Bayreuth Festival, August, 2008
On the Hallowed Green Hill at Bayreuth…
Walking up the green hill through the gardens to the Festspielhaus at Bayreuth sets the mood for memorable performances of Wagner’s music dramas. What attracts so many of us to Wagner’s works is the all-encompassing physical and emotional response to the music, words and visuals on stage.
Der Ring des Nibelungen, August 2008
Götterdämmerung. Photo: Enrico Nawrath/Bayreuther Festspiele
The current production of Der Ring des Nibelungen by Tankred Dorst did not disappoint. The production complemented Wagner’s music and text beautifully.
Colin Bayliss
Clemens Bieber
Bea and Alec Bobotek
Stephen Charitan
Jerry Floyd
Diana Herbst
Hildegaard Arnold Kiel
Walter Meyer
Anne Midgette
John F. Runciman
Per-Erik Skramstad
Julia Thornton
Mark Twain
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Dorst set the Ring in modern day with many of the scenes taking place in vacant human premises, such as a vacant highrise, an empty school, a discarded quarry and a cut-down forest with a partially built freeway. The Gibichung hall in Götterdämmerung was a representation of the now uninhabited Vittoriale degli Italiani on Lago di Garda built by the poet Gabriele d’Annunzio in the last century and where many lavish parties with his friends took place. Costumes of the gods throughout were lush reminding me of modern-day Japanese fashion art. Elaborate masks were utilized to depict many of the characters. Hunding’s men wore dog masks and acted as a pack of dogs. Fricka was accompanied by two attendants wearing ram’s heads.
Dorst emphasized the objectivity of experiencing the Ring by keeping all of the gods, demi-gods and humans separate. In almost every scene there were humans, often children or young adults interacting realistically with the surroundings, but who were oblivious to the drama taking place among the gods and demi-gods.
Dorst created Götterdämmerung to be a real culmination of the Ring epic. He depicted all of the Ring characters up to that point from Rheingold, Walküre and Siegfried as guests in the Gibichung hall. One could make out among the guests, who were Wotan, Fricka, the Rheinmaidens, Siegmund, Sieglinda, Loge, etc. And in Götterdämmerung even we, the audience, were included! Our shoes were lined up at the front of the stage before the Gibichung hall. The real Rheinmaidens, when they appeared at the beginning of Act III, carried mirrors, reflecting us in the audience.
The ending of the Ring can sometimes be a letdown and is often controversial. In this production the fire in the hall is intense (with the guest representing Loge being the last to flee!) burning up the worlds of the gods and demi-gods. The denouement was left for the humans in the real world. A young couple with a bike pass through the surroundings. They stop. The young woman offers her partner a cup of water from a thermos – just like Sieglinde offering Siegmund a cup of water; just like Arabella offering Mandryka a cup of water…. The real world and real life continue on.
Of course, the blend of voice and orchestra in the famed Festspielhaus is unsurpassed. The singing overall was good, but as in all Ring productions there were inconsistencies. Outstanding was the Sieglinde, Eva-Maria Westbroek from the Netherlands. Watch for her as a Brünnhilde in 10 years time. Stephen Gould as Siegfried and Linda Watson as Brünnhilde were memorable. The conductor, Christian Thieleman, had the orchestra playing louder than many conductors would have done leaving one with the impression that he was not as sensitive to the needs of singers as an opera conductor should be.
Tristan & Isolde, August 2008
Jukka Rasilainen as Kurwenal attending the dying Tristan (Robert Dean Smith).
Tristan & Isolde is normally the most sensuous opera staged today, however this production by Christoph Marthaler was anything but passionate. It was weird, bizarre, comic and absurd. With the production of the Ring separating out the lives and drama of the gods and humans, was this a separation of a drama among robots with autistic characteristics (i.e., Tristan and Isolde) and humans represented by the observer, Kurvenal, Tristan’s loyal companion? The time period of this production spans the 1920’s to the 1950’s as depicted in Isolde’s costumes from Act I to Act III, yet Kurvenal is the only character who ages throughout. The other characters are unchanged as if they were not real. The only contact among the characters was occasionally with the hands– even eye contact was nonexistent. Is this not what one would expect with interacting automatons?
