Die Walküre

Georg Solti
Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele
Date/Location
26 July 1983
Festspielhaus Bayreuth
Recording Type
  live  studio
  live compilation  live and studio
Cast
SiegmundSiegfried Jerusalem
HundingMatthias Hölle
WotanSiegmund Nimsgern
SieglindeJeannine Altmeyer
BrünnhildeHildegard Behrens
FrickaDoris Soffel
HelmwigeAgnes Habereder
GerhildeAnita Soldh
OrtlindeAnne Evans
WaltrauteIngrid Karrasch
SiegrundeDiana Montague
GrimgerdeRuthild Engert-Ely
SchwertleiteAnne Wilkens
RoßweißeAnne Gjevang
Gallery
Reviews
New York Times

Since this is the centenary of Richard Wagner’s death, the new ”Ring” being produced in this Bavarian citadel of Wagnerism might be expected to stimulate some thought about the composer’s most ambitious and most disturbing work. However, if Sir Peter Hall has any clear idea of what he means to convey in the new ”Ring” that he is directing here, his intent has not yet emerged.

With last night’s premiere of ”Die Walkure,” the cycle reached the halfway point and was more of a puzzle than ever. The opening night’s ”Rheingold” had certainly seemed unfocused and incoherent, but this ”Walkure” took stylistic confusion yet another step.

What made the production’s failures doubly regrettable was the high quality of the singing and conducting. Sir Georg Solti, making his Bayreuth debut with these ”Ring” performances, roused the musicians under his baton, both on stage and in the pit, to performances that deserved a more lucid and intellectually provocative setting than Sir Peter and his designer, William Dudley, found it possible to provide. Hildegard Behrens, probably the most sensitive and intelligent Brunnhilde active today, also sang with exciting vocal force and purity. She is the genuine Wagnerian article.

Splendid too, were Siegfried Jerusalem (Siegmund) and Siegmund Nimsgern (Wotan), both of whom sounded far more impressive here than they ever have at the Metropolitan Opera House, which is more than twice the size of Bayreuth’s Festspielhaus. Jeannine Altmeyer was the robust-voiced and attractive Sieglinde and Doris Soffel, though somewhat strained vocally as Fricka, make the evening’s most dramatic entrance, driving a sporty ram-powered chariot.

Such happy moments were rare on this night, however. In the previous evening’s ”Rheingold,” the director seemed to aim at times at reviving a traditional 19th-century staging style, even though the idea was pursued fitfully and absent-mindedly.

The first act of ”Walkure” continued along traditional paths. Hunding’s root hut might have and probably did come right out of one of the dioramas in the nearby Wagner Museum at Wahnfried, where depictions of early Bayreuth productions may be studied. The only jarring note was the hut’s strangely ornate door, which had a stained-glass effect. If you waited for such anomalies to be explained, you waited in vain. However, it did appear that a plan, if not a very inventive one, was about to be developed.

But then came Act II, and the production lunged crazily forward to the stark Bayreuthian abstractions of the 1950’s and 1960’s. The ”wild, rocky path” of the libretto turned out to be nothing but one flat, gray expanse that had to be looked at without respite for a solid hour and a half.

And the worst was yet to come: in Act III, another drab slab of scenery, resembling a huge silver tea tray or perhaps a flying saucer, descended at a sharp slant from the heavens. On it, surrounded by a ring (original idea, that), were strapped several Valkyries – fortunately minus their horses. They sang fiercely enough but could hardly have looked more ridiculous. As this silver device slid slowly toward stage level, other Valkyries carried away naked bodies of fallen male warriors from a fleshy heap that was blessedly obscured by dim lighting.

A final, foolish twist was reserved for the Magic Fire scene. Wotan put Brunnhilde to sleep inside a circle of red light that glowed and pulsated like an enormous jukebox. The night did not end in a blaze, let alone a blaze of glory. At the curtain drop there was much booing, clearly directed at the staging. But the musicians trapped in this aimless ”Walkure” received justifiably enthusiastic ovations at every curtain call.

Donal Henahan | July 28, 1983

Rating
(6/10)
User Rating
(3/5)
Media Type/Label
CA, Fiori, PO
Technical Specifications
548 kbit/s VBR, 44.1 kHz, 894 MiB (flac)
Remarks
Broadcast from the Bayreuth festival
A production by Peter Hall (premiere)
This recording is part of a complete Ring cycle.