Well, something of a mixed bag – but with a stunning final Scene 4. The bare stage that we were greeted with at the start looked like a rehearsal room so I did wonder if it was going to be very meta-theatrical, particularly as for the first part of the opening scene, the house lights remained up until the moment the gold appeared. We started in silence with a procession of refugee figures with battered suitcases filing onto stage and staring out at the audience – somewhat accusingly I felt. As the scene started with the Rhinemaidens, the Rhine was suggested, with slightly increasing plausibility and effectiveness, by the gently waving arms of the refugee chorus. This, occasionally, worked but I felt there was a disconnect between what we were seeing and what we were hearing – and certainly the way the opera opened did not give me the sense of awe and the beginning of creation which the music so remarkably conveys.
The interactions between Alberich and the Rhinemaidens were, from an acting point of view, superb – and this was one of the great strengths of the production in that the interpersonal relationships and responses were wonderfully subtly and convincingly conveyed. The level of acting one can expect in opera is really remarkable these days. But the physical movement and chasing of the Rhinemaidens, again vividly shown in the music was very unconvincing - in fact almost non-existent with no great sense of threat conveyed by what we saw on stage. Musically, the Rhinemaidens were excellent with quite powerful voices and were, interestingly, made very ordinary and not obviously seductive in their looks and costumes (although not, later on, in their behaviour). This was in contrast to Alberich (Marcus Bruch) who, particularly in this opening scene, seemed notably vocally underpowered although he did get a little better as the opera progressed – and he did do the curse well at the end. His facial make-up was very Heath Ledger Joker look – which could have been very effective for the character except for the fact that we had no sense of the energetic and savage mockery of that character so it made the ‘look’ somewhat pointless I felt.
The first appearance/representation of the gold was pretty underwhelming – and I am not sure that using a brass instrument (it looked like a trumpet but was too large for that) really worked dramatically although there was an effective aural parallel of course.
Throughout the evening, on occasion, characters sat at the piano and mimed (usually pretty convincingly) the main elements that we were hearing. At the moment I am still puzzled by that – the only time I felt that it began to work was later on when it was Loge doing it and that matched his detached cynicism, in some way I felt, in that he was mocking what was going on around him. It also, at various stages, functioned as platform, an exit and entrance for characters and as a storage place (Freia and the gold) but when and why this happened seemed to be somewhat random – and the variety of uses the object was put to was sometimes baffling – was it a piano or was it something more?
The transformation to the second scene and the heights of Valhalla was impressive. The first use was made, wonderfully, of vast areas of parachute silk (?) under which the chorus moved – which was fairly effective in suggesting the river, both at the start for a brief spell and here and then parts of this were pulled upwards by wires to give a very impressive sense of mountain peaks over which the gods looked from the world – although I am not sure the little bits of white on the tips were needed – that made it almost too simplistically representational whereas if they had left them as plain and unadorned shapes (a slight greenish light being shone on them) it would have been more effective as less literal.
The Gods, with the notable exception of Wotan, were shown as essentially trivial people – Donner and Froh being rather frat-boy at times, Freia being a giggly blonde – and we were left in no doubt about the importance of her ‘golden apples’ – and very much the adored younger sister of Donner and Froh. Fricka too was much less grim and serious than she is usually portrayed but I wonder how this will work out in Walkure where if she has not been established as a serious character, then what she says, does and expects from Wotan at the next stage will be much less convincing. Wotan, to me, seemed to be the only serious character on stage and this markedly differentiated him from his fellow Gods – dramatically, quite right too. Derek Welton was excellent in this role both from an acting and vocal point of view and his youth was convincing. When Fasolt and Fafner appeared, initially they were as massive puppets shaped by the parachute silk and with their heads formed of the aforementioned suitcases – but then after a while, those collapsed and F and F appeared as ordinary sized characters in working men’s dress. I suppose it was suggested that they could shape-shift but it did not come across clearly – unless I missed something of course. I very much liked the idea that there was some genuine attraction between Freia and Fasolt with their separation in the final scene being something that upset them both – bit of the Stockholm Syndrome here I thought. Neat idea. As Loge, Thomas Blondelle was wonderful – but then it is, I think, such a gift of a part that it is almost impossible to fail. He stood out from the rest of the Gods (who were all in white) in being in all black including a tight helmet but with brilliant red accents with gloves, shoes and bright lips. Definitely hints, perhaps more, of the Hiddleston/Loki look. And when he was ‘at the piano’ it made sense that he, of all people, would be meta-thaetrically commenting on what was happening around him.
The scene in Nibelheim was not particularly impressive – the use of the refugees as the oppressed dwarfs was half-hearted it seemed to me and the two transformations of Alberich were particularly unconvincing, as was his binding and taking to Valhalla
However, once the final scene started, the various elements of the performance – what we saw on stage and what we heard – really did move up several notches and became thrilling and gripping The recreation of Valhalla with the peaks remained as impressive as ever. The appearance of Erda was superb (not least as Judit Kutasi had such a wonderful rich and powerful voice – technically I think, by far the best voice of the evening). The performance reached its peak (and remained there as thrilling music-theatre until the end) with the killing of Fasolt – and I thought the idea of Donner using the hammer that Fafner used as his object to kill his brother as he summoned thunder was a very good move. At the end of his call he hurled the hammer spectacularly high into the fabric mountains which rapidly vanished (sucked very quickly into the piano) and above them, the stage was covered with smoke which was lit in rainbow colours – a wonderful and thrilling spectacle where, almost for the first time in the performance, what we saw on stage truly matched and enhanced what we were hearing. I think that it was this disconnect, particularly in the first part of the production, was what I found most unconvincing and emotionally and dramatically unsatisfying. But this final scene got even better. As the rainbow gradually faded -and how they did it just with illuminated smoke that nevertheless seemed to shrink in a controlled manner I do not know and I marvel at it – the acres of silk were brought forward from the back and as the final section began, it was pulled up into the shape of a tree with trunk, beautifully illuminated in green (in readiness for Walkure Act 1, obviously). Nothung was thrust into the tree (well, near it) and as the climax approached the beautiful spring green of the body of the tree gradually hanged and we saw two embryos in what now looked like a womb (and VERY redolent of the final scene of 2001) getting us ready for Walkure. While this happened Wotan somewhat frantically, descended to Erda to find out what the future held. This final scene was TOTALLY brilliant, wonderfully intelligently thought through and gave a stunning end to what had started off somewhat indifferently.
If the promise of Scene 4 can be fulfilled, then this is going to be a very fine production/interpretation indeed. But I am still unconvinced by the refugees and the piano!