Chaos and twilight: Seattle Opera's Ring, part 2
The first cycle is marred by an ill Siegfried and a subpar Brünnhilde. But there are some wonderful singers and just-right moments, and the subsequent cycles are likely to be better.
Seattle Opera, Chris Bennion
On Wednesday and Friday Seattle Opera finished its first cycle of Wagner’s grand tetralogy Des Ring des Nibelungen with Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. Many good things happened, but were overwhelmed by misfortune, much like the doomed Wälsungs, the Ring’s heroes.
Before the beginning of Siegfried, General Director Speight Jenkins parted the curtain and told the audience that “he was not here with bad news” and then announced that the Siegfried, Stig Andersen, was ill with a viral infection but would sing anyway. (I guess bad news would have been his being eaten by Fafner in rehearsal.) Andersen had very little voice that night, but from what he did manage to do it was clear that he is a fine musician with an appropriate instrument.
In Götterdämmerung there was much improvement, and by the time Act 3 rolled around he had enough left to sing his mostly lyrical music with distinction, including a very moving death scene. By the end of the series (two more cycles, with a few tickets still available) Andersen will be worth the price of admission. One of the fine things about his Siegfried was the unaffected projection of a likable and intellectually challenged young bumpkin entirely at the mercy of sinister forces. Contrary to the belief of later German nationalists, Siegfried is no übermensch, just one of Wagner’s “pure fools” who are enlightened far too late.
More troubling was Janice Baird’s Brünnhilde. Her Elektra at Seattle Opera showed a well-projected voice in a healthy state and she has sung Isolde at the Met. It was a bit of a shock that her Walküre was completely substandard. The lower voice was non-existent, and in the midrange she could only force with a wobble wide enough for Fafner to waddle though (sorry: I just love reptiles). Only an occasional high note had any purity.
Puzzled, I contacted Seattle Opera for a health update and was told that, to their knowledge, “there were no health problems.” I can only conclude that her busy schedule has caused a case of extreme vocal fatigue. In Siegfried things were pretty much the same, and with Andersen’s illness the final duet scene in Act 3 was largely a visual effect as we listened to the orchestra and watched the singers open their mouths. By Friday she did manage her voice a bit better and there were a few moments in which she sounded like Brünnhilde, but the basic sound was still very unsteady, an impossibility in this role. Unfortunately this problem wasn’t limited to Baird, as will be seen.
The star of Siegfried was without question the San Francisco-based tenor Dennis Petersen as Mime, a role usually tackled by aging and hammy character singers. Petersen actually sang all of his music well without losing any of the humor and even pathos of this fascinating, annoying, and complex role. When Andersen fully recovers, the first act of this opera will be totally enjoyable, since Greer Grimsley is a better fit for the Wanderer than Wotan in Walküre. Julianne Gearhart was a lovely Forest Bird, undaunted by a tempo too fast for successful projection of the text.
Daniel Sumegi sang a satisfying Daland in the Seattle Opera Dutchman in 2007, but doesn’t have the immense vocal presence needed for Fafner or Hagen and, again, the vocal production was too unsteady. The same must be said of Gordon Hawkins as Gunther and Marie Plette as Gutrune, although her touching little scene after Siegfried’s Funeral Music came off quite well. Richard Paul Fink was a reliable Alberich, and the Rhinemaidens (Gearhart, Michèle Losier, Jennifer Hines) were again superb. Maria Streijffert would be a fine singer of early music or lieder but is not able to impersonate the imposing Erda. Stephanie Blythe was a great Waltraute and Second Norn and Margaret Jane Wray and Luretta Bybee were fine as the other Norns. The chorus, in the boisterous scene of the calling of the vassals, made plenty of joyful noise.
The staging is more or less as in the first two operas, although especially in Götterdämmerung the ensemble acting perks up here and there. Also, the need for a chorus in this opera necessitates a Hall of the Gibichungs cavernous enough to allow movement. Once director Stephen Wadsworth gets his hands on some supernumeraries, though, you can be sure that they will run in and out incessantly in a most distracting manner. Another leitmotiv emerged from the staging: people throwing things at each other, usually food. The Alberich-Mime scene is funny enough without shenanigans.
