When Bill Kenny,
Regional Editor of MusicWeb’s Seen
and Heard, visited the new opera
house in Copenhagen in late December
2005 he waxed lyrical about the
house itself review
. It’s a view I endorse
as is clear from my review
of Nielsen’s Maskarade,
which I saw in January this year
(2008). He was also deeply impressed
and fascinated by Die Walküre
in the new production by Kasper
Bech Holten (His review is
here). Now the full Ring
appears on DVD. Having spent some
intensive days in its company I
feel a bit exhausted – especially
since I listened through the reissue
of Haitink’s Ring less than
a week before – but I am just as
fascinated as Bill.
Transporting the
action to other, often more recent
times, is no novelty, rather the
contrary: it seems to be the norm
today and quite often the result
is more strange and alienating than
illuminating. The Amsterdam Ring,
directed by Pierre Audi, was a minimalist
production with hardly any sets
at all and the orchestra centre-stage.
One of its great merits was the
timelessness. The new Stockholm
Ring, directed by Staffan
Valdemar Holm (not yet on DVD) placed
Das Rheingold in Wagner’s
own time and then moved gradually
into the 20th century
and ended during WW1.
The same principle
is employed here but Holten begins
where Holm stopped, during the roaring
’20s and into the ’30s when the
ideologies were structured. In Die
Walküre we have reached
the aftermath of WW2 and the cold
war is raging, the structures have
frozen; Siegfried represents young
rebellion against the older generation
in 1968. In Götterdämmerung
belief in the future is being
erased by the evil of the turn of
the century – Holten mentions Bosnia
or Rwanda. The malicious military
commander Hagen and his soldiers
stand as representatives for the
raw oppression of the civilian population.
The victims are Siegfried and Brünnhilde.
Brünnhilde also runs through
the story, pictured in sequences
in Das Rheingold reading
in old tomes. Thus the whole Ring
can be seen as flashbacks
from the present day. In Götterdämmerung
during orchestral interludes she
is again seen turning over pages
in filmed sequences. 20th
century history is set in relation
to old Norse mythology, or vice
versa: a really intriguing concept
– but does it work?
There are anomalies
of course. Wotan’s spear and Siegfried’s
Nothung do not belong in the 20th
century – you need to see them as
symbols for their power rather than
realistic attributes. The Valkyries
are dressed in 1950s bloodstained
evening gowns when they gather fallen
soldiers. They also have very realistic
wings and when Wotan denounces Brünnhilde
in the last act of Die Walküre
he brutally tears off her wings,
causing her great pain. Holten refrains
from doing what many present-day
directors do: disregarding the text
and what is actually sung. He trusts
the onlookers’ intelligence to be
able to filter out the anachronisms.
On the other hand
there is so much inventiveness in
characterisation of the roles. This
helps create a believable or witty
spirit of the time. Fafner in a
wheel-chair is still able to kill
Fasolt – a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Loge is a chain-smoking bureaucrat.
Donner is there as the toughest
of the gods, in leather-jacket and
armed with a shotgun; his greatgrandson
in our time would probably be a
member of Hell’s Angels! Susanne
Resmark in Das Rheingold
is a spectacular Erda, Marlene Dietrich-like
and seductive; no wonder Wotan got
a nonet of Valkyries with her. He
even kisses her in front of Fricka!
When he visits her in Siegfried,
dressed up in black suit with a
bunch of roses and a bottle of champagne,
she is old and sick, lying in bed
and tended by a nurse.
Wotan himself,
the leader who feels insufficient,
his empire collapsing, has fallen
into the same trap as many a business
executive: he has taken to drinking
and sips secretly from a hip-flask.
His opposite pole, Alberich, is
also a heavy drinker.
I could relate
many more instances of finely observed
everyday detail but I won’t deprive
readers of the pleasure of finding
out for themselves. Let me just
mention another two: The appearance
of the three Norns at the beginning
of Götterdämmerung,
not on stage but in the audience.
It is an unforgettable moment when
an onlooker in the first row, just
behind the conductor, gets irritated
by the lights, directed towards
her, and suddenly stands up, seemingly
to leave, pats Michael Schønwandt’s
shoulder, points to the lights and
starts singing: Welch Licht leuchtet
dort? (What light shines up
there?). The other is when we return
to the cave on Brünnhilde’s
rock. In this production it is on
top of a roof, a lovely cosy, romantic,
married-bliss balcony with flowers
a-plenty and Siegfried carrying
in the obligatory breakfast tray
while Brünnhilde, in an advanced
stage of pregnancy, is watering
the geraniums.
