January Meme: Favorite Opera
Jan. 11th, 2021 11:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakcahn asked me about my favourite opera. Now there are not a few I love, but I would be cheating if I didn't admit to my absolute favourite, which is: Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), the second opera in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle.(Obligatory disclaimer: not only was Richard Wagner a terrible human being, he left a awful ideological legacy. I remember when one of my professors at Uni who had written a lot about Wagner with a sigh of relief turned over to writing about Verdi. Not that Verdi was perfect, he said, but good god, what a relief not having to deal with antisemitic rants and the worst fanboys anymore.) That said, he - my professor - never doubted for a moment Wagner had been one of the all time great and innovative composers. The Ring of the Nibelung in totem can be one of those magical theatre experiences, or it can be a marathon torture on your backside, if the production isn't good. I've seen some recordings and some live performances, among these two complete Ring cycles in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the opera house Wagner specifically designed and built to host the Ring, and it's true, the acoustics there are unique from the moment you hear the Es major as the first note of Rhinegold from beneath the stage, because in Bayreuth, the orchestra pit is located beneath the stage, with only the conductor visible for the audience.
(This means since the Bayreuth Festival takes place in summer that most musicians come in t-shirts and shorts. I'ts incredibly hot there.
shezan didn't believe me when I told her about this until I demonstrated when I brought her along for a performance.) If you have only a vague idea what The Ring of the Nibelung is all about, and which of the four operas contains which content, here's a Ring in 15 Minutes written by yours truly. The reason why The Valkyrie is my favourite of the four: firstly, it lacks that most obnoxious of heroes, Siegfried. Secondly, all the relationships it does feature are intensely moving. The (incesteous) twins, Siegmund and Sieglinde, are possibly the most sympathetic lovers Wagner ever created. The reason why Siegmund is a fugitive at the start of the opera is because he championed a woman who didn't want to marry her family's choice, not because he himself was in love with her but because she asked for his help and he gave it. Finding Sieglinde as another woman in a forced marriage, he sympathizes even before he loves, let alone before he recognizes her as his sister. Unlike his son - and not a few other Wagner characters - there's no cruelty in him, or boastfulness, or megalomania. Unlike his father, he's not looking for power. When he's offered eternal glory as a hero in Valhalla, he declines because this would mean being without Sieglinde. As for Sieglinde, here you have a woman who was kidnapped and enslaved as a child, and forced into a marriage, but who still is sympathetic to distressed strangers, determined to help them, again even before the big mutual declaration and identity reveal. (It's significant and psychologically astute that in act 2, the shame Sieglinde feels isn't about the (consensual and joyful) incest, it's about the marriage forced on her earlier.) The big love declaration/recognition/escape scene that concludes the first act has some of the most swoonworthy music ever composed. (Also, it's worth pointing out that this was staged in the 19th century when censorship still prevailed on opera and theatre stages - hence Verdi having to change all those Kings into dukes or American governors if they got assassinated or were threatened to, for example -, yet Wagner got his contemporary audience to cheer for the incesteous lovers as much as today's.) Here is the ending of Act 1 from the big centennary 1976 Ring cycle production in Bayreuth, directed by Patrice Chereau, conducted by Pierre Boulex. Sieglinde: Jeanine Althmeyer. Siegmund: Peter Hoffmann.
Then Act 2 reintroduces Wotan (having graduated from power corrupted jerk in the previous opera to brooding existentialist) and most importantly Brünnhilde, the titular Valkyrie, his favourite daughter who ends the act rebelling against him not out of anger but love. Act 2 also features an extented recitative dialogue scene which usually is the test to a production's worth, because it doesn't contain any big musical set pieces, it's a marital argument (between Frigga and Wotan), and yet it's the pivotal scene around which the opera revolves as Frigga with relentless reasoning destroys Wotan's self delusions and forces him to face the philosophical and legal bind he finds himself in. Yet unlike, say, Ortrud in Lohengrin (another female Wagner character who gets the better in several arguments, but who is the clear villain of her opera), Frigga isn't villainized for it, and when Brünnhilde later tries to blame her for Wotan's change of mind, he rejects that excuse as he himself has created the situation which Frigga only pointed out.
The most moving scene of Act 2, though, is when Brünnhilde - who as a Valkyrie is a goddess of death, after all - brings Siegmund the news of his impending demise in battle and subsequent reward (to be taken to Valhalla), and his reaction - not panicked about death but refusing an afterlife which his beloved Sieglinde cannot share - stuns and touches her so that she decides to help her half siblings. This makes Brünnhilde the first being from the world of the gods (in this cycle) who turns against it and its values for the sake of the humans, and it sets her up for the big conflict with her father which is what act 3 is all about. But before we get there, the "death announcement" scene (Brünnhilde: Gwynneth Jones, Siegmund: Peter Hoffmann, from the 1981 Bayreuth production):
Act 3 opens with one of the most famous Wagner compositions, the Ride of the Valkyries. For a time known even to Wagner haters via Coppola using it in Apocalypse Now as athe soundtrack of the US helicopters Napalm bombing Vietnam, which is blackest humor but not inaccurate. In the opera, these are death goddesses arriving with the corpses they've collected, after all. For all the zillions of parodies and performances, though, it's impossible for me not be somewhat swept away when I hear it. In the original Valkyrie score manuscript, Wagner has written, feeling justly proud: This is how you ride through the air. If someone wants a reminder, here's the Ride of the Valkyries from a Met production.
