Living at the Opera

Richard Wagner, May 22, 1813 - February 13, 1883

If one of Valery Gergiev’s objectives has been to keep the Mariinsky Theater’s version of Wagner’s Ring in the minds of the operatic public, he certainly has accomplished his goal. The performance schedule that he and set designer, Georgy Tsypin, have followed since the production debuted in St. Petersburg, in 2002, has definitely been impressive on paper. Besides a couple of Ring Cycles presented in Baden-Baden, a repeat of it in St. Petersburg, in 2003, one in Korea, another in Japan and still another last winter in Moscow, the duo went ahead and booked a cycle in Cardiff in November and December, 2006, only a month after their 17-day Festival in Orange County. And in order to secure their place internationally, the Mariinsky Theater scheduled two Ring Cycles in July 2007, in New York City. It is not, however, the many cities or the number of cycles that will make a performance of Wagner’s Ring stand out, but the imaginative setting in which the highest musical and visual standards can flourish and that are so necessary if a production of Wagner’s Neibuligen Myth is to succeed. A closer look at the Ring performances, in Costa Mesa, CA, in October, 2006, will show whether the company was able to meet these standards.

Gergiev and Tsypin’s production is based primarily on the ancient Scythian culture originally located between a region of Asia and Southeastern Europe. The artistic partners have expressed that their focus for the Ring would be removed from the typical Nordic or Teutonic settings that frequent many productions. In the Orange County Register, the Sunday before the Mariinsky Ring opened at the Performing Arts Center, Timothy Mangan noted, “this…Ring is not a traditional production…but interpreted in the light of ‘world myth,’ not German.” And Gergiev and Tyspin specifically began their concept by looking at the ancient mythology of the Caucasus (Gergiev’s native land), and Gergiev, himself, added,”…in the entire “Ring”cycle there is never the word German…it doesn’t speak about Germany…it may speak about the Rhine, but it doesn’t say Germany. That’s why I thought that it’s a world epic.”

But this Scythian motif has garnered varying reactions of the Mariinsky Theater’s world view of Wagner’s mythical story. Raymond Stults, in the Moscow Times, in June, 2005, reported that “The stage was dominated by Tsypin’s trademark human figures,…a quartet of giant mummy-like creations strung up vertically, horizontally and at various angles. Though their precise significance was by no means clear, their foreboding presence lent enormous weight to the terrible and often terrifying scenes being played out on the stage below.”And Mangan, in the Register later in the week, commmented favorably about the overall look, “Tyspin’s sets seem to be alive. Giant…bluntly carved statues form the large structures, sometimes hanging parallel to the floor, sometimes in slanting verticals. Gorgeously lit in pastel and neon colors the setting manages to transport us to a nether-world where bodies symbolically make up the landscape. An appropriate milieu for Wagner’s mythical saga, it works without being too heavy-handed.” But Donna Perlmutter, in the Los Angles City Beat, voiced a strong, almost repulsive reaction to the production’s primitive style. “George Tsypin’s designs are big, dark bulky monoliths suggesting, at worst, mountains of dung, and, at best, Stonehenge, with horizontal slabs surrounded by primitive figures that stand fifty feet high…but just imagine Das Rheingold’s giants, Fafner and Fasolt, who should be lumbering menaces, with only their little pipsqueak heads sticking out of mammoth, mechanized dung-heaps that roll around the stage, How silly was this?”

However, the successful outcome of any Ring cycle must stand on its artistic merits and how they can shine through Wagner’s torturous saga with its seemingly endless musical and dramatic demands that must be carried on the shoulders of its singers and orchestra. One outstanding characteristic of the Mariinsky company is its devotion to Gergiev’s artistic vision; but the question is, can this admirable quality be sustained through four long and rigorous operas? A look at the Mariinsky Ring’s bright golden moments is a good place to start.

For almost 15 years, tenor, Placido Domingo has made Siegmund, in Die Walkuere, one of his favorite roles. His warm, and at times, powerful sound can usually encompass the demands of Wagner’s first heroic character to appear in the Ring. Now in his mid-sixties, the vocal ease that Domingo would like to project doesn’t always come to the fore. Luckily, for the audience at Die Walkuere, that was not the case. His voice rang out with full, rich tones recalling his earlier days in opera, enabling him to relax and bring to the surface the deep-felt emotions inherent in Siegmund: one being his overwhelming love for Sieglinde, his sisterand the mother of their love child, who was to be called Siegfried. In Act Two, in the poignant encounter with Bruennhilde, Domingo projected the conflict of his underlying dilemma- to fight to save his beloved Sieglinde or to succumb to the wishes of the god, Wotan, who wants Siegmund eliminated.

