Das Rheingold

Bertrand de Billy
Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona
Date/Location
1/7 June 2004
Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona
Recording Type
  live   studio
  live compilation   live and studio
Cast
Wotan Falk Struckmann
Donner Wolfgang Rauch
Froh Jeffrey Dowd
Loge Graham Clark
Fasolt Kwanchul Youn
Fafner Matthias Hölle
Alberich Günter von Kannen
Mime Francisco Vas
Fricka Lioba Braun
Freia Elisabete Matos
Erda Andrea Bönig
Woglinde Cristina Obregón
Wellgunde Ana Ibarra
Floßhilde Francisca Beaumont
Stage director Harry Kupfer
Set designer Hans Schavernoch
TV director Noemi Cuni
Gallery
Reviews
Musicweb-International.com

Surprisingly, the Ring is not all that well represented on DVD. Until the Chereau/Boulez/Bayreuth cycle was reissued, Levine and the Met dominated the field with a wooden production whose main virtue is that it was “traditional”. Yet the Ring is meant to be Gesamtkunstwerk, a visual as well as musical experience. My own favourite Ring cycle on DVD is the Sawallisch Stuttgart production, currently only available in Japan, though the CD version is readily available elsewhere. Thus, any new Ring cycle on DVD is worth checking out.

This Rheingold is the first in the series. The pedigree of this cast is in no doubt. Graham Clark, Gunther von Kannen and Falk Struckmann are all Ring veterans. The producer, Harry Kupfer also needs no introduction – he’s done many a Ring before. Indeed, this particular version was originally staged by him in Berlin. A safe bet then, although any Kupfer production is bound to be challenging.

The first Act is stunning. The floor appears to be mirrored, to create the illusion of water. Light reflects off it, making vivid the image of “Rheingold” sparkling in the depths. The Rheinmaidens really do seem to be swimming, bathed in the glow of their golden treasure. How beautiful this must have appeared in the gorgeously baroque setting of the Liceu! The singing was effective, too, high spirited and seductive as it should be. No wonder Alberich – no dwarf, he’s von Kannen – was so taken. An ingenious change of flooring makes for the change of scene. The Gods enter with suitcases – a classic Kupfer touch. Conservatives need not worry, for the styling is surprisingly traditional. The Gods’ garb would not have been out of place in 19th century Bayreuth and they’re even garlanded. The real touches of modernism are in the stage-set itself, and even this is totally in the service of the plot. Hölle and Youn become the giants Fafner and Fasolt in costumes that evoke feats of industrial engineering. Their huge robotic legs seem to be made of riveted sheet metal. Yet they are builders of vast edifices, after all. Both have the vocal heft to match. If their movements are cumbersome, it’s evoked in the music, too.

The stage-set itself plays a major role. It uses the whole stage area, vertically as well as horizontally, opening up space in ways never available to Wagner himself. He would have loved this, for it vividly conveys a sense of multi-layered worlds, the Rhine, the earth, and Valhalla all existing together on different planes. The levels are linked by the World Ash trees, whose enormous roots grow out of the Rhine where the Rheinmaidens cavort. At times it is obscured by a giant, tubular corridor that crosses the stage diagonally. This creates an interesting mix between the organic and the artificial, freedom and servitude, symbolised by the industrial underworld where the Nibelungs toil. As Kupfer himself has said, the Ring is a universal fable, one valid reading of which focuses on the destructive effects on Nature of man’s aggression and preoccupation with material greed. Stage lighting, too, plays an major role in this production. The sets are great works of engineering – floors rise and fall – but the lighting adds subtle comment throughout. A grid-like screen covers the back of the stage. The lighting makes it illustrate many purposes. In the finale, for example, it is back-lit with coloured lights, portraying Wagner’s Rainbow Bridge, as the Gods enter Valhalla.

Nonetheless, it is the music we come back to, again and again. Absolutely outstanding is Graham Clark as Loge. Here Loge is a streetwise dodger, vaguely resembling a character from A Clockwork Orange, or a demented Struwelpeter. His mastery fills his singing with strange, understated menace. He makes treachery alluring, convincing Mime and Wotan to do no good, and fooling Alberich into losing the Ring and Tarnhelm. He reaches a kind of sinister apotheosis in the scene where he dangles a fresh apple before the Gods, who will die without its sustenance: Clark sings and moves with snakelike venom, evoking yet another primeval tale with resonance to this reading of the Ring. He alone is worth the price of this DVD, for he is one of the immortal Loges.