Act 3 though, as I said, emotionally is all about a bariton/soprano clash and reconciliation, err, a father and daughter relationship, containing all the fury, passion and in the end tenderness imaginable. (And then a nifty reprise of the previous opera's Loge (aka Loki) signature tune as Wotan conjures up the fire to guard Brünnhilde in her sleep.) Wotan's farewell from Brünnhilde in which he takes her divinity from her and leaves her human (when she will wake up again) is at the same time a passionate love declaration, and another scene which, in the right production, can move me to tears. Here it's James Morris doing the singing (Brünnhilde: Hildegard Behrens):
(For an older classic recording, check out Hans Hotter as Wotan, conducted by Herberts Knappertsbusch: here.
Now, one of the most amazing things is that while in summary all of this sounds really dark and depressing (by the time the opera ends, Siegmund is dead, so's Sieglinde's husband, Sieglinde is alive but pregnant and alone, and Wotan has lost all three children he cared most about through his own fault), it doesn't feel like this when you see and hear it performed. You - well, I - instead feel that love still wins (Brünnhilde has at least managed to save Sieglinde and given her hope again, and she and Wotan part not in hate but in love) . That the most obnoxious hero of them all is about to debut and the fall of Gods and men alike is inevitable, well, that's another opera.
The other days
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Date: 2021-01-11 06:07 pm (UTC)(Wagner and Verdi: I know that since Verdi didn't write his own librettos, one can't necessarily take the text to indicate anything -- and yet, as a whole, from his operas (I know very little about him personally) I do rather get the feeling that he was a decent and trustworthy person. Whereas I think Wagner was a genius (and I love Walküre, and to a lesser extent Rheingold) but I don't get that vibe from his operas (...and then... there's Siegfried), even if I didn't know he was terrible.)
The production you show of Altmeyer/Hoffman/Jones is in fact the first recording (of the entire Ring) I ever watched, and totally imprinted on <3 They are all just so good <3 (In fact... back when I was a terrible singing student, my excellent singing teacher told me about a masterclass by Altmeyer that was being given local to me that I could watch, and about what a powerhouse singer she was. Unfortunately at the time, not knowing anything about opera, I didn't get a lot out of watching the masterclass (I would enjoy it a lot more now), but the whole thing was what inspired me to check out the Ring in general and that Chereau/Boulez Ring in particular, so in that respect it succeeded.)
As you say in your writeup, this opera has got it all: Siegmund/Sieglinde love story that is also a dysfunctional family story (...which... before a year ago I wouldn't have identified as one of my tropes, but... apparently incest is one of the tropes I have to acknowledge in myself now??); deep existential god crisis (and when I watched the Chereau I was just riveted by it, actually); Wotan's dysfunctional family relationships and his dysfunctional contractual obligations, and his mutual deep love for and from Brünnhilde which emotionally drives so much of the opera; Brünnhilde and her relationship with Siegmund and Sieglinde that isn't romantic in the slightest and is just amazing <3
(And then we get Siegfried, which is possibly one of my least favorite operas that I've ever watched?? And I didn't like the Chereau/Boulez Götterdämmerung -- mostly because I didn't like the way Brünnhilde was portrayed, which I thiiiiiink was direction rather than inherent in the opera, and I think I might like another production. But though I've watched several Rheingolds and Walküres since then I've never been able to bring myself to tackle Götterdämmerung again, though if you have a rec I might try it again. (Not going for Siegfried again though, until/unless I go for an entire Ring cycle. One of these days! Maybe someday even in Bayreuth! :D ) )
Frigga isn't villainized for it, and when Brünnhilde later tries to blame her for Wotan's change of mind, he rejects that excuse as he himself has created the situation which Frigga only pointed out.
Huh! I suppose it's a testament to the excellence of this part that it never crossed my mind that Frigga should be villanized for it -- she is right :P
That scene at the beginning of Act Two Scene Four, gosh, I love that so much. All the buildup with Walhall and all the wonderous things that are there, and even his loved, lost father as well, and then, since Sieglinde cannot go, just: So grüße mir Walhall, grüße mir Wotan, grüße mir Wälse und alle Helden, grüß' auch die holden Wunschesmädchen: zu ihnen folg' ich dir nicht! -- just fantastic, shivers down my spine and tears too.
(And somehow I had not been completely spoiled for the opera -- idk how, I'd even read Volsungsaga by that time -- so Wotan breaking Siegmund's sword and then subsequently killing Hunding was a complete shock to me, which was an amazing experience.)
