{"id":86226,"date":"2016-10-04T14:00:59","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T12:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gbopera.it\/?p=86226"},"modified":"2016-11-24T13:37:31","modified_gmt":"2016-11-24T12:37:31","slug":"chicago-lyric-opera-das-rheingold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/chicago-lyric-opera-das-rheingold\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago, Lyric Opera: “Das Rheingold”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago, Lyric Opera of Chicago, 2016-2017 Season <\/em>
\n\u201cDAS RHEINGOLD\u201d<\/strong>
\nMusic drama in one act in German. Libretto by the composer
\nMusic by Richard Wagner <\/strong>
\nWotan<\/em> ERIC OWENS
\nAlberich<\/em> SAMUEL YOUN
\nLoge<\/em> STEFAN MARGITA
\nFricka<\/em> TANJA ARIANE BAUMGARTNER
\nFasolt<\/em> WILHEM SCHWINGHAMMER
\nFafner<\/em> TOBIAS KEHRER
\nErda<\/em> OKKA VON DER DAMERAU
\nMime<\/em> RODELL ROSEL
\nFreia<\/em> LAURA WILDE
\nFroh<\/em> JESSE DONNER
\nDonner<\/em> ZACHARY NELSON
\nWoglinde<\/em> DIANA NEWMAN
\nWellgunde<\/em> ANNIE ROSEN
\nFlosshilde<\/em> LINDSAY AMMANN
\nOrchestra of Lyric Opera of Chicago
\nConductor Sir Andrew Davis \u00a0 <\/strong>
\nDirector David Pountney<\/strong>
\nOriginal Scenery Designer Johan Engels \u00a0 <\/strong>
\nScenery Designer Robert Innes Hopkins <\/strong>
\nCostume Deisgner Marie-Jeanne Lecca\u00a0 <\/strong>
\nLighting Designer Fabrice Kebour \u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>
\nChoreographer Denni Sayers<\/strong> \u00a0 <\/strong>
\nStage Band Conductor Eric Weimer \u00a0 <\/strong>
\nFight Director Chuck Coyl\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>
\nChicago, 1 October 2016\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>
\nLyric Opera of Chicago launched its current season with DAS RHEINGOLD, the initial installment in a new production of Richard Wagner\u2019s epic DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN.\u00a0 The four operas comprising the cycle will be presented piecemeal, one per season, culminating in three complete offerings of the RING in April 2020.\u00a0 These cycles will mark Lyric Opera\u2019s third RING presentation in its history.\u00a0 \u201cAnother RING, another concept,\u201d exclaims the seasoned Wagnerian.\u00a0 And yet Lyric Opera has steadfastly avoided productions redolent with references to world history–both during and after Wagner\u2019s lifetime.\u00a0 In contrast, many other opera houses took their cue from the groundbreaking 1976 Patrice Ch\u00e9reau production for the Bayreuth Festival, eschewing mythological trappings for a new and provocative visual lexicon, steeped in imagery of the Industrial Revolution, urban suffering and even nuclear war.\u00a0 Instead, Lyric Opera borrowed from science fiction.\u00a0 Its first RING in the 1970\u2019s featured a \u201ctimeless\u201d STAR TREK aesthetic, while the succeeding production by August Everding paid tribute to STAR WARS with a laser beam lighting scheme.\u00a0 In both cases, the stage pictures were abstract, geometric and free of clutter.\u00a0\u00a0 Wagner himself wrote:\u00a0 \u201cTo make my intention too obvious would get in the way of real understanding.\u201d\u00a0 In the words of M. Owen Lee:\u00a0 \u201cHe didn\u2019t want explanations.\u201d\u00a0Lyric Opera\u2019s stage director David Pountney<\/strong> obviously concurs with this viewpoint.\u00a0 In a program note, Pountney states:\u00a0 \u201cOf course it is not possible to tell a story without simultaneously giving it some element of interpretation\u2014we all like to pretend we are objective, but we are not.\u00a0 But the emphasis in our case will be to tell the story, rather than to tell you what the story means.\u00a0 That is your job to decide.\u201d\u00a0 Pountney and his design team served up a Wagner staging quite unlike anything in this writer\u2019s experience.\u00a0 With its objective of functioning as narrator, the production does not strive after illusion or magic.\u00a0 Indeed, it celebrates theatricality and makes explicit the \u201cplay within a play\u201d logic of its thesis.\u00a0 The three Norns appear before the opera begins, setting up lighting instruments and unpacking their red chord of fate from a weathered piece of luggage.\u00a0 They are assisted by a corps of stagehands, dressed as factory workers, who manipulate a staggering array of set pieces, machinery and props in seamlessly executed choreography.\u00a0The Rhinemaidens are first seen atop cranes, trailing gowns suggestive of mermaids.\u00a0 The image is both reminiscent of early attempts to stage this notoriously challenging scene and convincing in its representation of underwater life.\u00a0 By liberating itself from the burden of achieving cinematic realism, the performers are free to work within a convention that is poetic and persuasive on its own terms.\u00a0The production gathers cumulative force as it moves forward, layering color, ideas, associations and movement into a dazzling totality.\u00a0 Costume designer Marie-Jeanne Lecca<\/strong> has attired the gods in a wardrobe suggestive of baroque opera, commedia dell\u2019arte and the court of Louis XIV.\u00a0 Each deity occupies a stage wagon, outfitted with objects and symbols associated with his or her godhood.