Royal Opera House,Covent Garden
Richard Wagner, GOETTERDAEMMERUNG
Saturday 30th. April 2006
Cast (in order of appearance)
First Norn: Catherine Wyn-Rogers
Second Norn: Yvonne Howard
Third Norn: Marina Poplavskaya (Jette Parker Young Artist)
Brunnhilde: Lisa Gasteen
Siegfried: John Treleaven
Gunther: Peter Coleman-Wright
Hagen: John Tomlinson
Gutrune: Emily Magee
Waltraute: Mihoko Fujimura
Alberich: Peter Sidhom
Woglinde: Sarah Fox
Wellgunde: Heather Schipp
Flosshilde: Sarah Castle
Chorus and orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Conductor: Antonio Pappano
Director: Keith Warner
Set Designs: Stefanos Lazaridis
Costume Designs: Marie-Jeanne Leca
Lighting: Wolfgang Goebbel
Musically, this performance was something approaching a triumph for
Antonio Pappano, the orchestra and some of the singers. Visually it was
perhaps not quite so satisfactory, although there were some inspired
lighting effects and stage images.
Pappano adopted a leisurely, expansive tempo at the beginning, though not
too leisurely; well-paced is perhaps the best way of describing his
approach. After the Norns' scene, the Dawn starts almost tentatively,
building up to a burst of orchestral sunlight, and this was reflected on
the stage, as the darkness dissipates and a bird is seen hovering over the
stage; one of Wotan's ravens, perhaps?
What I especially love about Pappano's conducting is the detailed
attention to every nuance of orchestral shading and the emphasis on the
qualities of the individual instruments - never drowning out the singers
and never being overwhelmed by them - not even by the Brunnhilde, Lisa
Gasteen! I remember noting that in SIEGFRIED her voice sounded warm and
mellifluous; here the steely brightness is more in evidence, her high
notes in Act II really sliced the air!
The Immolation Scene was one of the
most convincing I have seen. The statues of the gods have been present on
the stage since the Wedding Scene in Act II, and during the Immolation,
which culminated in a very satisfying conflagration, they are consumed in
the flames - except for the statue of Wotan, which Brunnhilde covers with
a veil as she sings "Ruhe, ruhe du Gott!" and weeps - so movingly that I
felt tears pricking my eyelids too!
The Siegfried, John Treleaven, was not really a match for Gasteen, but his
performance was quite satisfactory, without having any special features
that can be highlighted. I liked the way the opening scene for Siegfried
and Brunnhilde was staged, with a lot of embracing and kissing, so that we
can see how deeply in love they are.
John Tomlinson as Hagen was effortlessly dominating - he has such stage
presence that he just has to sit there for the audience to realise that
Hagen is the dominant one in the Gibichung family! His characterisation of
Hagen has a certain grim humour; he does actually laugh sarcastically at
the end of his monolgue. He is then present on the stage until the end of
Act I; he does not seem to pay any attention to Waltraute's Narration
(this was well performed by Mihoko Fujimura), but after the final scene,
when Siegfried removes the Tarnhelm and announces his intention to place
his sword between himself and Brunnhilde, Hagen gets up and lifts his
chair above his head in triumph.
This brings me to one of the points I very much disliked about the staging
(and everyone I spoke to during the interval agreed with me); Siegfried
comes back, not disguised as Gunther, but WITH GUNTHER. That is, Gunther
himself is present on stage, while Siegfried is ALSO there, wearing the
Tarnhelm. This of course makes nonsense, not only of this scene, but of
Act II; the whole point is that IT ISN'T REALLY GUNTHER! And if it IS
really Gunther, then HE has the Ring all along...no-one could see the
reasoning behind this. I gave up on it and watched Pappano in the pit
instead - a much more rewarding experience!
Another failure of the production was the horse's skull, which Brunnhilde
first hands to Siegfried as he sets off for his Rhine Journey, and which
he hands to Hagen - which produces a wave of giggles and titters in the
audience. Brunnhilde has it in her hands at the end, for "Grane, mein
Ross, sei mir gegruesst!" No-one could see the point of this either -
unless it was to provoke a cheap laugh, which it did.
But other aspects of the staging were much better - such as the curtain
covered with mathematical symbols and a swirling galaxy, before which the
Norns enacted their scene, and which also served as the backdrop for the
Hagen/Alberich scene. The lighting effects and projections were very
impressive, for instance for Siegfried's Rhine Journey, there was a
projection of the swirling waters of a river.
I am looking forward to seeing the whole Ring Cycle in 2007, but I think
some work still needs to be done on the actual staging. (PLEASE get rid of
the horse's skull!)
