Summer 2011 Soll So Ich Thaten Noch Wirken? Volume 8, Number 3 —Götterdämmerung from the Editor

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Durch deine Tugend allein Summer 2011 soll so ich Thaten noch wirken? Volume 8, Number 3 —Götterdämmerung From the Editor

e are now gearing up for our fall events. We are delighted to report that Margaret Juntwait, host of SiriusXM Satellite Radio and of the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, has graciously W agreed to give a talk on life at the Met, with audiovisual illustrations of the upcoming season’s productions. This event will take place on Saturday, September 24, at the College Club. A reception will follow. For more details, please see the back cover. Many members missed the wonderful presentation by Hilan Warshaw last fall due to the Met’s broadcast of Don Pasquale that afternoon. By popular request, we have asked Mr. Warshaw to return to Boston and speak of Wagner’s influence on film. He will be here in the afternoon of October 30, at the Brookline Public Library. In this issue you will find a review of the San Francisco Ring Cycle, as well as a review of a CD of Wagner/Liszt transcriptions performed by Albert Mamriev. –Dalia Geffen

The San Francisco Ring Pleases despite Drawbacks

Der Ring des Nibelungen, San Francisco Opera, June 28, June 29, July 1, July 3, 2011; conductor Donald Runnicles; director Francesca Zambello; set designer: Michael Yeargan; costume designer: Catherine Zuber

Wotan: Mark Delavan; Alberich: Gordon Hawkins; Fricka: Elizabeth Bishop; Erda: Ronnita Miller; Mime: David Cangelosi; Fafner: Daniel Sumegi; Fasolt: Andrea Silvestrelli; Froh: Brandon Jovanovich; Donner: Gerd Grochowski; Freia: Melissa Citro; Sieglinde: Heidi Melton; Siegmund: Brandon Jovanovich; Hunding: Daniel Sumegi; Brünnhilde: Nina Stemme; Siegfried: Jay Hunter Morris (Siegfried) and Ian Storey (Götterdämmerung); Forest Bird: Stacey Tappan; Gunther: Gerd Grochowski; Hagen: Andrea Silvestrelli; Waltraute: Daveda Karanas; Gutrune: Melissa Citro; First Norn: Ronnita Miller; Second Norn: Daveda Karanas; Third Norn: Heidi Melton

came to this year’s San Francisco Ring Cycle willing to be pleased, and I enjoyed many things about it, right down to the comfortable seats in the San Francisco Opera House and the Biergarten on the I veranda. The singers were of uniformly high quality individually and sang well in ensemble. The director Francesca Zambello’s Gold Rush premise was convincing, even when the rednecks put down their hunting rifles to pick up swords and spears. The costumes were appealing and coherent. The conducting by Donald Runnicles, though a bit on the fast side, never fell apart and kept the singers

1 comfortable. The orchestra was small, but the sound was big. Several singers were especially good in their roles: David Cangelosi as Mime [David Cangelosi coached with our music adviser, Jeffrey Brody— Ed.], Andrea Silvestrelli as Hagen, and an outstanding, maybe definitive, Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde. The supertitles came in a thought-provoking modern translation; the Norns, for instance, sang about the cable they were handling inside a giant, computer-based world. On the minus side, two aspects of this production were hard to overlook.

• The singers moved around too much, detracting from the dignity of the story. Wagner’s music does not need extraneous gestures and motion to advance the plot; that is the genius of his art. In this production, however, even Erda walked around. Consequently, I propose four basic ground rules: Opera singers should not run at all; they should seldom walk; they should not move around while another singer is performing; and they do not need to clench their fists and wave their arms to get their meaning across. The recently retired Schenk production at the Met kept the singers from unnecessary activity, with much greater dramatic impact. • The scenery and slide projections harped on the theme of ecological damage, going far beyond anything that the libretto called for. One can read this theme into the story, but that is not what the Ring Cycle is about. In addition, the white-robed child who carried a small green sprout at the end seemed unnecessary, though the message was upbeat.

