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Theatermania, 23. April 2011 |
David Finkle |
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Wagner: Die Walküre, Metropolitan Opera, 22. April 2011 |
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Die Walküre
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Despite a near-Spider-Man spill and a mid-performance substitution of one
soprano for another, the opening night of Robert Lepage's production of
Richard Wagner's Die Walküre, now at the Metropolitan Opera, proved to be
spellbinding.
As always, music is foremost, and the transcendent Die
Walkure score is conducted here by James Levine, who shapes the teasing,
tender and taut melodies into a sumptuous whole. He recognizes the motifs
presaging Brunnhilde's "Hojotoho" high-C-ending cries and the eventual
Walkure ride as the opera's suspense builder and works his baton
accordingly.
That third-act ride is an applause-inducing high point
in Lepage's production, which uses the same basic set as his earlier
production of Das Rheingold, dominated by 24 long, wide, and movable planks
pointing towards the auditorium. Lepage and designer Carl Fillion cant the
pieces so they seesaw, appearing to be giant horses galloping towards the
audience. As Die Walkure begins, Lepage, Fillion, lighting designer Etienne
Boucher, and video designer Boris Firquet arrange the planks as a forest
through which the pursued Siegmund (Jonas Kaufmann) weaves his way to
Sieglinde (Eva-Marie Westbroek the first act, Margaret Jane Wray from then
on) and their shared destiny.
The opera's other main concern is
whether the incestuous love between Siegmund and Sieglinde will cause Wotan
(Bryn Terfel) to accede to the demands of wife Fricka (Stephanie Blythe) and
damn Siegmund to a death that results in the demotion of daughter Brunnhilde
(Deborah Voigt) from god to mortal.
The god-like performance
from Kaufmann during the extended first-act love scene was warm when needed,
forceful when heft was called for. His acting equaled it. Neither he nor
Westbroek --nearly matching him with vocal persuasion -- intended merely to
get the notes right but were constantly aware they were two people finding
the love they'd long sought.
Terfel takes on one of opera's
most demanding roles and, while filling the tough dramatic requirements,
made the assignment seem like a short dash. From first to last, his
bass-baritone rang through the hall as if he were chanting it to the hills
in his native Wales. And whereas in Das Rheingold, he had a Veronica-lake
coiffeur to suggest Wotan's impaired eyesight, now his hair has been pulled
back and -- all to the good -- he wears an eye-patch.
Wagner needs
robust singing from all, and the substituting Wray supplied it, as did
Hans-Peter Konig as Sieglinde's threatening hubby Hunding, all eight
Brunnhilde co-riders (Kelly Cae Hogan, Molly Fillmore, Marjorie Elinor Dix,
Mary Phillips, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Eve Gigliotti, Mary Ann McCormick, Lindsay
Ammann), and especially, the never-misses Blythe, regal in Francois
St-Aubin's wide-bodiced green gown.
Voigt was slightly off her top
form, although she had her moving upper-register moments. The problem could
possibly be traced to her entrance. Preparing shortly to give out with a
reverberating "Hojotoho," she fell as she started up one of the planks
reconfigured to be part of a staircase. The moment certainly brought home to
the audience -- but perhaps most indelibly to Voigt -- how dangerous
Lepage's layout can be.
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