(don't worry, I'm about to go on blogging hiatus - £6 bn of expenditure to audit, and a zillion photos to edit...!)
Audience hits fever pitch for Domingo's Prom debut, and Standing room only at the Proms for Domingo and Wagner
Die Walküre (only four bloody stars, do me a favour...!)
The Independent had another go at another review.
I'm so scared of disappearing links that I have decided to copy-and-paste every review of one utterly unforgettable night...With my favourite phrases highlighted in bold, for easy skim-reading...
Placido the Prom king
Reviewed by Barry Millington, Evening Standard (19 July 2005)
For a music festival billed as the greatest in the world, it may seem an unfortunate oversight that the Proms has not until now played host to arguably the world's greatest tenor, Placido Domingo.
That situation was remedied last night, when Domingo received a standing ovation for his singing of the role of Siegmund in Wagner's Die Walküre - a work also making its debut, in complete form, at the Proms.
Domingo of course doesn't come cheap, though the reason for his non-appearance has nothing to do with economics. He has been invited more than once, but the logistics of international schedules have made it impossible.
Domingo and Waltraud Meier, playing the role of Sieglinde, Siegmund's sister-bride - well, this is Wagner - have recently joined the production revived at Covent Garden, now transported to the Albert Hall, sadly without the staging. For a tenor of 64, it is an extraordinary achievement to deliver so demanding a role with such virility and technical assurance.
Although he has been singing Wagner for many years now, it is not Domingo's natural metier, and it has obviously not come easily. He looked uncomfortable much of the time. On stage he can be a convincing actor, but here he stood clasping and unclasping his hands, when not mopping his brow.
As Act One developed with the burgeoning love of the incestuous pair, both Meier and Domingo came into their own. Sieglinde's naming of Siegmund was rightly an ecstatic moment and was followed by an even more thrilling delivery of the passage in which Siegmund pulls the hero's sword out of the tree.
In Act Two, Meier enacted the living nightmare of Sieglinde - she is haunted by guilt and terror - with terrific intensity. Domingo demonstrated here that he could be as tender as earlier he had been heroic.
But what really brought the performance to life was the contributions of the singers who have been with the production from the start: Rosalind Plowright as a formidable goddess Fricka, Lisa Gasteen as an ebullient Brünnhilde and, above all, Bryn Terfel, whose Wotan is quite simply one of the great portrayals of our time.
Terfel's meticulous diction, exploding with consonants, gives us the meaning of a line, where Domingo's vowel-rich lyricism offers a more generalised form of beauty. Underpinning all this is the extraordinarily accomplished conducting of Antonio Pappano.
His unfolding of the long musical paragraphs has a wonderful flexibility, allowing thematic ideas to set the pace in the way Wagner advocated. He is always aware of the larger span, but the expressive detail and responsiveness to the text make his interpretation uniquely satisfying.
From an electrifying Ride Of The Valkyries (with a fearsome octet of warrior-maidens) through to an overwhelming climactic scene for Wotan and Brünnhilde (Terfel and Gasteen both superb), Pappano's handling of Act Three seemed more spontaneously exhilarating than ever.
Gratifying as it is to have top-class Wagner brought to a wide audience at the Proms, what we saw was only half the story. Without a staging - let alone one as intelligent and perceptive as Keith Warner's at the Royal Opera - the theatrical dimension is almost entirely lost. Not quite the real thing, then, but a great and memorable occasion nevertheless.
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Proms 2005: Wagner's epic is a triumph (Telegraph)
(Filed: 19/07/2005)
Geoffrey Norris reviews Die Walküre at the Albert Hall
The hot ticket of the season coincided with another hot evening in the auditorium, but it was the artistic climate that triumphed.
After five and a half hours of Die Walküre, even those not already promming in the arena rose to their feet to give last night's riveting performance an ecstatic ovation.
The BBC Proms have scored an undoubted hit in their first week by bringing in the cast, orchestra and conductor of Covent Garden's current staging of Wagner's opera. Those who have actually seen it in the theatre might even think that the absence of scenery and stage business was an advantage. The music itself had to do all the work, and showed unequivocally that it could cope.
