Tanglewood 2019, Part 3: A big finish

I spent the last weekend in July at the Tanglewood Music Festival in the scenic Berkshires as part of a group of two dozen music critics attending the annual meeting of the Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA). It was a Wagner weekend, with three of the four concerts on our schedule dedicated to a complete concert performance of Die Walküre: Act I on Saturday night and Acts II and III in separate concerts on Sunday. Not surprisingly, the Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI) sessions we attended were focused entirely on Wagner and his world.

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The Linde Center at Tanglewood, home to most
of our TLI events
Photo by Robert Benson

Sunday, July 28th, was my final day at Tanglewood and a big one for lovers of the operas of Wagner.

Following an MCANA business meeting was a panel discussion with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood on the challenges facing American orchestras today and the creative ways those orchestras are meeting them. Moderated by WBUR's Keith Powers, the blue-ribbon panel consisted of BSO CEO Mark Volpe, Tanglewood Learning Institute Sue Elliott, Tanglewood artistic director Anthony Fogg, and Symphony Magazine managing editor Jennifer Melick. It was informative and frank, dealing in a forthright manner with a number of questions, including the difficult exit of former BSO music director James Levine.

The end of Die Walküre, Act II
Photo by Hilary Scott

Next, it was a quick dash across campus to the intimate Tanglewood Theatre for an entertaining look at "Wagner and Humor." The session wasn't so much about the humor in Wagner's work (although there is plenty of it in Die Meistersinger) as it was about the ways the composer and his music have been lampooned and parodied ever since he rose to prominence in the late 19th century.

Not surprisingly, there was a lot of material to cover in only an hour.

Stephanie Blythe and James Rutherford
Photo by Hilary Scott

The 19th-century editorial cartoons mocking the composer's pretensions ran the gamut from clever to crass, and there was at least one very welcome musical discovery: an 1880 piece for piano four hands by Gabriel Fauré and André Messager, titled Les Souvenirs de Bayreuth, that turns some of Wagner's most dramatic themes into what Jeremy Grimshaw (at allmusic.com) describes as "danceable ditties and overripe rhapsodies that sometimes border on the maudlin." Although Fauré and Messager were great admirers of Wagner, they apparently couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a bit of fun at his expense.

Some of my own favorite Wagner parodies were sampled, including Peter Schickele's Last Tango in Bayreuth for four bassoons and Anna Russell's legendary survey of the Ring cycle. And there was a complete showing of the Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd classic What's Opera, Doc? with its visual and musical send-ups of The Flying Dutchman, Tannhauser, and (of course) the Ring. Perhaps the most ridiculous bit of video, though, was a "Ride of the Valkyries" performed by a madcap musical duo known as The Melodica Men. It must be seen to be believed. Fortunately, it's on their YouTube channel.

Christine Goerke and Simon O'Neill
Photo by Hilary Scott

Up next was Act II of Die Walküre, as soprano Christine Goerke (Brünnhilde), mezzo Stephanie Blythe (Fricka), and bass-baritone James Rutherford (Wotan) joined soprano Amber Wagner (Sieglinde), tenor Simon O'Neill (Siegmund), and bass Franz-Josef Selig (Hunding). There's plenty of family drama in the second act, as Fricka expresses her outrage that Wotan is condoning not only adultery but incest as well. She browbeats him into upholding the sanctity of marriage by letting Hunding kill Siegmund, even though Wotan had hoped Siegmund would be the hero who would save Valhalla from the descendants of Alberich. When Brünnhilde (who, like all the Valkyries, is a daughter of Wotan and the earth goddess Erda) violates Wotan's orders and tries to save Siegmund, Wotan kills Hunding after having allowed him to kill Siegmund and storms off to punish his errant daughter.

James Rutherford, Andris Nelsons, Christine Goerke
Photo by Hilary Scott

This is strong stuff, and it got truly gripping performances from all concerned. Ms. Wagner, Mr. O'Neill, and Mr. Selig continued the fine work they displayed on the previous night's performance of Act I. Ms. Blythe was a regal presence as Fricka, displaying an impressively wide vocal range with powerful low notes. The same was true of Mr. Rutherford's conflicted, heaven-storming Wotan. As Brünnhilde, Ms. Goerke displayed a touching vulnerability and soaring, clear voice. The Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra played splendidly under the baton of Andris Nelsons.

Next was the dinner break, during which members of MCANA were treated to sandwiches and a showing of the 2010 documentary Wagner and Me, in which actor and writer Stephen Fry combines a backstage look at Bayreuth with an examination of the difficulty of separating Wagner's music from the composer's own antisemitism and the appropriation of his music by the Nazis. I saw the film when it first came out, but Fry's wit and wisdom are always worth another visit.