All of the action, or in this case, non-action takes place on a ship with three levels. Act I is in a room on the main deck, Act II on a lower deck and Act III in the hull of the ship. So the mechanical characters remained in the same mechanical setting for the entire drama.
The singing and diction of Robert Dean Smith as Tristan and Robert Holl as König Marke were superb, while the Swedish soprano, Iréne Theorin as Isolde was totally unintelligible.
One music critic called this production an example of current German music theater, but I am not sure it could be called a good or even mediocre example of music theater in Germany today. It was certainly not an opera to which the audience could respond with all of their senses. Nor is it a production I would care to see again.
Der Meistersinger von Nürnberg, August 2008
Katharina Wagner's production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Photo from 2009: Enrico Nawrath
What an absolute delight to see!! This controversial production of the Meistersinger is by Katharina Wagner, the 29 year old great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner, who is also now the new Co-director of the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth. In this production she remains true to the music and text as originally written, but places the opera in an entirely different context. Rather than a singing competition, it is set in the world of painting and art. Hans Sachs, sung by Franz Hawlata, is a barefoot poet/artist rather than a master shoemaker. Before the final competition, Katharina pokes fun at previous artists/poets/composers, Richard Wagner being one of them. These, depicted by actors wearing grotesque caricatured masks, must be, and were, disposed of before a new world of art can result. However, as is so typical today, as soon as Walther von Stolzing (Klaus Florian Vogt) wins the contest, a promotional contract is signed and off he goes to commercialize his art, leaving the Beckmessers of the world to carry on in the art world. In fact, in this production it is Sixtus Beckmesser (Michael Volle) remaining true to his art, who is the real hero.
This production, which opened last summer, was not appreciated by many critics and members of the audience. However, a surprising number did like it. One opera goer commented that if this is an example of Katharina Wagner’s creativity, then she had her support as the new Co-director of the Festival. We await future new productions under her helm.
Parsifal, August 2008
Act 3 of Stefan Herheim's production of Parsifal. Photo from 2009: Enrico Nawrath
This is the opera that was written specifically for performing in the Festpielhaus. It was beautifully sung with absolutely perfect balance with the orchestra led by Daniele Gatti. In this fascinating production with very elaborate staging the Norwegian Director, Stefan Herheim, used Parsifal and the search for the Holy Grail as a metaphor for the development of Germany as a nation up to the present day. This interpretation was extremely effective.
Act I set in the 1880s depicts the birth of Germany as a nation with the birth of an innocent Parsifal. Christianity was an important aspect in the formation of Germany and this scene exudes Christian symbolism with angels, a Christ figure (Amfortas sung by Detlef Roth) religious rituals, etc. It ends with a rise in German nationalism and the beginning of World War I.
Parsifal (Christopher Ventris) with the swan he has shot. The swan is Parsifal as a boy. Gurnemanz (Kwangchul Youn) is appalled.
Act II opens with a country bewildered, in poverty and in need of healing as it was after the first World War. Germany in the 1920s and 30s was ripe for an increase in decadence as represented by an androgenous Klingsor (Thomas Jesatko) and Zaubermädchen, who sometimes were depicted as nurses and at other times chorus girls. Kundry, beautifully sung by Mihoko Fujimura, looked like Marlene Dietrich’s famous Blue Angel from the 1930s. The rise of Nazism with its promises of love, honor and protection of the German culture and the beginning of World War II end the second act.
As Act III opens the war has ended and the country is in shambles. Kundry and Gurnamanz (Kwangchul Youn), depicting the surviving German populace, are devastated, but are still there to serve and rebuild. Parsifal, sung by Christopher Ventris, as the redeemer heals Amfortas’ wound. Titurel (Diógenes Randes) and the old order finally die. The staging then moves to the Bundestag where the new government is formed. The opera ends with a giant mirror on stage reflecting the well-dressed affluent audience and present day Germany.
This interpretation by Herheim worked beautifully and was very emotional to experience. Why did it take a non-German like Herheim to use Parsifal as a metaphor for Germany in this manner?
This production also marked the end of an era. Wolfgang Wagner, who had been with the Festspiel for 58 years, 42 of which were as the sole Director, was stepping down. He joined the singers on stage for bows and a standing ovation from a very appreciative audience.
Diana Herbst, October, 2008