Germany Wagner, Die Walküre: Leipzig Opera Soloists and Dancers, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig / Ulf Schirmer (conductor). Leipzig Opera, 13.1.2024. (DMD)
Manufacturing:
Director – Rosamund Gilmore
Stage design – Carl Friedrich Oberle
Costume design – Nicola Reichert
Lighting design – Michael Röger
Dramaturgy – Christian Geltinger
Forged:
Sieglinde – Simone Schneider
Siegmund – Brenden Gunnell
Hunding – Yorck Felix Speer
Wotan – Tomasz Konieczny
Brünnhilde – Sabine Hogrefe
Fricka – Kathrin Göring
Gerhilde – Kelly God
Ortlinde – Advantage Nath-Göbl
Waltraute – Maria Hilmes
Schwertleite – Sandra Fechner
Helmwige – Sarah Traubel
Siegrune – Sandra Maxheimer
Grimgerde – Marta Herman
Rossweisse – Nora Steuerwald
Grane – Ziv Frenkel
Ulf Schirmer was Leipzig Opera’s normal music director from 2009 and moreover managing director from 2011, each till the tip of 2022. Wagner had grow to be a particular emphasis of his work, with a competition of all of Wagner’s operas in the summertime of 2022. He now returned to the home for 3 performances of a revival of the 2013 manufacturing of Die Walküre. The sturdy stage of rapport between conductor and orchestra was evident all through, creating a strong studying of the rating, even in passages different conductors would possibly use to carry out emotions of longing (Siegmund, Sieglinde) or loss and disappointment (Wotan, Brünnhilde). A notable exception was the mild accompaniment of Brünnhilde’s ‘Sieh, Brünnhilde bittet’. His orchestra joyfully pushed the singers to their limits however by no means drowned them out.
Rosamund Gilmore’s manufacturing locations the story inside a world that lightly combines gods, creatures from their realm and people. Within the set by Carl Friedrich Oberle, Hunding’s house is a type of trendy bungalow within the countryside with barbed wire on the roof and a number of other rifle stands inside the home. Sieglinde is used to dealing with the rifles, obediently gathering them from her huntsman husband when he returns or handing them to him when he leaves for work. Dancers, choreographed by the director, dressed as fairy story creatures with half-masks and one (not two!) curling ram horn additionally inhabit the bungalow and its environment, unseen by the people. For Act II, Wotan’s abode is a rundown mansion, as soon as grand, now in want for refurbishment. Blankets cowl one thing on the ground, our bodies maybe, they usually transfer about virtually imperceptibly. Brünnhilde’s horse, Grane, is represented by a dancer (Ziv Frenkel). A special perspective of that dwelling, Valhalla, is on the centre of the ultimate act: within the background a leaning tower looms, maybe impressed by the leaning tower of Pisa. The Valkyries and the dancers, now representing the troopers for whom Valhalla has grow to be their dwelling after loss of life, ascend and descend that tower, showing within the arches one after the other. The foreground is roofed with pairs of shoes. The lighting not solely illuminates the plain components of the surroundings however creates various areas with daring swathes of sunshine, making use of the huge expanse of the stage to its full top. Nicola Reichert’s costumes imaginatively create the worlds of the opera.
Character interplay is just not elaborate, other than the connection of Brünnhilde and her horse Grane. They are typically fairly shut, whereas the opposite characters normally stay at a distance, even in additional intimate scenes. At occasions the positioning of the singers on stage comes throughout as unnecessarily awkward, even clumsy, and in a single occasion virtually amusing: after uttering his first line, Siegmund collapses right into a foetal place, utterly coated by the thick fur coat he’s sporting. What may probably make Sieglinde suppose that this heap on the ground is a brave man? Wotan has to sing a big a part of his second act monologue sideways in order to handle it to Brünnhilde in the back of the stage. Some singers are perilously near the pit with their backs to us, going through different singers on the far finish of the stage. Maybe too little time was given to the revival rehearsals, for which the programme doesn’t credit score a selected revival director. Other than Kathrin Göring as Fricka (already within the premiere performances of this manufacturing in 2013), and Göring as Fricka and Sandra Maxheimer as Siegrune in a 2018 revival reviewed in Seen and Heard (click on right here) and Göring once more within the 2022 revival, the solid are new to the manufacturing although to not their roles.
Göring’s Fricka is superbly sung, even when the manufacturing leaves her character pale. The voice is wealthy and full, and she or he demonstrates an alert consciousness of the arcs so attribute of Wagner’s music. Simone Schneider’s voice is each quietly intense and exuberantly radiant as Sieglinde. Her ‘O hehrstes Wunder’ in Act III should certainly be among the many finest presently on provide. She is ready to differentiate the notes reasonably than sliding them vaguely into one another, with admirable breath management, not spoiling the circulate of the music by having to catch her breath. Brenden Gunnell is rising right into a notable Heldentenor as a member of the Leipzig firm. He sings reasonably than recites the longer passages about his previous, renders ‘Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond’ very movingly and his ‘Wälse!’ compares properly to that of his friends. Yorck Felix Speer has a really darkish bass voice, appropriate for Hunding. He is among the few singers I’ve heard who can ship the attractive ‘Mein Haus hütet, Wölfing, dich heut; für die Nacht nahm ich dich auf’ whereas respiration solely as soon as on the finish of the primary line. Sabine Hogrefe (Brünnhilde) is a real dramatic soprano. She is equally comfortable with ringing high notes, a sustained, managed vibrato with no hint of wobble and a strong decrease vary. She loved driving above the orchestra when at full blast and was very shifting in her extra private exchanges with Wotan, each when she seeks to consolation him in Act II and when she realises the complete extent of his punishment in Act III. Tomasz Konieczny is amongst as we speak’s most interesting Wotans and he was in nice kind on this event. His singing is polished, highly effective and really nuanced. The eight Valkyries rounded off a formidable solid, above all Kelly God as Gerhilde.
Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe
