{"id":91466,"date":"2017-12-01T00:33:17","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T23:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gbopera.it\/?p=91466"},"modified":"2017-12-01T00:33:17","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T23:33:17","slug":"lyric-opera-of-chicago-die-walkure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/lyric-opera-of-chicago-die-walkure\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyric Opera of Chicago: \u201cDie Walk\u00fcre\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago, LOC, season 2017 \/2018
\n<\/i><\/span>\u201c<\/i><\/span><\/strong>DIE WALK\u00dcRE\u201d
\n<\/b><\/span>Music drama in three acts, libretto by the composer.
\nMusic by <\/span>Richard Wagner
\n<\/b><\/span>Wotan <\/i><\/span>ERIC OWENS
\n<\/span>Fricka <\/i><\/span>TANJA ARIANE BAUMGARTNER<\/span>
\nBr\u00fcnnhilde <\/i><\/span>CHRISTINE GOERKE
\n<\/span>Siegmund <\/i><\/span>BRANDON JOVANOVICH
\n<\/span>Sieglinde <\/i><\/span> ELISABET SWID
\n<\/span>Hunding <\/i><\/span> AIN ANGER
\n<\/span>Gerhilde <\/i><\/span> WHITNEY MORRISON<\/span>
\nHelmwige <\/i><\/span> ALEXANDRA LoBIANCO
\n<\/span>Waltraute <\/i><\/span>CAHTERINE MARTIN<\/span>
\nSchwertleite <\/i><\/span>LAUREN DECKER<\/span>
\nOrtlinde <\/i><\/span>LAURA WILDE
\n<\/span>Siegrune <\/i><\/span>DEBORAH NANSTEEL
\n<\/span>Grimgerde <\/i><\/span>ZANDA SVEDE
\n<\/span>Rossweise <\/i><\/span> LINDSAY AMMANN
\nLyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra
\nConductor <\/span>Sir Andrew Davis
\n<\/b><\/span>Production <\/span>David Pountney
\n<\/b><\/span>Original scenery designs by <\/span>Johan Engels
\n<\/b><\/span>Scenery designed by <\/span>Robert Innes Hopkins
\n<\/b><\/span>Costumes <\/span>Marie-Jeanne Lecca
\n<\/b><\/span>Lighting <\/span>Fabrice Kebour
\n<\/b><\/span>Choreography <\/span>Denni Sayers
\n<\/b><\/span>Fight Director <\/span>Chuck Coyl<\/b><\/span>
\n<\/span>Chicago, 18 November, 2017
\n<\/i><\/span><\/span>\"\"<\/a>The Lyric Opera of Chicago began its new Ring of the Nibelungs <\/i>last season<\/strong> with a well-received pre-French Revolution-looking Das Rheingold<\/i>. This season, producer David Pountney<\/strong> has set Die Walk\u00fcre<\/i> in the Industrial Revolution: Hunding\u2019s home a brick-walled factory loft with a tree snaking through it (Sieglinde is chained to the tree), Wotan\u2019s study a High Victorian pilastered parlor, Valkyrie Rock a blood-spackled field hospital such as Florence Nightingale might have deplored. The costumes pursue this lead, putting Siegmund in a Pickwickian waistcoat over shirtsleeves, Wotan and Br\u00fcnnhilde in formal attire, Fricka in a handsome raspberry suit, and a horde of mourners with top hats and dark wreaths for the Announcement of Death. Br\u00fcnnhilde enters Siegmund\u2019s uneasy dreams mounted on a flying horse (stage \u201cactors\u201d wheel this curious machine), and predicts his demise over her shoulder. The valkyries are reduced by Wotan\u2019s wrath to schoolgirls in baby chairs. (Their hospital having vanished.) Br\u00fcnnhilde is stalked by a gang of creepy customers in trench coats when Wotan tells her of her fate to marry humans. Fire is an athletic dancer spinning about in a black box against a background film of flames, while Br\u00fcnnhilde lies asleep on its roof. All this creates a tidy backdrop for the dramatic confrontations that are the substance of Wagner\u2019s drama, but one does wish Pountney would not insert dramatic actions that Wagner has not <\/i>called for: the Norns during the opening storm, the leaping hounds summoned by their namesake Hunding in Act II, those guys in trench coats. These actions do not always correspond with the themes being played by the orchestra at such moments; they jar the sensibilities of those familiar with the score and its meaning. Wagner intended stage action to reflect and coincide with the music as much as possible; symbolic movement may be more ideal for this than too-specific references.
