Met goes retro for Die Walkure - UPDATED with curtain call pics

Die Walküre - Metropolitan Opera, New York, 7 January 2008

photo:Metropolitan Opera

Normally at this time of year in New York, the slush is thick on the sidewalks and shivering squirrels are clutching their nuts in Central Park. But since Al Gore invented Global Warming, we are now sweating under our overcoats in unexpected 60's.

Nothing quite so superhawt from the Met - instead they have reheated a 20(?) year old production of Die Walküre, complete with, I am (possibly unreliably) informed, one of the original cast members, James Morris as Wotan. 

And they've really out-conservatived themselves with this one, possibly the most retro production of any opera I have ever seen. Honestly, if Wagner himself checked this out, he'd accuse them of pinching his production designs. Velvet robed hefties bestride craggy rocks. Brünnhilde has a breastplate and Wotan has a horny helmet. It's that sort of a show. In the grey overcoated world of Wagner to which we have become accustomed, this is in its own strange way a novelty. If anything lets it down, it's not so much the general look as the terribly static blocking. Everyone looks as if they're waiting for a bus, at least until the Valkyries start dashing around like puppies let out of a box in Act Three. Only partially redeemed by the groovy fire effect at the end.

The big deal of the night was Lorin Maazel's return to the Met after a 45 year absence. That the cheer he got at the start of the night was considerably louder than the one he got at the end says it all about his conducting. Competent, not absolutely dire by any means, but totally lacking in drama and momentum. As the fire blazed on Brünnhilde's rock, the temperature in the pit was merely lukewarm. At times his airily layered textures sounded almost like Mozart. And there were a bunch of very noticeable mistakes too, the sort that would be the conductor's fault.

But at least there were some fine performances on stage. Clifton Forbis was a rather stiff Siegmund, but it would be hard to fault the singing. A slightly constricted but very attractive sound, only lacking that bit of ping at the top. Adrianne Pieczonka's Sieglinde was more animated, with a deliciously sweet tone. Visually they made an eerily twin-like pair, and had a real chemistry too.

My heart sank a little when I saw Lisa Gasteen had been cast as Brünnhilde. I wasn't hugely enamoured of her recent Covent Garden take on the role, but she has improved enormously. Perhaps a little rest has worked wonders. Her toppest top notes were beyond flat - A was the highest she was going, even when the score called for Bs and Cs. But otherwise she was much less screechy than I remember her, with a warmth and fullness in her middle register. There is zero subtlety to her acting - she moves like she's directing traffic - but this is one role where that sort of thing can be got away with, just about.

Both James Morris (Wotan) and Mikhail Petrenko (Hunding) sounded bare. Petrenko also looked bored and somewhat above it all, but Morris threw himself into his part with a bit more brio. His Abschied lacked pathos, but Wotan's doubts and anxieties, his impossible, insoluble, self-imposed dilemma clearly presented.

The star of the evening for me was Stephanie Blythe as Fricka. She looks like a beauty queen inflated with a bicycle pump, not the look for every part, but a positive asset in this role. It gave her a tangible presence and substance as the affronted goddess - here was a Fricka the equal of the mighty Wotan. The dark, velvety voice, hugely expressive and even-toned, comes out as easily and naturally as conversation. I remember her unassumingly overshadowing a chilly Renee Fleming in Rodelinda here a couple of years back in the same way - quality will always out.

A sometimes bizarre and sometimes gruelling evening (and the only reason I didn't pass out from jet lag was the Met's nuclear force espresso) but at $25 a ticket (distant but perfect view, amazing sound -- unhousetrained neighbours tho...), who's complaining? Free programmes too. Back tomorrow for Hansel und Gretel.

photo:Metropolitan Opera

***Edited to add a few curtain call photos, below***

Comments

[Gert]

Ooh, you'll be in trouble for criticising that production. Sheer Met-trash if the DVD's anything to go by, but there are people who swear it's the ultimate. Did anyone applaud the scenery?

Can't wait to read your H&G report which has been causing offence far and wide for not being chocolate box schmaltzy!

[intermezzo]

Applause was surprisingly muted and shortlived - but then the show did run half an hour over schedule (ending 11.45!) so perhaps people just wanted to get home....

I enjoyed your recent NY reports and hope to follow your footsteps to Placido's restaurant later this week!

[mostlyopera]

Since you brought it up: James Morris was not an original cast member when this Walkure opened in 1986 (the part was sung by Simon Estes). But he joined the cast a couple of years later..Looking forward to Robert Le Page´s new MET Ring. I also find this staging ridiculously boring.

[JDM]

Gert you are SO right -- the staging was completely lame. It would be AWESOME if they could bring in a hot London director to do something truly audacious and new -- maybe, say, set the action sometime between 1925 and 1945. The Valkyrie could carry assault rifles, too, instead of spears. It would be like a statement about something, just like that absolutely fantastic production of Macbeth that I saw last night, the production that the audience was RAVING about.