PREMIERE OF SOLTI-HALL ‘GÖTTERDAMMERUNG’

This has not been one of the great weeks in Bayreuth history. The combination of nearly unbearable heat and the new ”English” production of the ”Ring of the Nibelungs” that never seemed to know where it was headed or why made for long, stifling evenings in the Festspielhaus that Wagner built to house his music dramas.

However, even inferior performances of the ”Ring” must end. With the premiere Saturday night of ”Gotterdammerung,” the new cycle of four works that the Bayreuth Festival mounted to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Wagner’s death finally struggled to a close.

The production, which was entrusted to the all-British team of Sir Georg Solti, Sir Peter Hall and William Dudley as conductor, director and designer, respectively, proved to be acceptable musically, if uneven and flawed.

But the director and his designer earned the fiercest and most sustained jeering that I have ever heard in a theater. Even when they joined the entire company on stage for a massed bow, the audience would not allow them to hide. The whole stage full of people was booed until the pair responsible for the staging appeared in tandem to take their medicine.

There was justification for this, but also some irony, because ”Gotterdammerung” actually turned out to be the most satisfactory – or anyway the least muddled – work of the cycle. From beginning to end, it hewed to an old-fashioned pictorialism in its sets and a faithful if not quite literal approach to the libretto.

The Norns played at weaving actual strands of rope. The Rhinemaidens splashed in a shallow wading pool of genuine water. Real fire licked at Siegfried’s funeral pyre, and Brunnhilde rode into the flames on what appeared to be a very large hobbyhorse.

That possessed the sort of Wagner staging our grandparents knew and loved, and the Hall-Dudley team clearly wanted to look back lovingly at that naive style. It was an approach that could be defended and might have passed muster if any stylistic unity or continuity had been apparent in the three works leading up to ”Gotterdammerung.”

The whole production, however, has been in trouble from the start. Even in the final hours, scenes were being restaged in an effort to minimize confusion and clarify the staging. The leading tenor, Reiner Goldberg, had an attack of nerves and dropped out, forcing the willing but generally unable Manfred Jung into the role of Siegfried. That problem was never solved, although Mr. Jung sang ably enough at rare moments, when his music took a lyrical turn. Orchestrally, there were many rough moments – the bleary-toned horns in ”Gotterdammerung” must have been suffering from the heat even more than the audience. And vocally, this is not a vintage period for Wagner, a fact quite evident even in the acoustically flattering surroundings of the 2,000-seat Festspielhaus.

Nevertheless, the conductor, the leading singers and the marvelous Bayreuth chorus all were awarded thunderous ovations after the final curtain.

Hildegard Behrens was deafeningly cheered for her vocally true and intelligent portrayal of Brunnhilde. Miss Behrens, who was making her debut here in this ”Ring,” emerged as the new darling of Bayreuth. She may not have the endless column of dramatic- soprano sound that has been the hallmark of great Brunnhildes of the past, but in this house, at least, she is all but perfect.

Elsewhere, the brightest spots in the cast were Aage Haugland’s mountainous and brutal Hagen, Hermann Becht’s nasty Alberich and Brigitte Fassbaender’s full-voiced Waltraute. Bent Norup, as the ineffectual Gunther, was properly pale and characterless.

If some of the performances seemed enervated, there were plenty of excuses at hand. It has been a broiler of a summer for much of Europe, and this Bavarian town has certainly not been spared. Temperatures stayed in the 90’s throughout much of the week, and, according to a local newspaper report, went as high as 104 inside the Festspielhaus because the idea of air-conditioning has not been allowed to penetrate the sacred precinct as yet.

Donal Henahan | Aug. 1, 1983