Like his character, Domingo’s performance was vocally and dramatically heroic and was to become one of the golden moments in the Mariinsky Ring.

Larisa Diadkova’s Frika, in Das Rheingold and Die Walkuere was another outstanding performance. As Wotan’s sometimes overbearing wife and the one finally responsible for the demise of Siegmund and Sieglinde, she didn’t buy the brother and sister becoming lovers. Diadkova’s powerful vocal execution of Frika’s fierce determination to get her way truly dominated her confrontation scene with Mikhail Kit’s Wotan. And to add to her glory, Diadkova showed up in Goetterdaemmerung as Waltraute, hoping to convince her lovelorn sister, Bruennhilde, to give up the powerful ring Siegfried had given her as a token of their love. Waltraute may not have gotten her wish, but Diadkova vocally ripped through the scene with such convincing passion, it appeared as if she had won the day, if not the victory. No doubt, this Ring reached its emotional peak with Domingo’s and Diadkova’s vocally committed and dramatically astute performances.

For the first time since the Mariinsky Ring premiered in St. Petersburg, Gergiev assigned the role of Bruennhilde to one soprano. Olga Sergeyeva was the annointed one, and at times, she acquitted herself quite well. She presented a very attractive womanly presence, moving easily around the stage making her movements flow into all the varied emotions that Wagner wrote into her character. In each of the three operas-Die Walkuere, Siegfied and Goetterdaemmerung- as Sergeyeva’s Bruennhilde traveled through her long and complicated journey leading to the destruction of the world, she was loving, spirited, petulant, forceful, vindictive and ultimately compassionate.

Unfortunately, Sergeyeva’s vocal production was uneven. The soprano was not always able to match her vigorous and pointed stage presence with the expansive vocal demands written into her role as fierce warrior and loving saviour. But the soprano had some shining moments.

In Act Two of Die Walkuere, Segeyeva fit comfortably into the arms of her father, Wotan, as he explained how he and Frika had reached their decision that Siegmund must die for his incestous transgression and that Breunnhilde must not act to protect Siegmund from his fate. Here the soprano, along with Kit’s eloquent rendering of his tale, latched onto a stream of vocal warmth that carried through their long and tender duet.

And in Siegfried, in the duet that ends Act Three, tenor Leonid Zakhozhaev, as the impetuous Siegfried, awakened Bruennhilde from her deep sleep with a kiss. As soon as Bruennhilde discovered Siegfried’s amorous intentions, the soprano’s voice started to take on a racing anxiety as she realized she would have to give up her divine life in Valhalla, but then her voice slowly built to a thrilling climax as she accepted the throes of human love.

Vasily Gorshkov’s Mime and Mikhail Petrenko’s Hagan in Siegfried and Goettermaemmerung, respectively brought strong vocal characterizations to the production that complimented Domingo’s, Diadkova’s and Sergeyeva’s vivid performances making these five performers the shining lights of the Mariinsky Ring.

As befits Wagner’s music drama, Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra was the driving musical force behind this version of the composer’s masterwork. With a hundred plus members, Gergeiv guided his devoted followers through some exceptional playing. The orchestra’s well-known traits were in evidence-the lingering, almost indulgent, sounds coming from the bass instruments that led to some rich, sensual reeds, and snarling brass. And the volcanic musical eruption in Siegfried’s Death and Funeral March in Goetterdaemmerung was most thrilling. Mangan, in the O.C. Register, clearly summed up Gergiev’s personal qualities as a Ring conductor. “Gergiev’s way may have lacked a certain amount of Germanic breath and sweep, but the litheness of his reading made a welcome substitute, as did his climatic vehemence.”

On the downside, when the orchestra reached Goetterdaemmerung, there was some lack of energy in their string playing perhaps the reason being that interlaced with the Ring were three evenings of Shostakovich symphonies - a staggering amount of musical output over a seven-day period.

What ultimately lessened the dramatic impact of the Mariinksy Ring was lack of a strong directorial hand to guide the performers through Wagner’s complex maze of emotional upheavals. There were too many sections that were laxily connected, flattening the drama just at those moments when pumping it up was the course to follow. The prime example of this was at the end of Goetterdaemmerung when red, smoky lighting represented Wagner’s catastrophic destruction of the world with Breunnhilde just limply disappearing from sight, leaving a few floresent figures to represent what remained of the world or possibly a new beginning. What Wagner meant certainly was not to keep us guessing.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 21st, 2006 at 9:17 pm and is filed under German opera. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.