Die Walküre
Jul. 28th, 2006 08:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakSecond day of the Ring, and perhaps I ought to explain why this whole opera business takes up most of my day as opposed to a few hours. Firstly, a friend of mine and someone I know professionally, who signs my cheques, so to speak, are attending for the first time and also are visiting Bamberg for the first timle. So when we're not at Bayreuth, which is about an hour away from my hometown Bamberg, we're doing the sightseeing thing.
*insert burst of Bamberg pride at hailing from prettiest town in Germany*
But the performances at Bayreuth start at 4 pm. Which means if you want a place at the parking lot, you start in Bamberg at 2 pm, arrive around a quarter to 3 or at 3 pm, park and then stroll around the Festspielhaus, browse among the rare CDs at the stand the local bookstore has at the festival, chat and buy high-priced drinks because it's incredibly hot. Though nowhere near as hot outside as it is inside. Walking outside, especially in the garden area - there is a reason why the whole thing is called "Grüner Hügel", i.e. "Green Hill" is quite pleasant. It also captures the ever-presentness of the past - that particular past which you can't not think about in Bayreuth. So, on the one hand, you have Arno Breker's portrait bust of Wagner standing around (Breker = Hitler's favourite sculptor; currently, there is the first exhbition of his work post WWII in Northern Germany, and there is a huge debate in the papers about it), and on the other, you have a memorial plate for two singers, regulars at Bayreuth, who were murdered in concentration camps.
Meanwhile, Die Walküre: my favourite of the four Ringoperas. As it turned out, Beate - my friend - had never seen it on stage before, and watching it with someone who got caught up in the story and the music because it was all new was fascinating. "I didn't know one could fall in love on stage so passionately" she said about the first act with Siegmund and Sieglinde, and cried after the third with Wotan and Brünnhilde. (I don't blame her - my favourite father-daughter relationship in music, and the tragedy of it makes me misty-eyed as well each time (unless the performance sucks and enrages me instead, of course). The scenery this time was a bit dull at first - I've seen that "ruined nineteenth century grand house" for Hunding's hut in the first act before. The second act, otoh, presented more inventiveness - at first, Wotan and Brünnhilde seemed actually on top of a mountain among the mist, but when the stage fog cleared, you could see they were surrounded by broken statues, which does relate to the declining world of the gods.
The most important elements were, of course, the singers. Adrianne Pieczonka, a Canadian singer according to the program, made her Bayreuth debut as Siegline, and was truly stunning. She got the special kind of applause to go with it - not just clapping of hands, but trampling of feet and "bravo, bravo" calls both after the first act and later with the general curtain call. Her Siegmund, Endrik Wottrich, on the other hand, got a few boos after the first act, which I thought was unfair - he was not spectacular, but good, and took the criticial passages - "Wälse, Wälse, wo ist dein Schwert" and "Winterstürme weichen dem Wonnemond" very well. When I chatted with the bookstore people later, I found out the reason - apparantly Wottrich had not been good as Erik two evenings earlier in Der Fliegende Holländer, plus the gossip was that he only got the job because he has an affair with Katharina Wagner, which made for resentment among the Wagnerians. I still thought it unfair. If he got the job done, there was no reason to boo.
Falk Struckmann as Wotan really came into his own, after being more in the background in Rheingold, and Linda Watson sang beautifully as Brünnhilde, though I had to pity her - the costumes for the Valkyries looked horribly uncomfortable, and Ms. Watson is somewhat voluminous (which of course is true for most singers in the part *g*). Again, allow me the heresy to wish for a fantasy production, with someone who watched various fantasy tv shows and knows that you can design female armour in a better way. OTOH, it must be said I never saw a production who got across that the Valkyries were death godesses so well, and the red armour/dress helped with that. The encounter between Brünnhilde and Siegmund, before she decides to help him, was truly eerie.
Shortly before the second break ended, a sudden burst of applause went through the audience; as it turned out, Placido Domingo had shown up to attend. (Domingo sang in Bayreuth a couple of times - I have seen him in Parsifal and in Die Walküre during the previous Ring - so presumably he could get a last minute ticket.) It was the second evening without the director showing, though. I haven't heard an explanation yet why Tankred Dorst doesn't come on stage in the end. Though the man is 80, so perhaps it's simply the heat - supposedly, it gets around 50° Centigrade in the Festspielhaus, and I can believe it. Christian Thielemann took his laurels for a second day.
Siegfried won't be performed until tomorrow, so today it's sightseeing time, all the way.
