According to the program of his staging of Das Rheingold, director Guy Cassiers believes his Ring is a Ring of the “present moment” as an opposition to a historical approach. Although his dramaturgs’ grandiloquent ideas hardly make into what one sees on stage, he might have unintentionally achieved his aim by producing the first ever interactive staging of the Ring. First, he has done the unthinkable feat of creating consensus among Wagnerians. Yes, the ballet dancers are gone! La Scala’s bible-like program even shows photos of two green ones hanging from ropes, but it seem that the audience has had the last word and they were dispatched back to where they should have never left. The Corriere de la Sera has also published an article where Waltraud Meier says that the director does not help its cast and is more concentrated on his video projections. Although this kind of pre-première statement is usually considered ungentlemanly (or, in the case, unladylike…), readers seemed to have taken her side. Maybe that is why she (and, for that matter, neither Siegmund) are not wearing the elaborate costumes portrayed in the program.
In any case, Meier has a point – if there is any stage direction to speak of in this production, one probably has to wear 3-D glasses to see it… The approach to acting as seen this evening is basic the classical stand-and-deliver while remaining singers on stage basically watch it with generalized concerned expressions. Not Waltraud Meier, who tries to apply her famous histrionic skills when she finds space for that. It is true that her maneuvers may have become something of a routine by now, but they have actually rescued many scenes of complete boredom. I have to confess that I find her understanding of change of moods in the final act really masterly. Although stage direction is supposed to be the main element of a staging, there is more than that in a staging – and expertly devised sets, costumes and effects can ultimately deliver what is missing elsewhere. Not here, I am afraid. Mr. Cassiers’s philosophically and psychologically overcharged ideas are often scenically realized with the depth of a schoolboy’s drawing. As a result, the audience has to deal with very elementary imagery (and remember: clueless and cueless actors) in a long opera. The depthlessness of Hunding’s house is portrayed with… video projections showing a fireplace, just like those DVDs you can buy to pretend you have a fireplace. It made me afraid that they would use the fishbowl one in the next scene. And there are giant white toothpicks – I know they are supposed to be giant spears, but they look like giant toothpicks – landing on stage during Winterstürme. The toothpicks are such important stage devices that they become… tree trunks in the forest-landscape of act II. Images are, of course, projected on them – when singer sings about Glut, you have… flames, for example. After all, how the audience would understand the reference without it? During the Siegmund/Brünnhilde scene, the projection of a leaf-canopy becomes sequences of falling computer numbers. I thought it was just my imagination, but that is indeed a quote from Matrix. Remember – this is a Ring of the “present time”… In act III, the Walkürenritt is a group of ladies in stylized black Victorian dresses on top of wood-crates. And Brünnhilde’s magic fire is 10 or 11 red steaming lamps (two of them not working). Wotan’s costumes suggests that he was found in a dumpsite, that Brünnhilde is a regular at the party-scene in Berlin, that Fricka has just come from Paris Fashion Week and that Sieglinde and Siegmund are actually using the costumes borrowed from a normal staging of Die Walküre.
As you see, one had to concentrate on the musical side of the performance. And that also required some sort of commitment from the audience. The house orchestra clearly was not in the mood. Daniel Barenboim quickly understood that making energetic gestures did not elicit from these musicians any extra ounce of enthusiasm, so he started to make energetic noises. To very little avail. From some point on, I started to suspect that the noises were meant to show the audience that he was trying. If I have to be fair, a great share of responsibility for the act-1 debacle goes to the singers. Waltraud Meier was simply not in good voice. As always, she is such a cunning performer that she took any opportunity for quiet singing to score her interpretative points, but she could not really sing anything relatively high above mezzo forte. She was clearly saving for act III, where her understated and heartfelt account of the Redemption motive fitted her waning vocal resources*. Replacing Simon O’Neill, Frank van Aken was so visibly nervous that it is almost a miracle that something really bad did not happen. He lacked concentration, had a hit-or-miss approach to breathing (he often let go breathing pauses only to get breathless in the next ten seconds) and does not really seem to have a natural Siegmund voice. As heard here, the tonal quality was often curdled and the sound had a patch of nasality. I would really need to see him under other circumstances to say something. Next to John Tomlinson, tenor and soprano sounded mousy. But he was approximative with pitch and overcareful with the high end of his range. The lack of direction made his Hunding particularly short of menace. Having to deal with this situation, the conductor could do nothing but play down an orchestra that has no tonal refulgence in softer dynamics.