Das Rheingold In keeping with the setting in California’s Gold Rush of 1848, the Rhinemaidens were shown as saloon girls who played in a bubbling stream; Alberich was a grizzled old prospector; and Fricka was the rich wife of a robber baron. This premise was convincing throughout most of the cycle, with interesting results and only occasional dissonances. For instance, Loge as a sleazy corporate counsel with a briefcase was brilliant. Projections between the scenes and during overtures showed computerized clouds, tides, flames, and images of an increasingly mechanized future and despoiled Alberich and the Rhinemaidens in the San Francisco Ring Cycle (photos by Cory Weaver) landscape. These sophisticated, constantly moving images distracted from the music and did not add depth to the story, weakening the theatrical impact of the stage scenes they followed. Wagner’s music tells us where we are—river, clouds, mines, forest; we don’t need cinematic emphasis.

Die Walküre Sieglinde’s abode was a dirt-poor cabin lost in the depths of the woods. She wore a limp housedress, clutched at her formless cardigan, and pushed her hair out of her face repeatedly. One wall of the house lifted after 10 minutes to show the interior. Hunding’s abuse was on stark display as he intimidated her, grabbed her, stared her down, and shouted his singing at her. In the next scene, Mark Delavan as Wotan, in his 20th-century skyscraper boardroom, sang ably, but in this Ring his stage presence fell short of the gravitas that this role demands. Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde was the singer we came to hear, and she did not disappoint. Characterized as a spinto soprano (the Italian term for a sound that “pushes through” Mark Delavan as Wotan at the conclusion of Die Walküre, with Nina Stemme as the orchestra), she had stood out as Isolde in Tristan und Isolde Brünnhilde

2 at Bayreuth in 2006. Here her Brünnhilde was clear, strong, flexible, and joyful, with spot-on pitch. Even though Stemme is in her late 40s, she makes a convincing tomboy. She will reprise the role at the Vienna State Opera’s Siegfried next year. I’ve always felt that the dramatic core of the Ring’s story lies in the war of words between Wotan and Fricka in the second act of Die Walküre. Fricka’s case has to counterbalance Wotan’s yearning to show how trapped he is, even though in her anguished plea she never once mentions love, and in his defense he talks about nothing else. If she is presented as a nag, it is too easy for the audience to allow Wotan to discount her claim. Instead, she pinpoints his double-dealing even though she can offer only a cruel alternative. Elizabeth Bishop’s Fricka gave this goddess the hearing she deserved; her dignity and pain justified her requests, even though they set the whole disaster in motion. Trying to make an unworkable marriage work, Fricka forces Wotan to allow Siegmund to be murdered and leads him to abandon his favorite daughter—all in the service of preventing her from being mocked, which Hagen does anyway, in the second act of Götterdämmerung. The last act was placed in an abstract, ramp-framed set; though the production notes indicated that this set echoed the battlements of San Francisco’s Presidio, it seemed out of place with the more naturalistic sites in the rest of the opera. Nevertheless, it offered real flames, always a challenge to stage.

Siegfried In Siegfried, Siegfried and Mime were in a tiny, cluttered mobile home. Mime was sung and acted endearingly by David Cangelosi. I’ve always considered Mime a perfect portrait of the archetypical irritating parent whose habitual, almost automatic, demands for sympathy extinguish every possibility of obtaining the gratitude that he craves from his adolescent son. Although the mincing, whining music itself tells the story well, Cangelosi punctuated the plot without overacting. In one nice bit of stagecraft, Siegfried lounged behind Mime, miming the gestures and phrases that he had heard so often before. Jay Hunter Morris as Siegfried and The dragon was staged as a huge, robotic, trash- Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde in Siegfried crushing machine operated by the giant himself, who slowly collapsed from the driver’s seat as he died. This turned one of Wagner’s clunkiest story devices into a perfectly logical and visually touching explanation and kept the artificiality of the stage “dragon” in context. It also let Fafner’s stagy booming voice to revert to normal. The second act offered an arresting new interpretation of the forest bird, who appeared as a modern young woman in a coral-colored jacket and pink skirt. She stayed onstage, up on a high walkway, whenever her voice was heard. Her moves were charmingly birdlike without being parodic; she waved hello with fluttering fingers, tilted her head in curiosity, stared with birdlike intensity, and came and went with a rustle. Siegfried’s role was sung well by Jay Hunter Morris. Having once watched a Siegfried run out of gas ten minutes before the end, I sympathize with any tenor who can wake up that fresh soprano.