Die Walküre follows on from last year's Das Rheingold as the second instalment of a four-year Proms "Ring" cycle. The idea behind it is rather different from the norm. Whereas productions of Wagner's epic tetralogy generally strive for a unity of concept between the component operas, this one is evidently seeking to show how the potential for diversity in interpretation can be exploited.
Das Rheingold, with conspicuous success, deployed the period instruments of the Age of Enlightenment, under Sir Simon Rattle's baton. This Die Walküre was much more of a centrist opera house performance but, as the conductor Antonio Pappano revealed, there is still dramatic fire to be kindled from traditional means.
Much has been made of the fact that the Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo, now in his 60s, was making his Proms debut as Siegmund, and his was indeed a stirring and moving performance, nobly expressive. But it was the emotional span and deeply involved singing of Bryn Terfel as Wotan and Waltraud Meier as Sieglinde that raised the evening to one of such commanding stature, backed by fine playing from the Royal Opera House Orchestra.
One of the advantages of a concert performance is that it can give a more complete idea of an opera's orchestral spectrum, and here Pappano's balanced judgment of detail and overall architecture supported an interpretation of compelling perspective.
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Audience hits fever pitch for Domingo's Prom debut
By Louise Jury, Arts Correspondent (Independent)
Published: 19 July 2005
When John Drummond ran Radio 3, he used to say that the audiences at the famous concert in Salzburg jangled their jewellery to applaud, but that the standing audience in the arena for the Proms were the music lovers who listen.
They really listened last night. The hottest ticket in this year's Proms, the biggest music festival in the world, was Placido Domingo making his Prom debut in a concert performance of The Valkyrie, the second instalment of Wagner's Ring cycle. People had been queueing from 8am yesterday in anticipation of the evening's event.
When Domingo took the stage at the Royal Albert Hall to sing the role of Siegmund, you could hear the silence. Only the quietest of imperceptible rustles as the audience followed the translated score could be heard.
But at the end of the first act the 6,000-strong audience erupted in cheers and cries of "Bravo" that lasted several minutes.
Antonio Pappano, the Royal Opera House musical director who was conducting, clapped a hand to Domingo's back to point out that there were even more people clapping from behind the orchestra.
At the conclusion of Act Two, the rapture was greater and applause louder as the crowd began to stamp their feet, registering their delirium at seeing a genuine opera super-star on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall.
Domingo said: "At the beginning of the first act I was really nervous, seeing all the people standing and seeing their faces so close.
"But it was phenomenal, but even better was the public, they were amazing, just amazing. It was like being in the middle of a discotheque, your heart beats so fast. The English are supposed to be reserved people, but not at all, it was the most fantastic response with clapping and tapping on the floor. It is not like a concert hall, it is like an arena.
"My debut at the Proms may be a late one, but I hope to come back."
By the time the orchestra had let rip with a barnstorming "Ride of the Valkyrie", in Act Three, the audience were in no doubt that this had been something very special indeed.
In a series of curtain calls, the orchestra, the Valkyrie and every single soloist was cheered to the rafters.
Nearly the entire audience jumped to its feet when Domingo appeared on stage, looking like a man who, despite a career of rapturous receptions, still could not believe this one. Perhaps he knew how rare it is to get an ovation at the Proms.
And by the time the Welsh-based baritone Bryn Terfel emerged, the foot-stomping had resumed in earnest and virtually everyone was on their feet.
There were laughs when Terfel hugged the woman presenting him with the customary flowers and even more when he threw them into the arms of a concert-goer in the front row.
When Antonio Pappano asked the orchestra to stand for one final bow, the fever pitch was complete.
It was, by universal agreement, a night of triumphs, the applause and cheers continued for 10 minutes and beyond, with Domingo the last soloist to leave the stage, turning his head as he did so to take one final look at the extraordinary scenes in the Royal Albert Hall.
