I have nothing new to add to the discussion about the Met’s new Ring, but in any case I would like to join the general opinion about it, based on what I could see on the movie theatre. Has the Met spent its millions wisely? I would say no – Robert Lepage’s machine cannot help being interesting, but it’s hardly a deus ex machina in a production that has nothing to say and no stage direction other than rescuing singers from being smashed by the revolving structure. And there are the costumes – if a breastplate is everything Lepage and his creative team had to say, the Met should have spared the money and kept Otto Schenck’s old production. If I am allowed a question – I would be curious to hear why, amidst all those technological niceties, a decent transformation scene for Alberich and an impressive entrance for Erda could not be provided. Tell me about anti-climatic. I know: the Rhinemaidens scene is indeed visually striking and the God’s entrance in Walhalla is clever, but I certainly don’t understand why suspending singers from wires was thought to be a good replacement for true theatrical direction: the puppeteered Loge making his cautious steps upwards on the ramp looked particularly uninspiring.
What is beyond doubt are James Levine’s Wagnerian credentials – I dare to say that his bold, clear, forward-moving and dramatic account of the score is more exciting than the one available on DVD from a couple of decades ago. The house orchestra also seemed to be in great shape. When it comes to singers, it is difficult to say the last word judging from the broadcast, for the Met’s mikes can make a Natalie Dessay sound like a Birgit Nilsson, but judging from my experience with those singers live in that venue, I guess I can have an idea. The female side of the cast was indeed uniformly strong: Stephanie Blythe’s grandly powerful Fricka is a Wagnerian classic of our days, Wendy Bryn Harmer’s golden-toned Freia was extremely satisfying (also in the acting department) and the three Rheinmaidens (especially Lisette Oropesa) were all spirited and pleasant on the ear. If Patricia Bardon was a bit small-scaled as Erda, her voice is still aptly dark and she is always a classy singer. Among the men, the evening’s Alberich deserves special mention. The reason why the whole episode involving Wotan, Alberich and Loge in Scene 4 was not a complete fiasco in terms of theatrical action was Eric Owens’s ample, dark-toned bass-baritone, intense delivery of the text and forceful stage presence. And I saw this as someone who had close-ups on the screen. I can only guess that someone in Family Circle was asking him or herself why nothing was happening on stage at that point. Both giants have been cast from strength with Hans-Peter König and Franz-Josef Selig, who relished the competition, offering both vehement, passionate performances. Gerhard Siegel’s powerful and characterful Mime is also worthy of mention. Musicianly and elegant as Richard Croft’s Loge was, he does sound out of his element here. He delivers his lines somewhat cautiously, is often underpowered by the orchestra and has too noble a voice for the role, not to mention that he lacks the necessary ebullience. As for Bryn Terfel’s Wotan, I must confess I have found him far more comfortable than I expected. My experience with the Welsh bass-baritone live has invariably shown him grey-toned, fatigued and lacking volume, but I must have had bad luck. In any case, here I have to mistrust the microphones, i.e. I wonder how voluminous he really sounded live. As heard here, although the voice is not rich nor particularly noble, it seemed quite vivid in the whole range. His acting was quite inexpressive, but he found space to color his text quite successfully. Let us see how he is going to deal with the far more testing part in Die Walküre.
I HEAR VOICES 
Hey RML,
I, by contrast, have had great luck with Terfel, including yesterday. I had heard parts of the opening night broadcast, and while you are certainly right that the Met mikes don’t always give a good facsimile of what’s heard in the house, they do tend to give some voices a boost. On opening night they did not, however, disguise the fact that Terfel sounded somewhat “grayer” and more effortful than one would hope. Yesterday, however, his tone was warmer, his command greater, the volume quite ample from the front of the Dress Circle front. He seemed more comfortable physically and dealt with the text better than he seemed to for the premiere. The people I was with and other I spoke with who attended yesterday’s and other performances agreed that he had improved throughout the run.
That said and more importantly in view of the upcoming Walkure, one wanders weather, in respect of vocal quality, this is the best the Met can do. I would take Terfel over Dohmen and Uusitalo. Pape, based on very hight expectations, was (slightly) disappointing at La Scala (at least as heard on YouTube) but his assumption of the role should certainly be very interesting. For pure richness of tone and vocal ease, however, I’n not sure that Vitaly Kovaljov shouldn’t, provisionally get a bit of an edge perhaps even over Pape (Boris tomorrow), although his interpretation left a great deal to be desired.*
For the rest there is really nothing to say but to agree with your doubts about the huge investment. As a fan of the Schenk Ring (which allowed the performers plenty of running room) but still think it made sense to consider something else at this time. Still, I’m doubtful that the Lepage, predictably impressive technically and predictably uninteresting dramatically, was the best way to spend all that money.
*To be fair, his vocalism was no doubt flattered by the acoustics of the Semeperoper while his interpretation no probably compromised by the limited rehearsal time and last minute(y) change of conductor.
