The enterprising Dutch group Stichting Lustrum Opera are planning a Rheingold with a difference to celebrate Wagner's 200th birthday.
Bringing the opera to the audience, the 135m barge M.V.S. Oriana has been converted to accommodate a stage, a 90-piece orchestra and a 500-strong audience in its cargo hold. It will sail down the Rhine during in July, mooring at locations from Koblenz to Rotterdam for the shows.
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There's nothing quite like sitting inches to the side of the stage. You can't see half the set, every orchestral blemish and conductorial grunt is distressingly apparent - and you soon find out who looks good in profile. But it works an inexplicable magic on voices. When you're so close you can almost hear them breathing, every nuance of expression seems magnified. If the singer's good enough, sometimes you can almost forget they're only acting.
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Götterdämmerung - Royal Opera House, 1 October 2012
Keith Warner's Götterdämmerung opens with Maria Radner as First Norn poking at a dummy of Maria Radner as Erda, whose armpit fell victim to stab-happy Wotan in the Warnerised Siegfried. Later on, John Tomlinson as Hagen sits beneath the statue of John Tomlinson as Wotan from the first outing (presumably budgets didn't stretch to recasting the castings).
Continue reading "Gotterdammerung I - it's all over for now" »
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Siegfried - Royal Opera House, 29 September 2012
The role is impossible to cast, but every Siegfried needs a Siegfried. Covent Garden's is Stefan Vinke, who ticks most of the boxes. No Wagnermullet for Stefan, whose burly, brutish skinhead is several IQ points south of his offstage persona, a perfect foil for Gerhard Siegel's devious, wheedling Mime. It's a thorough and practised characterisation that expands naturally into the tenderness of the final love scene.
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Die Walküre - Royal Opera House, 26 September 2012
Is unintentional humour the most authentic element of any modern Ring production? After all, 19th century Bayreuth audiences split their corsets guffawing at the sadly literal ‘special effects’ sanctioned by Wagner himself. Brünnhilde’s entrance in Wednesday’s Die Walküre continued the tradition.
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What a way to open the season. The Covent Garden Ring is back, reworked and repolished by its original director. Five years after its last showing, Keith Warner has scaled down some of the clutter and arcane symbolism in favour of a more character-driven approach. There are still suitcases that won’t open, ropes that won’t untie, tittersomely inept transformations and a resolutely-ignored dead giant on the patio. But the fumbles are fewer, and less distracting in the face of uniformly superb acting (and slightly less uniform singing).
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Here are some videos to go with the previous post on the Munich Ring cycle. All were shot at general rehearsals by the Bavarian State Opera. The first four are straight extracts; they're followed by compilation trailers that give a flavour of the production style for each opera.
If you're planning to watch the live stream of Götterdämmerung on 15 July, these will set the scene and give you a good idea of what to expect.
Das Rheingold prelude:
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The Ring Cycle - Nationaltheater Munich, 3-8 July 2012
"History is written by the victors" - and so too is myth. Andreas Kriegenburg's new Munich Ring inevitably focuses on the principal characters. But he also pulls in the original creators of the tales Wagner drew on, ordinary people living in thrall first to nature, then to the whims of the governing classes.
Hordes of extras are deployed as servants and workers, and more ingeniously as scenery holders and scenery substitutes. Depersonalised by their lookalike costumes and gestures and by their very numbers, they are miles away from the fussily individualised lower orders beloved of the likes of David McVicar.
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There were boos last night at the Bavarian State Opera's Die Walküre. But not at the end.
As at the production's recent premiere, a large section of the audience were quick to make their feelings known about director Andreas Kriegenburg's addition of a silent prologue to Act 3.
Continue reading "Staging the unstageable - Munich Ring horseplay" »
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The Bavarian State Opera are to stream Andreas Kriegenburg's new production of Götterdämmerung live on their website on 15 July. Free of course.
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The final instalment of Andreas Kriegenburg's Ring cycle opens tonight at the Bavarian State Opera with what looks suspiciously like a topical spin. Götterdämmerung features Stephen Gould as Siegfried and Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde. Kent Nagano conducts.
I'll be seeing it next week, and you can listen to it live on BR Klassik at 16:00 (3pm UK).
More photos and video trailer below.
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There was a surprise in store at the end of tonight's Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra concert at the Royal Festival Hall.
As Gustavo Dudamel returned to the stage to take yet another round of applause, he was accompanied by a statuesque figure in a horned helmet and eyepatch with a dead sheep slung around his neck.
Their mambo days now apparently behind them, the no-longer-youth orchestra encored with Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge from Das Rheingold - the sheepskin-draped figure revealed as Bryn Terfel.