Nicholas Kenyan, head of the BBC Proms, said: "It is absolutely astonishing, I cannot remember a prom with this atmosphere and sense of occasion. To have someone as important as Domingo who has never done something like this is astounding. It is a privilege to stage a performance such as this."
Roger Wright, controller of BBC Radio 3, said: "The thing about hearing a performance like this is it's all about the music. Freed of sets and of costumes you get to hear all sorts of details."
Edward Seckerson, The Independent's opera critic, said: "There is no audience in the world as concentrated, sympathetic and intense as this one, so much so that you can feel the energy that audience are giving to the cast. "
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Die Walküre
Geoff Brown at the Royal Albert Hall/Radio 3 (The Times)
A CONCERT performance? That is how this astonishing Die Walküre Prom was advertised. But with the present Covent Garden cast treading the boards Plácido Domingo, Bryn Terfel, Waltraud Meier and all we were never going to get a line of gents and ladies in polite evening wear, nosing through the score.
Even so, the dramatic impact of their gestures, crumplings and caresses, plotted with Michael Moxhams stage guidance, moved far beyond expectations. The first wonder was the seasons starriest Proms Debut Artist, Domingo.
With his sunburnt tenor, he was not a man born to sing Wagner and the youthfully tragic Siegmund presents its own challenge. Yet he reached the parts heart thanks to two unassailable weapons: a miraculous voice scarcely damaged by time or ego, and a standard of artistry no other superstar tenor can match.
He was helped, too, as we all were, by not having Stefanos Lazaridiss Covent Garden designs to surmount. No suspended swords, no curling metal, no video projections pregnant with abstractions. The fiddly symbolic clutter was swept away, giving every singer the chance to deepen characterisations through voice and gesture alone.
Domingo was superb at this: the eloquent hands tight by his waist, cradling an invisible cup or, most affecting of all, reaching toward the object of his incestuous love. Even the brow-mopping with a handkerchief seemed part of the drama. With Waltraud Meiers equally ringing and expressive Sieglinde, the principal acting weapon was her face: shadowed, lifeless, or lit with megawatt ecstasy.
There were equally formidable turns from Eric Halfvarsons Hunding and Rosalind Plowrights Fricka neither of them partners Id wish to come to home to. Perhaps this theatre of the body worked its biggest magic on Terfels Wotan. Hes a God, yes, with the vocal heft to match (just about). But when the fury, pleadings and prevarications emerge from a man in nonchalant dark dress, the human side of Wotans predicament really hits home: termagant wife, disobedient daughter, failing ideals, the price of compromise.
To conclude, minor quibbles. Glorious tone, yes, from the Royal Opera House Orchestra, but not always enough Wagnerian muscle from Antonio Pappano.
Lisa Gasteens Brünnhilde: full marks for an outrageous outfit (chain-mail top, slit skirt, bare leg) though it did not clarify the characterisations mixed messages.
Yet none of these seriously dampened the nights spectacular impact.
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Die Walküre
***** Royal Albert Hall, London
Erica Jeal
Wednesday July 20, 2005
The Guardian
This, astonishingly, was Plácido Domingo's Proms debut. That alone was enough to create an immense buzz around this wholesale transfer of the Royal Opera's Die Walküre to the Albert Hall, in staged concert form. But the fact that the evening ended with the entire cheering audience on its feet - something that rarel happens here - was down to much more than that.
Not least of these factors was the fact that the orchestra has been so close to this work for so long. Antonio Pappano's fast tempos may occasionally jettison some of the music's spaciousness, but he keeps its energy flowing, and the musical tension crackled.
Responding to each other but not in costume, the singers seemed if anything liberated by the absence of a full staging. And Domingo's Siegmund is indeed extraordinary. His German is not impeccable, and in the more restless passages he can swallow his consonants; but his burnished sound is unmistakable. In the baleful summing-up at the end of his act one narration you could hear exactly why he has been enjoying such an Indian summer in Wagner.