Götterdämmerung In the last opera of the Ring Cycle, the cast shift was a little disorienting at first. Ian Storey as Siegfried had a drier tone than Morris, and his night spent with Brünnhilde had clearly aged him! The Rhinemaidens were shown in dirt-streaked dresses at the banks of a trash-clogged river, sorting refuse into plastic bags. The Gibichungs were placed in a nasty, hard-edged, Art Deco penthouse decorated in black, white, and silver. Their retainers were dressed in metropolitan black. Gutrune first appeared in blazing red, topped with bleached blond hair down to her waist. She wore gray for the wedding, as did Brünnhilde, stripping this passionate scene of all color. This made for confusion, as there was no visual center in the

3 milling crowd. In contrast, the hunting party in Act 3 featured Hagen, Gunther, and Siegfried in blazing orange from head to foot, heightening the whole scene’s visual intensity and making the action unmistakable. Hagen, though, unaccountably stayed onstage to watch Siegfried’s final moments. Gunther and Gutrune were characterized in ways that were new to me; some of these worked well, and others didn’t. Gunther seemed so insecure and irresolute that Hagen had to direct his every move with threatening gestures, grimaces, and shoves. This highlighted Gunther’s role as Hagen’s pawn, an exaggeration that seemed to enhance the plot. By contrast, Gutrune was diminished by her characterization as a vamp. I have always visualized her as weak, soft, naive, and wistful like the fluty little tunes she sings, rather than scheming, nasty, A scene from Götterdämmerung, with Nina Stemme as flirtatious, and cheap. And her evolution in Act 3 into Brünnhilde (left) and Ian Storey as Siegfried (right) a soul sister who finally embraces Brünnhilde was hard to believe and dramatically unnecessary. Her interactions with Hagen hinted at his incestuous desire for her, a dimension that may not be called for in the libretto. The chorus was magnificent, and we agreed that in a perfect world Wagner might have added more ensemble writing in the preceding operas. The well-mannered San Francisco audience—such a treat— refrained from applause until Götterdämmerung’s last chord had died away. –Margaret Shepherd Margaret Shepherd, a member of the Boston Wagner Society since 2004, is the author of several books.

Wagner/Liszt Meets Scarlatti

Franz Liszt: Complete Piano Transcriptions from the Operas of Richard Wagner; pianist Albert Mamriev; Neue Sterne CD; volume 1: Rienzi, Tannhäuser, Der fliegende Holländer

n 2008 the award-winning pianist Albert Mamriev was scheduled to perform for the Boston Wagner Society at the I College Club. Three weeks before the event, the concert was canceled because of the musician’s U.S. visa problems, depriving Boston audiences of some excellent music making. Now comes a recording of some of Liszt’s piano transcriptions of Wagner’s music performed by this talented pianist. Recorded in April 2010 at the Schimmel Center in Braunschweig, Germany, this CD is volume 1 of what promises to be a series of the Wagner/Liszt transcriptions. Included in this release are excerpts from Rienzi, Tannhäuser, and The Flying Dutchman, all performed with great technical skill, uncanny precision, and surprising restraint. Some listeners may miss the romance and passion of other recordings of these pieces. But what this release lacks in operatic grandeur it makes up for in clarity, exceptional precision, and delicacy. This performance is not for the concert hall; rather, it is salon playing at its best. The most enthralling playing on the CD can be heard in two excerpts from The Flying Dutchman, which may explain why these two were placed at the end of the CD instead of the middle (for chronological order). The first one, the “Spinnerlied” (Spinning Song)—its logical sequence of notes conjuring the whirling spinning wheels—is Mamriev’s true home. He begins this segment surprisingly fast, his dexterous fingers flying over the piano like a butterfly over a bubbling brook. Then the playing

