Wagner: Der Ring Des Nibelungen Blu-ray Review
Engineering a new 'Ring' cycle.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, September 18, 2012
Richard Wagner's
Der Ring Des Nibelungen is the most daunting operatic experience in the entire music theater
repertoire, and not just for audiences. Staging
The Ring Cycle is a formidable task, one which often requires
years of pre-production and planning, and that's one reason why this gargantuan quartet of mythic pieces is not as
frequently performed as one might think, at least considering the outsized reputation Wagner's
magnum opus
has among the musical cognoscenti. That may be one reason
The Ring Cycle hasn't been particularly well
served in terms of quantity if not of quality on Blu-ray—at least not yet. One of the only complete versions available in
Region A
thus far is the incredibly brilliant and stunningly staged version by
La Fura del Baus. (A
highlights disc of this version featuring snippets from
all four operas plus some exclusive bonus content is also available.) It also looks like
Kultur has a complete version streeting in late
October. (For completists who might otherwise take me to task for not mentioning them, there are a couple of
standalone releases of individual operas from
The Ring Cycle, including
Die Walkure and
Götterdammerung. And lest anyone
accuse me of leaving it out, there's also
this complete version, which I recommend only for those who don't mind listening without
watching what is a production I consider to be remarkably dunderheaded a lot of the time.)
One might be tempted to speculate that The Metropolitan Opera took at least part of its inspiration for its first
new production of
The Ring in over twenty years from the Fura del Baus interpretation, for they hired Robert
Lepage to conceive and stage the epic piece. Lepage has made his mark with a series of spectacular theatrical
achievements, chief among them some typically resplendent pieces for Cirque du Soleil. As I repeatedly pointed out in
my reviews of the Fura del Baus productions, there was a definite Cirque du Soleil "vibe" that ran through them, with
impressive acrobatic feats melded with a multimedia approach that seemed to push Wagner's vaunted idea of a
synaesthetic music theater into the 21st century.
Rather than an attempt to sum up the labyrinthine
Ring again, I refer those who don't know much about the
operatic cycle to my reviews of the Fura del Baus versions, which contain brief recaps of at least a few salient plot
points:
Wagner: Das Rheingold Blu-
ray review
Wagner: Die Walkure Blu-ray
review
Wagner: Siegfried Blu-ray
review
Wagner:
Götterdämmerung Blu-ray review
In
Wagner's Dream, the fascinating and excellent bonus documentary included with this set, two Met employees
jokingly attempt to sum up
The Ring Cycle in two sentences, which boil down pretty much to gold being stolen
from the Gods, leading to the end of a Divine Era and the beginning of a human epoch. (This may unintentionally bring
to mind the currently ubiquitous commercials for gold on certain cable outlets, including the one featuring actor William
Devane asking, "Don't you just love the
feel of gold?" Some cynics may be prone to ask what this trend may
portend for the future of Mankind, considering the havoc wreaked upon the Gods when they lusted after gold.)
Because of its legendary stature,
The Ring Cycle has fierce proponents (one might almost say "adherents") who
will insist that any given production either succeeds or fails based upon their subjective, yet supposedly unassailable,
beliefs of how the operas should be staged. It's therefore no huge surprise that the Met's gargantuan new production
was greeted with its fair share of brickbats along with some rapturously laudatory reviews as well. What is so
fascinating about many of these reactions is how centrally they were focused not on the opera, not on the singing, not
even on some of the playing or other supposedly ancillary content, but upon one main item: the 90,000 pound set
piece at the center of the production (and the stage) which its creators nicknamed "the machine". This fascinating
quasi-sculpture resembles a row of parallel planks (planks being a decidedly relative term for structures this massive),
all of which can move either singly or together in any number of variations. The planks therefore become everything
from the waters of the Rhine to a rainbow bridge to various strata of Valhalla on which the Gods declaim to a precarious
staircase
that fleet footed
characters traipse across. Rarely has one production (or set of productions in this case) depended so solely on one
gargantuan conceit.