The remaining element, and for me the most thought-provoking, was the conducting of Robert Spano. Spano is a fine technician with a total command of the score, and the necessary awareness of the orchestra’s needs at all times. He cues virtually everything for the singers, as well the orchestra. After the hapless Franz Vote in the 2001 Ring, who as far as I could tell gave no cues or help to the orchestra at all, it is clear that Spano has bonded well with the band. As a result, the playing was quite good and will improve as the series progresses. The lyrical aspects of the Ring clearly appeal to him most and these were superb. Something is missing, however. To put it into words is difficult but necessary.
Few, if any, conductors of Spano’s generation have made their reputation on what used to be thought of as the mainstream of classical music — the Germanic composers from Bach, through Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, to Schumann and Brahms, ending with Wagner. They are better known for later music of a different aesthetic and feel more comfortable with Stravinsky’s Firebird than Beethoven’s Fifth.
Spano is typical in this respect. In Brooklyn and Atlanta he has championed a variety of 20th century music, ranging from the tepid neo-Romanticism of Jennifer Higdon to the truly interesting Osvaldo Golijov and Kaiji Saariaho. To my knowledge the only 19th century composer in his discography is Berlioz. Whereas many of the famous Wagner conductors of a few generations back approached his music as the end result of a language that was part of their bloodstream, a language they instinctively understood, Spano and the others have to come at it from the outside and take it as an object in itself, out of context.
Spano’s Ring was never less than workmanlike. But the vital flow, the sense of both the large-scale architecture and the small forms (completely analyzed by Alfred Lorenz in his essential book The Secret of Form in Wagner) that make up each section of the Ring was not clarified in these performances. The last Seattle Ring conductor to fully understand the work, in my opinion, was the late Hermann Michael, who once showed me his scores, totally marked up with references to Lorenz.
Mysticism and grandiosity, at least of Wagnerian proportions, didn’t seem to interest Spano. The opening of Rheingold, one of the most original beginnings in music, passed by like wallpaper, without atmosphere or surge. The same can be said of the conclusion of that opera and the fiery prelude of Walküre. In general, the last two operas were much better, and that was the case in 2005 as well. To sum up, this was conducting that was totally reliable in terms of technique but often a bit off in pacing and sound.
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Comments:
Posted Sun, Aug 16, 11:55 a.m. Inappropriate
Hey what's going on here with "The Diva Baird Bashing?"
She has an exquisite voice, gorgeous stature and has performed impressively. Could it be that there is a little opera envy happening here?
Posted Sun, Aug 16, 11:58 a.m. Inappropriate
substandard? a lower voice "non-existent"???????
The majority of this audience begs to differ.
The diva was amazing!
Posted Wed, Aug 19, 1:48 p.m. Inappropriate
Regarding your concerns about conductors, I look with hope to Russia. You are much more familiar with the current state of conducting than I am, as far as 19th-century repertiore goes, but the Russian musicians I've heard through the Visiting Orchestra series at Seattle Symphony really blew the doors off with their depth and maturity of expression. Not bomastic, not academic, never lazy or imprecise. Thanks for your thorough reviews.
Posted Fri, Aug 21, 12:25 p.m. Inappropriate
Regrettably, I agree wholeheartedly with the reviewer's criticism of Janice Baird's wobbly voice, which was actually painful for me to listen to when it was wobbling. I kept longing for the times she was required to sing higher and louder when the wobble largely disappeared. After Die Walkure, I dreaded Gotterdammerung, but fortunately, the wobble was less pronounced there. It was catching, with Hagen starting to wobble in Gotterdammerung. Not being a resident of the USA, and given her reportedly huge reputation, I even feared this hideous sound might be some kind of developing, fashionable excessive vibrato, till the audience reaction to her performance indicated I was far from alone in hating the sound.
