Intermezzo

Good Gott - Salzburg Easter Festival part 5

Götterdämmerung - Grosses Festspielhaus Salzburg, 5 April 2010

If only Stephane Braunschweig's Götterdämmerung was half as interesting as the zombie death bunnies I spotted in this Salzburg baker's window. 

The lacquered minimalism of his boutique hotel-style sets was certainly easy on the eye, but hardly fascinating enough to compensate for a largely static production, bereft of dramatic tension or any overarching concept. Wagner's contextual challenges were dodged with limp fire and water projections and a Tarnhelm that brought to mind that immortal line from Raising Arizona: "son you got a panty on your head". It's hard to escape the conclusion that he simply lost interest in the project somewhere down the line.

Salzburg Easter Festival is GO

The 2010 Salzburg Easter Festival blasted off last night with Stéphane Braunschweig's Götterdämmerung, as premiered at last year's Aix Festival.

It may have been an unqualified hit in France, but the exacting Austrian critics (and the discriminating Osterfestspiele audience) have responded less kindly.

There were a few boos for Katarina Dalayman's Brünnhilde and even more for the director, whose "static" staging was widely criticised. Stefan Vinke (a late substitute for the inevitably ailing Ben Heppner) was praised for the stamina of his Siegfried, though some found him underpowered. Simon Rattle's conducting, variously described as fast, analytical and translucent, received mixed reviews. Only Anne Sofie von Otter's Waltraute and Mikhail Petrenko's Hagen completely escaped a critical mauling. The audience were more generous than the critics, with booers outnumbered by enthusiastic applauders.

After the recently-uncovered financial scandal threatened to torpedo it, the Festival seems to have picked itself up and dusted itself off in record time. A small but important indicator - the formerly prehistoric Festival website has finally been dragged into the 21st century. A new financing and management structure has been set up under the direction of Peter Alward (generally described in the Austrian press as 'British' Peter Alward, as if his nationality is some sort of talismanic barrier to financial impropriety).

85% of tickets have already been sold for this year's Festival, and only 5% handed out as freebies (far fewer than in the scam-hit years, Alward has hinted). Although the withdrawal of a couple of key sponsors means that this year's Festival will lose at least 880,000 euros, Alward is positive about the future, as are the Berlin Philharmonic. Their media head (and cellist) Olaf Maninger wants to expand the youth side of the programme and to reduce the ticket prices (currently €190 to €510 for opera and €90 to €240 for concerts) by up to 30 percent to "make the festival more accessible and get away from the elite Festspielhaus environment."

Here are some pictures from the Götterdämmerung dress rehearsal. 

Stefan Vinke, left, as Siegfried and Emma Vetter as Gutrune:

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Gotterdammerung in Manchester - the final score

Götterdämmerung - Hallé Orchestra / Elder - Bridgewater Hall Manchester, 9-10 May 2009

Sir Mark Elder conductor    Katarina Dalayman Brünnhilde    Attila Jun Hagen    Peter Coleman-Wright Gunther    Susan Bickley Waltraute    Yvonne Howard Second Norn    Katherine Broderick Woglinde    Leah-Marian Jones Flosshilde    Lars Cleveman Siegfried    Andrew Shore Alberich    Nancy Gustafson Gutrune    Ceri Williams First Norn    Miranda Keys Third Norn    Madeleine Shaw Wellgunde    Hallé Choir    Gentlemen of the BBC Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Chorus Royal Opera House Chorus and Royal Opera House Extra Chorus

The first half of the Hallé's concert Götterdämmerung was very good, but the second, performed on the following day, was extraordinary. It's tempting to view the weekend as one big show with a twenty hour interval, but in reality there was a different sort of electricity in Sunday night's air.

Though after a dismally dull afternoon's football at Old Trafford (even Sir Alex agreed), just the pre-show harp tuning was a comparative thrill.