Act II took off more promisingly. The orchestra had a more positive, if not necessarily polished or exciting sound and some fresh-voiced singers left the maestro more operational space. I have often read about how Nina Stemme can be a special singers, but my only experience with her (a closing scene from R. Strauss’s Salome with Ingo Metzmacher and the DSO in the Philharmonie Berlin) was quite disappointing. I am glad to say that this evening I could finally have the complete Nina-Stemme-experience. First of all, she was in excellent voice and, although she does not have the bright-toned impact of Irène Théorin, she offers the modern version of the Helen-Traubel-approach to Brünnhilde, with her round, plush, extra warm soprano with impressively sensuous low notes and seamless legato. Although one can feel that the exposed top notes require some preparation from her, she offered very commendable Ho-jo-to-ho‘s and transported the audience to a state of grace with her exquisite account of the act 3 Wotan/Brünnhilde scene, when her command of dynamic effects and expressive, shapely phrasing could melt a Wagnerian heart. She has also a very positive stage presence and made the best of very little. To make things better, Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova offered a Fricka in the grand manner. Her full-toned, rich singing was matched by her intense delivery of her demands to Wotan and by her regal bearing. Finally, Ukranian bass-baritone Vitalij Kowaljow is a name to keep. He still has to develop his performance and ran a bit out of steam by the end, but he is a legitimate Wagnerian Heldenbariton and offered a far more secure account of the role than both Mark Delavan in Berlin and Albert Dohmen in Bayreuth earlier this year. These singers added a new life to the performance and, around act 3, the atmosphere was entirely changed. La Scala’s orchestra never achieved true brio this evening, but at least the proceedings acquired a Wagnerian scale after the second intermission. If I had a question to Mr. Barenboim, this would be – why keeping such considerate tempi with an orchestra that cannot fill in the slow pace with a big, intense sound? If that contributed to beautiful chamber-like sonorities in Brünnhilde’s pleas to Wotan in their last scene, it robbed most of any other moment of nobility and profoundness.
* disclaimer: I really like Waltraud Meier’s more intimate O hehrstes Wunder! For me, it describes more effectively Sieglinde’s gratitude than the usual full-powers approach.
I HEAR VOICES 
During the audio stream of the prima, Meier couldn’t handle Act III. Sounds like she conserved her resources so she could make it through the piece. In truth, Wagner soprano roles are not her fach, and vocally she’s paid a price (as so many operatic Icaruses do).
Did Stemme yip her Ho-jo-to-hos or sing them cleanly? She reminded me of a Yorkshire Terrier during the prima.
At least some of the most egregious parts have been toned down or eliminated. But as with LePage at the Met, it sounds as if the boys with their toys need to focus less on effect and more on dramaturgy.
Withal, one of the most interesting, absorbing RML critiques I have read. Wagner reviews are definitely his fach!
Thanks, Loki. Ho-jo-to-ho: Clean as in Lili-Lehmann-clean? Of course, not 🙂 But she hits all the high-notes firmly and faithfully and made a fair stab at the trills.
Waltraud Meier. I haven’t given a really serious thought about it, but I tend to think that she was not entirely wrong with the soprano roles. She has the notes – but was not properly trained to do them round, fully supported rather than pushed (I have the impression she stretches her neck forward for them and that does not help a lot…). The low notes today are not truly supported either. So I guess the problem would rather be imperfect schooling rather than nature – it is remarkable that the tonal quality itself (especially in the middle) is quite unchanged. I would have to think about it before saying more about that – but that’s my immediate guess about what’s going on here. And that’s this “in the end I’ll make do”-thing about her performances since a few years ago. She’s smart, she’s musical, she has charisma – and people want to see and hear exciting people rather than correct/boring ones.