Of significantly more interest to me, however, were Mr Hauptmann's thoughful views on the musicality of the production. I was surprised how little moved I was by the performance overall. It may be this was part of the reason why. I am not sure I fully share his enthusiasm for the way Siegfried was characterised, as this bumbling, accidental "hero" scarcely justified the huge, sweeping drama, let alone the hero's death and funeral he got. The character seemed to draw on Chaplin rather than Grimm. It seemed to me both the innocent "fool" and the great man (albeit young) needed to be there in him.
Having said all that, I hugely enjoyed the Seattle Ring, and am immensely appreciative of all those who put it together. I also greatly enjoyed Seattle on my first visit and have been praising it and its citizens to everyone who will listen to me. I shall be back, probably for Tristan next year.
PS: As with all blogs, with respect, it is not helpful to attack the writer when commenting on others' writing. The suggestion that Mr Hauptmann is suffering "opera envy" is unproductive of debate.
Posted Fri, Aug 28, 9:21 p.m. Inappropriate
Having attended the 1st cycle's "Siegfried" and "Gotterdammerung," I eagerly awaited Fred Hauptman's 2nd Ring review. Unlike Seattle Opera's uneven production, the accuracy and insight of Hauptman's finely-tuned critical appraisal never wavered or wobbled.
Actually, Hauptman might have been a tad generous in his assessment of this recent incarnation of Wagner's immortal Brunnhilde. If Janice Baird is opera's "it girl" (as Melinda Bargreen would have us believe), I wonder what NOT being "it" sounds like? Her ridiculously excessive vibrato and risible acting tagged her as a living 'n' warbling operatic stereotype that the genre would be better off without.
Happily, Seattle Opera's mounting of Wagner's nearly superhuman work contained many earthly delights. Although Stig(fried) Andersen's vocal chops weren't quite up to snuff this time around The Ring, he proved himself to be an engaging actor and a fine musician. And, as Hauptman indicated, Dennis Petersen's Mime was well-sung and gloriously free of kitschy characterization.
Finally, thanks to Crosscut for bringing Fred Hauptman's much-needed critical voice back to Seattle. Now, can he sing?
Posted Sat, Aug 29, 11:53 a.m. Inappropriate
I just finished watching the second RING cycle in Seattle. And I must say Janice Baird is a phenomenon. Truly, I say, Janice Baird has the biggest soprano top notes I've ever heard, including Alessandra Marc and Debbie Voigt. Stephanie Blythe's voice is the most startlingly massive I've heard overall (in the low notes – she is after all a contralto!), but Baird is able to manufacture a gigantic, focused sound on the order of Gwyneth. Comparing a contralto to a soprano is simply comparing apples and pears - rather silly.
All the cast members were extraordinary as was the stage direction and sets.
Janice Baird was a revelation as Brunhilde. She reminds me too of Gwyneth Jones in her best years. It is hard to believe such a mind bogglingly huge sound can come out of someone who is about the size of Mary Tyler Moore on the old Dick Van Dyke show. I think Seattlites have some issues with Janice Baird (lack of) huge body size. She is a totally riveting actress and brings constant intensity to the part. She was on fire in the second cycle and she brought down the house. Huge ovations!
The others were also very good, but especially the "guests" stood out and made this the best RING for me in years. Stig Andersen doesn’t have the biggest voice around, but his death was very heartbreaking - the love duet between Baird and Andersen made me believe in falling in love again. Stuart Skelton has a lovely lyric tenor, truly a Siegmend of international class. Margaret Jane Wray's voice has become strident over the years and the high notes are screechy. I find Grimsley good - but no more than that, but he is from here and has his public. His acting with Baird in the Walküre was however extremely touching.
This is the first time that I really understood Stephen Wadsworth’s direction and for the first time I found this Ring move me to tears.
Seattlites have a tendancy to love their house singers. Perhaps a bit too much.
The orchestra has its problems….. (much too loud and no balance within the sections)
But this production is absolutely worth seeing and hearing - especially to experience Baird.