4 gives way to a soft, almost abstract section reminiscent of paintings by Georges Seurat, with the final portion rendered with delightful harplike notes. The next piece, Senta’s Ballad, starts with an evocative, echoey “Yo-ho-hee,” very much like a human voice; then, where the soprano would sing “Traft ihr das Schiff” (Have you met the ship), Mamriev launches immediately into the drama. His playing is so musical that Senta’s voice clearly resonated in my head. The first segment on the CD is “Santo spirito cavaliere” from Rienzi. This excerpt is played more like a Baroque piece than a romantic one. Mamriev takes great care to infuse every note with meaning. His playing is intimate, meticulous, yet not lacking in drama. The “Abendstern” (Evening Star) from Tannhäuser is soft, tender, and delicate. Mamriev almost holds back here, but his tempi are exquisite, rendered with the accuracy of a Baroque player. In the next Tannhäuser excerpt, “Einzug der Gäste auf der Wartburg” (Entry of the Guests into Wartburg Castle), the artist’s playing is too restrained, with only occasional forays into dramatic action. In most of the piece, Mamriev’s style is careful, methodical, and clear. He performs it with delicate flutters rather than the stentorian pace of a march, like a much-reduced version of Wagner/Liszt. For some inexplicable reason, the Tannhäuser overture is placed at the end of the Tannhäuser pieces. It begins somnolently, but then Mamriev slowly and methodically builds toward its climax, one careful step at a time. Here there is none of the furor that we have come to expect from these two great composers. Nevertheless, the slow-motion playing allows the listener to follow each note without getting lost in the complexities of the piece, a boon to piano students learning this material. Even the lush Venusberg music is performed with great precision and infinite skill rather than romantic passion. Oddly, despite these drawbacks, the music is transporting. Mamriev plays the reprise of the overture with delicate little flutters—flights of fancy at which he excels. Then, in the emphatic finale, he finally relinquishes his tight control over the notes and lets the passion fly, the notes cascading through his fingers like a waterfall. In this CD the young and talented Mamriev allows Wagner and Liszt’s music to reveal its innermost secrets rather than overwhelming us with its bombast. His total absorption in the music comes through brilliantly. There is a great naturalness in his playing, as well as a focus and precision that denote tremendous presence of mind. This is uncommon magic! For more information, please go to www.albertmamriev.com. –Dalia Geffen Dalia Geffen is the president and founder of the Boston Wagner Society.

Martha Mödl Exhibit in 2012

The following came from the Richard Wagner Verband International:

To mark the occasion of Maria [Martha] Mödl’s 100th birthday on March 22nd, 2012, there will be an exhibition in Bayreuth during the Bayreuth Festival next year in her honor, celebrating her as a unique and multi-faceted artist. Martha Mödl—a singer-performer from the beginning, whose intense portrayals still today serve as monuments, unforgotten by her audience—performed on the operatic stage for 60 years. Her success-studded career was impressive in its repertory breadth, from the high-dramatic to modern compositions, which she always met with remarkable openness. Photos, letters, dedications, and paintings from the artist’s estate will form the heart of the Exhibition, alongside stage costumes and sound recordings. There will be a great deal to discover, so much so that even experts on her life and career will find surprises. The Exhibition will be held near the Villa Wahnfried in the recently opened new rooms of the Bayreuth City Library RW21. The rooms are ample and are furthermore complemented by a 75-seat auditorium that will be used to display a slide show backed by recordings of her singing and to house the International Richard Wagner Society’s supporting programme.

5 The Italian star director Denis Krief, who in his productions takes on triple duty for direction, and set- and costume-design, has been recruited to design the exhibition to ensure the ideal marriage of conception and optical effect. It is our great honour and privilege to have the director of the Bayreuth Festival, Eva Wagner-Pasquier, as Patroness of this exhibition for Martha Mödl, which is to open on the 15th of June, 2012. ______

Publisher and Editor: Dalia Geffen Proofreader: Erika Reitshamer and Paul Geffen Logo design: Sasha Geffen

We welcome contributions to Wagneriana. Please contact us at [email protected] or 617-323-6088. Web: www.bostonwagnersociety.org. Address: Boston Wagner Society, P.O. Box 320033, Boston, MA 02132-0001, U.S.A.