So, last night to Covent Garden for the last in the run of the prelude to the tetralogy.
As already posted all over the internet, here is a summary of what happened:
Picture the scene. Parked outside. Not one, not two, but three great big BBC lorries.
Reading the cast list sheet, a note that tonight's performance was being recorded for radio AND TV broadcast (oh, the excitement...). A brief note that one of the minor parts had had a role change.
Taking one's seat, note that the curtain is slightly late to rise. Prolly cos of telly I thought.
The woman who makes announcements walked onto the stage. The woman behind me said "Oh no, don't let it happen, Bryn's going to cancel". Don't be silly I thought like saying, it would have been on the cast sheet...
"Bryn Terfel" begins the announcing woman, to a very audible groan round the auditorium.
Long and short of it - Bryn woke up with a sore throat and headache, no singers could fly in from Germany because of gales causing chaos at airports (I can vouch for that having had to wait for two extra hours Saturday night at the worlds newest and most boring airport, Taba, where we were reduced to smoking in the loos)
But landing at Gatwick was Donald McIntyre. Bryn finally pulled out an hour before curtain, was going to appear and act, whilst Donald McIntyre would sing from the pit, having had no rehearsal. Later, consulting my programme, I saw that he had sung the role in 1974. It seems that he is well into his 70s.
It was really quite strange. As the man next to me said, he was a shadow of his former self but what a heroic effort to pull it off. (And what an enormous cheer he got). As a woman on the stairs said, it must make it doubly difficult for the conductor. If I were being objective, I would mention wobble and weakness, but that would be extremely unfair of me.
Back to the BBC. Random people preceding me were confronting various BBC folk and questioning them, and I dutifully earwigged. One said that Rheingold will be televised live on Good Friday (presumably with no live audience???). Another BBC man said something about using the visuals from tonight and the sound from last Friday. We shall see...
And for good measure I saw Michael Portaloo walking along with an expression on his face that slightly famous people wear when they are conscious that they might be recognised, secretly would love to be, but are pretending to be all self-effacing.
Oh, BTW, I loved the production, enjoyed the music, although I've heard it better, and thought that some of the cast were excellent, especially Philip Langridge as Loge.
I avoided meeting the eye of my Bryn Terfel-loving colleague _all_ day, in order to resist telling her whom I was going to see....Well, I saw him, but I think her main interest is his voice.
As an afterthought, all those arsehole Christian lunatics who protested about the televising of Jerry Springer - the Opera - what will they do about that tale of incest coming up later in the year?
More generally, I thought that the critical panning of the production and staging was misplaced. I think, perhaps, there are different parts of the brain that different people apply. I think also that there are people who are hidebound in tradition and resistant to innovation, to the point of pre-judging. There were a lot of interesting effects in the staging, lots of ladders were used, as was promised.
The opening scene was particularly criticised, but I liked it - the use of lights and shadows gave the definite impression that the Rhinemaidens were In the Rhine. I liked the way Alberich arrived by dinghy.
I was fascinated by some of the props - why did Wotan take a model aeroplane down into Nibelheim? Wasn't that Nothung that Wotan was yielding at the end, a nice look forward to Die Walküre and Siegfried.
Some of the singing was better than others. As well as Phillip Langridge, mentioned above, I also enjoyed Jane Henschel as Erda and Franz-Josef Selig as Fasolt. It was a real shame that Bryn didn't get to sing, because he has tremendous charisma and stage presence.
It is my third Rheingold in a year, in addition to a DVD of the Met a few years back and a a Met broadcast from last year. I think it is my favourite of the four - although I haven't seen Götterdammerung live - I just adore the lushness of the orchestra. So, I was somewhat disappointed by parts last night. I had a distinct feeling of the brass being a bit off at the beginning, and another poster on rmo said much the same thing. I felt the orchestra sounded often more crisp tham lush. That having been said, there were some utterly gorgeous moments, too. There is a belief that Antonio Pappano is showing the potential to be a very great conductor (at 45 he's relatively young), certainly a view I would support. But I would suggest that perhaps Rheingold is a work in progress.