And yet there is a compelling reason for Lapage's emphasis on this unusual piece of set design. As
Wagner's
Dream elucidates, Lepage became enamored of the Icelandic mythic saga, the so-called
Eddas (there's a
Poetic Edda and a
Prose Edda), and became convinced that Iceland was actually the birthplace for much
that eventually matriculated into
Der Ring des Nibelungen. Lepage looked at the tectonic activity in Iceland and
decided that these huge moveable planks would be the perfect visual analog to depict the massive changes that
confront the Gods and humans populating the worlds of Wagner's immense story.
There is however an inherent risk involved in literally building a production of
The Ring around a set piece like
this. We are obviously
dealing with larger than life characters, and Wagner's hyperbolic musical vocabulary doesn't exactly lend itself to
outright empathy a lot of
the time. There's a
distance between the audience and the characters—whether Divine, semi-divine, or merely
mortal—in much of
The Ring. This is not to say that there's not an emotional tether in the operas, for there most certainly is, but
it's one that is colored
by an overt intellectualism, quite different than that found in operas that speak more directly to the heart. What
Lepage's gambit here does
is actually emphasize that distance by focusing on stagecraft rather than characterization and plot. I repeatedly found
myself being drawn
out of the drama due to being admittedly awestruck by the giant plank structures morphing themselves into all sorts of
evocative
formations.
The ironic thing is, as striking as Lepage's conception is for this
Ring (and it undeniably is), it isn't any more
striking than that of La
Fura del Baus. The documentary
Wagner's Dream catches some prospective audience members in line outside
of The Met worrying
about various aspects of the production, including rumors of a "light show", but the funny thing is the Fura del Baus
production
does
include many more multimedia elements than The Met production, along with a much more ambitious design aesthetic
especially with regard
to costumes and props, and yet that production seems in a way more fully integrated than Lepage's conception.
And so once one gets beyond the awesome technical wizardry, one is still left with a couple of salient questions: how
does this
Ring fare from purely dramatic and musical standpoints? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is rather
well, at least in fits and starts. It must be admitted that Lepage's emphasis seems to be on spectacle rather than
nuance, and so some of the drama is lost in the cogs of "the machine". However, there are some real standout
performances here, including a heart wrenching turn from Eric Owens as Alberich, one which instantly rises to the
heights of the finest Wagnerian interpretations in the modern operatic era. The production was roiled by the last
minute casting of Jay Hunter Morris as Siegfried, but he also rises to the occasion dramatically if not always vocally.
Musically things are on fairly solid ground, though here, too, the production had its fair share of backstage drama.
Longtime Met Musical Director James Levine bowed out after the first two operas, ostensibly to tend to his longstanding
health issues, with Fabio Luisi stepping in to man the baton for the final two installments. Rather interestingly, Luisi
may actually have extracted greater clarity from The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, but he also sacrifices some of sheer
passion that seems to be at Levine's virtual fingertips. Musically, this is a much "starrier" cast than the Fura del Baus
ensemble, and that pays off in several commanding performances. Bryn Terfel is a commanding Wotan, though he has
some occasional roughness in his midrange which some may find objectionable. Though some evidently weren't
especially impressed with Deborah Voigt's Brünnhilde, I found her interpretation wonderfully adept and full of an almost
palpable desperation as the story wended its convoluted course. The aforementioned Jay Hunter Morris jumps into one
of the most notoriously difficult tenor roles of all time with Siegfried, and the results, while somewhat mixed from a
purely aesthetic standpoint, are rather remarkable, especially considering Morris' lack of rehearsal and preparation time
for the part.
My hunch is that time will probably be kinder to this production than some contemporary critical analyses may indicate.
Lepage obviously had his hands full with the stagecraft, and most likely left a lot of the dramatic and musical content up
to a cadre of seasoned professionals and ambitious relative newcomers. The good news is when the cast is full of such
names as Terfel, Voigt, Jonas Kaufmann and Eva-Maria Westbroek (among a large and varied ensemble), perhaps a
sturdy directorial hand isn't all that necessary. Some concentrated so much on the gimmickry of Lepage's conception
that they perhaps overlooked the towering achievements in much of the singing and the exquisite playing and
conducting of Levine and (perhaps to a slightly lesser extent) Luisi. This
Ring may not be as breathtaking or
forward looking as the Fura del Baus version, but it manages to walk a fine line between the traditional and the
innovative. Lepage may have substituted a "machine" for that tightrope, but generally speaking, he manages to guide
everyone across the rainbow bridge more or less intact.