\u00a0 Set designer Robert Innes Hopkins<\/strong> (building on the original vision of the late Johan Engels<\/strong>) has realized the giants Fasolt and Fafner as enormous heads and arms attached to moving towers that convey power and menace.\u00a0 Loge is dressed as a circus ring leader, making his entrance on a clown bicycle.\u00a0 Nibelheim and its denizens are a synthesis of Mad Max and Fritz Lang\u2019s METROPOLIS.\u00a0 Fabrice Kebour\u2019s<\/strong> lighting delineates the various realms of water, sky and subterranean earth effectively and atmospherically.\u00a0Pountney is adept at humanizing the mythic.\u00a0 Borrowing from Stockholm syndrome, Freia grows increasingly attached to her captor and seems traumatized by his eventual murder.\u00a0 Erotic passion and longing are clearly evident throughout Fricka\u2019s arguments with her husband.\u00a0 Pountney is also unafraid to interject notes of farce and whimsy into his work.\u00a0 The blowup dragon and toad in Nibelheim are an unexpected solution to a perennial staging problem, matching the tongue-in-cheek musical rendering of these creatures with their own charming goofiness.\u00a0 Wotan and Loge \u201chigh five\u201d one other like exuberant frat boys after capturing Alberich.\u00a0 There are many moments of wit and humor in DAS RHEINGOLD and Pountney successfully illuminates these elements alongside the noble, cosmic aspects of the story.\u00a0Not every directorial choice works well.\u00a0 Wotan takes possession of the ring by amputating Alberich\u2019s arm.\u00a0 A moment that could be devastating in its depiction of hypocrisy and humiliation is here treated as cheap Guignol and the audience guffawed accordingly.\u00a0 But Pountney and his design team are willing to take chances and the collective result is one of immense stimulation. The large ensemble was mostly cast from strength.\u00a0 As Loge, Stefan Margita<\/strong> delivers a performance of stunning range, full of seemingly limitless inflection and nuance.\u00a0 Resembling Martin Short in appearance and movement, the Slovakian tenor embodies the suave and sinister aspects of the trickster to perfection.\u00a0 Margita also seemed to be enjoying himself immensely onstage.\u00a0 His fellow character tenor Rodell Rosel<\/strong> also impresses mightily, exuding a determined ruthlessness as Mime, which makes him almost as dangerous as his brother Alberich.\u00a0Eric Owens<\/strong> and Samuel Youn<\/strong> are well matched in terms of vocal and interpretative ability as the respective lords of light and darkness but neither is wholly convincing.\u00a0 As Wotan, Owens\u2019 singing was variable throughout the evening, his imposing bass-baritone losing focus and consistency.\u00a0 Sadly, there was little sense of expansion or commanding majesty in his final monologue.\u00a0 As Alberich, Youn was overly reliant on exaggerated Sprechstimme and straight-toned howling to score dramatic points.\u00a0 The basic instrument is quite handsome but one wished he would have let it speak for itself.\u00a0Tanja Ariane Baumgartner<\/strong> possesses a clean, incisive mezzo-soprano that made something compelling of Fricka\u2019s every utterance.\u00a0 As Fasolt, Wilhem Schwinghammer<\/strong> was a figure of pathos but his singing was unsteady and lacking in legato.\u00a0 In contrast, Tobias Kehrer\u2019s<\/strong> resonant, black-toned bass made for an unusually fascinating Fafner.\u00a0 Okka Von Der Damerau<\/strong>, resembling Miss Havisham, intoned Erda\u2019s warning powerfully while Laura Wilde\u2019s<\/strong> Freia was refreshingly forceful in both voice and presence.\u00a0 Jesse Donner<\/strong> sang with mellifluous tenderness as Froh but seemed a trifle embarrassed by the director\u2019s fey take on the rainbow god.\u00a0 Zachary Nelson<\/strong> made the most of Donner\u2019s invocation, his sonorous vocalism recalling the American stage debut here of Bryn Terfel in this role 25 years ago.\u00a0 The three Rhinemaidens were performed with panache and polish by Diana Newman<\/strong> as Woglinde, Annie Rosen <\/strong>as Wellgunde and Lindsay Ammann<\/strong> as Flosshilde. The evening\u2019s biggest disappointment was Sir Andrew Davis<\/strong> in the pit.\u00a0 He favored a brisk, swiftly paced approach to the score, appreciable for its taut, compact qualities.\u00a0 But the opening vorspiel<\/em>, a depiction of the \u201cbeginning of the world\u201d as Wagner described it and one of the most innovative passages in all of music, was devoid of awe and wonder.\u00a0 Similarly, the orchestral playing was prosaic here, the brass tentative throughout and the whole lacking impact and sonority.\u00a0 Davis\u2019 musical leadership registered as choppy and episodic, without a sense of climax or well-managed crescendo. \u00a0In short, this is a theatrically triumphant production of DAS RHEINGOLD featuring a strong cast but disappointing conducting.\u00a0 More importantly, it whets the appetite for what is to come and this was brilliantly anticipated in the staging:\u00a0 the gods cross their rainbow bridge through a replica of Lyric Opera\u2019s famous deco fire curtain, entering a Valhalla of creative possibility that will hopefully insure the remaining works of the cycle are realized with equal brilliance. Photo\u00a0\u00a9 Todd Rosenberg<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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