Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Concert Master .............Vassko Vassilev
Conductor...................Antonio Pappano
Director....................Keith Warner
Set Designs.................Stefanos Lazaridis
I hope the excellence of this performance is a good omen for the rest of the RING! Pappano drew such burnished tones from the orchestra, right from that magical, mysterious beginning - and I liked the fact that there wasn't the usual business of the conductor coming on beforehand to be applauded, it creates a much better atmosphere if the sound seems to emerge from nowhere. The orchestral balance was ideal, and Pappano takes it at a tempo that seems exactly appropriate and also gives due emphasis to the passages for solo instruments at crucial moments. Pappano is also very sensitive to the needs of the singers.
I would single out for special praise John Tomlinson's Wotan and Philip Langridge's Loge. Tomlinson's deep sonorous voice is of course well- known and highly praised, but he is also a gifted actor and gave a very subtle characterisation of Wotan as a god with very human failings! Especially, of course, that of greed and lust for power, and he is beginning to intuit that this is going to be his undoing, even as he waves the sword around before the entry into Walhall.
Loge, of course, will have nothing to do with any of this. the particular qualities of Langridge's tenor voice are ideal for this role (who is actually my favourite character in the RING!) . There are nice touches of comic genius, such as the fact that when Donner summons the thunder, the other gods stand apathetically around while Loge sits under an outsize umbrella - eliciting laughter from the audience, as of course it's yet another way in which Loge undercuts the pretensions of the others.
Peter Sidhom as Alberich seemed to start off tentatively, but this was obviously part of the characterisation, as he gained in power - and of course malevolence - in the Nibelheim scene. This is the point at which I must start to describe the production - Nibelheim is, among other things, a laboratory in which monstrous experiments on humans and animals are being perpetrated, there is a mutilated skeleton on a hospital trolley, and Loge throws some of the body parts away - later, after Alberich has been captured by Wotan and Loge, Mime throws some more body parts away. (An interesting idea, BUT I started to wonder if it wasn't a bit too 'busy').The actual gold which Alberich has been amassing is barely visible, as it is all packed into suitcases, which Mime has to carry around, and which are too heavy for him.
The Tarnhelm is - an outsize Rubik Cube, which glitters in certain lights - yes, OK, but the novelty will have worn off by GOETTERDAEMMERUNG (I've seen this production before!) One thing I did like, though, was that when Alberich is tricked into turning himself into a toad - a little toad with a MINI- Rubik Cube on its head hops across the stage!
Mime is sung by Gerhard Siegel, who emphasised very well the contrast between the Nibelung brothers - Mime lacks the tragic grandeur that makes Alberich a distant cousin of Milton's Satan - something that was very apparent when he cursed the Ring - which of course is now on Wotan's finger, and Alberich actually takes Wotan's hand when he curses the Ring - I haven't seen it played like this before.
I'll return to the beginning now - the Rheinmaidens are naked right at the start, but as soon as Alberich appears they hurriedly scramble into some clothes (probably not before he's had a good stare, though, as they don't see him at first). One thing I particular liked about the staging was that the projections of green wavy lines that indicated the Rhine gradually change into a spinning globe with Mercator projections - the globe becomes smaller and smaller as the Valhalla scene approaches, and Valhalla is shown as the interior of a rather grand mansion with a black marble fireplace and matching black furniture.
Fricka and Freia were wearing very elegant Edwardian tea-gowns.
Rosalind Plowright was very good as Fricka, her warm mezzo tones contrasting well with the soprano of Emily Magee - who sang well but her characterisation was a bit lack-lustre. I liked the fact that she seemed to tentatively respond to Fasolt's genuine affection for her. The giants were sung by Philip Ens and Franz-Josef Selig.
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