Not for nothing is this known as "The Boring One", the least popular of the Ring tetralogy. Quite a few people gave it a miss, and, frankly, part of me wishes that I had done, too. In my singular opinion, it is my second favourite of the four to listen to on CD, because of the consistently complex high quality of the orchestral music. But it suffers from two much recitative-style monologue and dialogue. And the story is less compelling, and certainly less personal than the other three.
Still, the production was excellent in places, at least adequate in some, and poor only in a few. The woman next to me said that the singers could only be described as competent. "That's a good word!" I said. But that was before Act III and, on reflection, I am not sure I would go that far in some cases.
And the orchestra under Pappano were, well, competent. I wouldn't say they were exactly singing last night. I made some stupid note in the interval about Wagner performed Baroque-style; I didn't mean it, but it was terribly subdued and workmanlike. Overall, I would be struggling to give it more than two stars; if I did it would be because of the production.
The best singing performance was Gerhard Siegel as Mime, a stand-out performance, who has an extraordinary taxing Act I, and a fair share of Act II, and then gets killed.
John Tomlinson's portrayal of Wanderer (Wotan in disguise) was fine, although I did think he portrayed him as a bit of an ageing hippy. I think in his Act III duet with Erda, his body language poignantly conveyed a broken haggard old man. And his singing wasn't bad, it just was not to my liking. At its worse it was a Bayreuth Bark of the sort that would put one off Wagner for life; at its best, it still left me thinking how gorgeous Bryn had sounded as Wotan in Die Walküre and indeed in Das Rheingold, which I only heard him do on radio and TV (he mimed it the night I attended...).
Brunnhilde, sung by Lisa Gasteen, only appears in the final half hour or so. I did not think her voice was up to standard she demonstrated in Die Walküre, but her stage presence was the highlight of the evening. A consummate singing actor, with grace and dignity.
Jane Henschel as Erda, Peter Sidhom as Alberich, Philip Ems as Fafner and Sarah Fox as the Woodbird all handled their relatively small roles at least adequately if somewhat generically; singing wise, Sarah Fox was the best of the bunch, although not as good as Sarah Tynan at ENO last year.
As for Siegfried, I do not realy know what to say. It is an extraordinarily taxing role, with him on stage for three quarters of the four hour opera. Jon Treleaven acted convincingly, moving around stage well, using his physicality intelligently, facial expressions visible from the Amphitheatre, and is obviously a musical singer. The trouble is, I really really don't like his voice. To the extent it almost drove me to distraction. Far too nasally and whiny, bleating, neither Heldentenor nor Bel Canto, more Can't Bellow than Can Belto and rather too much approximation to tone, especially at the top and the bottom of the range. In the first interval I wrote "perhaps he's saving himself for later..."; just before Act II began the woman behind me said "I saw it two weeks ago and he got better as the night progressed" Last night he seemed to get worse. The couple in front exchanged glances on every flubbed, croaked or missed note, of which there were many. One passage of Siegfried's monologue seemed to be a musical vegetable soup with everyone all over the place.
His rendition of the gorgeous Love Duet was just so plain bloody awful that I was sorely tempted to walk out screaming "Just ask her out and end our misery, now..." But I didn't. Because one doesn't. I much preferred Richard Berkeley-Steele who sang the role at ENO.
There was a lot I liked about the production. During the overture it was amusing to see young actors portraying Siegfried growing up and repeatedly breaking the swords that Mime forged for him.
I was very pleased to see a crashed aeroplane in Mime's lair, from which emerged the Wanderer. After Das Rheingold I had queried on the Wagner newsgroup the significance of Wotan carrying a model aeroplane down to Nibelheim and someone basically said "No significance, no need to worry your pretty little head, he just did, that's all..." I absolutely loved the forging scene, where Treleaven was excellent - except for the singing. We were warned there would be pyrotechnics and they frightened me - remember I'm firework-phobic. I did think they did distract from the musical climax of the Act, which was a good thing because Treleaven simply could not hack that great declamatory "Nothung!"
The furniture abuse was especially good in the Forging Scene, with a chair being broken up and thrown onto the furnace to use as firewood.
Act 2 was the musical highlight. The prelude was the orchestral standout of the evening, sensitive and beautiful. The drama was compelling and wonderfully staged. Most impressive was the slaying of the giant Fafner in the form of a dragon. There was an enormous dragon on stage with its face humanoid. Siegfried killed him and we were left with a headless corpse, the head being a good few yards forward on stage, and that was alive and singing. First time I have ever seen bodiless head sing! Some bits were deliberately funny; when Siegfried was trying to play the Woodbird's tune on his pipe he hammed it wonderfully and we laughed. But we also laughed when a deer and a stag were - literally - wheeled on to demonstrate the difference between male and female and Siegfried was deliberately wheeled off on one.
Act 3 was staged wonderfully. It opened with Wanderer lying on a slab of rock, together with pre-abused chair. As clouds soared overhead, the slab revolved and revolved, at an angle, and eventually became a wall containing, symbolically, the door to Brunnhilde's rock, perhaps the same wall that had revolved in Die Walküre as Wotan condemned Brunnhilde to a deep sleep on a rock surrounded by the Magic Fir, until a man who knows no fear comes to rescue her (her nephew, Siegfried, the one who was incestuously conceived at the end of Act I of Die Walküre).
The Love Duet was staged and acted magnificently, just the two singers singing to each other, very plain set, at times their silhouettes projected onto a screen behind them.
No doubt I shall go and see it again in the Cycle in two years time, by which time Bryn will be Wanderer, and hopefully they will have found a better Siegfried. Or this one will have improved.
Celeb Spot: On arrival at the Opera House I walked in with Karl Jenkins and Mrs Jenkins. Whenever I see Karl Jenkins, I see the moustache first. In the first interval, I saw Simon Heffer who is a Tory journalist (Telegraph?)
Physical discomfort spot: I was sat behind the world's tallest man. Even though he was slumped low in his seat he was still head, and in some cases, shoulders above everyone in his row. So I spent most of the evening with my head cocked to one side. I decided to get a taxi home from Victoria Station. I was just about to fasten my seat belt when I was thrown forward as the driver slammed his brake on. He apologised and said he had been so busy watching the bendy-bus turn into the bus station he hadn't noticed some pedestrians step off the island and into his path. He kept asking whether I was all right, genuinely concerned and remorseful. I have a sore neck today and don't know whether it's whip-lash or the effect of four hours holding it an angle.
Bit where Gert cried: When I realised I'd lost my bracelet, my gorgeous garnet bracelet. I checked under my seat, and at Lost Property and at front desk, and I phoned Lost Property today. I think I've lost it for good. Jimmy's been nagging me since Christmas to get it valued and the clasp secured...I'm not happy.
