“Götterdämmerung” caps Dallas Symphony’s monumental Ring cycle

Fabio Luisi and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra concluded their ambitious week-long presentation of Wagner’s Ring cycle Sunday night with its climactic conclusion, Götterdämmerung. This final chapter of the saga sees the death of the principal hero, Siegfried, and the self-sacrifice of the Valkyrie, Brünnhilde—events that are prefigured by the curse of the ring and that ultimately lead to the demise of the gods and their dominion over the earth. As with the previous performances, Sunday’s concert presentation included minimal staging and lighting to enhance the drama.

Daniel Johansson continued his ingenuous characterization of Siegfried from Thursday’s performance. His strong tenor captured the eagerness with which Siegfried pursues his heroics, and the guilelessness that Johansson imbues in the title character renders his betrayal of Brünnhilde and realization of that betrayal especially poignant.

Lise Linstrom as Brünnhilde brought her soprano voice to bear on that character’s expressions of love for Siegfried in the prologue, her fury and despondency at her betrayal by her unwitting partner, and her transcendent realizations immediately before her self-immolation on the hero’s funeral pyre.

Stephen Milling’s full and resonant bass contributed strongly to his portrayal of Hagen as a duplicitous villain, carefully manipulating Gunther, Gutrune and Siegfried with his affability while secretly biding his time until the right moment when he can cast aside those he has deceived and seize the ring for himself.

Gunther and Gutrune as portrayed by baritone Roman Trekel and soprano Kathryn Henry were unwitting tools of Hagen’s machinations owing to their characters’ petty concerns. Gutrune and Gunther quickly find themselves enmeshed in events and circumstances that exceed their ability to control. Their reactions as conveyed by Henry and Trekel add significantly to the dramatic tension of the opera.

Tómas Tómasson returned as Alberich, using his rich baritone to provide an effective goad for Hagen and his personal desire for the ring. Deniz Uzun marshalled her mezzo-soprano voice for the Valkyrie Waltraute’s distraught pleadings for Brünnhilde to return the ring to the Rhinemaidens in an attempt to avoid the approaching demise of the gods.

The Norns (Tamara Mumford, Jennifer Johnson Cano and Kathryn Henry) were suitably somber and enigmatic as the mysterious tones of their conversation provided a review of the events in the saga and set up expectations for the calamitous events about to unfold.

The Rhinemaidens (Valentina Farcas, Kimberly Gratland James and Renée Tatum) initially greeted Siegfried coquettishly as they attempted to cajole the ring from him, but quickly became foreboding as they warned him of his impending death if he continued to possess it.

The semi-staging concept continued to be effective at conveying the drama, but was diminished slightly in a couple of scenes due to some errant spotlight misplacement, which—whether purposeful or a malfunction—created a distraction.

Fabio Luisi’s interpretation of the music and merging of the orchestra with the voices was again superb, fulfilling the expectations set from the beginning of the cycle. The main voices were buoyed by the Dallas Symphony Chorus, performing the role of the Gibichins in Act II. Throughout the performance, there were a few segments in which the orchestra overshadowed the principal voices, but these were isolated instances.

The orchestra came to the fore particularly well in the expected passages, notably Siegfried’s Rhine Journey and a particularly intense and dynamic rendition of Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene.

The dramatic high point for the orchestra came during the interlude between Scenes 2 and 3 of Act III, “Siegfried’s Funeral March.” The especially dramatic rendition, which saw Luisi energetically coaxing somber and tragic strains from the brass section, accompanied members of the male chorus as they paraded slowly and solemnly across a darkened stage, adding a recently deceased Siegfried in the form of Johansson to their ranks as they disappeared into the right stage entrance.

The Dallas Symphony’s staging of Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle was a truly remarkable event and one that one can hope bodes well for similar operatic undertakings in the future.

