedy happening on the sidelines, flippantly disregarded by the gods but all too real.

Mime (Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke) – is a real piercing Charaktertenor and provides a great vocal distinction from Loge. Gives the impression of ‘the younger brother’ – overambitious and unable to put his plans into place, still slightly childlike and pitiful.

Erda (Anna Larsson) – sings her monologue at a breezier tempo. The depths of her voice are effectively there, but the top notes are effortless, making me wonder if she’s really a contralto.

Rhinemaidens – a harmonic trio of ladies with a standout Woglinde. Her “Nur wer der Minne Macht entsagt…” is sung playfully, like a challenge that shouldn’t have never been mouthed, and thus becomes immediately ominous.

Production

Guy Cassiers creates a world full of deep colours, rags, and scars that don’t distinguish between dwarves and gods. Characters in the opening scene appear and disappear into lit areas, eliciting a similar elegance from their movement as if they were moving through water. In Scene 2, Cassiers uses shadow projections to indicate the giants’ size and solve interactions difficult to stage, such as their interaction with Freia. From that scene onwards, dancers are present everywhere to express characters’ emotions in physical movement and to later provide Alberich’s helmet and throne. The latter works well as the image of Alberich sitting on a literal man-made throne demonstrates his ruthless enslaving of the Nibelungs without any whip-swinging, and the man-made helmet solves the awkwardness of Alberich having to disappear when wearing it. He just hides behind the dancers, who proceed to smack Mime around. 

The concept isn’t without flaws, though. Especially in scenes between the gods, the dancers may illustrate relationships, but inhibit finer interactions between singers. Pointed jabs like Wotan’s “Ehr’ ich die Frauen…” to Fricka don’t hold any weight, and it isn’t helped by the fact that singers can’t walk everywhere because the ground is partly flooded. Ultimately, and this is the core problem of the idea, the dancers and shadow projections reflect the sung text and the action better than the singers. They remove singers’ responsibility to act, and some characters end up too stoic and limited in their interpretation because they just don’t move. See: Wotan. Alberich by comparison doesn’t suffer from this problem, and Loge does so mildly. In hindsight, maybe the dancers are also a method to express Wotan’s and Alberich’s different relationships to physicality – while Wotan is more of clandestine cheater, Alberich openly pursues love from anyone who’ll offer it and therefore doesn’t need anyone to physically express his inner life because he interacts directly with others – but it doesn’t make the happenings on stage any less static.

Conducting

It’s fun to compare this to the 1990 Rheingold in the Kupfer Ring at Bayreuth as Daniel Barenboim has audibly evolved from then. Overall favours strings over brass at the occasional expense of flutes – they’re here but very faint, playing a constant “I-thought-I-heard-them” mindgame. Keeps the harps in the frontground and the brass and woodwinds mellow overall until Wotan finally hands over the Ring. Otherwise indulges in short, loud explosions of percussion in the first scene’s “Rheingold! Rheingold!”. Saves the grand sound for the final chords and overall creates a lightly pulsating sound that manages emotional nuance without demanding volume. The musical fun of Rheingold emerges in its full glory.

Bottom line

I’ll tell you a secret: I watched this because Johannes Martin Kränzle was in it. He absolutely delivered, and I got a bunch of fantastic surprises along the way (*cough* Loge and Fasolt *cough*). If you didn’t notice yet, I was supremely entertained despite a few shortcomings in the production’s concept. Nonetheless, I think I won’t keep watching this Ring – the cast doesn’t convince me in the rest of the cycle, but I’ll definitely remember this Rheingold.

[beckmessering]

scrambled review no.3

siegfried / bayreuth 1991/92 / directed by harry kupfer

Characters

Siegfried (Siegfried Jerusalem) – yes, I laughed about the first name coincidence. Although I’m also inclined to say it’s not a coincidence and Siegfried Jerusalem is just made to sing Siegfried. Vocally very vivacious and full of excessive energy without being a one-dimensional tyrannical bully (although Mime might object). Brings across an interesting mix of youth and contemplative maturity when left alone to ponder his parentage in the forest. Childishly keen to see the world, and yet Fafner’s death instils a sort of wonder when faced with mortality and a bit of shock at his own abilities – a welcome touch to his usual boisterousness. He just is Siegfried – literally and metaphorically.

