By any standards, this really was a remarkably exceptional performance. All the elements seemed to come together – the very high-quality singing and acting, the development of characters and their relationships, the visual aspect of the production, the sense that there was an overarching vision for the production -and, for today’s theatre, a remarkably close adherence to the spirit of Wagner’s highly prescriptive vision and at times, to the specified requirements.
The orchestra under Balazs Kocsa, was particularly magnificent and there were several times when I heard inner brass parts. There was a great dramatic sweep and the climaxes were very finely judged and not premature – and at the very end, the orchestra sounded as assured and fine as it did at the opening. Orchestrally, it really was a world-class performance.
The voices matched the orchestra. The Three Norns got us off to fine start and the magnificent Szilvia Ralik fired off the proceedings with her gleaming tone, easy power and passionate and involved acting, both with voice and body. Istvan Kovacshazi was a fine match for her, with a voice as easily powerful and rich as it was well controlled. As an actor he was…fine but unlike the Siegfried of the previous opera, he was somewhat static and uninvolved when not singing, being noticeably less expressive of face and expression.
The Gibichungs were first-rate, vocally and dramatically. As Hagen, Geza Gabor had the deep black tones that the role requires and his stillness with only minimal movement was a very effective way of making his sinister power apparent. This, and his dark costume made a marvelous contrast to the virulently coloured Gunther and Gutrune, from their vividly flamboyant straw yellow hair to their primary shades of the rest of their costume. The depiction of Gunther (Zsolt Haja) was interesting as he was shown as a self-centred preening and cocky egotist with a ruthless streak – quite unlike the more traditional view of him as an overshadowed failure. In 2 his gleeful encouragement of the vassals as they roared their support for him was very effective and showed very effectively his self-centred power. And Gutrune (Polina Pasztircsak) too was a fat stronger personality, being actively involved in the drugging of Siegfried and so not the limp flower that she is often shown as being. In both their cases their very unusual ‘look’, which was quite a shock on their first appearance, proved a very effective signifier of who they were.
Act 2 has always been one of my favourite parts of the Ring (closely followed by Act 3 of Siegfried) with its fantastic narrative drive and never a second of superfluous music or action and here its potential and power was fully exemplified. However I was slightly puzzled by Alberich’s performance (Zoltan Kelemen, so fine in the preceding two parts). Here he seemed to be far less sinister and manipulative than both the drama and music suggest he is and this was compounded by his almost constant movement, with a sort of prancing action that seemed very much at odds with what was occurring in the drama at this time.
As Waltraute, Andrea Szanto combined with Ralik to make the scene come very vividly alive – something that does not always happen. They played marvelously off each other and the dramatic significance of this scene was very powerfully brought out.
In Act 3 the idea of having Brunnhilde come on and be there for his farewell was a marvelous and powerful touch and at the end, Ralik’s voice was in as fine a shape as it was at the start – not always something that can be said very often! She appeared in her Valkyrie’s outfit – logically implausible, but emotionally perfect.
The scenery and staging was at its best in this work; it was always good/very good in the other parts but here, everything really did come wonderfully together. The use of the layered screens for film and video images was almost exemplary and there was a really clever and dramatically satisfying and convincing mix of the abstract and the precise. The journey down the Rhine after the Prologue was genuinely convincing and the occasional use of recognisable objects, scenes and buildings was in just the right balance and it did not over-emphatically lecture the audience about what they should think and believe about the ‘meaning’ of the work. The use of verticals, particularly very vividly coloured for the Gibiching’s hall was marvellous and the use of expanding white horizontals and verticals in certain places gave a very vivid sense of space and movement.
And for the final conflagration, we actually had virtually everything that was specified in the score, including the burning of Valhalla and the end of the Gods, the Rhinemaides appearing and taking the gold back (which, as they ‘flew’ down also efectuvely conveyed the sense that the Gibichungs hall had indeed be swept away by the Rhine. And the final image, of a ‘nude’ male and female couple in a circle, (with a defiinite nod to the Star Child of 2001!) behind the vivid green spring leaves pattern that we most memorably saw at the end of Act 1 of Die Walkure, provided a totally satisfying emotional climax to the whole cycle.
A superb achievement.