I think a change of seat helped. I took in the Saturday performance from the circle on the first level - a great view, and, anecdotally, the best sound. But on Sunday in the front stalls the visceral rush from the massed musical forces was overwhelming, even though the unraked seating offered an over-long opportunity to contemplate the array of baldy heads between myself and the shoes of Mark Elder.

And the singers seemed on even better form. Katarina Dalayman's Brünnhilde (a recent Met success too) displays a rare combination of strength, sensitivity and intelligence. So what if she wasn't quite technically flawless. She could hardly have been more moving, especially in the tragic resignation of her final scene. Her noble and magnificent presence dominated both evenings.

Lars Cleveman projected far more convincingly on his second outing (according to a commenter on my earlier post he had a throat problem on Saturday). He offers a different sort of Siegfried to the usual - expressive, understated, sympathetic. How nice not to be shouted at. I'm not sure how it would work on stage, but the beauty of a concert performance is that it doesn't matter.

Attila Jun, Peter Coleman-Wright and the great Andrew Shore made a terrific trio of villains. And how well Jun's dark, thuggish Hagen was complemented by the massed Gibichung chorus (there must have been at least 150 of them) resonating around the hall. Nothing like strength in numbers, and a peculiarity of the acoustic made it seem as if the sound was coming from every direction, like some epic hi-fi demonstration. 

Was this the orchestral highlight? Or was it perhaps the rippling majesty of the Rhine journey interlude? Or the preludes, measured masterpieces each? I think Mark Elder can be excused for lavishing the most attention on the most exposed parts of the work, where splendid detailing was apparent throughout. 

More difficult to pardon was his pre-concert dig at "ghastly, modern productions" - enthusiastically received but hardly constructive. Unless of course his next Royal Opera House engagement - a concert performance of Linda di Chamounix - should be basketed with this Götterdämmerung as a statement of intent. Should be popular with the purse-string pullers at least.

But I digress - it takes nothing away from a magnificent performance that was received with an immediate and lengthy standing ovation all round, and rightly so.

To be broadcast on Radio 3 on 8 and 9 June - and not to be missed.

*UPDATE* - check out the Hallé Choir's Facebook wall for audience comments and more.

 

standing ovation:

 

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Gotterdammerung in Manchester - half time report

Götterdämmerung - Hallé Orchestra / Elder - Bridgewater Hall Manchester, 9 May 2009

Even the first half of Götterdämmerung on its own makes for a long evening by concert hall standards, so it was probably smart for the Hallé to spread the whole opera out over two consecutive nights. Tonight we had the prologue and first act - a non-stop "two hours and seven minutes - approximately" as Mark Elder put it in his pre-match speech.

The highly-polished performance was the result of rehearsing off and on since February. There's a fine balance between rehearsing enough (vital for a band that rarely performs opera) and over-rehearsal, and there were a few points where I sensed a switch to autopilot, but overall they maintained momentum well, with some particularly fine horn work. Mark Elder didn't get bogged down in detail, building steadily and inexorably in broad brush strokes.

One advantage of the two-dayer approach is that singers have less need to conserve their stamina, and Katarina Dalayman's Brünnhilde was powerfully projected. Although her lower range sometimes disappeared beneath the orchestra, her pearly top notes gleamed effortlessly.

Lars Cleveman replaced Ben Heppner as Siegfried at a fairly late stage. He has a more appealing voice than the average heldentenor, neither shouty nor over-metallic, but it was a size too small for Mark Elder's grand dynamics. And next to the imperious Dalayman, he seemed lacking in presence. Susan Bickley's commanding Waltraute could have eaten him for breakfast too. The depth of their sisterly bond and the shallow opportunism of Gunther and Siegfried's brotherhood were neatly contrasted here.

None of the singers seemed over-dependent on their scores, but Peter Coleman-Wright (Gunther) and the booming, brilliantly-named Attila Jun (Hagen) really lived their parts between the notes - and even in the most musically riveting concert performance, that sort of thing really does make a difference.

*UPDATE* - full and final details here