SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Wagner, Die Walküre -  Live transmission from Teatro alla Scala, Milan:  (directed for TV by Emanuele Garofalo) live to the Odeon Cinema, Covent Garden, London. 7.12.10 (JPr)

Apparently outside the majestic, ornate, eighteenth-century theatre where this broadcast was coming from there were protests against government cuts in the arts that warranted police intervention. In front of the Italian President, Daniel Barenboim, principal guest conductor at La Scala, gave a speech in opposition to any ‘cuts’ and by implication his support for the protestors. His speech had passion, his conducting was white-hot, so it was a great pity that none of this was reflected on to the generally passionless performance from most of the singers against the backdrop of – what appeared on the cinema screen to be - a rather uninteresting staging by Guy Cassiers (in sets by Cassiers and Enrico Bagnoli and costumes by Tim van Steenbergen). There was quite a lot of applause, it seemed, for the principals but I left before the production team took their curtain call as I could not really say whether they might deserve boos as the direction for the TV broadcast was rather dark and intent on close-ups and much of the visualization Cassiers wished might have been missed.

During the intervals we heard Waltraud Meier speak of how she has sung 16 Wagner roles since her debut as Erda in 1978 and how she finds Sieglinde ‘so human’ and ‘full of pure love’. This was ok, however, both Daniel Barenboim and Guy Cassiers spoke about Wagner and the production and gave further proof – if it was needed – that artists are often better doing what they do best … rather than talk about it! Perhaps it was a problem of employing a second language, Cassiers spoke in English and Barenboim in Italian (with subtitles) … though I doubt it.

The director told us that in Act I we were in Hunding’s two-dimensional world and for Act II we were seeing a ‘gated community’; a world as ‘claustrophobic as that of Hunding’s’ where the gods are losing control ‘of what they are responsible for’ and any balance between ‘emotions and ideals’. Overall between ‘culture and nature’ he was putting ‘virtualisation’ and exploring how in the twenty-first century we create ‘illusionary worlds’ around ourselves and how these virtual worlds seem ‘further away from the world we live in’. He is applying this to the Ring because Wagner’s music is ‘visual’ and ‘generates images’. For Cassiers Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk happens ‘in the mind of the spectator’ and the audience must open up their senses ‘and see what it all means to you’.

For Barenboim, Wagner is a genius ‘even for those who hate him’. He considered Wagner mastery over ‘sound dynamics’ and how Wagner calculated the sound of every syllable with the sound of every note ‘as no other composer’. For him Wagner ‘is so complex … not complicated’ which to him was a different thing. The best quote was that ‘if Wagner was a butcher he would have made the best hamburger ever’ because of his ability to put everything together. More understandable was his praise for his cast as being a ‘good balance between experience and freshness’ and how his La Scala orchestra were ‘vividly curious’ to explore the music.

As for my thoughts on the production … well it was typically unconventional and used much videography that – I repeat – was mostly lost on those watching in the cinema or on TV. Everything was solid and atmospheric enough but too little attention had been paid to the importance these days of a more naturalistic approach to acting in opera. Too many of the singers were content just to emote – or not as the case may be – and just sing out to the audience as if it was a concert performance without any sense of the drama of what they were singing about. Blameless in this was Waltraud Meier who could convey more emotion in a few seconds of cradling the broken pieces of Nothung - like the baby Siegfried - than most of her colleagues did during the entire evening.

Act I involved a lot of shadow play (lighting by Enrico Bagnoli) and a projection of Hunding’s hut with a roaring fire on some sliding panels, Act II gave is a kaleidoscope of statues of rearing horses and a flicking/revolving hovering sphere seemed to show a cascade of pictures or, even possibly, playing cards. For Act II there was a projection of writhing figures and (more) horses for the ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ and then there was a series of stage deep, initially white, spikes (or are they multiples of Wotan’s spear?) on which symbols twinkle. Later they turn red as Brünnhilde now sleeps on a plinth under an array of red lamps … like those you might find in an Ikea store in Italy.

After having to listen to the Italian National Anthem (that always reminds me of the Marx Brothers and Duck Soup): from what I could hear Barenboim and his orchestra could not be faulted for their musicianship (he conducted without a score), pace, crackling energy and subtleties of expression. However his cast was a mixed bunch. Supreme was Waltraud Meier’s intense, magnetic portrayal of Sieglinde. Her voice possibly suggested it is not entirely as secure as it once was, nevertheless she outshone all her male colleagues and only Nina Stemme’s rather dark-toned Brünnhilde and Ekaterina Gubanova’s histrionic Fricka were as well sung and compelling as Frau Meier’s Sieglinde. It was strange how the make-up of the male characters made them look somewhat unkempt and shabby, yet the women’s costumes were voluminous elegant creations - totally unsuited for purpose - and their make up was impeccable as though there were just off the catwalk … very apposite for Milan of course.

However, if the cinema broadcast gave us the correct sound then the Valkyries were possibly the worst collection of individual singers I have ever heard (though they sounded better when singing together). I think the nerves of his house debut got the better of Simon O’Neill as Siegmund, his sound was neither heroic nor lyrical enough on this occasion but I am sure he will improve in future performances. There was little chemistry between the two unlikely looking ‘twins’ and nothing that had gone before really explained the rolling around they did as the curtain closed at the end of Act I. As Hunding, John Tomlinson was … well … John Tomlinson and, as such, is always great to watch and hear even in the smallest role. I ended the evening wishing he could have been Wotan, as Vitalij Kowaljow (a late replacement during rehearsals for René Pape) had all the dramatic charisma of an Easter Island statue and reminded me of late Charles Bronson playing a bounty hunter in a western. His voice sounded sonorous and well-schooled but I am not certain he was entirely sure of what each word he was singing actually meant.

As Wotan, Kowaljow was costumed as Alberich: it was all very strange how Cassiers had made a point of reminding us how Wotan was blind in one eye, saying that it gives him ‘tunnel vision’, however, the only reference to that was some black makeup on one side of his face and he clearly had two good eyes! Perhaps, this is the difference between a ‘naturalistic’ or ‘symbolic’ approach to performing Wagner that Barenboim mentioned but with things like this going on, unfortunately, Cassiers’ staging meant little to me in the end.

The gala opening night of the season at La Scala, Milan, saw this new production of Die Walküre as the Italians continue to build their new Ring Cycle in time for the 200th anniversary of Wagner’s birth in 2013. With tickets costing up to 2,400 euros in the theatre, the best place – and the cheapest! – for Wagnerians to see this was in the cinema. Although the medium sized auditorium in London was not completely full, there were many more there than for a broadcast earlier this year of Beethoven and Mahler by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Barbican sells out its live showings from the Met, so could the Odeon … it must be a matter of getting the word out better about these special events.

Jim Pritchard

For details of opera, theatre and ballet at Odeon cinemas (Covent Garden or Panton Street etc.) go to www.odeon.co.uk and the Opus Arte Cinema Season go to www.opusarte.com/cinema.)