Die Walküre: The plot thickens in San Francisco
Is the most difficult of the Ring operas: difficult to appreciate with its many-layered nuances, difficult to sit through and difficult to emotionally process, holding us in its bleak grasp as we watch characters buffeted by the inevitability of the Nordic fates. While light moments do exist, such as when the charismatic Brunhilde (Nina Stemme) infuses the set with all the certainty and enthusiasm of youth, those moments are few and far between, and don’t begin to counterbalance the heaviness of the rest of the production. However, it’s the heart of these lighter moments are what we cling to most as they give some meaning to this grim twilight of the idols.Die Walküre opens when Siegmund (Brandon Jovanvich) passes out in front of the home of Sieglinde (Heidi Melton) and Hunding (Daniel Sumegi), wounded and exhausted. The sensitivity of Heidi Melton’s acting was matched only by the maestro Donald Runnicles delicate touch. This scene is informed by understatement, both in the orchestra pit and on stage. The slightest hesitation of a hand on the door and the hint of drawn out strings convey more meaning than much of the bombast found in later sections.
, a one-eyed stranger thrusts the sword into Barnstock, the huge tree in the Volsong palace, saying “he who draws this sword out of the trunk shall receive from me as a gift and he himself shall prove he has never carried a better sword than this one.” So begins the Volsung saga, in which Sigmund wins the sword and mates with his sister Signy (who has shapeshifted into someone else). Thumbing through the Volsung Saga , which is far more wideranging and bloody than the operatic version, I was stunned at Wagner’s self-restraint in reining in his source material to a mere four hours and 30 minutes.This production was slightly different from the June 2010 version of the same. The first act flew by in 2010, yet seemed protracted last night. The converse is true with the fight scene under the bridge, which seemed startling in its brevity last night. While the fabulous sets were identical, they were used differently: parachutes drop at different angles and the fight scene under the overpass seems less out of West Side Story .
Of note – and perhaps slightly more obvious in this version than in 2010, is the use of photographs of the dead heroes. The use of image, and the manipulation of the same resonate deeply. The inescapability from these images harkens to Komeini’s aggressive reproduction and manipulation of images of martyrs during the Iran-Iraq war when photos of these young men appeared everywhere. Through them we create a world that is difficult to escape from, not unlike the downfall of these gods.
Ring Of The Nibelung - News
later sections. by Cy Ashley Webb on 07.01.11 | View Comments By Richard Wagner This is part 2 (Die Walküre) of a four-part review series of The Ring of the Nibelung, one of the biggest stage presentations this year in the San Francisco Bay Area.
SAN FRANCISCO – The everlasting work is done, to quote Wotan, the power-hungry king of the gods, in Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" ("The Ring of the Nibelung"). San Francisco Opera is the latest American company to weigh in on the vast,
In Siegfried, a lot of things get tied together: Rheingold was a prelude which focused on the Ring and the Gods. Walküre somewhat ignored the Ring itself and the Nibelung gnome who forged it and plotted Wotan's devious plan to father a human hero who
“The Ring of the Nibelung,” Richard Wagner's monumental, four-part opera cycle chronicling the battle between gods, heroes and monsters over an all-powerful, magical ring wrought out of a mystical hoard of gold, is opera's answer to
Das Rheingold sets the story in motion when the Nibelung Alberich renounces love to harvest the power of the gold he stole from the Rhine river into a magical ring. Meanwhile, Wotan needs to pay for his grandiose castle (Valhalla), built by two giants.
Gods and Nibelungs on the Pacific Coast: the Three Ring “Siegfrieds”
The following summarizes the story line of the third opera of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungs”, with my impressions of three very different approaches to performing the opera, from respectively the Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera and San Francisco Opera. For the two previous features in this series, see: Gods and Nibelungs on the Pacific Coast: the Three Ring “Rheingolds” and Gods and Nibelungs on the Pacific Coast: the Three Ring “Walkueres” .
Wagner himself had thought that “Siegfried” would be the most popular of the four “Ring” operas, but that honor has always gone to “Die Walkuere”. However, the story of the young Siegfried has great appeal, and the opera is filled with spectacular events and both the rousing music of the forging scenes and extremely lyrical, melodious passages, especially in the third act.
The opera follows up on a series of events that took place in one or the other of the two previous operas. “Siegfried” continues the stories of three of the “Rheingold” characters, who do not appear in “Walkuere” at all. The giant Fafner, who now possesses the Nibelung Ring, the horde of gold and the magical Tarnhelm has moved to the East where he is fearsome presence (turning himself into a dragon in the Seattle and Los Angeles versions and into a machine in the San Francisco version).
The two dwarves, who are both brothers and enemies, take up long term residence near where Fafner guards his horde. Alberich, who has cursed the Ring, of course, wants it back, but so does his brother Mime, who fashioned the Tarnhelm , but could not take advantage of it since he was unaware of its powers.
It is Mime who is provided an unexpected opportunity by events that took place at and just after the end of “Walkuere”. The god Wotan, angry with Bruennhilde, then overcome with compassion for her, deprives her of her immortality and places her to sleep on a rock surronded by magic flames to be awakened in the future by a hero. This activity distracts him from the fact that another daughter, Sieglinde (in this particular case, human rather than immortal), but pregnant with Wotan’s grandson, Siegfried, is seeking refuge in the land in which Fafner has based himself.
She came upon the place where Mime’s lives, and, dying after childbirth, persuaded Mime to raise her child, Siegfried. She gives Mime a pieces of the sword Nothung, that her husband and brother Siegmund had received from Wotan, but which shattered in Siegmund’s battle with her husband.
RT : Ring-goers! Siegfried curtain is at 6:30 tonight...looking forward to seeing you! 
Ring-goers! Siegfried curtain is at 6:30 tonight...looking forward to seeing you! 
Die Walküre: The plot thickens in San Francisco: This is part 2 (Die Walküre) of a four-part… 
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