Simon O'Neill's Met Siegmund

Saturday February 9, 2008 - Simon O'Neill was among the many singers I heard at Juilliard in the years immediately following my move to NYC in 1998. Most notable was Simon's powerfully emotional singing of the role of Chevalier de la Force in a Juilliard Opera Center production of DIALOGUES OF THE CARMELITES in a cast which featured Lauren Skuce, Angela Fout, Guang Yang and the late Makiko Narumi. Last season Simon's strong, warm voice made an outstanding impression in the role of the Priest of Neptune in Mozart's IDOMENEO. He has had some important engagements elsewhere; today he had the opportunity to sing a single performance of Siegmund in DIE WALKURE at the Met. This Saturday matinee was excluded from the broadcast schedule and so only by going to the House could I experience Simon's performance.

I had a score desk which means I had no view of the stage (for Act I anyway); it's been years since I used a Met score desk and it is actually quite an interesting experience to follow the score of an opera you think you know really well and discover new elements in it. One thing that impressed me today was how often Wagner marks the score "piano"; Donald Runnicles, the orchestra and the singers were all honoring Wagner's instructions. Runnicles takes WALKURE at a faster pace than Maazel or Levine: he pulls us right into the opera with his menacing, impassioned storm music. Runnicles was wonderfully supportive of his singers giving them leaway and cushioning the voices rather than challenging them to out-shout the waves of sound from the pit.

Let's say right off: Simon was a wonderfully clear, expressive and vocally tireless Siegmund. It's a real tenor sound without the baritonal factors that we often hear in this music. It's warm and melodic, devoid of the pushing, strangulated tones that some heldentenors produce in this music. Sure of pitch and steady of breath, Simon produced phrase after phrase of attractive vocalism coloured with the passion of youth. Following along in my score, Simon seemed to be an adept word-painter as well and very attentive to dynamic markings. In the taxing Sword Monolog, Simon sustained the perilous cries "Walse! Walse!" with beacons of tone, and his reading of 'Wintersturme' put my friend Barry in mind of a young Jon Vickers. Thrillingly, Simon capped the first act with a luminous, sustained top A on "...Walsungen blut!" a note that many Siegmunds have come to grief on after the long sing. Act I ended with a tumultuous ovation and during the intermission I overheard one woman say: "Well! That's something! A Wagner tenor who sounds sweet!"

I couldn't help wishing that they had found a new, fresh-voice Sieglinde to go with their new Siegmund. My hope that Deborah Voigt would be on the same fine form as last week's broadcast were disappointed; she sounded squally on top and tended towards flatness. There were some forced lower notes along the way and a general lack of vocal bloom.

Mikhail Petrenko was a sturdy-toned and subtly menacing Hunding. James Morris was on very fine form today; it's to be expected that he's not as tonally fresh as in days of yore but he knows this music inside out, inflects it superbly and can thunder or whisper with complete authority. Michelle de Young was a very emotional Fricka; her sopranoish timbre rides nicely out in to the House. Unfortunately we were stuck with a very mediocre Brunnhilde, Lisa Gasteen, whose opening Battle Cry was simply pathetic. For Act II I had moved up to the top-of-the-House standing room area and people around me moaned or chuckled as Gasteen missed all the high notes and sustained a couple of high-screeches that were comical in their waverability. Later she sounded OK  but the damage was done. (Photos of Petrenko & Morris by Marty Sohl @ The Met website).

Every opera has its heart; some actually have two or three. For me it's always a place where a major change in a character's feelings come to pass. In WALKURE it is the Todesverkundigung - the Annunciation of Death - in Act II where a vision of Brunnhilde appears to Siegmund to tell him of his impending death and that he will be borne to eternal life in Valhalla. Siegmund asks Brunnhilde if his sister and bride Sieglinde will join him there and when Brunnhilde replies: "Erdenluft muss sie noch athmen" ("She must continue to breathe Earthly air") Siegmund rejects the offer of a glorious after-life. Accusing Brunnhilde of heartlessness, he swear to kill Sieglinde and himself rather than follow the dictates of the gods. Moved by his anguish and his love, Brunnhilde sees her father's treachery and is shamed by Wotan's deceit. Her own humanity is born here. Vowing to defend Siegmund in direct violation of her father's orders, Brunnhilde sets the opera - and indeed the whole RING Cycle - on its inexorable course.

Today I was held in a trance-like state as Simon O'Neill and Lisa Gasteen (this music lies in her comfort range) built this scene from it's opening phrases of profound mystery to the spirited conclusion where Brunnhilde urges Siegmund to victory in his coming fight with Hunding. Donald Runnicles and the Met orchestra provided an ideal orchestral framework for this memorable scene.

Simon received a gigantic burst of applause and cheers from the packed House when he stepped out for a solo bow. 

Comments

[George R. Weinhouse MD]

I too was in the house Saturday for WALKURE and agree. O'Neill is the real thing. He is singing Wagner around the world. I hope he husbands his resources so we can enjoy him for at least a few decades.

[philip]

Hello George, thank you for the comment. I think Simon knows his limits pretty well and it should be exciting to watch him develop. I believe he is going to be a Bayreuth Lohengrin this summer.