greg@olivee.UUCP (Greg Paley) (06/04/85)
I was able to see and hear the opening night of the San Francisco Opera's "summer festival" production of the complete Wagner "Ring" cycle last night. The major roles were: Wotan - James Morris Fricka - Hanna Schwarz Alberich - Walter Berry Loge - William Lewis Erda - Mariana Paunova Freia - Nancy Gustafson Conductor - Edo de Waart Production/Direction - Niklaus Lehnhoff I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the production, the generally superb musical execution, and the integration of the stage direction (as executed by the singers) with the music. Both musically and visually, this production achieved the difficult goal of ridding the opera of the "bad old tradition" of stodginess and heaviness that had afflicted much Wagner production in the past, without robbing the work of its beauty and grandeur as happened in the televised Chereau production, where the characters were trivialized. The opening was very impressive. No spotlight for De Waart's entry, as he came in unnoticed behind the orchestra pit's outer wall. The house lights dimmed, the audience quieted, and from the darkness came the E-flat pedal on the basses. Not a glitch to be heard from the horribly exposed horn arpeggios, but beautiful, mellow sound. Last time this opera was performed here (two years ago, I believe), they used dancers to mime the Rhine maidens while the portly sopranos sang from the orchestra pit. This time they were able to find women with beautiful voices who looked and moved like dancers. It was rather a shock to see a Wagner opera where the women, in general, were not only not the typical stout, menacing looking opera singers but were actually beautiful, slender, sensuous looking women and yet still had huge, solid voices. This applied also to Fricka, Freia and Erda. If one were to have chosen actresses based on their looks and dubbed in the voices, one could not have chosen more appealing women. Outstanding was James Morris. Handsome and impressive in demeanor, his voice was a marvel. It poured out effortlessly, with limitless reserve for the climaxes. Nothing sounded difficult or strenuous. I've heard a large number of Wotan's, both live and recorded, and I've never heard the part better sung. Except for the high-decibel output of Hanna Schwarz as Fricka, his singing tended to dwarf the rest of the cast in sheer volume and amplitude. There was not, however, a single inadequate or insignificant voice to be heard. William Lewis' tenor was particularly outstanding as Loge, slithery and even repulsive when called for but also capable of opening out beautifully when needed. I was slightly disappointed in Walter Berry as Alberich. He tends to overact and in this case he oversang in the earlier scenes so that he didn't have sufficient vocal reserves to make his final curse the powerful statement it should be. Generally, De Waart's tempi were broad and flowing. This was one of the most "musical" performances of this opera I've heard, with balances that allowed the singers to project words clearly without forcing. The irony is that such concentration on perfection in the musical execution doesn't hurt the drama, but rather allows it to unfold much more effortlessly and impressively than the pushing, shoving, forcing and barking that have been heard in Bayreuth (and other Wagner centers) in recent years. The only tempo I really felt was wrong was the excessively slow one for Donner's "Heda Hedo" which was made ineffective. With the much publicized lack of current Wagnerian voices and the current tendency of producers to completely disregard the context the composer chose for a work so as to use operas as a basis for their own "creative inspirations", this was a production to give hope for the future. - Greg Paley
jho@ihuxn.UUCP (Yosi Hoshen) (06/12/85)
I would like to express my thanks to Greg Paley for his review of Des Rheingold in SF. We have tried in recent years to get tickets to the Bayreuth Festival Performances of the Ring. We were unsuccessful. Hopefuly, SF could be an alternative to Bayreuth. -- Yosi Hoshen, AT&T-IS Naperville, Illinois, (312)-979-7321, Mail: ihnp4!ihuxn!jho