This time without the smell of napalm
Die Walküre in concert version in Baden-Baden (****½) [live]
With Die Walküre, the “Rotterdam Ring” that began in 2022 with Das Rheingold (at the time with Michael Volle as Wotan) is entering its second installment. The intention is that The Ring will be complete in 2028 through biennial stages, each time starring the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of honorary conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. After the opening night in Rotterdam, the energetic Canadian wonderboy went to hug half of the orchestra. It tells you something about the good rapport between the conductor and the orchestra. In Baden-Baden he will not do that again but the enthusiasm is no less, both on stage and in the Festspielhaus as this was almost a very big Wagner night.
The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra is a splendid orchestra and it is present here in a large format, with no fewer than 6 harps on the left flank, 8 double basses and 8 cellos on the right flank. Of course, the low strings have more to contribute than the often idle harps. Constantly, they provide for the foundation of the sound image. Already the prelude shows how disciplined the ensemble playing is. It is a basic requirement and it is almost an insult to mention it when talking about an orchestra of this level. The brass shine as gold in the exalted parts that recall Wotan. Never do they become garish. The violins are razor-sharp during the Walkürenritt. The tempo relationships can switch quickly and the strings respond as one. Dynamically and agogically, this was a very satisfying reading. The solo moments for cello, English horn and bass clarinet are plastic and appeal to the imagination. The tempi are never rushed but always appropriate. All the atmospheric pages of the score were enchanting in the horns, woodwinds and muted brass. That is why the Todesverkündiging and the finale of the Feuerzauber were among the orchestral highlights of the evening.
Nézet-Séguin is responsible for the casting and so we find soloists who appear with some regularity on the Metropolitan Opera's roster. This was a debut for Elza van den Heever (Sieglinde) and Tamara Wilson (Brünnhilde). Stanislas de Barbeyrac had sung the Siegmund part only once before in concert version. Will we see them appear in future revivals of the Ring at the Met ?
It is almost impossible not to love Stanislas de Barbeyrac's Siegmund. He makes an occasional mistake delivering the text but the timbre is perfect. It is the lowest of the Wagner parts for tenor and he sings it almost like a high baritone. A baritone with a decent height can sing the part without any problem. Is the voice evolving to a baritone? He seems to have completely outgrown the Don Ottavio's and Tamio's of before. He sings all the consonants, admittedly not always perfectly and very sporadically a slight French accent shines through but these are details that are of no significance in the final analysis, so convincing and compelling is his delivery. He has an affinity for the Wagner pathos. He understands every syllable and breathes life into them that makes me suspect Wagner will continue to be significant for the remainder of his career. Even the Siegmund monologue he manages to charge with tension. He also demonstrates his ideal timbre in the Todesverkündigung: “Umfängt Siegmund Sieglinde dort?” was fantastic, as was “Hella, halte mich fest” and the concluding phrase of the first act : “So blühe denn Wälsungen-Blut”. Nowhere does he sound stuffy or limited in his heroic claims to the role. Barbeyracs Siegmund was the big surprise of the evening. He is no stranger to Brussels and he should have been singing the Siegmund at La Monnaie. Perhaps he was not ready then. The actual litmus test is yet to come : in the theater of course and without ipad in front of him.
Elza van den Heever starts the part somewhat hesitantly, even with a slightly fanning vibrato. She only blossoms open during Winterstürme. Of all the soloists, she is the one most inhabited by her role. And as things go crescendo, she will also recharge this Sieglinde with her typical intensity. Her psychotic monologue of the second act (“Horch, die Hörner!”) where she must have the most of voice is superb. The nobility of “O herstes Wunder!” completes her portrayal.
It is written in the stars that Van den Heever and De Barbeyrac will continue these parts at the major opera houses. Much less so for Brian Mulligan, who is trying to punch above his weight here as Wotan. He already sang the part in Stuttgart (2022). After his Golaud in Frankfurt (2017), I wrote that I was eager to hear him again in a role more suited to his abilities as a dramatic baritone. In doing so, I was not at all thinking of Wotan, which for me should be sung by a bass baritone. After all, Heervater, Siegvater, Walvater Wotan should have the timbre of a father. Mulligan sings him like a heroic baritone but the voice projects much less than expected and the orchestra does not spare him. All dramatic passages sound constrained. It all comes off very labored and his delivery is slightly unnatural and affected. The mezza voce sections of the great Wotan monologue are interpretatively quite strong but in “Götternoth! Endloser Grimm!", ‘Fahre denn hin, herrische Pracht’, ‘So nimm meinen Segen, Niblungen-Sohn!’ he is washed away by the orchestra. These are precisely the passages that define a Wotan. “Leb' wohl, du kühnes herrliches Kind!” and "Der Augen leuchtendes Paar,” Wotan's highlights of the third act, sound tired. I don't think it's a good idea for him to continue on this path. Let Mulligan confine himself to real baritone roles such as Alberich, his next Wagner debut in Calixto Bieito's Ring next season in Paris.
Tamara Wilson handles Brünnhilde's Hojotoho exclamations effortlessly. She sings them with great confidence. Her Elsa in New York's Lohengrin could not appeal to me much on an interpretive level. She is still too much of a singing machine who delivers the notes as if she were reading the phone book. That is also the case here, so the finale of this Walküre was settled by the two most problematic soloists of the evening. Her personal highlight was the emotional request to Wotan to establish a circle of fire around her sleeping rock. Karen Cargill was not always easy to understand but this was a very sensuous delivery of the Fricka part, hurled into the auditorium with stunning power. She knows exactly what she can score with and she does just that. Solomon Howard has the cavernous bass that belongs to Hunding, which he can also sling into the auditorium with great aplomb. His portrayal lacked a bit of focus and the words he used were fairly unintelligible. Surely, for an African-American, the cultural threshold to take possession of the Wagner world is just a little too high. It's a matter of details but it's details that make the difference. The Valkyries showed up with beautifully differentiated and well-projecting voices. They transformed the Festspielhaus into a noisy pandemonium of hysterical hyenas. The Walkürenritt will forever remain associated with the smell of napalm and with Washington's murderous imperialism. We owe that to Francis Ford Coppola. The Walkürenritt has nothing to do with that. So we will remind ourselves of it from time to time.
Watch the opening night from Rotterdam via the live stream on Medici TV. Das Rheingold from 2022 is also still available.