This brings me
back to the everyday detail that
makes this Ring so easy to
accept, to identify with. With all
due deference to gods and heroes
and giants, here they are humanized,
brought down to a level where they
are tangible and we feel that they
are of flesh and blood. In spite
of the evil that permeates so much
of this drama, the impression that
lingers most is the warmth and humanity.
I have several times lately complained
about the alienation that seems
to be the order of the day in many
opera productions; Kasper Bech Holten
places human relations in the foreground.
Rarely has there been so much closeness,
so much bodily contact, so many
warm looks – and hateful for that
matter – and such close interplay
between characters. Every word or
gesture generates a realistic response;
small reactions, hardly noticeable
sometimes, but in the close-up filming
of most scenes they are registered.
Holten worked with this production
from 2001 and obviously devoted
himself to close reading of a kind
that is rarely encountered. With
a responsive cast of actors he has
chiselled out completely believable
characters and situations. Take
the meeting between Brünnhilde
and Waltraute in the last scene
of act I. Brünnhilde is overjoyed
when her old Valkyrie colleague
appears but after some time, when
Waltraute begins her soliloquy,
relating the sad state in Valhalla,
Brünnhilde is mildly interested
and after some time she shows very
clearly that ‘Oh, no! Why do I have
to listen to this?’ Her eyes wander,
her face becomes blank, her body
is slightly turned away. Suddenly
some words of Waltraute catch her,
the body stiffens, the eyes look
fixedly at Waltraute and her lips
part slightly. This is again just
one isolated instance of intelligent
psychological direction and superb
acting. There is plenty of it.
There are also
some interesting and, possibly,
controversial turns. The Rhinegold
is a physical person, a young man
swimming about in the Rhine - Alberich
cuts out his heart. It is Sieglinde,
not Siegmund, who pulls Nothung
out of the ash-tree. Bill Kenny
called it ‘girl-power’ and there
is a good deal in that: she also
takes the initiatives in the relation
between them. Gutrune is a sexy
seducer who wraps Siegfried around
her little finger and Fricka is
uncommonly strong-willed - actually
more dignified than bitchy.
Hunding is not
killed by Wotan; he is sent away
to kneel before Fricka – a worse
punishment than death for a brute
like him. And, talking of humiliation,
Wotan, in his ultimate degradation
when meeting Siegfried, breaks the
spear himself – no ‘girl power’
here but perhaps lack of ‘male power’.
Finally a parallel to ponder upon:
the siblings Gunther and Gutrune
also seem to have a relation much
more intimate than pure affection.
There is room for various interpretations.
The production
for DVD is extremely detailed and
evocative - camera angles discriminatingly
chosen to provide information in
the subtext, often in short glimpses.
Here the DVD viewer is at an advantage
compared to the theatre audience.
We don’t need to search for the
focus of the action. I can’t find
it said explicitly anywhere in the
notes but I suspect that Holten
has had a finger in the pie here
too. The superb theatre machinery
is innovatively employed and when
the action takes place in two or
even more storeys – sometimes simultaneously
– the home-viewer is again a step
ahead of the live onlookers. The
plentiful use of close-ups also
facilitates the understanding and
experience of this complex drama.
Here also lies the singular problem
with this DVD production. When the
cameras creep straight into the
faces of the singers there can sometimes
be an almost embarrassing closeness,
comparable to the feeling when someone
comes within my personal territory
at a conversation. Moreover, and
that’s the most troublesome point,
a singer in close-up at fortissimo,
velum fluttering, face distorted,
isn’t a very flattering sight. Don’t
let this deter you from acquiring
this Ring, however; it’s
worth some embarrassment.
So far I have focused
only on the staging and some interpretative
points of interest to give readers
an idea of what kind of performance
this is. But opera is also music
and however fascinating a production
is from a theatrical or conceptual
point of view there also have to
be musical merits. They are, luckily,
abundant but there are also some
less attractive features. Michael
Schønwandt is, as Bill Kenny
also pointed out in his review,
the only Danish conductor to have
appeared at Bayreuth and he knows
his Wagner. There isn’t a tempo
that I would question and his reading
is very much kept together organically
as one piece. The playing of the
Royal Danish Orchestra is also first
class, impressively so considering
that these are live recordings.