*insert burst of Bamberg pride at hailing from prettiest town in Germany*
But the performances at Bayreuth start at 4 pm. Which means if you want a place at the parking lot, you start in Bamberg at 2 pm, arrive around a quarter to 3 or at 3 pm, park and then stroll around the Festspielhaus, browse among the rare CDs at the stand the local bookstore has at the festival, chat and buy high-priced drinks because it's incredibly hot. Though nowhere near as hot outside as it is inside. Walking outside, especially in the garden area - there is a reason why the whole thing is called "Grüner Hügel", i.e. "Green Hill" is quite pleasant. It also captures the ever-presentness of the past - that particular past which you can't not think about in Bayreuth. So, on the one hand, you have Arno Breker's portrait bust of Wagner standing around (Breker = Hitler's favourite sculptor; currently, there is the first exhbition of his work post WWII in Northern Germany, and there is a huge debate in the papers about it), and on the other, you have a memorial plate for two singers, regulars at Bayreuth, who were murdered in concentration camps.
Meanwhile, Die Walküre: my favourite of the four Ringoperas. As it turned out, Beate - my friend - had never seen it on stage before, and watching it with someone who got caught up in the story and the music because it was all new was fascinating. "I didn't know one could fall in love on stage so passionately" she said about the first act with Siegmund and Sieglinde, and cried after the third with Wotan and Brünnhilde. (I don't blame her - my favourite father-daughter relationship in music, and the tragedy of it makes me misty-eyed as well each time (unless the performance sucks and enrages me instead, of course). The scenery this time was a bit dull at first - I've seen that "ruined nineteenth century grand house" for Hunding's hut in the first act before. The second act, otoh, presented more inventiveness - at first, Wotan and Brünnhilde seemed actually on top of a mountain among the mist, but when the stage fog cleared, you could see they were surrounded by broken statues, which does relate to the declining world of the gods.
The most important elements were, of course, the singers. Adrianne Pieczonka, a Canadian singer according to the program, made her Bayreuth debut as Siegline, and was truly stunning. She got the special kind of applause to go with it - not just clapping of hands, but trampling of feet and "bravo, bravo" calls both after the first act and later with the general curtain call. Her Siegmund, Endrik Wottrich, on the other hand, got a few boos after the first act, which I thought was unfair - he was not spectacular, but good, and took the criticial passages - "Wälse, Wälse, wo ist dein Schwert" and "Winterstürme weichen dem Wonnemond" very well. When I chatted with the bookstore people later, I found out the reason - apparantly Wottrich had not been good as Erik two evenings earlier in Der Fliegende Holländer, plus the gossip was that he only got the job because he has an affair with Katharina Wagner, which made for resentment among the Wagnerians. I still thought it unfair. If he got the job done, there was no reason to boo.
Falk Struckmann as Wotan really came into his own, after being more in the background in Rheingold, and Linda Watson sang beautifully as Brünnhilde, though I had to pity her - the costumes for the Valkyries looked horribly uncomfortable, and Ms. Watson is somewhat voluminous (which of course is true for most singers in the part *g*). Again, allow me the heresy to wish for a fantasy production, with someone who watched various fantasy tv shows and knows that you can design female armour in a better way. OTOH, it must be said I never saw a production who got across that the Valkyries were death godesses so well, and the red armour/dress helped with that. The encounter between Brünnhilde and Siegmund, before she decides to help him, was truly eerie.
Shortly before the second break ended, a sudden burst of applause went through the audience; as it turned out, Placido Domingo had shown up to attend. (Domingo sang in Bayreuth a couple of times - I have seen him in Parsifal and in Die Walküre during the previous Ring - so presumably he could get a last minute ticket.) It was the second evening without the director showing, though. I haven't heard an explanation yet why Tankred Dorst doesn't come on stage in the end. Though the man is 80, so perhaps it's simply the heat - supposedly, it gets around 50° Centigrade in the Festspielhaus, and I can believe it. Christian Thielemann took his laurels for a second day.
Siegfried won't be performed until tomorrow, so today it's sightseeing time, all the way.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-28 11:36 am (UTC)The encounter between Brünnhilde and Siegmund, before she decides to help him, was truly eerie.
my favorite scene, just even musically speaking - it gives me shivers even thinking about it!
I'd love to see it in Bayreuth someday (only perhaps a bit cooler ;))
no subject
Date: 2006-07-29 09:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-28 04:44 pm (UTC)That's a very nifty idea.
You know, I don't think I've seen any of the Ring cycle performed complete, just a scene or two. It's not so often performed in America. There seems to be a preference for Mozart and anything Italian.
OTOH, it must be said I never saw a production who got across that the Valkyries were death godesses so well, and the red armour/dress helped with that. The encounter between Brünnhilde and Siegmund, before she decides to help him, was truly eerie.
Oh now that is something I wish I had seen!
no subject
Date: 2006-07-29 06:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-28 10:28 pm (UTC)Some of the pictures I gathered for that post LJ ate last year:
no subject
Date: 2006-07-29 06:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-29 11:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-29 12:13 am (UTC)Stamping?
I'm enjoying the reviews.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-29 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-30 09:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-30 12:22 pm (UTC)