\n<\/span>Here is what I mean by too much specificity: One of Wagner\u2019s intrusions into the story that he found in\"\"<\/a> the sagas is the Todesverk\u00fcndingung<\/i>. There is no reason, actually, that Br\u00fcnnhilde should appear to Siegmund (valkyries do not appear to anyone else), once Fricka has secured Wotan\u2019s agreement to the hero\u2019s death, except that Wagner wanted to guide us into her decision to revolt. He does this by means of an Aeschylean dialogue, a scene where we understand the statements at cross purposes of characters who do not understand each other. Br\u00fcnnhilde, hitherto a demigoddess, her father\u2019s alter ego, with no comprehension of human existence, understands the loneliness and courage of mortal existence through her sympathy for Siegmund. It is at this moment that Br\u00fcnnhilde understands humanity and, in comprehending it, sheds her godhead becomes mortal herself, though she does not realize this. (And as G.B. Shaw pointed out, in The Perfect Wagnerite<\/i>, to be human, with a living soul, is greater than godhead.) She resolves to defy Wotan and, in fact, has become that defiant individual who will save the world from Wotan\u2019s mistakes\u2014the destiny Wotan intended for Siegmund. It is the pivotal point of the entire Ring.
\n<\/i><\/span>\"\"<\/a>Pountney\u2019s staging begins with Siegmund, visibly asleep, dreaming the whole encounter, the woman flying by on a winged horse. But if the vision is Siegmund\u2019s subconscious speaking, it answers certain questions \u2026 and raises others. He has no idea, to begin with, who Br\u00fcnnhilde is (we know, of course), and no idea why her decision to change sides, to defy Wotan is such a big deal\u2014or, for that matter, why he should trust her. Jovanovich, gradually waking up, and Goerke, having a monumental change of heart in an awkward, mounted position (even, for a moment, poised over the orchestra as if in flight above the theater) portray this concept ardently, their vocalism unimpaired. But it puts us into a puzzle: Are we still in Siegmund\u2019s dream as he charges off to battle or have we awakened? And if he\u2019s awake, why is he still seeing a woman on a flying horse and a funeral procession? The staging seems, at such a point (and it is a very important point in the drama), to be more of a collection of images than something thought through.
\n<\/span>The international cast assembled by LOC is admirable, across the board. To fill a house the size of the Lyric Opera is extraordinary enough; to do so with such musicality would be thrilling for any company. Christine Goerke<\/strong> has become America\u2019s dramatic soprano, with a near-monopoly on Br\u00fcnnhilde in our major opera houses. She sang Cassandra at LOC in last year\u2019s triumphant Les Troyens<\/i> and has sung\"\"<\/a> Turandot, Elektra and the Dyer\u2019s Wife with equal success. The smoothness and glamour of her voice are comparable to its great size, and she can produce it on horseback or on her knees supplicating Wotan. The voice shines over the orchestra without losing its warmth. She is a supple actress, and portrays a tender Br\u00fcnnhilde, sentimental about the twin lovers even before Siegmund has convinced her to defend them, far more timid than is usual when Wotan outlines her future as a mortal woman. Vocalism aside, the demigoddess was not her style, at least in Pountney\u2019s conception. <\/span>Eric Owens<\/strong> has graduated from Alberich to Wotan (schwarz<\/i>-Alberich to licht-<\/i>Alberich, one might say), and while not as imperial in scope as some Wotans, he compensates in his moments of brooding or uneasy reflecting, in which his dramatic choices are always of interest. It is a thoughtful, appealing performance, full of regret. Tanja Ariane Baumgartner<\/strong>\u2019s ravishing low tones match him with a queenly, sympathetic Fricka, more distressed by Wotan\u2019s clumsy plotting than outraged by his infidelity. <\/span><\/span>The lovers are Brandon Jovanovich<\/strong>, whose dark tenor sound and anguished acting make him a most sympathetic Siegmund. Elisabet Swid<\/strong> possesses blazing full-throttle high notes for an exciting Sieglinde, but her voice is deep and even throughout the range. The painful despairs of \u201cDu bist der Lenz\u201d (after its opening statement of ecstasy) were movingly sung, and her nightmares in Act II intense. Ain Auger<\/strong> sang a stern, dignified, malicious Hunding. The eight valkyrie sisters were passionate and well-schooled. <\/span>Sir Andrew Davis<\/strong> led an urgent, highly dramatic reading of the score, with barking horns for Hunding\u2019s hounds and vital woodwinds in the lush, romantic pages. It was a top-grade <\/span>Walk\u00fcre<\/i><\/span><\/span>, to make any Wagnerian eager for the working-out of the rest of the cycle. Photo Cory Weaver<\/em><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicago, LOC, season 2017 \/2018 \u201cDIE WALK\u00dcRE\u201d Music drama in three acts, libretto by the composer. Music by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101493,"featured_media":91467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1744,895,15161,17066,351,19561,1674,9354,17067,17496,17068,173,6744,17073],"class_list":["post-91466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senza-categoria","tag-andrew-davis","tag-brandon-jovanovich","tag-christine-goerke","tag-david-pountney","tag-die-walkure","tag-elisabet-swid","tag-eric-owens","tag-foreign-readers","tag-johan-engels","tag-lyric-opera-of-chicago","tag-marie-jeanne-lecca","tag-richard-wagner","tag-robert-innes-hopkins","tag-tanja-ariane-baumgartner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101493"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}