Das Rheingold in HD

[rsc]

Yesterday jwg and I went to Rockport to see the HD cinema-broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Wagner's Das Rheingold. A first for us on two counts: This was our first experience of these cinamtic broadcasts, and it was our first look at Rockport's new Shalin Liu Performance Center (since we never got our act together to get to the chamber usic festival this summer).

Although I'm going to carp a bit later on, let me start out by saying that this is a fabulous production, and I really hope and intend to get to see the whole cycle live next season. The much-touted technically-marvelous set works really well (most of the time), the musical performance is excellent overall, and the acting and staging is (mostly) very convincing.

I'll start by talking about the singing, since, no matter what else is going on, the singing is what really matters. Which means I really have to start with Bryn Terfel's Wotan.Terfel has only recently moved into Wagner, but you'd never know it; big, solid, attractive voice, commanding presence -- altogether a worthy successor to James Morris. I thought his acting was rather stiff, but the Rheingold Wotan is a bit of a stiff; I'll reserve judgement until I see him in Die Walküre.

I also want to single out for special praise Richard Croft's Loge and Eric Owens's Alberich, both of whom sang with beautiful expression and really brought their characters to life -- especially Owens; in my opinion, if the audience doesn't feel some sympathy for Alberich, he's not doing it right. None of this is to slight any of the other singers; it would be unfair to compare Stephanie Blythe (or, indeed, anyone) to Christa Ludwig, but other than that I have no complaints about her. The only performance I didn't like was the tenor who sang Froh (for some reason the printed program doesn't include Froh and Donner, and neither does the cast list on the Met's web site), whose voice was loud and coarse to my ears. (He was also nowhere near the beat in his last solo.)

The acting was generally excellent -- it was nice to see a Freia (Wendy Bryn Harmer) with real character, including a suggestion that she felt some sympathy for the lovesick Fasolt.

James Levine really knows this music, and gets wonderful sounds out of the Met orchestra. As has always been the case, I don't agree with all of his choices -- I like faster tempos than he does, for the most part -- but he makes it work.

All right, the production. There were times when I felt that the set called a little too much attention to itself, and I would have liked to see something that looked even a little bit like Valhalla, but the variously-tilting platforms contributed to dynamic elements that can easily be lost in this not particularly fast-moving piece. The descent to and ascent from Nibelheim were magical, and the Scene 3 set itself was spectacular. I thought it was cool that Freia, Froh, and Donner entered by toboganning down the slope, and Loge's fire effects were fun, if occasionally distracting. It struck me as odd that Fafner and Fasolt entered on opposite sides of the stage, and never went anywhere near each other until their fatal quarrel, but I suspect that this was a deliberate attempt to emphasize the divide between them.

The one place where I thought that directorial cleverness was distinctly counterproductive was the opening scene. It's all very well to give the Rhine maidens mermaid tails, but the result was to render them all but immobile, and everything in the music, the text, and Wagner's stage directions all insist that they are very mobile indeed in their native environment, in stark contrast to Alberich's difficulties under water; he shouldn't be able to get around better than they can.

All right, this turned out longer than it was going to be. Anyway, it was great, and I'm glad I got to see it.

Comments

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have to admit that a closeup of Bryn Terfel singing is not a pretty sight.