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| Orchestra of Opera North and conductor Richard Farnes in Leeds Town Hall. Photo: Clive Barda |
A RING TO TREASURE
The four
operas have been built up by Opera North over the last four years and have
received hugely commendatory reviews in the process. This year the Ring is presented as a full
cycle, in the traditional format of a week with days off in between. It is of course a totally different
experience: the musical language develops and mutates over three nights, so that by
Götterdämmerung every note derives dramatic and musical resonance from the
events in the 11 hours that have preceded it.
The same themes permeate the whole, but take on different colours and
nuances as the story develops. The
demands made of the audience are considerable, but so are the rewards.
The
first word must go to the orchestra of Opera North and the conductor, Richard
Farnes. The orchestral playing was of a
very high quality, one or two minor lapses of concentration excepted. It is clear that the orchestra has benefited
greatly from the incremental building up of the Ring over years, and the
considerable technical demands of the music were met with aplomb
throughout. What is also clear is that
there is a huge commitment and level of enthusiasm about the project and the
music. It is easy to see this when the
orchestra is on stage, exposed to full view, but also in the corridors and on
the steps of the Town Hall in the intervals, where cast, musicians and audience
happily exchange thoughts and compliments. The majority of the orchestra was on stage 15 minutes before each opera
started, and numerous players remained on stage after each lengthy act,
practising for the one to follow.
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| Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke as Loge. Photo: Clive Barda |
Mr Farnes’
conducting is a revelation too (to those who have not enjoyed it previously). In London it is easy to forget that other parts
of the country boast conductors who really do understand Wagner’s music and
have it in their blood. His conducting
style is calm and his beat clear: no histrionics; no heaving and subsiding with
the musical flow. In Das Rheingold,
which overall was the least convincing performance, the music was sometimes a
bit one-paced, without time to breathe on occasions, and without bite and zip
when needed to lend colour to the black comedy being enacted on stage. The ensemble went awry for a while at the
start of Scene 4, where the vocal lines and the orchestral commentary are at
their most complex. But the difficulty
of conducting with one’s back to the actors/singers must be considerable, and
overall Mr Farnes achieved a wonderful sound and cohesion. A special mention for Wolfgang
Ablinger-Sperrhacke, whose Loge was beautifully judged and acted, a
personification of flickering fire, volatility, insecurity and cunning.
In Die Walküre, the orchestral
sound blossomed fully and the effect was powerful and beautiful in equal
measure. Some lovely moments in the
woodwind in the middle section of Act 2 (and later in Act 2 of Siegfried) will
stay long in the memory. Leeds had a
Siegmund (Michael Weinius) and Sieglinde (Lee Bisset) to relish, and each acted
with great delicacy of expression and movement and sang to a very high
standard. Indeed, one had to pinch
oneself to remember that all this was being presented in Leeds Town Hall and
not in the Metropolitan Opera. Reginald
Goodall used to say, with only a hint of irony, that he was not sure that he
had really mastered the end of Act 3 of Die Walküre. I have never heard it more perfectly judged
and played than here: the beauty and colour of the music deliciously set off by
the shocking personal tragedy happening on stage, for which equal credit is due
to Kelly Cae Hogan (Brünnhilde) and Robert Hayward (Wotan). Ms Hogan sang wonderfully well: she is
confident, technically secure, acts well, and produces a beautiful but well
structured sound.
Siegfried is sometimes regarded
as the weak link in the cycle. Not
here. The orchestral playing was nothing
short of superb throughout, with Mr Farnes finding space and colour for all the
subtleties of the music. A great deal
depends on the eponymous hero, of course, and Leeds was very lucky to have a
recently-engaged Lars Cleveman, who sang to a very high standard, with lovely
bright tones, clear diction, faultless intonation and considerable reserves of
energy. His voice was well contrasted by
the character tenor of Richard Roberts (Mime), whose acting skills were
deployed to memorable effect as the evil, scheming dwarf. The musical high at the start of Act 3, with
Wotan, Erda and Siegfried, suffered something of a fall when a different
Brünnhilde was kissed awake. Ms
Broderick unfortunately fell short of the very high standards of the rest of
the cast and the musical intensity was lost, which was a great shame. (Ms Hogan will sing throughout in London.)
Götterdämmerung is and was the
pinnacle of the cycle. A different
Siegfried was with us, Mati Turi, who, while not reaching that heights that Mr
Cleveman reached, let no one down, despite some dryness and lack of colour at
the top of his range. The show was once
again stolen by the orchestral playing and by Ms Hogan, whose scene with
Waltraute (Susan Bickley) in Act 1 was exquisitely performed, a telling
portrayal of human characters who were once godlike and close but who now live
in different worlds and no longer speak the same language. A very well sung Gunther (Andrew
Foster-Williams) and Gutrune (Giselle Allen) contributed to the awful
denouement, manipulated almost to the point of success by the Hagen of Mats
Almgren. Mr Almgren, with resonant deep
bass voice and German pronunciation that seems to emanate from some primordial
middle earth, had been a fearsome Fafner and was no less fearsome in this
opera, bringing off a superbly chilling Rhine watch scene in Act 1 and the Siegfried’s Ende trio with Gunther and
Brünnhilde at the end of Act 2. No one
doubted that Ms Hogan would steal the show at the end, which she did,
unforgettably.
So palmes d’or for the orchestra,
Mr Farnes and Ms Hogan, and one other character who I have not mentioned so
far, but who appears throughout the cycle. The anti-hero Alberich, who is cruelly abused by the gods and then disdained
and dismissed by his son, who for the merely human misjudgement of preferring
wealth to love sets the whole disaster in motion and is condemned to misery. It is a wonderfully ambiguous part, and in
Das Rheingold has some of the best musical lines; here it was sung to
perfection by Jo Pohlheim, whose lovely bass-baritone easily captured the true character
of the villain-victim.
For those who missed it in Leeds,
it is touring Nottingham, Salford, London and Gateshead. London sold out its cycle in May last year, within
days of going on sale, such is the renown of this Opera North production and
the dearth of Ring productions in the capital. For those lucky enough to have a ticket, this really is a Ring to
treasure.
Timothy Fancourt
