What is first is last and what is last is first.
I have friends who swear that Act III is the highlight of the opera. To me it is not. If performed well, I enjoy it tremendously. Indeed there have been times when it has rendered me incapable, tears streaming my face, an emotional wreck. This was not one of those occasions. I am loath to criticise. It was one of those performances where under routine circumstances you'd come away thinking "Yeah, that was fine, nothing special, perfectly adequate" and so on. Conducting ragged at times. The Valkyries, mainly, sounded fine as individuals, but seemed to grate ensemble. There was an absence of 'ride' in the Act opening. There was an absence of 'magic' in the Magic Fire Music. but, that's okay, I'm not complaining. It was a concert performance, not much time for rehearsals.
Act II was most enjoyable. I did not notice any great problems with tempi such as had dogged the first act; I overlooked orchestral raggedness and instrumental flubs.
In Act II we are introduced for the first time to Brunnhilde, Wotan and Fricka, the last two of whom have already appeared in Das Rheingold, if one is doing the Ring properly. It is fair to say that in this performance they were all lesser 'stars' than the Act I principles, but I feel they all acquitted themselves well. Jane Herschel was Fricka. Curiously, she sang as if it were a 'straight' concert performance; if she had had a score on a music stand it would have not made any difference to her performance, which was most definitely 'park and bark' and use semaphore. Except she wasn't 'barking', she was singing beautifully. Not necessarily in a way that characterises Fricka, indeed, she did nothing to portray the character, to me at any rate. But I just loved her voice. And when someone has a gorgeous voice, I can forgive them a lot. I got quite a frisson in the Deiner ew'gen Gattin
heilige Ehre beschirme heut' ihr Schild!, after she has had it out with Wotan and Brunnhilde has come hojohotoing back
Alan Held was Wotan, and I have no complaints about him. Not the best I have heard, but certainly not the worst. I don't know if tortured and puzzled comes naturally to him, but he certainly did tortured and puzzled well. He did little to put over the complex and intriguing character of Wotan; he moved about stage, but his actual acting was perfunctory. Vocally he presented no problems, which is always a good start. Not an especially beautiful voice, but I didn't notice any great problems with pitch, tone, no wobble and so on. I wasn't that overwhelmed by his cursing of Alberich, but I would be happy to book a Walküre in future if he was the Wotan. I wouldn't book it specially, though.
Evelyn Herlitzius was Brunnhilde, a name had that simply hadn't even grazed my radar previously. I have read quite a few reviews where people said they didn't like her voice. Certainly it seemed it seemed an unusual voice to be singing Brunnhilde, lighter than I would normally expect. And towards the end she was audibly tiring. But I liked her voice. And I was particularly struck by the way she portrayed the transformation of Brunnhilde from frisky teenager to mature and reflective. (And I loved her outfit!).
I actually enjoyed the first part of the act more than I often do; it actually seemed to pass much more quickly, ironic considering the funereal pace of Act I. However much I enjoy the first two scenes, it is Scene 3 -5 that really do it for me.
The music builds up for the return of the Twins, the most extraordinarily evocative music and they reappear. There is a long passage where they are sitting on seats on the stage. I watched the entirety of Scene III through my binoculars and was convinced I was a voyeur, intruding an intensely private and intimate moment between two true loves. Then I remembered that I was in an opera house with about two and a half thousand other people. Nevertheless, that feeling of intimacy remained.
During the musical interlude they caressed each other; she lovingly held his arm, whilst he caressed the back of her neck. And then when she was singing, beautifully, he sat back in his chair, legs stretched out in front of him, with a look of sheer bliss on his face. And then sang beautifully! Such wonderful stage chemistry.
And then, arguably the most beautiful passage in the entire opera canon - the Todesverkundigung, heralded by the brass and timpani so creepy so ominous, then Brunnhilde arrives, and the exchange is the most dignified imaginable. I just love it, I want to wrap my arms round my body and bawl my eyes out, yet every nerve and every braincell is totally focussed on the music and the stage. Our Brunnhilde for the evening sang it well enough, even if not the best I have heard.
And our Siegmund was just fabulous. A wonderful mix of dignity and young innocence. As Brunnhilde patiently explained what was to happen he remained in his seat, then he rose to his feet for So grüsse mir Walhall, grüsse mir Wotan, grüsse mir Wälse
There is something unbelievably wonderful about this whole sequence. The singers singing towards the bottom of their range, the brass building up the tension, the pitch gradually rising. The dramatic tension, the sadness of the story, the music, and above all the singing. I had tears running down my face.
Scene 5 seems like a musical anti-climax in contrast. And the Act ends with the stage empty, except for Siegmund "dead" on the stage. I was ever so slightly disappointed that his "death" was only sinking onto a chair and rolling somewhat in the chair, no floor was involved. Still, for a concert performance, I had no grounds for complaint! And it was a nice touch that at the end, Plácido was alone on stage so we could cheer and applaud. And there was one woman in Box 20 at Platea level who screamed, too, would you believe...