I can report that he's loud enough to drown out what looked like 140 musicians. And he knows all the words. All good news of course for those of us lucky enough to have tickets for autumn's Ring cycles at Covent Garden.
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A limited number of tickets for Ring cycle performances will be made available for telephone booking only on Tuesday 26 June from 10am.
Call the ROH Box Office on 020 7304 4000 - and be quick; they'll go in a flash.
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It's time for the third round of the Bavarian State Opera's Ring cycle.
Siegfried premieres at 16:00 CET today (3pm UK ) and will be broadcast live on BR.
Kent Nagano conducts and Lance Ryan is Siegfried (Jedward failed the audition).
Production photos below.
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“When you look at this you feel like this is finally the ‘Ring’ that Wagner would have wanted all along” says Georges Nicholson, a 'Wagner historian' not found in Intermezzo's Big Book of Wagner Historians. His extravagant claim for Robert Lepage's Met Ring was made in Susan Froemke’s documentary film Wagner’s Dream. “We are actually having the vision that Wagner had when he was composing,” he adds for good measure.
What, a row of spinning planks controlled by a microchip? I'm more inclined to think Wagner would prefer the Bavarian State Opera's latest wheeze - filling downtown Munich with naked Germans and taking photos.
Artist Spencer Tunick has been invited to create one of his famous mass-nude installations on the opening weekend of the summer opera festival (no doubt clearing the top end of the Englischer Garten in the process). Sadly, the work will not be called Tunick in Munich, but The Ring. Why?
As Intendant Nikolaus Bachler puts it: "Andreas Kriegenburg primarily tells his version of The Ring of the Nibelung by means of the performers' stage and gesticulation movements in addition to their singing. This produces an interesting equivalence to Spencer Tunick's human body installations. That is why it was an obvious choice to show these two projects for the Opera Festival".
But of course! Mr Lepage must wish he had someone like Herr Bachler to spin those planks.
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More problems for Bayreuth's 2013 Ring cycle.
Director and conductor are finally on board (the latter only three weeks ago) but the Festival now finds itself without a Brünnhilde following Angela Denoke's withdrawal.
With Wagner sopranos in short supply and all the best ones already spoken for, finding a replacement will not be easy.
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Simple - get your Wagner fix in Berlin instead.
Believe it or not, it's cheaper to fly to Berlin, stay in a 5 star hotel for a week and sit in central stalls seats for a whole Ring cycle than it is to buy the tickets alone for the Royal Opera House.
To see Daniel Barenboim, the Staatskapelle Berlin and a top-class international cast in the 4-10 April 2013 Ring Cycle at Berlin's Staatsoper, a ticket in row 13 of the Schiller Theatre stalls will cost you £238 (€286).
London-Berlin return by Easyjet, booked 6 months in advance, currently costs £53, including all fees.
7 nights at Circus Berlin, ranked #1 by TripAdvisor costs £163 each (7*€28) in a basic double hostel room. Not posh enough? Book well in advance and £526 gets you a room in the 5 star Hotel nhow; or it's £300-£350 for a typical 4 star hotel.
That comes to a total of £454 for the spartan option, or £817 for the 5 star.
(Today's exchange rate of 1.20 is used throughout.)
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Orders opened today for next year's Berlin Staatsoper Ring cycles, and also their 2013 Easter Festival, or Festtage.
The Guy Cassiers production is conducted by Daniel Barenboim, and thanks to the maestro's top drawer contacts casting is impressive, including Rene Pape as Wotan, Iréne Theorin as Brünnhilde and Waltraud Meier as Sieglinde.
There are three cycles in all. The first one costs a bit more as it's part of the Festtage; other Festtage attractions for those in-between days include Mozart and Verdi Requiems and Maurizio Pollini recitals.
Dates and prices (for all four Ring operas):
The limited capacity of the Schiller Theatre makes it a good idea to get orders in as soon as possible (you don't have to pay anything at this stage).
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Anyone tuning in to the radio broadcast of the Bavarian State Opera's new Die Walküre yesterday may have been perplexed by the start of the final act. Instead of music, there was stomping and banging - soon nearly drowned out by booing and shouts of "Music" and "We want to hear Wagner."
The photo above explains what the fuss was all about. 'Valkyries' in silver minidresses performed a silent tap dance overture before the music began. The problem was perhaps not the dance itself, but the fact that it went on for what seemed like ten minutes.
All was forgiven by the end though - director Andreas Kriegenburg received a warm hand, with few boos making themselves heard above the cheers and applause.
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O the chic of it. Tickets for Teatro alla Scala's 2013 Ring cycle arrive tucked into their own embossed leatheresque wallet. What budget crisis?
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