Ring Cycle - ROH 2018

At both my Ring Cycles I've talked to the stranger sitting next to me.  in events 5 years apart, they were of different sexes and races and they both managed to fit in a visit to a different Wagner Opera outside of the Ring within the same week!

Some people can't leave Wagner alone!

I guess if you have travelled to see the Ring Cycle you have to find something to do on the nights off!

Enjoyed Siegfried a lot last night. Particularly as I didn't have a camera stuck in front this time.

Siegfried

Overall another revival. I continue to find Keith Warner's little directorial touches fascinating. In this production, for example, we have Act 1 set in the ruins of a plan. Remember there was a model plane taken from Niebelheim in Das Rheingold which has belonged to Mime? Well it's almost as if the story has come full circle (excuse the pun!) and Mime in the meantime has created his plane and then managed to crash it! Also interesting to note the juxtaposition of Mime's commercial plan created to make men fly, versus Siegfried's enlightening Woodbird. I also admire how everything is in a state of decay as you leave Rheingold. Wotan in Siegfried has white hair and his clothes are shabby, Mime also has white hair and a frayed coat. 

I also really like how this production shows the destructive power of the ring which literally eats away at the flesh of those it corrupts. Note Alberich's arm has half the raw muscle now exposed, likewise Fafner on his head (if you were keen eyed you could also spot a little bit of damage on Wotan's hand even though he only touched the ring for a while).

The staging is impressive in Acts 1 and 2 as has already been said, although with such vast sets it's interesting how in these acts all of the action is directed almost in front of the proscenium. Act 3 is terribly staged, and the intimacy and Brunnhilde and Siegfried's love duet was totally ruined by projections, and then singing passionately either side of the vast stage! And...would Siegfried who barely knows the difference between a man and a woman really jump on top of her at the end to start sexual fun? In fact, if Brunnhilde did have a child that would have added an interesting dimension to the story!

The star was Gerhard Siegel who is a triumph as Mime. He has played the role in every revival in this production and he never stops acting and he is so expressive with his voice. I do feel sorry for his character too as he was corrupted by his brother, and i think Keith Warner takes a more sympathetic view too as his directs the Woodbird to place some flowers on Mime's dead body.

Stefan Vinke acted as treat too, but he was massively underpowered and tired in the Act 3 love duet. There was little shade and expression to his voice by this point and he certainly sang this role better in the 2012 revival, but then again this is far from an easy role!

Nina Stemme appeared to be half asleep even after Brunnhilde had awoken. Her singing was poor on this occasion. Lots of wobbles, forced high notes and some ugly sounds suggested she was having a bad performance. She also had a few slips and trips around the stage! Let's hope she regains her composure for Gotterdammerung otherwise it will be a painful experience!

Pappano produced some truly exquisite sounds from the pit, and in record speed too! One opera left and it will be a sad occasion to see this production go as I have much fondness for it. 

Götterdämmerung
I always find reaching the end of a cycle invokes many emotions in me. By this time I feel emotionally and physically drained, but ultimately by the end of the evening I feel totally awestruck once more at the enormity of Wagner's achievement. I would have to hear a very convincing argument against Der Ring Des Nibelungen being the greatest achievement in the history of opera. As the music fades away to the same E-Flat chord you began upon in Das Rheingold your journey is complete, but that musical symphony will always remain with you.

Pappano and the orchestra were the stars of the evening. Together they produced some of the most exquisite sounds i've ever heard at the ROH. The way Pappano slowly measured his way through Siegfried's death and the immolation music was masterful. 

Within the staging a few gremlin's decided to appear again as in Das Rheingold. Notably one of the trap doors didn't close fully and gave the stage crew something to ponder upon for a while, and one of the wings got momentarily trapped in the set. Well done to the crew for resolving these tricky issues without disturbing the on stage performances which I'm sure was no easy task. Stefan Vinke also lost his spear fragment later on in Act 3 which rolled off the stage and down towards the pit, luckily not going over the edge! The sets for this opera were the least convincing. The walls of the Gibichungs resemble the patternation of the Tarnhelm, but I find them a little drab and lacking in depth for my taste. As has already been mentioned, that is one hell of a sofa they have though! Little touches to the production remain very satisfying like the dead body of Erda in the prologue shocking her norn daughters (remember in this production Wotan kills her with is spear) and Loge dying at the end after summoning his last fire to consume the world.

The signing was rather patchy. The best singing actually came from Irmgard Vilsmaier was the second Norn, surely this woman deserves better roles in future? Special mention should also go to Karen Cargill who made a vocally thrilling Waltraute, even if her acting was weak.

Stefan Vinke's stamina has to be admired, but he did not reach the emotional depths required vocally to create enough emotion. Nina Stemme was certainly on better form that in Siegfried, but I have serious concerns with her vocal technique. Her upper notes were often sharp, forced, wobbly and lacking expression. This detracted from an otherwise masterful performance, especially in Act 2 which she displayed the whirlwind of Brunnhilde's emotions to perfection. Stephen Milling was a weak Hagen (and who decided to give him such an awful wig?!) both vocally and in acting. Emily Magee was excellent as Gutrune, seductive both visually and vocally when required. Markus Butter did the best he can with the weakest character in the ring!

It was so touching to see the full orchestra and crew upon stage at the end for their curtain call. This production holds a special place in my heart and I am very sad to see it go, I just wish it could have been filmed for DVD release. 

It would have been a wonderfully neat and symbolic idea to begin and end such a mammoth undertaking with the same chord with which you started, but Wagner actually ends Gotterdammerung in D flat, and the final chord of the whole cycle is a sumptuous D flat major.

Well I've had time to ponder my first Ring now after having been completely gobsmacked by the end of Gotterdammerung last Friday. These observations are going to be necessarily simplistic...

I found Denis Forman's Good Opera Guide an invaluable preparation for this - there are quite a few longeurs in the plot and Forman properly prepared me for the pacing of the operas - the music is beautiful throughout, but boy is there a lot of talking about what we've already seen and there's a certain box-set mentality that needs to apply in thinking "well, this is part of the colour of the piece, it adds texture and character, but the plot will start moving again any hour now".

Wasn't too keen on the staging and was again quite grateful for the prep I did beforehand - I found it difficult to get much of a sense of place for many scenes, as aspects of the set were reused in often not-so-obvious ways, for aesthetic effect rather than narrative clarity. Some of it was genuinely impressive, some of it simply bizarre.

But then, the music and the singing won through and made the whole event a joy. I hadn't listened to much Wagner before this (one performance of Mastersingers) and was concerned I might find it oblique or difficult. But no, not at all. In terms of voices, I was quite happy with Brunhilde and Seigmund, found Seigfried a bit shouty by the end (but it's a hell of a part), wasn't quite convinced that Wotan was the Big Man on Campus that I might have expected (but that might be part of the point).

All in all a superb experience, will be thinking about it for a while. Many thanks to the more erudite posters on here who gave sophisticated comments which gave me things to think over.

BTW, according to the Guardian Pappano is now staying on until "at least" the end of 2022/23, albeit with a year's sabbatical for 2020/21 - which can only be a good thing given how much I enjoy music he conducts.
www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/nov/04/antonio-pappano-stays-on-royal-opera-house-london