Act 3 though, as I said, emotionally is all about a bariton/soprano clash and reconciliation, err, a father and daughter relationship, containing all the fury, passion and in the end tenderness imaginable.
haha! As you know, I can't ever resist a baritone/soprano clash, certainly not when it comes with reconciliation <3 :D
In addition to all the wonderful parts you talk about, also I adore the interplay between Brünnhilde and Sieglinde in the beginning of Act 3 -- just all of it, with Brünnhilde trying so hard and getting pushback from her sisters; Sieglinde having given up hope and is asking only for death, and Brünnhilde tells her that she is pregnant with Siegmund's child and immediately she's all Rette mich, Kühne! and Brünnhilde sending her on to flee while volunteering to take Wotan's wrath on herself, both of them knowing it's going to be super tough for both of them (and then her sisters FINALLY kinda stepping up) -- oh gosh all of this is just SO GREAT. (And like. I am not sure I can name any other scene in any other opera where it's all women and the whole scene is awesome? Oh, I guess there's Dialogues of the Carmelites but that's a totally different kind of opera :) )
Anyway, thank you for talking about this opera!! I have a lot of feelings about it too as you can see :D
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Date: 2021-01-12 09:14 am (UTC)Siegfried: yeah. No need to watch it again ever, though admittedly some of the music is great - much as I can't stand Siegfried himself, the concluding sequence of the opera culminating in the duet between him and Brünnhilde is very listenable, but then, one can do so on a recording. My professor said it was the meanest thing Wagner ever did to a tenor, because you have to imagine in performance, a completely exhausted Heldentenor who has already sung through two acts then meets a completely rested heroic soprano and has to match her. This is why independent of characterisation, Siegfried is considered a murderous part for tenors.
Götterdämmerung: I don't know whether you've read Shaw's The Perfect Wagnerite, which Chereau based his interpretation of the centennary Ring on, i.e. basically the Ring is Wagner (who in his youth had been one of the 1848 revolutionaries) critiquing capitalism and industrialism, mixed with some Schopenhauer. Shaw points out that the problem with Götterdämmerung is that Wagner wrote the Ring backwards, i.e. he started out with Götterdämmerung, then decided it wouldn't do without the backstory and kept at it till he had arrived at Rheingold. This had the effect that the earlier operas are more layered and subtle. Götterdämmerung, quoth Shaw, thus is a perfectly acceptable grand opera in the Meyerbeer style (ouch and lol, given Wagner's hate-on for Meyerbeer), but it's not on a level with Valkyrie and Rheingold. Now, there's something to it though it disregards that having written the Ring backwards, Wagner did of course revise etc. the entire oeuvre before going public with it for years and years. But you know how in the last decade there's been more than one tv show where fans complained about the ending which turned out to be the one creators had envisioned (and in some cases, even filmed) from the start, which, however, did no longer naturally flow from what had happened in between? I suspect Shaw was on to something and this might be a similar case. Still, if I come across an available really good production, I'll tell you.
(And any case, if in the far future when opera is staged live again you have the chance to watch some of the Ring in a big opera house, go for it. It really, accoustically and visually, is such an immersive experience that can't be matched by recordings. One of the live Valkyrie performances I saw was the last time Waltraud Meier sung in Bayreuth. She was Sieglinde to Placido's Siegmund, and since everyone knew this would be her last time in Bayreuth, there was much expectation in the air. Which she surpassed. She was so wonderful this evening (and he was a model of supportive restraint), and the reaction of the audience completed the performance in a way you just don't get on dvd.)
And like. I am not sure I can name any other scene in any other opera where it's all women and the whole scene is awesome?
Not this many women at any rare, since scenes with just two are a different matter.
so Wotan breaking Siegmund's sword and then subsequently killing Hunding was a complete shock to me, which was an amazing experience
I can imagine. I was unspoiled, too, the first time I heard it (I heard a recording on tape before I saw a performance), and the Geh to Hunding was just - guh. Performance-wise, btw, I like what Otto Schenk did in his direction of the Met Ring where he lets the dying Siegmund recognize Wotan and Wotan respond to this during that scene, for which of course you need two singers who can also act well.
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Date: 2021-01-22 06:20 am (UTC)I have not read the Shaw, but that sounds extremely RTMI. Lol to Götterdämmerung being Meyerbeer-style grand opera, hee! But there's something to it -- I remember what I liked about it was mostly just plot, without what makes the first two special. But yeah, ha, I can see what you're saying about the comparison to TV shows, that makes a lot of sense.
And wow, that sounds like just a wonderful Valkyrie performance, that's so cool you got to watch it!
Ohh... I will look up the Schenk Ring. I'm watching the 2011 Met Ring right now. (I blame you!) Yay Met on Demand subscription :D
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Date: 2021-01-11 09:39 pm (UTC)Oooooooooooooooh!