The Tanglewood Shed
Photo by Fred Collins

The evening concluded with the final act of Die Walküre, including an electrifying performance of the famous "Ride of the Valkyries" featuring eight stunning singers as Brünnhilde's warrior sisters. They were: sopranos Jessica Faselt (Helmwige), Wendy Bryn Harmer (Ortlinde), and Kelly Cae Hogan (Gerhilde) along with mezzos Eve Gigliotti (Siegrune), Dana Beth Miller (Grimgerde), Ronnita Miller (Schwertleite), Mary Phillips (Rossweisse), and Renée Tatum (Waltraute). Fronting the massive orchestra in full battle cry, they were overwhelming in the best possible way. Mr. Rutherford and Ms. Goerke gave us a beautifully touching "Wotan's farewell" scene to bring the concert series to a rewarding close.

Review: With Chicago Lyric Opera's Rheingold, the majesty is all in the music

This review originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

The giants
Photo: Todd Rosenberg

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It's always good to see a well-sung and expertly played production of Wagner's Ring cycle, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago's mounting of Das Rheingold, which opens a four-season run through the entire thing, is certainly that. In addition, the libretto's focus on the cost of abusing power and personal trust feels very relevant in our current political environment.

A high-powered cast is led by bass-baritone Eric Owens, whose solid and voice and dramatic conviction give real gravitas to the role of Wotan, who wakes from his dream of power to learn that the giants Fasolt and Fafner have finished the construction of Valhalla. Bass-baritone Samuel Youn is also compelling as the dwarf Alberich. He's a complex character-an unscrupulous bully but also wronged by the gods and less deluded than they about the cost of the Ring's power-and Mr. Youn gives him real nuance.

The Rheinmaidens
Photo: Todd Rosenberg

Tenor Stefan Margita is a wonderfully wily Loge, making the most of the character's dry, self-aware humor. Mezzo Tanja Ariane Baumgartner gives impressive voice to Fricka's misgivings over her husband's infidelity and dubious bargains. And tenor Rodell Rosel makes a strong impression as the querulous dwarf Mime.

Soprano Laura Wilde as Freia, tenor Jesse Donner as Froh, and baritone Zachary Nelson as Donner round out the cast of gods very effectively. Soprano Diana Newman, mezzo Annie Rosen, and mezzo Lindsay Ammann perfectly captured the allure and cruelty of the Rheinmaidens. And mezzo Okka von der Damerau was appropriately ominous as Erda.

That said, I wish director David Pountney and his design team had taken the whole project a bit more seriously. They have elected to make all the mechanics visible, bunraku style, so that (for example) the Rheinmaidens in the first scene float around on massive metal platforms manipulated by visible stagehands.

Nibelheim
Photo: Todd Rosenberg

It works well there and in the Nibelheim sequence, which looks fittingly hellish; less so for the giants Fasolt and Fafner, who are nothing but huge platforms with plastic heads and inflatable arms that flop around absurdly. Fafner's murder of Fasolt ought to be chilling, as it's the first evidence of the ring's curse. Here, as the stagehands toss around inflated arms and boots, it just looks goofy. So does having Wotan tear Alberich's arm off to get the ring. Giving the audience a cheap laugh at that point makes no dramatic sense.

Other moments of imposed comedy feel equally out of place. But the concluding entry of the gods into Valhalla retains all of its musical and visual power, with the orchestra's brass ringing out as the gods literally ascend towards their gleaming (if skeletal) home. I'm willing to forgive a lot for that. Besides, the orchestra under the sure hand of Sir Andrew Davis does very well by Wagner's score throughout the evening, and that's a huge plus.

The gods enter Valhalla
Photo: Todd Roserberg

In an interview at the Lyric Opera web site, Mr. Pountney says that his staging of the Ring operas will be “united by a single theatrical device. We keep trying to go back to an empty stage to show, in the end, that this is all just a stage, just a theater. However splendid the effects are, when we roll them up and whisk them away, we go back to an empty stage." I'm not convinced that kind of Brechtian distancing serves Wagner all that well. We'll see how it works for Die Walküre next year.

Performances continue through October 22 at Lyric Opera's home in the magnificent Civic Opera House in the Chicago Loop. Information on Das Rheingold and the rest of the current season is available at their web site.

Strong performances lend power to an abridged "Götterdämmerung" at Union Avenue Opera

L-R, foreground: Neil Nelson and Clay Hilley
Photo: JohnLamb

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This weekend, Union Avenue Opera concludes its 22nd season with "Götterdämmerung" ("Twilight of the Gods"), the final installment of the most ambitious project in the company's history—Wagner's mammoth operatic cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen" ("The Ring of the Nibelung"). It's a strong production, thanks to tremendous performances by the singers and clear, focused stage direction by Karen Coe Miller.

