Although Götz Friedrich’s Siegfried has more many splashes of kitsch, it remains my favorite production in his 1984 Ring for the Deutsche Oper – the blacksmith’s shop in act I is just irresistible (I like to believe that I have learned to forge a sword only by watching it). Jasmin Solfaghari’s Spielleitung could not avoid to follow some instructions that did not work very well for this cast, but I have found many scenes more spontaneous this year than last time. That said, there were too many examples of stage management amateurism this evening for comfort (especially an inextinguishable magic fire that required many visible stagehands).
I cannot tell if this performance’s more positive orchestral sound is the result of extra effort from Donald Runnicles or his orchestra – or simply a natural consequence of Wagner’s more rhythmic, brassy and percussive score. This fact alone – even if singers had to struggle to be heard – made this Siegfried more classically Wagnerian, but the bureaucratic feeling was still there. Although some moments sounded indeed agitated, the results were more mechanical than lively. In my memory, the also better cast performance I saw last year feature music-making of superior quality. During this performance, I couldn’t help wondering why the Deutsche Oper deemed it important to revive this Ring at all – the production is helplessly old, the conductor’s heart seems to be somewhere else and the orchestra is not really in the mood. And the casting is problematic. If there is good weather on Sunday, I might not even come for Götterdämmerung.
The congenial and convincingly boyish Torsten Kerl is very much a son of Robert Dean Smith’s Siegmund. As his “father”, he has a pleasant, natural voice, finds no problem in flowing legato and his tenor is two sizes smaller than it should. He sang with crystalline diction, good taste and sensitivity in a way that made the role of Siegfried surprisingly cantabile, but was often hard to hear, even in his top register, which is rather soft-centered and does not quite pierce through. His Mime, Burkhard Ulrich, as it often happens, was quite more forceful than him (probably the most hearable voice in this cast). Although I prefer a less hyperactive approach to the role, Ulrich deserves unreserved praise for his full commitment, acting skills and vocal security.
Last year, Mark Delavan had not sung the role of the Wanderer and decided to give it a try in Berlin for the first time this evening. I have the impression that he was not in very good shape – the voice sounded even more reduced in volume than usual and he was quite tired by the end. He had his share of problems with the text too, but I would risk to say that he is finding a Wotan inside him somehow. His stage attitude is more appropriate and his singing more integrated (instead of long undistinguished passages with occasional big important notes). In comparison, Gordon Hawkins sounded richer-toned and more forceful, but even less at ease in terms of personality in his role than on Rheingold. Ewa Wolak remains an impressive Erda, Ante Jerunica is again a most efficient Fafner and Hila Fahima is an ideal Waldvogel. When it comes to Janice Baird’s Brünnhilde, I am afraid that her performance is even more problematic than last year. She seemed so concentrated on trying to produce the notes that there is no interpretation to write about – and even the notes themselves left more than something to be desired. By the end of the opera, she was just trying to survive. I wonder how she is going to manage to sing the Götterdämmerung Brünnhilde, which has far more than one difficult duet with Siegfried.
I HEAR VOICES 
Is the dragon still effective? I remember it as one this production’s highlights. Can you believe Rene Kollo was the Siegfried? That’s how long the production has been around.
Yes and no. It was better done this year – the “dragon” moved in a more threatening way, but then Siegfried barely touches it and it’s dead. They should have blocked something a little bit more exciting. And hang those green fabrics a little bit less “yes, it’s just fabrics, so what?”.
PS – It seems this wad the 49th time this evening…
Sounds like the dragon has changed considerably. It was a snorting, large machine when I saw the production. Very effective.
Yes – it still is. But last year it was so clumsy that it didn’t turn out very well.
I try not to read reviews anymore, but rml yours are more conversational-oriented, freely structured, candidly unfussy & sincere than what I usually see.
— Good pinpoint: ‘Siegfried as a ‘natural consequence of Wagner’s more rhythmic, brassy and percussive score’ — the very thing I like most about this, my favorite Ring opera, put into words! Thanks!
— If you can enjoy Manuela Uhl you have a far greater depth of audial appreciation than I have, but I have to admit it has been more than 10 years since I heard Manuela Uhl sing anything. Time stops for no one; nothing stays the same.
— But Janice Baird? I always look for positive reviews of singers I think sound horrible on the radio and when I find a positive review of one of these hexe, it’s source is invariably the inaudible but overwhelmingly persuasive magnetisim of their stage presence & interpretation (Susan MacLean?) that convinces people they are obliged, nay they must! praise them no matter what they actually heard. This is a live in-auditorium experience; it can’t be heard in a broadcast. Thus it remains a time proven fact that stage presence alone often usurps intrinsic musical values. I found one positive review of Janice Baird a few years back, as Barak’s Weib in Frau ohne Schatten; but that’s the only one I have come across that recommends her unconditionally.
— Is it a matter of econo-political maneuvering or just the fact that Baird makes herself available? She was so bad I had to turn the radio off every time I heard her. But she shows up everywhere and anywhere. I guess you weren’t charmed enough by her elegaic interpretation, the way she reeled back, fluttered her hands, etc.
— For some reason the Siegfried final duet exposes every Brünnhilde’s vocal flaws more so than any other place in the Ring — no one is immune. But they all fared better in the Götterdämmerung Brünnhilde, which is not as exposed on top and can be more successfully adjusted to the singer at hand . I remember going to Bayreuth one summer and seeing Ludmilla Dvorakova sing Ortrud (short on the top notes); the following autumn I went to see Götterdämmerung at the Staatsoper in the (then) Ost-Berlin with dreaded foreboding: Dvorakova was singing Brünnhilde. I needn’t have worried. Dvorakova only had to take a few notes down and the swap was worth it to get the reflugent metallic breadth of her voice.
— I can’t guarantee anything but I suggest you go Sunday.
Hi, Jerold!
Good to “read” you and thanks for the kind words again. Well, actually, the one time I could really enjoy to a certain level JB’s singing was… as Färberin in Zürich. So the review your read is consistent with my experience. I wouldn’t say she has any sort of stage magnetism. It’s very much stand&deliver with some very artifficial poses in between.
Yes, the Siegfried Brünnhilde feels as if Wagner thought “since this is going to be short, she’ll have to work harder”. The thing with the Götterdämmerung Brünnhilde is that this is the opera in the Ring in which the soprano really has to show what she is doing there: she has to sing, she has to act, she has to pour her soul on stage. If a soprano stays there for hours just bracing for the next high or low note, then it is a colossal loss of time. And, with all caveats, Evelyn Herlitzius offered a truly exciting second act last year. She was not merely following a routine there. This year’s cycle makes me feel like going on stage and asking everybody “do you really feel like singing, playing, conducting this?”. It’s such demanding music – if your heart is not into it and you’re doing just to pay the bills in the end of the month, then it must be the worst job in the world.
Free-lancing or booking short gigs in revivals of old productions isn’t for everyone. The activity requires a great deal of experience, flexibility and creative imagination, artists can interact with each other with a great deal of spontaneity provided intuitive lines of communication have already established together at other venues. However, this is not always the case.
— If a performer is not a known, successfully marketed commodity and he or she doesn’t really feel personally involved with a production, it can be quite difficult to spark any instinctual spontaneity with the audience.
— And then there are great singers (like Torsten Kerl) who never quite manage to break free of personal adherence to their own technique. From what you say and also what I read elsewhere verifying your statements, Kerl doesn’t have a bright enough edge on his tone to repeatedly penetrate through the great brass wall of sound. But on the other hand, you may never hear a Siegfried with such elegant cantilena phrasing again.