Author : Jos Hermans
He himself calls his previous staging of the Ring (Hannover 2009-2011) "a train wreck production". “The patchwork quilt of ideas was extravagant and provocative , but failed to cohere”, director Barrie Kosky says and he resolved never to stage Wagner again. At the Komische Oper, Wagner was exiled until Katharina Wagner invited him to Bayreuth for Die Meistersinger. It put him on a collision course with Wagner's criticism of Jews and his German nationalism. Shamelessly, the Bayreuth master was executed in a kind of Nurenberg trial in his own home. After this self-therapeutic session, the director declared he was cured of his problem with Wagner. Prior to the Ring in London, he promised : "I will not stage Alberich or Mime as Jews, as in Hanover. I will not bring a panopticon of German history onto the stage, as in Hanover. I will try to transport the piece into the 21st century as a universally valid myth. Which is only possible after the exorcism in Bayreuth."
Kosky has kept his word : there is not a hint of deconstructive irony or adolescent criticism to be found in this prologue. Indeed : the director cannot stress enough how brilliant Wagner is. And what we also like to hear from the mouth of a contemporary director is : "I want to touch on something that is epic, mythological and inexplicable." "I want to explore the idea that we are watching the dreams and hallucinations and visions of Mother Earth," is how Kosky legitimizes having his Ring project begin with the walk across the stage of a completely naked 82-year-old actress. Horrified by the apocalyptic vision of humanity's collapse, intoxicated by the feverish conquest of gold, Kosky's Erda buries her head in her hands. Only then does the undulating Rheingold prelude rise from the orchestra pit. The world ash tree lies on its side. It lies as blackened as the trees that remained standing after dark forces caused "forest fires" in Maui. What dark powers toppled the world ash tree? Clearly Kosky's Ring will have an ecological slant.
The Rhine daughters play hide-and-seek in the knotholes of the tree. There they meet with Alberich who lets them dress him up like a Cherubino as a tranny in a lace petticoat; the uncircumcised artificial penis (to be seen as a statement by the director!) flutters out of his briefs. The rhine gold is liquid and oozing from the pores of the ash. The block of gold Alberich wields in his curse of love appears to be Erda's brain. Christopher Purves is still just slim and muscular enough to do so convincingly in his underwear.
It is a kind of British country nobility that we meet in the second scene. The world ash tree is now covered with a picnic blanket. Wotan, in riding boots, seems ready for a game of polo. Very British all around. There are polo hammers swinging around. That comes in handy when, as Fafner, you want to bash your brother's head in. Or if, as Donner, you want to set the sky ablaze with a hammer blow. Kosky's Wotan is cocky and ruthless. His spear is a charred branch. He himself wears a kind of prosthetic eye.
The scene changes are repeatedly done with the curtain closed, an inevitable consequence of Rufus Didwiszus' unitary scenery. This has a slightly old-fashioned feel to it. In Nibelheim, people are lugging buckets of liquid gold. The Nibelungen are children with swollen heads in papier maché. Erda lies with hoses connected to a steam engine that pumps the liquid gold out of her breasts. This, too, is very British. Recall Wagner's visit to London in 1877. Impressed by the harbor complex, he says to Cosima, "Here is Alberich's dream fulfilled- Nibelheim, world domination, bustle, labor, everywhere the pressure of vapor and mist." Kosky takes Wagner's distaste for the industrial revolution seriously.
Alberich tastefully eats his gold as if it were caramel syrup. The Tarnhelm references Halloween with a half skull mask. Alberich's transformations avoid the anecdotal dragon/toad disguises. Each time, it is Alberich himself who surprises both visitors from the tree cavities. A nice touch about the liquid gold is that Freia will take a bath to be covered in liquid gold.
The use of Erda as a common thread throughout the performance was ultimately not particularly effective. Ex-model Rose Knox-Peebles is very slim and, in all her vulnerable nudity, not immediately a symbol of the generous abundance one would expect from Mother Earth. Consequently, her embrace of Wotan -a sort of pas de deux in spots- during her vocal intervention (with Wiebke Lehmkuhl singing from the wings) was not as moving as the director may have intended.
The "Entry of the Gods" is like a ticker tape parade of the gods into Valhalla. A shower of glitter confetti in the colors of the rainbow descends from the stage tower.
Physically, Licht-Alberich and Schwarz-Alberich are quite similar. Christopher Purves' Alberich turned out weaker than what I expected on the basis of his Zurich debut. The voice sounded less powerful and he seemed less sharp in his interpretation to me.
Christopher Maltman does not always sound crystal clear but does not disappoint. The timbre seems to have darkened with age and he sings the part as a low baritone, with much natural authority. He knows how to place the voice well at all the moments that matter and the voice projects wonderfully. This augurs the best for the Walküre-Wotan.
Sean Pannikar was a fantastic Loge. He danced his way through the part like a playful nature spirit, cackling happily and with an infectious Amadeus laugh at the most unexpected moments. The way he peeled an apple during Freia's stressful farewell was divine.
Insung Sims Fasolt was uneven with beautiful moments. Soloman Howard struck Fafner in all his brutality. Good performances also from Katharina Konradi, Niamh O'Sullivan and Marvic Monreal as the Rhine Daughters.
Antonio Pappano, in his last season as music director, was unquestionably fantastic! Fortunately, he is allowed to return to conduct the rest of this cycle for the next three years in front of this breath-taking orchestra. This was vital, agile, colorful, exciting, moving. All the orchestral highlights managed to overwhelm with full sensuous sound. I cannot recall ever having experienced the sound as sculptured and spacious (in Dolby 5.1 I suppose) in a cinema as it was in cinema Sphinx. The cinematic experience was undoubtedly a different one from that in Covent Garden itself but no less effective for that. Especially the descent into Nibelheim was of a maddening grandeur despite the electronic anvils. Pappano's tempi were not particularly fast, his Rheingold clocked in at 2:27. Dynamically and agogically, this was very extremely differentiated without causing the soloists any problems. Most of the musicians in the orchestra pit had put on yellow union T-shirts that read #fairpay, a very different kind of confrontation with management than we are used to from Paris.
To summarize : Barrie Kosky's prelude to the Ring was a very solid, respectful staging with flashes of Kosky humor but it ultimately brings little new. "Livestream and television HD of opera has been one of the greatest catastrophes," he recently declared. That is certainly not true of this Rheingold. For Antonio Pappano, this Ring threatens to become the apex of his career.