Among the soloists
there are some tremendously fine
achievements. Johan Reuter as the
young Wotan in Das Rheingold
is vigorous and steady of tone,
while James Johnson as the mature
and ageing Wotan/Wanderer in the
two following parts is admirably
detailed and expressive in these
demanding roles. Once or twice he
overtaxes his voice but generally
this is a superb portrait and in
Siegfried his Wanderer is
charmingly relaxed and humorous.
Sten Byriel as the malevolent Alberich
is also a splendid singing-actor
and Stephen Milling, singing Fasolt’s
role in Das Rheingold with
melting bel canto tone, is
a formidably nasty Hunding in Die
Walküre. He is certainly
one of the great present-day basses.
I found Stig Andersen’s
Siegfried a bit uneven when I reviewed
the Amsterdam Götterdämmerung
on CD a while ago. On the other
hand I admired his willingness to
soften his voice and find nuances
that too often elude Heldentenöre.
Here he sings both Siegfrieds in
addition to Siegmund and his is
one of the liveliest and most likeable
of interpretations of these taxing
roles. Even though his tone can
be strained and a bit dryish he
sings with great attention to the
words. As the mean and abominable
Mime Bengt-Ola Morgny makes a memorably
vivid portrait – on a par with the
best I have seen – but his voice
is today a far cry from what it
once was. Both Christian Christiansen
and Peter Klaveness create frightening
characters of Fafner and Hagen.
Guido Paevatalu, a mainstay at the
Royal Danish Opera, is a lively
play-boy type Gunther and his voice
is still in good shape.
On the distaff
side Iréne Theorin is so
touchingly human a Brünnhilde
that one forgets she is the daughter
of a god. This is plainly the cosiest
and warmest reading of the role
I have encountered and she is a
glorious singer. Today she is Bayreuth’s
Isolde and she certainly has the
stamina for that role too. At times
she has a slight beat in the voice
but when she lets loose at the climaxes
she is brilliant. Gitta-Maria Sjöberg,
whose recital disc with Verdi and
Puccini arias I made a Recording
of the Month less than a year
ago (see review),
has all the lyrical beauty and warmth
one wants from Sieglinde. Du
bist der Lenz has rarely been
so gloriously sung. There are splendid
contributions from Susanne Resmark
(Erda and 1st Norn) and
Randi Stene – a noble but grieved
Fricka with Hilary Clinton looks.
Ylva Kihlberg in several guises,
not least her alluring Gutrune,
should also be mentioned, and Gisela
Stille is a deliciously twittering
Woodbird.
While there may
be other DVD Rings that are
more consistently well sung, notably
Barenboim-Kupfer’s Bayreuth set,
this Copenhagen Schønwandt-Holten
production is certainly wholly engrossing,
fresh and perspective-building with
deeply involving acting and several
vocal achievements that compete
with the best.
Göran Forsling
Having just read
Göran Forsling's typically
excellent review of The Copenhagen
Ring - in which he kindly mentions
my own report on Copenhagen's Die
Walküre on
Boxing Day 2004 - I should like
to endorse his comments wholeheartedly
and
would also like to express my continuing
pleasure and satisfaction after
seeing
the whole production on DVD.
This is an extraordinary achievement
by Kasper Bech Holten to my mind.
After
seeing Die Walküre live, I
wrote : 'The more I think about
it, the more
intelligent this production seems
' and now after watching the complete
cycle,
I am relieved to discover that I
was right. It's sadly a rare experience
these
days to find a careful reading of
Wagner's text matched by a Director's
idea of
it and it's even rarer to find such
close attention to personenregie
in even
the best modern productions. Here,
and without exception, the entire
cast of
this Ring portrays real people with
real emotions engaging attention
so
convincingly that even the (often
interminable) first Act of Götterdämmerung
-
in which as Göran says, the
Norns appear as members of the audience
- seems to
fly by. I found myself needing to
know 'what happens next' at every
turn and
for that reason alone even the staunchest
anti-Wagnerite watching this cycle
could find that The Ring has something
going for it after all.
Perhaps the last couple of things
to add to this shameless rave, is
that the
stereo sound from these discs is
spectacularly good, catching the
marvellous
acoustic of the new Copenhagen opera
house remarkably accurately, despite
a
couple of short lasting lapses in
orchestral balance here and there.
And then
there's the set's modest price:
it's currently available for under
£50 in the
UK.
Bill Kenny