Above: Wotan and Loge descend to Nibelheim in The Met's RHEINGOLD
~ Author: Oberon
Thursday March 14th, 2019 - The Met's massive - and very expensive - Robert Lepage RING Cycle is finally back at Lincoln Center. Although it now seemingly functions far more smoothly mechanically than it did previously, it is still short on visual impact and dramatic impetus.
Despite a couple of nice coups de théâtre, nothing really happens in this production that could not happen on a conventional set. There are still long stretches when the characters simply stand about, singing to one another, as they always have in these long, narrative operas: they don't need a multi-million dollar machine to do that. The heavy-duty cables used to haul the singers, or their doubles, along the Nibelheim staircase or up the steep incline to Valhalla at the end are so visible that any sense of illusion is lost. And periodically, dark-clad humans can be seen on the set, making things happen. It's not really very magical.
But at least we do have Wagner's music, which has survived numerous stagings over the decades since Lilli Lehmann and her sister Rhinemaidens were driven about on small carts, making aquatic gestures, at the Bayreuth premiere:
In the pit tonight, Philippe Jordan gave a rather fast, glossy reading of the score which The Met musicians played well for the most part. The singers, on an open set on the cavernous stage, were sometimes covered by the orchestra; at a couple of points, unity between stage and pit faltered. Overall, the feeling of a deep musical experience, which James Levine and his orchestra could invariably provide in this opera, was lacking. What thrills there were came from the individual singers.
A clanging metallic noise as the opening Rhine music continued to swell did not bode well for The Machine, but thereafter it functioned unobtrusively. The squeaky sounds of the singers' shoes as they move about the set is annoying, however: it creates an added leitmotif that Wagner didn't write.
The Rhinemaidens - Amanda Woodbury, Samantha Hankey, and Tamara Mumford - formed an excellent trio, and Ms. Mumford in particular was vocally extraordinary: such warm, rich, alluring sound!
Wendy Bryn Harmer's Freia is vocally strong and physically appealing - will we ever get to hear her Ariadne or Sieglinde at The Met? - but her character suffers the indignity of being clumsily slung in a fishnet hammock for the gold weigh-in: one of the worst theatrical ideas ever. As her brothers, Michael Todd Simpson brings both lyricism and power to Donner, and Adam Diegel sang with great beauty of tone and poetic expression as Froh. Mr. Diegel's sounds like a Lohengrin voice to me. Both men were active participants in whatever dramatic possibilities they could seize upon.
The excellent giants were Günther Groissböck and Dmitry Belosselskiy. As Fasolt, Mr. Groissböck has a lot to sing in the opera's second scene, and he sings is gloriously, with great expressiveness. Meanwhile, Fafner/Belosselskiy listens to his brother's lovesick mooning with amused contempt. We had a perfect view of the Russian basso from our high perch: his acting here was so engaging. Later, when he does sing - and commits fratricide - he's fantastic.
Gerhard Siegel's Mime was spectacular: so pointed his diction, so creepy his use of whispered piano tones, so tragic the position in which he finds himself: enslaved by his sadistic brother. At the bows, Mr. Siegel was roundly cheered, so well-deserved.
Karen Cargill, who has been a wonderful Met Waltraute (GOTTERDAMMERUNG) , Magdalena in MESTERSINGER, and Anna in TROYENS, was somewhat hampered tonight by being placed beneath an overhanging section of planks. She carried on, her singing both moving and alive with verbal detail. And she looked like a goddess.
I wish I could be more enthusiastic about Jamie Barton, who sang very well - especially with true beauty of tone in scene two's passage "Wotan, Gemahl, unsel'ger Mann!". But I can't feel a personality behind the voice (think Christa Ludwig or Mignon Dunn); it's just generically pleasant.
Greer Grimsley, his voice nobly weathered by long use in the most demanding roles, makes a strong impact as Wotan. At times the orchestra covered him (and he was not the only singer to this happened to - Mssr. Jordan could have been more thoughtful); but even so, Mr. Grimsley succeeded thru verbal cunning and stage savvy. Long association with the role stood him in good stead, and he summoned all his powers at the opera's conclusion to carry the day for Wagner. The audience cheered him to the rafters at his bow.
Norbert Ernst enjoyed a huge success as Loge. His singing had power and his diction had point; phrase after incisive, deliciously-coloured phrase, aligned with graceful movement and ever-astute attention to everything that happens onstage, made for a terrific portrayal.
In 2014, with the Vienna State Opera at Carnegie Hall, the Polish baritone Tomasz Konieczny gave one of the great operatic interpretations of my experience as Jochanaan in a concert performance of SALOME. Tonight, as Alberich, Mr. Konieczy was again splendid, both as singer and actor.
Amusingly sinister in his pursuit of the Rhinemaidens - in this production, they sit with the dwarf atop a waterfall and gab heedlessly with him, like old friends having a catch-up - this Alberich turns dangerous when he learns of the gold, and its potential. His theft of it, a glowing chunk of rock, is effectively staged.
In scene two, now the gloating master of Nibelheim, Mr. Konieczny was a chilling tyrant. Great subtlety filled his singing as he sang of what an advantage the Tarnhelm has given him. Tricked, and hauled up to the terrace of the gods, Konieczny is deranged and desperate: he talks to himself, and to his precious ring. "What a thief stole, we will steal from the thief!", Loge had said earlier. Now, when it happens, Konieczny has his epic Alberich-moment: on his knees, he sets the curse of the ring in motion with singing of magnificent power and insidious inflection. Driven mad, he rushes away.
At last we come to the infamous climb of the body-doubles up the steep path to Valhalla, which failed so miserably at the dress rehearsal when this production was new. With hefty cables visibly attached - and now with a tall, slender Fricka - the actors try hard to make it work. But it just looks clumsy and risible. I won't repeat what the famous soprano sitting next to me said after the curtain fell at that memorable (for the wrong reasons) rehearsal; but in a few choice, spicy words, she described all that is wrong with this folly of a RING Cycle.
This performance came fifty years - nearly to the day - after I saw my very first RHEINGOLD at The Met in 1969. Conducted by Herbert von Karajan, in his short-lived production, it was part of a memorable Met weekend such as would be unlikely to happen in this day and age.
Metropolitan Opera House
March 14, 2019
DAS RHEINGOLD
Richard Wagner
Wotan...................Greer Grimsley
Fricka..................Jamie Barton
Alberich................Tomasz Konieczny
Loge....................Norbert Ernst
Erda....................Karen Cargill
Fasolt..................Gunther Groissböck
Fafner..................Dmitry Belosselskiy
Freia...................Wendy Bryn Harmer
Froh....................Adam Diegel
Donner..................Michael Todd Simpson
Mime....................Gerhard Siegel
Woglinde................Amanda Woodbury
Wellgunde...............Samantha Hankey
Flosshilde..............Tamara Mumford
Conductor...............Philippe Jordan
~ Oberon