The rest of the cast are strong, too. Gunter von Kannen is a powerful, hypnotic Alberich, whose voice conveys a sense of strength and authority which makes his curse on the Ring convincing, even though he is outwitted by Loge and Wotan. He is no weakling, and his revenge is great. Falk Struckmann as Wotan sings and acts with grandeur, but in this opera his character is not as well developed as it will become later in the cycle. Lioba Braun makes Fricka a surprisingly rounded and vivid personality, coquettishly playing up to Wotan even though she is by no means a passive wife. Occasional weaknesses appear in some of the lesser roles, but as part of a greater whole, they do not detract.

Another criticism is that however breathtaking this production may have been in real life, it does not translate completely on film. I suspect that this is a matter of film direction, for some angles might be better presented, and there is too much overall darkness, unrelieved by brighter film focus. However, recorded in “surroundsound” this is a musically satisfying experience even though the orchestra may not be one of the greatest. The singing is well above average, as is the acting and presentation. Traditionalists need not fear Harry Kupfer and his team (set design: Hans Schavernoch, lighting: Franz Peter David). There’s enough convention to be familiar and the modern touches are highly appropriate to the plot and its development. I am looking forward very much indeed to the next three parts of this cycle. It may well prove to be the definitive Ring cycle on film.

Anne Ozorio | 5 March 2005

super-conductor.blogspot.com

When The Bough Breaks…

At the start of this Das Rheingold, Wotan (Falk Struckmann) appears on a mirror-black stage before the mighty World-Ash tree, and breaks off a branch to fashion into his spear. This act, which Wagner described (but did not stage) in Götterdämmerung starts what one might call an “environmental” Ring Cycle, a heavy-handed (though in some ways brilliant) staging of the operatic cycle in Barcelona, courtesy of German director Harry Kupfer.

Kupfer has staged multiple Rings in this same post-apocalyptic manner since 1988–his superb cycle for Bayreuth has just been released by Rhino DVD. So is this new Rheingold (filmed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in 2004) worth the time taken to watch it? The answer is, yes, if only to see what new wrinkles have been added to his “comic books meet Mad Max” style. Here, the action of the opera is set before a gigantic grating that looks like a cross between the Met’s Don Carlos and Disney’s Tron. Much of the opera features the heavy roots of the World-Ash, and the journey to Nibelheim is down an enormous plastic mineshaft–emblematic of the violation of the natural order which is a central theme to this production.

In the pit, Bertrand de Billy gives a transparent, Boulez-style reading of the score that never lingers. He leads the Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu with a brisk, energetic style that is in keeping with this whole production’s comic-book spirit.

Gunther von Kannen reprises his terrifying Alberich, his cavernous baritone is in good shape here. His opposite number Falk Struckmann–who sings well enough but seems eager to expose the character’s vulnerabilities. We never get a chance to like this Wotan before quickly learning what a jerk he is. His fellow gods sing well, particularly Lioba Braun as Fricka and Andrea Bönig as Erda. In a marvelous twist, Erda does not pop out of the ground, but pulls Wotan down to her subterranean cavern to address him like some mad Versailles dowager.

Fasolt and Fafner brandish huge mechanical claw arms and catepillar treads like an operatic Transformer robot. But it’s hard to love a robot, and where is the pathos in Fafner’s transformation into a dragon if he starts the story as some kind of cyborg monster? Also, the singers seem “switched”–the harsher tones of Youn are better suited to Fafner. The more mellifluous, round-edged bass of Matthias Hölle would sound great singing Fasolt’s “Freia” arietta in the second scene–something he did on the aforementioned Bayreuth version.

Loge can often make or break a Rheingold and Graham Clark is terrific. Here he puts a fresh, maniacal spin on the fire-god. ne expects him to burn the theater down with his nervous energy. It is his job to look the audience in the eye at the opera’s close, pulling the curtain shut as the egotistical Gods ascend into their new home, strewing confetti and glitter on themselves as they proceed to their eventual doom.

Paul J. Pelkonen | March 7, 2007

Rating
(4/10)
User Rating
(2/5)
Media Type/Label
Opus Arte
Technical Specifications
720×480, 2.1 Mbit/s, 2.6 GByte (MPEG-4)
Remarks
This recording is part of a complete Ring cycle.