William McGinney | Oct 21, 2024

An Afternoon of Operatic and Sonic Spectacular at Dallas Symphony’s ‘Götterdämmerung’

Wagner’s Ring is a herculean undertaking for any opera company. It has never been done by an American symphony orchestra, that is, until the Dallas Symphony Orchestra performed the complete cycle in concert this month, over a span of eight days (October 13, 15, 17, 20) Fabio Luisi, the DSO’s Music Director since 2020, is an experienced ring leader, as it were, having conducted the final two Ring operas at the Met during the Levine era. In a recent New York Times interview, he championed concert opera as an alternative to regietheater opera that’s prevalent in today’s new productions, and I fully agree. I appreciate hearing the music and singing without a director’s ‘visual aids’ in the form of miming or play-acting. Operas are often staged nowadays as if to help audiences in every way from having to do anything so exacting as to use their ears and listen in detail to what is being sung, said, and played.

To be fair, the DSO Ring did have a stage director, Alberto Triola, whose job was not so much creating visual effects but coaching the singers in their acting and ensemble blocking, as well as designing dramatic lighting for strategic moments. Other than the ring itself, there were no physical props such as Siegfried’s drinking cup, a magic helmet or Hagen’s spear. Even so, one had no problem visualizing them given the excellent acting and Wagner’s highly descriptive music. One particular inspired piece of ‘staging’ was Siegfried’s Death and Funeral Music, where the spotlight went out on the lone figure of Siegfried, with his back turned toward the audience, and a funeral cortege of dark figures marching slowly across the stage to collect him for the underworld. Another memorable stage picture was seeing archenemies Gutrune and Brünnhilde reconciling and embracing after realizing they were both victims of Hagen’s duplicity.

I only had time to attend the final Ring opera, Götterdämmerung, on Sunday October 20. Musically, I was most impressed with the Siegfried of Daniel Johansson, whose powerful tenor voice rang out repeated high A’s with easy, unforced power – the timber burnished and eloquent, the focus secure, the text trenchantly pronounced – and was equally telling in the quiet narrative of Siegfried’s life review, after Hagen’s potion begins to wear off. He seemed to me the Siegfried we have long waited for.

Lise Lindstrom, the Brünnhilde, sounded uncannily like Gwyneth Jones – warm, assured, generous, but vocally a bit unruly. But there is no denying she is a superb actress, unflinching in the vengeance trio and poignant in the Immolation. Bass Stephen Milling had the necessary black sonority for Hagen’s villainy. Tómas Tómasson, a formidable Alberich, returned in Hagen’s dream to attempt another ring grab. Mezzo-soprano Deniz Uzun had the right vocal weight and timber for the grandeur of Waltraute’s Narrative. Often, Gunther is portrayed as a weakling caricature, but baritone Roman Trekel sang the role admirably and nobly (Gunther, as Fischer-Dieskau pointed out, is a king.) Similarly, soprano Kathryn Henry portrayed Guturne not as a lustrous vamp, but a warm-hearted, aristocratic lady. There was no double-casting; each singer sang only one role. There was a beautifully-tuned and delightfully-acted trio of Rhinemaidens and an impressive, dramatic trio of Norns. The 96-strong Dallas Symphony Chorus sang the Gibichungs in act 2 wedding scene, commenting on the proceedings with raucous energy that melted into frozen horror.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra played like the gods, tirelessly, lyrically, and magnificently throughout the six-hour concert (including two intermissions of 60 and 20 minutes.) The expanded orchestra comprised 10 horns (some doubling in Wagner tubas) and 6 harps. Fabio Luisi conducted with true feeling for the music’s dramatic impulse and its long spans. There were many orchestral highlights, including a Siegfried’s brilliant Rhine Journey that magically transitioned into the Gibichungs’ great hall with muted horns, a shattering Siegfried’s Death and Funeral Music, and an apocalyptic Immolation Scene that brought the house down and the stunned audience to their feet.

Another star of the concert was the perfect acoustics of the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, a shoebox-shaped hall (like the Vienna’s Musikverein) built in 1989 and designed by architect I.M. Pei (who also designed the Dallas City Hall.) From where I was sitting, in row S center orchestra, the sound was warm, clear, beautiful and richly detailed for both orchestra and voices. I could just imagine what it might sound like upstairs (It is an axiom among concertgoers that in any hall, the higher you sit, the better the sound.). It was a long but rewarding afternoon of operatic and sonic spectacular at the symphony.

Truman C. Wang | 10/24/2024