Waltraud Meier's gleaming Sieglinde was a formidable match, and Lisa Gasteen's huge, penetrating soprano made her headstrong Brünnhilde absolutely convincing. Eric Halfvarson's Hunding made the balconies reverberate, and Rosalind Plowright worked hard to ensure Fricka's crucial confrontation with Wotan carried sufficient weight.
It was Bryn Terfel's Wotan, however, that was the heart and soul of all this; though he has barely begun to sing this iconic role, he already has few rivals in it. Singing and acting were so enmeshed, his projection of text and musical nuance so effortless, that it seemed we were tapping directly into his thoughts. An unforgettable performance, capping an unforgettable evening.
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Prom 4: Orchestra Of The Royal Opera House / Pappano / Domingo, Royal Albert Hall, London
A Prom that had us all on our feet
By Edward Seckerson
Published: 20 July 2005
Something really extraordinary happened during a recent performance of Wagner's Die Walküre at the Royal Opera House. The first revival of Keith Warner's provocative staging went on stage less than 48 hours after the London bombings, and something in the nature of the opera's humanity took all of its participants to a new level.
This, after all, is the Ring opera in which it is first established that the future of the world lies with humans, not gods. That is essentially what the Ring is all about. So could lightning strike twice, without sets, without costumes, without all the attendant drama of a darkened auditorium? Would the fire descend, not through the pyrotechnics of audacious stage effects but through the music alone?
Yes, yes, and yes. In a music festival - namely, the Proms - that is always notable for at least a handful of real "events", this one will go down as momentous.
Die Walküre begins with a storm, and Antonio Pappano was not about to take cover. The Royal Opera House Orchestra flung down the gauntlet, string tremolandos buzzing, Wagner tubas cleaving the heavy air, timpani volleying their thunderclaps, and we were off. Pappano's lustful dynamism is a real boon in this the most unashamedly passionate of the Ring operas, and his orchestra, released from the depths of their pit for once, revelled in the big Albert Hall acoustic. With the lid taken off them, so to speak, with their sound able to breathe, we could appreciate all the more what a glorious instrument they are. The quiet brass playing was especially notable: I shall long remember the sombre threnody of horns and trombones launching Wotan's Act II narration.
Bryn Terfel sang, acted, almost spoke that with such enthralling and quiet intensity that it was almost as if he were individually telling the 6,000 or so members of the audience a bedtime story. You can take risks - and he did - with an audience this concentrated, this giving. Audiences don't realise how important they are, and this one, not just listening but hanging on every word, tacitly gave each performer untold energy. Gripping was not the word. Well, it was, but still hardly adequate.
And so performances, thrilling enough at the opera house, here went into overdrive: Waltraud Meier's sublime Sieglinde, her inwardness something most singers can only aspire to; Eric Halfvarson's cavernous, pit-bullish Hunding; Rosalind Plowright's imperious Fricka; and Lisa Gasteen's feisty, tomboyish Brünnhilde finding another level of engagement in her moving final scene with Wotan. Their lustful farewell kiss could no more adequately have expressed what Pappano was unleashing from the orchestra at this point.
And what can Placido Domingo have made of his Prom debut? Well, he more than anyone plainly fed on the waves of adoration coming in from the audience. It was so good to hear this great veteran of the opera world recapturing some of that burnished middle-voice that made him such a household name. Though the vocal nuancing may be compromised by the passing years, the distinctive timbre remains untarnished. To hear it breaking the silence in the wake of that storm-tossed prelude, the very first voice we hear in the opera, was in itself worth the price of admission. There's a fair bit of operatic history riding on that voice, that timbre, that presence. And how wonderful to hear it rise to the great cries of "Walse!", the second of them defiantly turning back the clock to a heroic past.
Not even the incongruity of those "battle-weary" Valkyries arriving in full evening dress, or the half-hearted attempts at an atmospheric light show could blunt the dramatic potency of the evening. The audience rose as one. For me, twice in less than a fortnight wasn't lucky; it was a privilege.
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