SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Met Opera Live - Wagner, Das Rheingold: Metropolitan Opera's HD transmission (directed for TV by Gary Halfvorson) live to the Barbican Cinema, London. 9.10.2010 (JPr)

 

Stephanie Blythe (Fricka ) and Bryn Terfel (Wotan)
Picture courtesy of Metropolitan Opera

It is possible that I could be accused of being 'fattist'; however, let me state immediately that - for those who do not know me - I am, myself, built like the typical German Wagner tenor - less that 6ft tall and barrel-shaped! If this Das Rheingold is anything to go by then Robert Lepage's eagerly anticipated new Ring Cycle for the Met will be a heavyweight affair. I know that film is said to put pounds (or kilos, if you will) on your appearance but this Das Rheingold ensemble must be the heaviest of modern times. As those who have read my reviews before will know I am not concerned by this; for me it is mostly�just a matter of how well�they sing.

I write this without further comment but it is on record that the floor of the Met stage had to be reinforced with steel girders at, I understand, a cost of $100,000�to accommodate Carl Fillion�s 45-ton �apparatus� that, I guess, will be the basis for all parts of this new Ring. Why �apparatus�? Well, even on screen it was a creaking, clanking monstrosity of 24 planks on a stage wide crossbar. Heavily labour-intensive, it seems that they each need to be moved manually to undulate to represent the currents of the Rhine; it becomes a vertical wall along which Wotan and Loge descend or ascend to and from Nibelheim; it becomes the forbidding wall of Valhalla and, finally, creates a rather garishly coloured rainbow bridge for the gods to enter their fortress. The planks reminded me of huge piano keys on which the story of Das Rheingold was played out.

Lepage, a Canadian, had directed Cirque du Soleil shows and clearly knows what�s needed to put on a good evening�s visual entertainment. Unfortunately opera is a little more than that. So is it not good enough to overdo the stage tricks and have �body doubles� frequently sliding down the wall of planks, or on wires walking backwards or forwards up it, or at right angles to it. For those of a younger generation dangling the Rhinemaidens from cables is not a new idea and was seen most famously in the much-loved Sadler�s Wells/English National Opera Ring in the early 1970s.

Fillion�s machine works best when it stays upright and turns into a background against which Boris Firquet�s video is projected. For the Rhine we were underwater and had bubbles and pebbles; for Nibelheim there was a vivid yellow seen and, finally, there is the kitsch rainbow bridge.

Otto Schenk�s �Romantic�, quaintly old-fashioned, Ring Cycle was retired in 2009 and has been seemingly replaced by another �quaintly old-fashioned� production, albeit one that employs the latest in stage technology. Fran�ois St-Aubin�s costumes are like homages to �traditional storybook� Wagner Ring costumes. Bryn Terfel � looking like Meat Loaf�s younger brother - has stringy hair that falls over Wotan�s blind left eye, and a bronzed breastplate. The Rhinemaidens are mermaids with flapping tailfins. Alberich has dreadlocks and Fasolt and Fafner are huge pantomime giants with scraggly hair, bushy beards, and fur leggings. Loge has a bit of a Quentin Crisp hairdo and, on command, can conjure up a red fiery glow in his hands.

Lepage has clearly allowed his set to dwarf the performances of his principal singers � or perhaps, he has no view yet on what motivates Wagner�s characters. Either way, he just mostly leaves them alone to stand and sing. Time after time dramatic moments in the �story� are poorly staged and this does not bode well for the later instalments of this Ring Cycle. There was little realism in Alberich�s attempt to capture the Rhinemaidens in his net, the toad was a poor rubbery one; Wotan�s wrestling the ring from Alberich, Loge�s burning of the ropes that bound the dwarf and the murder of Fasolt were all staged very unconvincingly. Worst of all was the ludicrous hammock that Freia was suspended in to be (only partially) covered with plastic gold pieces of armour. Is this good enough for the Met � I do not think so!

Lepage serves his singers well by mostly having them confined to a platform of planks at the front of the stage. The performances were �nice� but there was a blandness to the facial expressions of most of the singers that made me worried whether enough of the non-German ones actually knew what they were singing about. It saddens me to say that the worst offender, because of the size of his role, was Bryn Terfel. He looked forlorn and, quite possibly homesick, for much of the evening, only sparking into dramatic life when after Wotan�s encounter with Erda. I hope it is not too late for Terfel to become a great Wotan but his voice is possibly not the magnificent instrument it once was.

The three Rhinemaidens (Lisette Oropesa, Jennifer Johnson and Tamara Mumford) were not at their ease singing whilst suspended. Eric Owens�s forthright voice does not make him a great Alberich but he is possibly a Wotan of the future. Richard Croft was an inscrutable and bland Loge and no match for anyone�s memories of Graham Clark in this role. Wendy Bryn Harmer was a sympathetic, bright-voiced, Freia. Fasolt (Franz-Josef Selig) and Fafner (Hans-Peter K�nig) were both sung with authoritative stentorian power but both looked to be hampered by their costumes. Fortunately, Gerhard Siegel was the genuine article as the pitiable Mime. Adam Diegel used a youthful, elegant tenor aptly for Froh; Dwayne Croft, Richard�s brother, sang well as Donner and Patricia Bardon sang resonantly as the all-knowing Erda, and the best word for Stephanie Blythe�s Fricka is magisterial.

James Levine has had a lot of ill-health lately and tottered weakly onto the edge of the stage for a curtain call. Despite this he is rushing between performances at the Met (this was his 2416th) and the Boston Symphony Orchestra with a schedule that would make Valery Gergiev blush. There was a typical calmness and assured grace about Levine�s Rheingold as he leisurely unfolded the work�s episodes with great textual clarity. Yet, like Lepage�s direction he does little to delve beneath the surface of the music.

The Ring  comprises four music-dramas and currently the creative energies of all concerned seem to be going into the 16 million dollar set. Perhaps now they know it can work they can concentrate on the drama.

Jim Pritchard

The Barbican Met Opera Live series continues on 23 October with Boris Godunov: for further details visit www.barbican.org.uk/film or check the listings of your local cinemas.