Germany Wagner, Götterdämmerung: Soloists, Staatsopernchor, Staatskapelle Berlin / Christian Thielemann (conductor). Filmed (directed by Andy Sommer) on 9.11.2022 at Staatsoper Unter den Linden however accessible till 17.2.2023 on ARTE Concert. (JPr)
Production:
Director, Set design – Dmitri Tcherniakov
Costumes – Elena Zaytseva
Lighting – Gleb Filshtinsky
Video – Alexey Poluboyarinov
Dramaturgy – Tatiana Werestchagina, Christoph Lang
Chorus grasp – Martin Wright
Cast:
Siegfried – Andreas Schager
Gunther – Lauri Vasar
Alberich – Johannes Martin Kränzle
Hagen – Mika Kares
Brünnhilde – Anja Kampe
Gutrune – Mandy Fredrich
Waltraute – Violeta Urmana
Norns – Noa Beinart, Kristina Stanek, Anna Samuil
Woglinde – Evelin Novak
Wellgunde – Natalia Skrycka
Flosshilde – Anna Lapkovskaja
Erda (Silent) – Anna Kissjudit
Wotan (Silent) – Michael Volle
Dmitri Tcherniakov’s new Berlin Ring cycle held its grip on me, musically, from first observe to final and his Konzept was intriguing although finally petered out with out revealing something new about what Wagner needed us to grasp from all we had been seeing and listening to over so many hours. During the final minutes of Götterdämmerung we had seen Brünnhilde – with the useless Siegfried on a gurney (beforehand the remedy desk) – berating Wotan for his missteps. I’d assume what he has been getting as much as bordered on eugenics together with his ‘planned breeding’ of Siegfried inside E.S.C.H.E. (the analysis centre) the place he has been monitored his complete life and by no means left.
The stage quickly clears and Brünnhilde seems with a bag in her hand going who is aware of the place. She encounters the aged Erda who has the toy Woodbird (from Siegfried) with its fluttering wings in her hand, however she is dismissed. On the again wall is projected Wagner’s proposed Schopenhauer-inspired textual content for the top of the opera: ‘Were I no more to fare to Valhalla’s fortress, are you aware whither I fare? I depart from the house of need, I flee ceaselessly the house of delusion; the open gates of everlasting changing into I shut behind me now: To the holiest chosen land, free from need and delusion, the purpose of the world’s migration, redeemed from incarnation, the enlightened lady now goes. The blessed finish of all issues everlasting, are you aware how I attained it? Grieving love’s profoundest struggling opened my eyes for me: I noticed the world finish.’ Has Tcherniakov’s Brünnhilde achieved enlightenment, who is aware of? He has her come to the entrance of the stage the place the architects flooring plan for the analysis centre is seen as soon as once more just for Brünnhilde – to a level – wipe it off the face of the earth and thereby wipe the slate clear.
It all started again within the framework home acquainted from earlier than as Brünnhilde will get off the bed from beside the sleeping Siegfried and places on a gown. In marvellous ageing make-up the three Norns (of their cozy cardigans) come knocking, they’re fairly debilitated and want strolling aids. One even falls asleep throughout the narration. With Brünnhilde having gone again to mattress the Norns wander by the home earlier than sitting on the desk and for ‘Es riss!’ (It breaks!), there (naturally) is not any rope they usually simply drop the cups they’re holding. Brünnhilde wakes Siegfried up who showers and clothes (pale yellow sweater and light-weight blue trousers). Over breakfast Siegfried will get given the toy Grane (a small piñata) and together with his bag already packed he leaves Brünnhilde and the set recedes leaving him ‘smoking’ and skipping round in a pool of sunshine earlier than laying down and that plan of E.S.C.H.E. descends once more.
The convention room we’ve seen earlier than has been upgraded from brown marble to gray and we meet Hagen (purple facial blemishes and in brown swimsuit), Gunther (in a blue enterprise swimsuit) and Gutrune (in lime inexperienced shirt and black slacks). They are removed from dysfunctional and are having a excessive previous time and when Siegfried arrives they initially act as if they’re coping with somebody who’s mentally disturbed, particularly when he presents the Tarnhelm (the cap of electrodes) to nice merriment. Siegfried doesn’t should be drugged to change into infatuated with Gutrune who could be very completely satisfied together with his curiosity in her. There is lots of sitting round and ingesting earlier than Blood Brotherhood is sworn and Siegfried units off with Gunther to deliver Brünnhilde again for him. Hagen, conserving watch, wanders out onto a naked stage and passes by a shabby, near-naked Alberich.
