The Atlanta Opera’s superb “Die Walküre” is to fly for

Mark Gresham | 30 APR 2024

Atlanta’s travel and hospitality industry, should sit up and take note: The Atlanta Opera is increasingly proving itself a “destination” opera company. Certainly, the fact that it is now ranked one of the top-10 American opera companies by Opera America is one in-industry measure of that, it’s the productions themselves, particularly the impressive Die Walküre which opened this past Saturday, that are proof of the draw of increased audience from outside of the metro-Atlanta area.

For example, a gentleman seated beside me had driven from Columbus, Ohio, to see Die Walküre on opening night. (According to Google Maps, that’s an 8-hour drive, non-stop.) Another, seated in the row ahead of us, overheard and remarked that he had come down from Dayton, Ohio, for the performance. Both had attended last season’s Das Rheingold.

That encounter is not isolated or merely anecdotal. A spokesperson from The Atlanta Opera confirmed the increased influx of travelers, near and far, for whom this Atlanta Die Walküre is a “destination” performance. A good percentage of these out-of-towners naturally come from neighboring states, but some have flown in from across North America to see it, with one couple, word has it, coming from as far away as Sydney, Australia, on a “world opera tour” with The Atlanta Opera being the stop between shows at Houston Grand Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin.

And for those who can’t attend in person, there will be internet streaming of the Die Walküre performance 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 3. These live streams, as well as on-demand video from The Atlanta Opera Film Studio, have built the company a global audience.

Of course, there is nothing like the live experience of opera, and devoted opera lovers are willing to travel for it. They’ve found The Atlanta Opera a great destination for seeing first-rate opera firsthand.

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The strength of the draw to this particular Die Walküre begins with its cast. American bass-baritone Greer Grimsley is the ultimate Wotan, a role which he also played in Das Rheingold last season, the first installment of The Atlanta Opera’s new Ring Cycle productions. Although the company initially cast Wendy Bryn Harmer as Wotan’s daughter Brünnhilde, she became ill and unable to perform, but we got a stellar replacement in soprano Christine Goerke.

Excellence did not stop there. We saw compelling performances by tenor Viktor Antipenko and soprano Laura Wilde as the Völsung twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, as well as strong renditions by Gretchen Krupp as Wotan’s wife Fricka, and Raymon Aceto as the antagonist mortal Hunding, Sieglende’s husband. In line with director Tomer Zvulun’s penchant for balanced ensemble casts, the eight other Valkyries (Julie Adams, Yelena Dyachek, Maya Lahyani, Catherine Martin, Deborah Nansteel, Aubrey Odle, Meridian Prall, and Alexandra Razskazoff) proved a fine assemblage of voices.

Viktor Antipenko (Siegmund) and Laura Wilde (Sieglinde) in The Atlanta Opera’s “Die Walküre.” (credit: Raftermen)

As is true of all of The Ring, in Die Walküre, the underlying mover of the drama is the underlying orchestral score. The Atlanta Opera Orchestra, under the assured baton of music director Arthur Fagen, forged a formidable, motivated Wagnerian performance of the music that made the exceptionally long evening progress much more quickly than expected. Well-matched to the orchestra in presentational power was the (for the most part) stunningly effective set and projection design by Erhard Rom, symbiotically coupled with Robert Wierzel’s lighting design and the contributions of the entire creative crew.

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As with Das Rheingold, Rom’s Die Walküre sets use projections extensively, with many moving elements rather than only static ones. The physical sets, therefore, leave plenty of room for Zvulun’s stage direction. Like Das Rheingold (and Rom’s set for the Salome), the physical set’s abstraction and the projections allow for an absence of defined temporality—a kind of timelessness—and help invoke “a theater of the mind.” But there is also much that feels contemporary for the audience (like the projected glass and steel towers of Valhalla in Asgard). This feeling of timelessness is well-complemented by Mattie Ullrich’s costume designs.

One abstraction that didn’t work for me was the Act I representation of Hunding’s house, through which the ash tree grows. It is a large rectangular box open to the audience, which comes across as a house made from a shipping container rather than a forest home. I have nothing against the ash tree, the fire pit, table and benches, or the projected forest behind; the stark, open cuboid house itself doesn’t feel right to me.

Hunding’s forest home with the ash tree growing through it, where Siegmund and Siglinde (Antipenko and Wilde) discover mutual love. (credit: Raftermen)

What this open cuboid does well, however, is define a smaller interior space on stage, so there is less sense of the singers being “outsized” by the set in this act. Typical outsizing found in “total theater” does, however, have its due impact in Acts II and III.

The interior of Valhalla introduced in Act II serves as an example. The huge shelves and stacks of greatly oversized books posit a sense of enormity and knowledge worthy of Wotan and the realm of the gods, even if the book collection is well-worn and some are coming apart. One also notices a chess game in mid-play on one of the stacks of books. Grey cuboid platforms also make their appearance here.

l-r: Brünnhilde (Christine Goerke), Wotan (Greer Grimsley), and Fricka (Gretchen Krupp) in Valhalla, with its shelves and stacks of enormous books. Note the chess game on the stack behind Wotan. (credit: Raftermen)

Later in Act II, beginning in scene 4, after Siegmund and Sieglinde stop to rest during their flight from Hunding, Brünnhilde appears in front of a stunning projected backdrop of a total solar eclipse, replete with flowing plasma corona, at first to tell Siegmund he must die, then defying Wotan in an attempt to aid Siegmund to victory over Hunding. But Wotan appears (in scene 5) and breaks Siegmund’s sword with his spear. Siegmund dies (as does Hunding), but Sieglinde escapes with Brünnhilde. Wotan vows to punish her for her defiance.