Mime (Graham Clarke) – casting an earlier Loge as Mime is a bit weird for continuity reasons, but a stroke of genius here. Mime is an actual dwarf compared to Siegfried – pasty and sickly-looking, quick and nervous, possibly emotionally stunted but without any oafishness, rather a manic would-be poisoner out of desperation to get rid of this beastly child he’s at wit’s end with. Occasional excursions of his piercing tenor into a frustrated growly speech tone are both apt and hilarious, and I think I’ll just leave it with this image:

Alberich (Günter von Kannen) – had a bit of a vocal improvement in terms of more nuanced phrasing between Rheingold and now. Appropriately paranoid when encountering Wotan. More interestingly, he’s visibly and audibly Mime’s brother – I felt that he and Mime automatically adopted similar mannerisms and singing style, which was a very fun idea.

Wotan (John Tomlinson) – managed to sound absolutely massive and delightfully unimpressed in his visit to Mime. In Act III, there’s a snarling note of real desperation and scorn in his voice as he taunts Erda, and yet in his final scene with Siegfried he exhibits a sort of emotional control that shows this is just a part of his grand scheme, rather than a derailed confrontation. He seems to become a schemer rather than start out as one.

Erda (Birgitta Svendén) – actually sounds older and wearier upon being woken up. Her accusations sound gorgeous, as does her high note on “Meineid”. She harbours some real anger at Wotan, rather than being a sleepwalking oracle.

Brünnhilde (Anne Evans) – sleep does people well in this opera. She sounds luminous and richer than previously and conveys her fear after being woken up without panic, but with focused intensity. I’ll admit, half-hour love duets at the end are not my cup of tea, but as far as I can tell, she sailed through it wonderfully.

Fafner (Philip Kang) – gets one of my favourite death monologues, as a matter of fact, and I loved his execution of it – a weighty bass that gradually floats off but throws out a final mighty “Siegfried!”. Also sounds threatening enough to eat someone.

Forest Bird (Hilde Leidland) – carries one of my personal favourite melodies of the opera with a wonderfully light and crystalline voice.

Production

Acts I and II have fascinating set pieces. During the Act I prelude, various characters sneak around the set, which is well-synced with the appearance of various Leitmotifs. Mime’s hut in Act I and the Neidhöhle in Act II demand unparalleled athleticism from especially Siegfried and Mime, who both make it look incredibly easy. I don’t know how to describe it, so here’s a picture of Act II for the sake of saving words:

There are too many more lovely details to mention all of them, but here’s at least one: Wotan is a redhead, as all of his children, and I have an immense weakness for such continuity.

Conducting

The tempi are better chosen this time and merge into each other smoothly. Would’ve wished for a few more contrasts in volume in Act I, especially because Wagner is mesmerising when he’s quiet. It was very apparent to me during the riddle scene – could’ve done with some more quiet to make the Wanderer’s announcement that he challenges Mime to three questions more impressive. That problem dispersed later on, though. The Act II forest murmurs were beautiful and delicate and the final duet rich in contrasts. Also, a very clean horn call from a soloist of the orchestra.

Bottom line

I admit I approach Siegfried with a little trepidation because, although it’s funny, the title character usually annoys me and (as I’ve said) love duets aren’t my thing, but I actually personally liked the interpretations of these characters, so I was very entertained indeed. Definitely one of the most fun and engaging Siegfrieds I’ve ever seen, and this Siegfried-Mime combination is strong candidate for my absolute favourite so far.

[beckmessering]

i’m planning/hoping/trying to watch a suffienctly large amount of operas to start jotting down notes in a scrambled review-plus-my-feelings type way and i’ll probably post them here. they may end up being wagner-centric (big surprise on this blog here)... just a heads up if any of you see a monster post that was meant to be short coming your way :)

OH! and also, feel free to tack on your own opinions to the end!