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The Philadelphia Inquirer, APRIL 26, 2011 |
By David Patrick Stearns |
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Wagner: Die Walküre, Metropolitan Opera, 22. April 2011 |
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Met's 'Die Walkure' is lavish and musically distinguished
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NEW YORK - Now that's more like it. The Metropolitan Opera's new,
still-unfolding Ring cycle - easily the most-scrutinized international
operatic event of the season - was a curious case of immense resources with
stunningly wan results when the first installment arrived in the fall. Now,
in Die Walkure (which opened Friday and arrives in HD simulcasts at seven
area movie theaters on May 14), many of the same talents have turned
something close to 180 degrees.
Friday's performance was visually
lavish, artistically meaningful, and musically distinguished. Even worries
about the health of music director James Levine were somewhat assuaged:
Though he can barely walk, he used two vigorous arms (one of which had been
closed for repairs) that beat clearly to the end of the opera's five-hour
expanse with a crisp concision that his Wagner performances previously
lacked. The opera's star, Deborah Voigt, wasn't as fortunate in the key role
of Brunnhilde - and not just because she literally stumbled at her entrance.
The centerpiece of the Robert Lepage production - a 45-ton contraption
simply known as "The Machine" - justified itself (as well as its
considerable part in the $16 million budget for the four-part Ring) by
creating all the atmospheric effects - only hinted at in the previous Das
Rheingold - that one could want from a traditional Ring, and with a
penetrating, high-tech vividness.
Split into 24 planks that act as
huge video screens but are solid enough to be walked on, the machine creates
composite images and also divides itself into various configurations with
limited versatility. But hard-to-convey effects - the Act 3 circle of fire,
the craggy, snow-capped peaks, succeed as rarely before. In the Act 2
opening with Valkyries arriving on horseback, the warrior women had the
planks harnessed like horses - witty and effective.
Characterization
among the singers was often lacking in Rheingold, but not in Walkure. Bryn
Terfel's precise, lean baritone is a break from the high-amplitude German
basses, and he used it with a dramatic precision that truly brought home the
dilemma of supreme power: As chief of the gods, he has made a mess of his
world with legions of illegitimate children who practice their own forms of
free will. And as someone whose inner whims are physically manifested in the
outside world, his Wotan is utterly sick of himself.
The unstoppable
Stephanie Blythe, as his humiliated wife, Fricka, was even more theatrically
articulate in her brief scenes, and there's not a more seamless Wagnerian
mezzo today. As Siegmund, tenor Jonas Kaufmann was thrilling: He's a
fine lyric Wagnerite, a charismatic stage presence, and in response to all
the wolf imagery in his role, adopted a lupine lope. His Sieglinde,
Eva-Maria Westbroek, sounded ill, and was replaced in Act 2 by the sturdy
Margaret Jane Wray.
And Voigt? Though the voice has lost its
lushness, she projected the vocal lines well enough; the biggest problem is
that she just doesn't have a heroic temperament to truly sell the role.
She's preferable to more typical Brunnhildes with factory-whistle voices.
With any luck, she'll get through this with her composure intact, and stick
to what she does best.
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