The symbolism of the eclipse is not at first apparent but becomes clear: Wotan is often portrayed as an archetype of a “wise old man.” Compare that archetypal image with that of Sarastro of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, where Sarastro is the Sun, whereas his estranged wife, the Queen of the Night, is the Moon.

In Die Walküre, the eclipse appears to represent the daughter Brünnhilde (the Moon) attempting to block the will of Wotan (the Sun), yet the corona flares behind the dark disc of the Moon—a brilliant visual analogy. Another projection in Act III will subtly elaborate on this.

Eclipsed: Brünnhilde reveals to Siegmund that he must die in battle. l-r: Christine Goerke (Brünnhilde), Viktor Antipenko (Siegmund), and Laura Wilde (Sieglinde). (credit: Raftermen)

Rom takes the opportunity to use the Prelude to Act III, the infamous Walkürenritt (“The Ride of the Valkyries”), as the foundation for a visual montage of white horses, swiftly moving clouds, and crackling lighting projected on a front screen through which the audience can see the Valkyries gathering onstage for scene one. A massive rock in the background and a smaller one near it set the feeling of a rough mountain landscape, both physically and emotionally.

Wild horses couldn’t keep them away: The Valkyries gather at the beginning of Act III. (credit: Raftermen)

Arriving with Sieglinde, Brünnhilde soon informs Sieglinde that she is pregnant with a future hero (foreshadowing the next Ring opera, Siegfried). Sieglinde is sent away with the broken sword “Nothung” toward the forests in the east before Wotan arrives to mete out discipline.

Brünnhilde is to be stripped of status as a Valkyrie and made mortal, to be bound on the mountain by sleep, and given over to the first man who finds her. Though they protest, the other Valkyries flee when Wotan threatens them with the same punishment.

In Brünnhilde’s subsequent discourse with Wotan, she explains how she protected Sieglinde in the belief that this was Wotan’s true desire—so that a hero could be born that Wotan could not create himself and who could do what the gods need to do but cannot.

Here, Rom gives us the backdrop of a starry night sky with a crescent Moon, and the symbolism of the eclipse extends with the waxing Moon having moved away from blocking the Sun and now illuminated by it. The Moon, symbolizing Brünnhilde, disappears as she becomes mortal.

Wotan (Greer Grimsley) with the waxing Moon in the clear starry night sky behind him. (credit: Raftermen)

Brünnhilde implores Wotan to surround her resting place with a circle of fire that will prevent all but the bravest heroes from reaching her, and he consents. As he bids her a loving farewell, Wotan encircles her body first with a blue circle of sleep, then calls upon Loge to create a ring of perpetual fire around her. (Is it only accidental that both of these are rings?) Wotan then casts a final spell: “Wer meines Speeres Spitze fürchtet durchschreite das Feuer nie!” (“He who fears my spear’s tip shall never pass through the fire!”)

Wotan (Greer Grimsley) encircles the now mortal Brünnhilde (Christine Goerke) with a blue ring of sleep, and the rock with a ring of fire so that only a true hero will find her. (credit: Raftermen)

The magnificent scène d’incendie, ending with a hard blackout, dramatically concluded the opera, setting up the third installment of the Ring Cycle: the much anticipated Siegfried, which the Atlanta Opera will present next season in four performances from April 26 through May 4, 2025.

Given the combined artistic successes of last season’s Das Rheingold and the currently-running Die Walküre, we can expect a “flight of the opera fans” to arrive in Atlanta for Siegfried, and Atlanta audiences should begin preparing now to attend that heroic episode, as well as the rest of The Atlanta Opera’s promising 2024-25 season.

In the meantime, if you didn’t see Saturday’s opening night of Die Walküre, you are urged to go to one of the three remaining performances of this outstanding production.  ■

The final three performances of The Atlanta Opera’s “Die Walküre” take place at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on Tuesday, April 30 (tonight) at 6:30 p.m.; Friday, May 3 at 6:30 p.m.; and Sunday afternoon, May 5 at 2 p.m.

EXTERNAL LINKS:

• The Atlanta Opera: atlantaopera.org
• Christine Goerke: christinegoerke.com
• Greer Grimsley: greergrimsley.com
• Viktor Antipenko: viktorantipenko.com
• Laura Wilde: laurawildesoprano.com
• Tomer Zvulun: tomerzvulun.com
• Erhard Rom: erhardrom.com

About the author:

Mark Gresham is publisher and principal writer of EarRelevant. He began writing as a music journalist over 30 years ago, but has been a composer of music much longer than that. He was the winner of an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for music journalism in 2003.

Read more by Mark Gresham.

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