MILAN, Italy – There was no speech from the orchestra pit at this time. No-gassing protesters ripped out. There was no parade of politicians and social celebrities.
However, the performance of each of the two Richard Wagner’s “Die Walkuere” on Friday night at La Scala does not make a bit of news: an unexpected debut of an exciting tenor Netherlands, Frank van Aken, the role of Siegmund.
While Daniel Barenboim conducted the reading of the full value of the magical moments – along with a few ragged – van Aken and the rest of the players are very well resolved with a bold new production by director Guy Cassiers that seems to offer two bad idea for all good people.
Italy’s leading opera house is staging of Wagner’s four-part “Ring” cycle at the speed of an opera in a production together with the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden.
“Die Walkuere,” the second installment, show Wotan, king of the gods, failed in his attempt to escape the curse he had brought upon himself by stealing a gold ring. At the end of the opera he had sent his son, Siegmund, to die in battle and stripped her beloved daughter, Bruennhilde, eternity to him, put him to sleep on a rock surrounded by fire.
Gone from the production of a ballet dancer who was mingling with the lead singer for last season’s “Das Rheingold.” Instead, give us a hodgepodge Cassiers symbol swept the stage, along with endless murky video projected on the wall behind the set.
This video is a great distraction from the action, not broaden. In the second law, for example, a large rotating metal world on its head while he repeated plot Wotan in important monologue. As the images morph in and out of focus at the surface of the world, certainly attracted our attention to try to describe them, and much of Wotan.
Sometimes, the projected effective. During the “Ride of the Valkyries,” as you sing Bruennhilde transport dead heroes to Valhalla, body mass plays, several horses, a few men, writhing evocatively in the background.
But Cassiers not stop while he was in front. The spread in the form of fragmentary masses continue metastisizing through the next scene, to interfere with some of Wagner’s music is the most beautiful, including crying like Sieglinde “hehrstes O Wunder!” when she learned she was pregnant with Siegmund’s children.
To end the night, fire magic to protect Bruennhilde Wotan calls arrived looks like a bunch of solar light from a tanning salon that comes down over form his sleep, what seems to be dripping wax.
In the middle of this decoy device, the players are pretty much left to take care of themselves. As Sieglinde, mezzo-soprano Waltraud Meier sang and acted with the intensity of custom views, even if the old drain some of the warmth of her voice. Bass Vitalij Kowaljow sang Wotan music demands hard work and the tone, solid fun, but it makes little dramatic impact.
Soprano Nina Stemme, Bruennhilde as close to ideal as one can find today, giving a fiery performance, with a sound, stable, vibrant throughout its range. He also should get a good sportsmanship award for costume night to let the most ugly, dark, glitter-encrusted gown that gathered a large cloth bag and hang from the back waist.
Van Aken, who learned only Thursday that it will convert to sick Simon O’Neill, shows promise to be a good addition to the Board of heldentenors, which specializes in the heaviest Wagnerian roles. He had little trouble defending some, the soft part of the lowlands, but his voice expanded and strengthened as the increased scale, high load, the heroic tone of the above.
Complement the soloist ranks of the rich-voiced mezzo Ekaterina Gubanova as Wotan’s wife, Fricka, and bass John Tomlinson, who denounced the evil out the low notes as Sieglinde’s husband, Hunding.
In the season opening on Tuesday, before the lifting rod Barenboim, he appeals to the President of Italy, seated in the government, to protect against the Italian cultural institutions threatened budget cuts. Outside the opera house police clashed with demonstrators protesting the cuts both culture and higher education.
On Friday, the focus is all on the conduct Barenboim. She chose dare slow period in other places accelerating conductor, as in music that reflects the Siegmund and Sieglinde flight through the forest. And he repeatedly brought the woodwind to the fore, adding warmth are not familiar with many parts.
But he had a serious problem of coordination between orchestra and soloist. By van Aken, given the lack of training, it is understandable. With another singer, not so.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
