Das Rheingold
Antonio Pappano | ||||||
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London | ||||||
Date/Location
Recording Type
|
Wotan | Bryn Terfel |
Donner | Peter Coleman-Wright |
Froh | Andrew Rees |
Loge | Stig Andersen |
Fasolt | Iain Paterson |
Fafner | Eric Halfvarson |
Alberich | Wolfgang Koch |
Mime | Gerhard Siegel |
Fricka | Sarah Connolly |
Freia | Ann Petersen |
Erda | Maria Radner |
Woglinde | Nadine Livingston |
Wellgunde | Kai Rüütel |
Floßhilde | Harriet Williams |
The catalyst for the action in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen is the theft of the gold. To some, the entire 18-hour cycle that follows is a parable of capitalist greed – an open invitation to set the operas at Canary Wharf, with Wotan as the head of a multinational bank and the scrabbling Nibelungen as a horde of grasping bond traders.
It is probably fortunate that Keith Warner’s production for the Royal Opera preceded the financial world’s own Götterdämmerung. Assembled between 2004 and 2006, it offers a rather muddle-headed take on the big picture, though Das Rheingold starts out promisingly enough, pitting the aristocratic, 19th-century ruling class of the gods against warring clans of Victorian industrialists and evil-minded scientists.
This second revival of Warner’s Ring arrives as preparations are warming up for the composer’s bicentenary in 2013. Much of the cast is new, though at its head stands the original Wotan of Bryn Terfel, who increasingly feels like the raison d’etre of the entire enterprise. Gloriously sung, imposingly played as the patrician leader of a dying breed, Terfel’s Wotan is a match for any, past or present. His ability to sing quietly and look intimately into his character’s heart provides a depth of understanding that is generally missing from what is going on around him.
The rest of the cast put musical qualities first. There is little of the old-style Wagnerian shouting, barking or whining, though with some loss of character along the way. Wolfgang Koch’s businesslike Alberich and his sidekick, the nerdy Mime of Gerhard Siegel, sing solidly. Sarah Connolly makes a dignified Fricka and, among those who will not appear again later, Stig Andersen was a somewhat muted Loge, Ann Petersen a nicely open-hearted Freia, and Iain Paterson sang strongly as the more human of the giants, Fasolt.
Antonio Pappano’s musical direction lives very much in the here-and-now. There is little of the mythic quality of some Wagnerians to his conducting, or their achingly expansive speeds, and he keeps the music on a keen, forward trajectory that should ensure this cycle never loses its impetus – appropriately so, when a real-life financial crisis that might have been drawn from the Ring is still so urgently with us.
Richard Fairman | September 25 2012
It has been said too often that a complete staging of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen is the hardest thing an opera company can undertake, but it’s true – and how. The Royal Opera has just begun its revival of Keith Warner’s production, a sprawling, Ibsenesque staging from the heady days before the recession, which first came together in its entirety in 2007. The severe black marble sets designed by the late Stefanos Lazaridis will take over the main stage until November, and the whole enterprise will make or break the reputation and morale of the company for the next few years – that’s what a Ring cycle does, even in revival.
Everything in The Ring begins with the orchestra, in every sense – and the first night of Das Rheingold, the first opera of the four, suggests the Royal Opera’s musical standing is firmer than ever. The opening E flat major chord, gradually building through the orchestra from a spine-tingling double bass note upwards, is mesmerising, all the cruelly exposed brass lines spot on. Under Antonio Pappano’s direction, the continuous 160-minute score pushes irresistibly onwards, evolving all the time.
Many singers are new to the production, and none makes more of an impression than Sarah Connolly, who brings to Fricka a vocal richness and intensity of presence that hints at an unusually gripping power struggle to come between her and Wotan. In that role Bryn Terfel is giving what will be his first complete UK performance, and his Rheingold Wotan is, quite rightly, a timebomb set to explode in Die Walküre. Stig Andersen, a veteran of the more heroic Wagner roles, is a vivid Loge; Wolfgang Koch’s Alberich is incisive if slightly lightweight-sounding, and Eric Halfvarson and Iain Paterson are an outstanding pair of giants. If Maria Radner’s Erda so far lacks some gravitas, her relatively youthful glamour is perhaps not inappropriate given that Wotan dashes off at the end of the opera to father nine Valkyries with her.
Productions of The Ring are often not much loved by audiences when they are new, and Warner’s symbol-heavy staging, with the gods as 19th-century industrialists on high and Nibelheim as a horrific factory beneath, didn’t buck the trend. Warner has now weeded out some of the clutter, but he still can’t resist piling on the information. As the prelude leads into the opening scene and the naked Rhinemaidens scurry out, there are still some moments that will ensure all but the most erudite experts in Nordic mythology will start the cycle in a state of bafflement. There is always an unresolvable tension between narrative and symbolism in Wagner, but so far this production remains hobbled by it.
Erica Jeal | 25 Sep 2012
Premiere, PO |
A production by Keith Warner (2004)
This recording is part of a complete Ring cycle.