We are then again with Brünnhilde who nonetheless has not dressed, Waltraute wanders in carrying a blue raincoat and sits along with her on the couch. They will battle for the ring and – anticipating Tcherniakov’s ending – Brünnhilde exclaims how she is going to ‘never renounce love’. Siegfried – chewing once more and initially miming to Gunther’s voice – wears no disguise, sits on the desk with a Berliner Kindl and a few bread and butter earlier than grabbing the ring off Brünnhilde who reluctantly begins to undress.
Act II begins within the very acquainted lecture corridor with its rows of plastic chairs. Alberich emerges on the again to induce the (sleeping?) Hagen to reclaim the ring for them. He has knitted his son a big pair of woollen socks! Siegfried sneaks up on Hagen and makes him leap when he sneezes. Gutrune now seems completely infatuated with Siegfried who’s hyperactive and does some embarrassing ‘dad dancing’ and extra skipping (making it often uncomfortable to observe Andreas Schager). Hagen calls within the vassals (the staff of the centre) who all sit round laughing heartily. For Siegfried’s confrontation with Brünnhilde – when he stops transferring – he shall be sitting on the entrance with Gunther and Gutrune framed by everybody else typically standing round and they’re going to take images and video at one level. As the act ends, the browbeaten Gunther cowers in a nook earlier than Hagen convinces him of what must occur and Brünnhilde sings ‘Let Siegfried die, atoning for himself and for you.’
As Act III begins, we see Siegfried within the convention room with a inexperienced cap and carrying a gown earlier than he roams the higher stage. The Rhinemaidens (who haven’t aged) are within the ‘Stress laboratory’ and glide round on stools recording issues down on their clipboards after Siegfried is available in a inexperienced polo shirt together with his title on the again. He will snicker off their warning about how the ring is cursed after which the Rhinemaidens depart as Siegfried goes spherical and spherical on his stool. We quickly realise why Siegfried is dressed as he’s as a result of he joins Hagen and his males on the brink of play basketball. Siegfried simply drinks water and doesn’t should be drugged to recollect Brünnhilde earlier than getting stabbed within the again by the pole of an E.S.C.H.E. flag. He stumbles by to the Stress laboratory adopted by Gunther who’s inordinately affected by his plight. Siegfried is laid out on the remedy desk and plenty of of these we’ve seen beforehand throughout this Ring cycle are available in to grieve for him, together with the Rhinemaidens, Norns, Erda and Wotan. Siegfried shall be taken by to Brünnhilde who’s along side the basketball courtroom and the mourners are mystified by her wanting to construct a funeral pyre. They depart her on her personal with simply the toy Grane and – as talked about beforehand when discussing the top of the opera – Wotan as she sings ‘Hear my lament, god of gods!’
Closeups of Christian Thielemann throughout the orchestral passages throughout this Götterdämmerung – and certainly your entire Ring – reveal him to be essentially the most laidback of conductors and looking out content material simply to coax alongside the great Staatskapelle Berlin who most likely have already been made conscious of what he expects. Their efficiency consequently is probably not as propulsive as from another conductors, although indubitably it has an intense and emotionally expressive grandeur. Thielemann was tremendously helped by an excellent refrain and the forged of consummate singer-actors. Towering over all of them (actually) was Mika Kares’s private magnetism and booming, but versatile bass voice because the menacing Hagen. Mandy Fredrich was an unusually vivacious Gutrune in persona and voice (she presumably is a future Brünnhilde) and Lauri Vasar was a suitably lily-livered Gunther. Johannes Martin Kränzle impressed as soon as once more in his transient time on stage as Alberich and the trio of Rhinemaidens have been as distinctively melodic as they have been in Das Rheingold. Noa Beinart, Kristina Stanek and Anna Samuil introduced sudden persona to every of their venerable Norns and Violeta Urmana’s gripping supply made me briefly overlook how tedious Waltraute’s backstory could be.
Anja Kampe was a powerful Brünnhilde (once more in voice and persona) and believably created a wronged lady who begins off searching for revenge but absolutely comprehends the way in which issues should be by the top of her story. Her world-denouncing Immolation Scene heard her – by loudspeakers – on the restrict of her skills however, to her credit score, she acquired by it even when the highest of her voice was sorely examined at instances. On the opposite hand, Andreas Schager as Siegfried prevented essentially the most tough excessive notes of his position. Tcherniakov creates a bother character who, oddly, is outwardly extra genial than we’re used to; nevertheless, Schager was the lesser of the actors on this Ring cycle and failed to liven up Siegfried for me. I wasn’t within the opera home, however vocally Schager additionally didn’t sound at his ease both and infrequently challenged himself, though he had his finest moments on the finish when he remembered Brünnhilde and bade her farewell.
Jim Pritchard