Cassiers/Lepage. The thing is – effects are great, everybody loves them, but they are the cherry on top of the ice cream, the whipped cream, the chocolate sauce etc. Even if you have great cherries on top of it all, you really have to have top-quality ice cream in the bottom. When you read Cassiers’ dramaturgs you see that is very little about THEATRE and MUSIC in all that. Writing a dissertation does not mean you get stage directing as a two-for-the-price-of-one.
I’m glad you got a chance to hear the full Stemme* (superb point about Traubel but I think Stemme is even better) experience live, and especially in this role. I didn’t get a chance to hear the live broadcast but based on YouTube and other recorded evidence she was – pretty much consistent with your description – absolutely astonishing. Her Burnnhilde might be one of – if not the (obviously depending on taste) – experiences out there. In the nature of things she will obviously suffer some ware and tear so there is some urgency. Let’s just hope she is judicious in avoiding all the offers and let’s hope she stays away from Elektra.
Your description of Kowaljow is very much consistent with my recollection from Dresden last year. Very impressive voice, run’s out of steam in the end. (Quite in contrast to James Morris and Dohmen – nowhere near as good – actually just heard him in terrible voice as the Commendatore from the Vienna Don G premier – but very judicious in conserving his resources toward the end). Curiously, he got pretty bad review from the premiere – unlike Stemme. Perhaps he had an off day.
I’m glad they got rid of the dancers but it appears the production remains sub – optimal.
Also, maybe I’m mistaken but isn’t Frank Van Aken Mr. Eva Maria Westbroek?
*I can’t believe I didn’t think of Traubel in the context of Stemme’s Brunnhilde. I haven’t listened to her in over 10 years (must catch up on it) but I remember when I heard her – as the Walkure Brunnhilde on a Met broadcast recording. I almost like her better than Flagstand – no upon reflection – and certainly more than Nilsson – who obviously had a remarkable and more appropriate voice.
Hi, Cavalier! I too hope that Stemme stays away from Elektra. It would not do her and the role any favor. She has already sung the Siegfried Brünnhilde – a friend of mine who was there was a bit disappointed – and I don’t know how she could deal with the second act of Götterdämmerung (and the Immolation Scene after a long evening), but the Walküre Brünnhilde suits her beautifully.
The Helen Traubel connection had never occurred to me before yesterday – on arriving home, I even decided to check my recordings and, yes, the effect is very similar. Only Stemme has a more reliable way to deal with her acuti (if this is what you are talking about).
Last time I wrote something about Flagstad (whose amazing voice is beyond any doubt, but whose performances sometimes seem quite placid to me), I got hate-mails. So here I am risking my mailbox’s peace again… In any case, irregular as she might have been and judging from recordings, Varnay has been my favourite all-round Brünnhilde. In a good day, she had the low, the top notes, the intelligence, the musicianship, the charisma, the authority, that unbelievable clarity of enunciation – you name it, she had it.
I was told Kowaljow had bad reviews. Well, I wasn’t there at the prima and did not listen to the broadcast, but a Wotan’s voice he has. And I bet he’ll be even better in a couple of years.
Mr. van Aken is indeed Eva-Maria Westbroek’s husband. They sang Siegmund and Sieglinde together in Frankfurt and it seems that his performance there was smoother (I wasn’t there, so I cannot tell).
As for the production, when will everybody understand that understanding BOTH theatre and music are requirements? In this production, for example, there were so many basic mistakes about placing actors on stage that I could not believe a major opera house agreed to present something like that for high-priced tickets.
Very good review, RML.
I saw Nina Stemme earlier this year on the same role here in SF and I second your words.
Beside that, it is pretty obvious that Guy Cassiers doesn’t have any commitment with Wager, with operas, with music or with the audience in Milano. His only commitment is with himself. It drive me nuts that Lissner (and others) hire “directors” that doesn’t have any interest on what they do or supposed to do. So far, American audiences are more respected on that regard.