Hi, Cavalier! Good to hear a report “live from the Met”! I am glad to learn that Terfel is still improving his Wotan. Judging from the broadcasts from the Royal Opera House in comparison with the Met’s “moviecast”, there is a clear development there. In any case, I have a ticket for the Valkyrie, and I have therefore reasons to hope for the best 🙂
As far as Wotan goes, yes, it is a tough choice. I would definitely not choose Uusitalo for Wotan – my experience from his Salome at the Met was not hearing his voice at all. Dohmen has never been a very “comfortable” Wotan and, judging from Bayreuth this year, is starting to find the role a bit difficult. As for Pape, as I wrote here, my experience at La Scala was that he lacks cutting edge for the role. The voice is too velvety and resents those heroic excursions upward. But let’s wait for the Milanese Valkyrie to say something more about it. I cannot say much about Kowaljow, for I saw him only once as one of the basses in Aida and can only remember that he has a big voice.
Wotans are a rare commodity – but I would like to say a good word for Egils Sillins. It is not an unforgettable voice – a bit grainy – but his Wanderer at the Deutsche Oper was completely unproblematic. And that is already something. Next year, I intend to check Tomasz Konieczny’s Wotan in Vienna. I think his is a “bad guy” voice, but if there should be a 2010 Wagnerian Awards, I would give him first prize for his AMAZING Alberich here in Berlin.
I finally saw this performance yesterday on a rerun.
It doesn’t look like the spent millions on this Rheingold. Sometimes it even felt that it a low budget production. Maybe the Otto Schenk production from the 80s would be more expensive than this one if it was done today. Nevertheless, that stage was pretty cool and I enjoyed the transitions. As for as the negatives, there were no props or anything else for the singers to do. So Loge had to go up and down that ramp as RML spelled out. That was indeed ridiculous. It seemed that Lepage needed to find some movement and asked Richard Croft (Loge) to do something. After all, this is Wagner and it is almost impossible for the singers to do something in general. Therefore, RML was right about the fourth scene. But what Alberich, Wotan and Loge are supposed to do? On the movies, with close-ups, it is easier for the audience. If Wagner was alive today, he would do movies not theater.
I liked Richard Croft. I really liked his characterization. With the mikes singers of course sound better. I am not sure how he sounded at the met. I suspect that Blythe was one of the beneficiaries of the mikes. I saw her a couple of times and her voice is not that powerful. Terfel was a one-dimensioned Wotan. He reminded me Mickey Rourke. I really didn’t sensed Wotan’s inner-conflicts. Intellectually speaking, sincerely, I prefer Delavan. I also agree that Terfel was vocally on the lighter-side of the Wotan scale.
While Levine and the orchestra had their moments, I enjoyed them less than RML. There were some important misses. There was one instance that the brass was too late and other small problems like that. In the end, IMO the mermaid chorus were not in sync.
The entrance in the Valhalla didn’t work for me. They climbed or flew that ramp as they were in an old Batman movie. And that’s another problem with the end. Directors never know what to do. The march takes its time and the gods usually walk in slow-motion to get to their new home while the music plays.
Despite these problems, I think that in overall it was entertaining. At least sitting comfortably and eating popcorn in the movie theater. I think Wager would have approved this production.
And at last but not least, Eric Owens is God!!!
Roberto,
I don’t think Lepage devises the movement of actors on stage as part of a concept, as something filled with meaning and purpose other than visual impact. That is maybe why poor Loge had to go up and down although the text and the character’s nature suggests something far more varied. Wotan and Alberich don’t have to move around on stage as circuit horses either, but actors cannot just stand there without “just standing there” having a particular meaning. This is like basic knowledge for a stage director. Take Patrice Chéreau’s Ring – nobody is fidgeting around just to add some “animation” to the proceedings and yet their “being on stage” follows a coherent logic. No wonder Terfel’s Wotan was one-dimensional. He is not the director. If he were a great actor, he could have provided his own stage direction, but that would have been complimentary to the Met, for he would receive no extra money on doing that. Although the old Götz Friedrich’s Ring in Berlin is nothing to die for, I did not need any close-up of Tomasz Konieczny when he cursed the ring. Even the last row in the theatre was thrilled by its intensity (of course, his top-level singing helped it a lot).
The fact that Richard Croft really decided to SING the part of Loge is praiseworthy. If I had not seen Arnold Bezuyen do that in Bayreuth in more heroic a voice and with far deeper understanding of the text, I would have been more impressed.
Orchestral blunders in a Wagner performance. That happens everywhere… A friend of mine saw a Rheingold in Vienna the opening scene of which was so poorly played that the conductor stopped and started it over. I would have to listen to the broadcast again to say more about it, but what I find is that Levine’s Wagner was finally more varied than the usual Furtwängleresque solemnity that he perpetually tried to produce.
As for Stephanie Blythe, I have seen her only once as Mistress Quickly in Falstaff and found her voice remarkably large (definitely far larger than Bryn Terfel’s, who was the performance’s Falstaff), but that is a lower-sitting role that fits her natural range better than Amneris, for example. In any case, I liked her Fricka – I am a bit tired of mezzos who cannot project low notes over the orchestra in this repertoire.
I found the whole experience “entertaining” too – and that is probably what I don’t like about it 🙂 This is Rhinegold – at the end of which, we were supposed to discuss what has been going on in Western civilization since 1870! 🙂
Very well said, rml. I am a big admirer of Patrice Chereau’s Ring. That was a great Ring.
I think that I see Lepage more as a stage designer than a director. But he is indeed the director of this one.
Beside that, I am surprised to hear to Terfel didn’t have a big voice for Falstaff. That’s an opera that was always challenging for me, anyway.