Using editions of the operas prepared in 1990 by British composer Jonathan Dove and director Graham Vick for companies that lacked the facilities and budgets necessary to produce Wagner's massive "music dramas" in their original form, Union Avenue Opera has proved that you can retain the narrative drive and much of the dramatic power of these works while still making substantial cuts. "Götterdämmerung" has the most drastic edits of them all, eliminating several characters and cutting the overall running time in half, from over six hours to just under three.

L-R, foreground: David Dillard, Rebecca Wilson
Neil Nelson, Clay Hilley
Photo: John Lamb

That makes the plot-heavy second act, with its memory-erasing magic potions and backstabbing (both metaphorical and literal), so quick that it feels almost telegraphic. And the smaller orchestra can't quite produce the impact required for big moments like Brünnhilde's famous "immolation scene" or Siegfried's Act I Rhine journey and his Act III funeral music. But everything is sung and acted with such conviction that those are ultimately secondary considerations. Solid dramatic values go a long way towards compensating for a lack of spectacle.

Besides, as I noted back when the series began, to a certain extent the lack of theatrical flash sharpens the focus on the plot, the characters, and their implicit commentary on matters of morality and power. Wagner's libretti for the "Ring" operas starkly illustrate the cost of abusing power and personal trust—highly ironic, given the way Wagner the man did both.

Alexandra LoBianco
Photo: John Lamb

Heading the cast is the remarkable Alexandra LoBianco as Brünnhilde, the role she played in "Walküre" and "Sigfried." If there's any justice in this world she will, at some point in her career, get a chance to sing the full-length version of this role on a major stage. She has the vocal power and sheen of a first-rate dramatic soprano and the acting skill to make even the biggest moments credible.

Tenor Clay Hilley returns as Siegfried, once again matching a heroic voice with a convincing character. Bass-baritone Neil Nelson's Hagen is a captivating study in emotional conflict and avarice, delivered with a big, powerful voice that easily handles the low notes of this bass role.

Brünnhilde's sister Valkyrie Waltraute could almost be a throwaway part since she's essentially there just to deliver a lot of exposition about how Wotan is pining away in Valhalla, but alto Melissa Kornacki makes her fascinating nevertheless—beautifully sung with real depth of character.

Clay Hilley and Vassals
Photo: John Lamb

Baritone Timothy Lafontaine schemes and wheedles wonderfully as the dwarf Alberich. David Dillard and Rebecca Wilson round out the supporting cast in fine form as Gunther and his sister Gutrune, both of whom are undone by their dishonorable plotting.

Conductor Scott Schoonover has apparently beefed up Dove's reduced orchestration a bit and, some intonation issues in the brasses not withstanding, the ensemble as a whole played quite well on opening night. I missed the big emotional catharsis of the final moments, but the responsibility for that mostly lies with Mr. Dove and the small size of the orchestra pit.

Patrick Huber's unit set is the same one used for the first three operas. It's dominated by a huge screen on which images and video (designed by Michael Perkins, whose innovative work has graced many a local stage) take the place of the elaborate scenery envisioned by Wagner. They generally work well, especially in the Gibichung palace scenes in the second act, and are very effective in creating the right moods and sense of place. The screen, the catwalk above it, and the stairs to either side take up so much room that most of the action is played out in a fairly shallow area downstage. Still, Ms. Miller manages to create decent stage pictures most of the time, which is impressive.

Melissa Kornacki
Photo: John Lamb

Teresa Doggett and company have done their usual fine work with the costumes. Hagen and the pedestrian Gibichungs are done up as early 20th-century European royalty, complete with brown-shirted Vassals who look eerily like Hitler's infamous paramilitary Sturmabteilung. That immediately sets them apart from country boy Siegfried and emphasizes their division from the supernatural characters who surround them.

Union Avenue Opera has done local opera fans a real service with its four-year traversal of the Ring operas. Yes, Dove's scaled-back versions are no substitute for the real thing, but taken on their own terms they're compelling theatre. And in any case, no local opera company has a theatre equipped for the Full Richard.

If you have any interest in Wagner's "Ring" operas at all, you definitely owe it to yourself to see this "Götterdämmerung." If nothing else, it will give you bragging rights when Ms. Lobianco goes on to her inevitable stardom; you can say you saw her when. Final performances are this Friday and Saturday, August 28 and 29, at 8 PM at Union Avenue Opera, 733 Union at Enright in the Central West End. For more information, visit the company web site. Note that there is a parking lot but it tends to fill up quickly, so you'll want to get there not later than 7:30 if you can.