As for Baremboim and the orchestra, is the guy on 0:34 chewing gum? 🙂
Thank you for a review which truly reflects the perfomance of a week ago.
For me too the whole performance never took off.
When booking tickets with the planned cast ,it should have been the show of the year. As it was, there was no extasy. The orchestral sound failed to move despite 6 Harps; it lacked poetry,subtleness or glory. Quite different to Barenboim’s Tristan at the same house two years or even the Tannhauser of last year at La Scala. I appologies i cannot lay my finger on why !
The Act I Siegmund Sieglinde scene was a relative flop! It can be so enthralling and exciting; as when Simon O Neill sang it at Covent Garden two years ago with Westbroek .Then it was edge of one’s seat with hairs on end ( O Neill did two nights instead of Domingo and won!)I had tickets to a Juan Diego Floresrecital at the Cadogan Hall the same evening – i left after the first act ti hear Flores but had to leave to go back to Wagner as the intoxication had total hold. Frank van Aken was steady but has no golden hefted tone of burnished quality or tenderness which are the vital qualities for lift off here! The rather weak peculiar sound of the top of Meier’s voice contributed to its lack of flight, wonderful as her voice and intense musicality is despite its current lack of full power now. What a musical gem of a singer though.
For me, Kowaljow lacked the enormous presence required for Wotan and just did not have the power or dynamic rangeof voice or personality to bring the character alive. In great contrast to the Wotan of John Tomlinson at Covent Garden two years ago. There he totally held the stage and put the fear of the Gods in one despite being over his vocal prime.
Against such a peculiarly weak Wotan of almost eccentric student like appearance, Nina Stemme had her work cut out to create magic with her father. She is the most wonderful of singers and in total homagei went four times to her Isolde at Covent Garden last year;she was simply electric in her effect on the audence. Since then i have further appreciated her brilliance in a solo recital in Rome last year at the Santa Cecelia accompanied on the piano by Pappano – it was remarkable.
At La Scala ,she was superb but on her own could not lift the evening. She is a brilliant actress and her voice the outstanding Wagnerian of this time. The only possible lack is that her sound is very focused at the top of the voice and one possibly misses the expansive atrium of vulnerability of some of the greats- the best non Wagnerian example that springs to mind being Mirell Freni.
Gubanova was special as Fricka being of striking appearance with a large confident warm sound.
John Tomlinson a pleasure to see, managing to very much hold his own as Hunding despite the ongoing passage of time.
The production was dull and further nailed this Die Walkure to a much more mediocre level than the audiences expectation. It is not forgiving music and needs outstanding excellence in every department. Sometimes the orchestra can make up a lot of the distance with all that Wagner has given; but it was just not there on this occasion.
Dr Michael Sandberg
Thanks, Michael. La Scala’s Tristan with Barenboim has tempted me to both Rhinegold and The Valkyrie in Milan, but I don’t think I’ll be there for Siegfried. I don’t believe that this situation is La Scala’s orchestra’s fault entirely, although they have a GREAT share of responsibility. Now I understand why Muti had to be a tyrant to obtain some consistent results from these guys… If you are not thrilled to be playing Wagner – even if this is your job and not your hobby – then what are you doing in an orchestra instead of pursuing a career in law or business? It pays better and you don’t have to perform before a knowing audience. In any case, Barenboim’s performance of The Rhinegold in Berlin with a far superior orchestra was far from thrilling. I can only imagine that he wants to make something different from his large-scale Bayreuth Ring, but something is really not working here.
I too have seen O’Neill (at the Met with Runnicles) – and he sang the role beautifully. He has a particularly pleasant voice for a tenor in this repertoire. As for Kowalijov, I would say you should wait a bit. His Wotan has reached important theatres too soon. In my opinion, he has the voice for it – which is something to celebrate! – and I am sure he’ll find the truth behind the sound and the words as Wotan. He deserves credit for being in the right path – he already shows that he understands the style, which is a sine qua non.