Curtis Brown
Wagner singing in america is at one thing of an inflection level. Lots of the singers who’ve dominated U.S. phases for the final 20 years or so are retiring their roles, or retiring totally, and a brand new era is coming to the fore.
Santa Fe Opera’s Die Walküre, its first and seemingly separate from any full Ring cycle, exemplifies this development. A forged of younger-generation singers, a few of them making their function debuts, gave terrific performances in Melly Nonetheless’s well directed manufacturing. Her framing of the story brings reminiscence to the fore, the reminiscence of issues which have occurred and prophetic reminiscence, bringing ahead occasions that happen later and characters who seem later within the Ring.
Die Walküre begins with a storm raging, and most productions deal with Siegmund, fleeing throughout a forest after a failed try and rescue a younger girl from a pressured marriage. However Nonetheless takes a special tack; in the course of the prelude, we see the younger Sieglinde, performed by actor Mia Moore, being kidnapped, as Siegmund will later recount. The abductors disappear, and we then see grownup Sieglinde –– in ragged, worn clothes, with dust and bruises on her face –– in a decrepit trendy kitchen, with a tiny fridge, filthy range, and broken-down furnishings.
When Siegmund enters, Sieglinde is terrified and faces him down with a knife, slightly than instantly providing succor. He’s carrying a ragged white sweater, identical to hers, and a heavy outer jacket, making a right away visible connection between the twins. That will be a pleasant contact in any manufacturing, nevertheless it’s particularly useful right here, with Siegmund performed by tenor Jamez McCorkle, a tall Black man, and Sieglinde sung by Vida Miknevičiūtė, a small white girl.
They made an amazing pair. Seeing McCorkle at San Francisco Opera because the title character of Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abel’s Omar, I wouldn’t have pegged him as a Heldentenor, however right here he was, singing Siegmund with a sweeter and lighter tone than most tenors convey to the function. Within the singer-friendly Crosby Theater, his delicate phrasing and exquisite legato carried the day and amply compensated for any lack of pure vocal energy.
In Miknevičiūtė, he had a beautiful accomplice. She could be slight of body, however she has a mighty voice, a brilliant, piercing soprano that she deploys with an intelligence matching McCorkle’s.
Equally, Hunding was an excellent match for Soloman Howard in each method. His top, his warmly lovely bass, his presence have been all made for this function. That Hunding is an abuser is implicit within the libretto, however Nonetheless makes it express along with her route. Sieglinde cowers in Hunding’s presence; she brings him beer; she kneels and removes his boots with out being requested. We’re seeing the conduct of a girl in a deeply abusive relationship.
Curtis Brown
In the meantime, atop Leslie Travers’s two-level stage, Wotan’s long-suffering spouse Fricka, right here the younger mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino, watches the trio under. She’s in a white gown cris-crossed by purple ribbons that replicate purple cords which can be used as scenic parts. Are they the Norns’ ropes of destiny, which the viewers isn’t conscious of till the prelude to Götterdämmerung? Who is aware of, nevertheless it definitely makes a hanging stage image.
That set serves different functions. It’s a perch for Brünnhilde and the opposite Valkyries. Versatile vertical parts function a display screen, behind which, for instance, you see Siegmund and Sieglinde cavorting throughout Fricka’s Act II confrontation with Wotan. Folks generally emerge from behind the display screen, together with, apparently, Alberich, the girl he rapes to father Hagen, and Erda, characters talked about, however not seen, in Die Walküre. Choreography by Tinovimbanashe Sibanda enacts a few of these occasions.
Act II brings us Ryan Speedo Inexperienced’s Wotan, Tamara Wilson’s Brünnhilde, and Saturnino’s Fricka. Saturnino was a Santa Fe apprentice singer in 2021 and 2022, and he or she’s an actual discover. She has a giant, easy mezzo and a regal presence, singing lyrically and with pressure. Likewise, Inexperienced is each vocally and dramatically spectacular as Wotan, dominating the stage and singing with agency splendor. This was his function debut, and whereas there’s all the time room for development with such a posh character, he’s effectively on his approach to being a significant interpreter.
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Like Miknevičiūtė, Wilson has a brilliant voice, with loads of richness in her center and decrease registers. As directed right here, she’s extra musically expressive than bodily, transferring majestically by the opera. After all, a lot of the primary half of Act II is conversational, between Fricka and Wotan, then between Wotan and Brünnhilde.
The second half, although, is filled with motion, with Siegmund and Sieglinde fleeing Hunding, Sieglinde’s desperation, and eventually each Brünnhilde and Wotan intervening within the ultimate confrontation between Siegmund and Sieglinde. Nonetheless phases all of this vividly, with huge scenic parts transferring across the stage. She locations Sieglinde inside a gold-lined object whereas younger Sieglinde appears on. However why does Wotan dispatch Siegmund, stabbing him with a knife? Is that this his particular method of creating as much as Fricka?
Act III opens with maybe the best-known Wagner bleeding chunk, the Trip of the Valkyries, a problem for any opera home to stage convincingly. The Crosby Theater isn’t geared up to fly both surroundings or individuals, and Nonetheless, maybe working with Sibanda, has provide you with a high-quality answer to the issue: the Valkyries stand on the higher stage of the set, whereas dancers on the stage, apparently representing each the lifeless heroes and the Valkyries’ horses, writhe and dance and leap about, clutching ropes or big bungee cords connected to the roof of the theater.
Curtis Brown
The Valkyries, who embody such stars as Jennifer Johnson Cano and Wendy Bryn Harmer in addition to former and present apprentice singers, are costumed as warriors from totally different intervals. Collectively, they made a mighty noise.
Nonetheless phases the closing scenes between Wotan and Brünnhilde tenderly, and Inexperienced and Wilson carry them off fantastically, although the director makes a stunning misstep: on the shut of the opera, the rating and libretto direct Wotan to strike Valkyrie rock 3 times along with his spear, summoning Loge to set the magic fireplace round Brünnhilde, and Nonetheless inexplicably drops this small motion, which makes extra of a distinction than you would possibly suppose. Nonetheless, the staging of the magic fireplace is gorgeous and transferring, with Brünnhilde inside an enormous, flaming dice as her father leaves the stage.
The singing and staging have been so efficient on this Walküre that it’s significantly disappointing that James Gaffigan’s conducting merely wasn’t on the identical stage. Significantly in Act I, he’s positively soporific and it’s not a matter of his tempi. Whereas they have been a tad slower than a median efficiency of Die Walküre, it’s potential to carry out Wagner extraordinarily slowly with no lack of momentum. Mark Elder’s 5 and three-quarter hour Meistersinger in San Francisco a decade in the past was by far the slowest Wagner I’ve heard stay, but it was energetic and absorbing all through, with wonderful orchestral sound.
Gaffigan was competent in holding the orchestra and singers collectively, and in not overwhelming the singers, however the place was his interpretation? Every Act felt like a succession of notes with little route and with no total form or idea of construction. There was no drive as much as huge moments, no falling away. What a disgrace, with such a wonderful forged, that the conducting wasn’t simply nearly as good.