Posted Sat, Aug 29, 4:01 p.m. Inappropriate
Well, it appears that two different Janice Bairds showed up for the first two Ring cycles. I sure wish I could have experienced the one that seattlejohn describes above. Curiously, I wonder which version of JB showed up for the third cycle?
Posted Mon, Aug 31, 1:40 p.m. Inappropriate
Honestly, those of us who were disappointed with Janice Baird's singing were NOT unhappy because she wasn't another of the hefty women we were accustomed to hearing and seeing in this role.
I don't understand why anyone would make that accusation. No one who had hoped for a better performer suggested that she was just too slim. It was her singing we deplored.
What we longed for was a true Wagnerian soprano with a large, beautiful, secure,(preferably audible in every range) voice whose performance would give us the thrilling pleasure we had had from other singers of this mighty music.
Traubel? Flagstad? Nilsson? Voigt? There have been many. Pick your favorite.
Chances are, the one you liked best had a huge voice that rode easily over the big orchestra.
Chances are, you heard nearly all the notes she sang, none disappearing entirely as if they had never been written (Sadly, this is what happened when Baird sang in her middle and lower range. She tried using her "chest voice" a time or two. But that didn't seem to work well either).
Chances are, Your favorite Wagnerian soprano's voice was strong and ssecure, with no prolonged unsteadiness or disconcerting wobble.
Like many others, I've heard a lot of Brunnhilda's, some significantly better than others. But, I'm sorry to say, Ms Baird's was the most disappointing of them all. Some of her high notes WERE clarion clear, with a beautiful, thrilling sound, especially in the "Immolation" scene.
Even so, Most of the time, Wagner's gorgeous music was not well served.
As some of my favorite passages were approaching, I often would get my hopes up, thinking, "She's going to be better this time. She's going to sing this section beautifully. I just know it!" But that didn't happen. My husband who was with me had never heard this music, and I wanted so much for him to hear it in all its richness and grandeur.
Perhaps the young woman from Ireland who won the Wagner competition held here (I think her name is Miriam Murphy) did not have sufficient experience to sing this role. But I wishe she could have, because her huge, sumptuous voice would have filled that opera house and rolled out over the enthralled audience, giving us the Wagner sound we love so well. I kept imagining her on that stage last night.
Normally I would not have the effrontery to criticize Speight Jenkins's decisions. I admire him enormously. He's a remarkably capable, erudite man. However, in this case, I do think he did us a disservice by choosing Ms Baird for this role.
That she is slim, beautiful, and athletic is all very nice. In the best of all possible worlds all the Valkyries would look just like her--well, maybe a few of them would be blonde.
But the MUSIC! The MUSIC! That's why I go to the opera. Let that be paramount. Please!
Posted Mon, Aug 31, 5:32 p.m. Inappropriate
I couldn't agree more that in the best of all possible Wagnerian worlds all of the Valkures would be slim, beautiful and athletic - extra points for real blondes with luxurious hair.
One of the many reasons that I enjoyed Hans-Jurgen Syberberg's film of "Parsifal" is because the actors looked the part and could act. So what if they were lip-synching.
Let the singers sing, the actors act and the Valkures be Valkures, already!
Posted Tue, Sep 1, 5:18 p.m. Inappropriate
I heard the 3rd cycle. By the third time around, Spano had the pacing and the balance under control. He may not be Hermann Michael, but not bad at all. The orchestra was superb: truly outstanding horn calls, excellent clarinet and bass clarinet solos in particular. If I got tired of the singing, I could always listen to the orchestra. The singing was mixed, as usual. I admire Greer Grimsley and Stephanie Blythe was terrific. Alberich and Mime were both fantastic; Siegmund and Sieglinde were excellent. Siegfried didn't have the biggest voice, but in general, both his singing and acting were fine. The greatest disappointment was certainly Janice Baird: she is probably the worst Brunnhilde I've heard. The wide vibrato is painful, and her chest voice is so different from her head voice that it sounds like two different people singing. There is no warmth or creaminess to the sound at all; when Janice and Stephanie were singing together, it was almost embarrassing, because there was no comparison between the qulity of the voices. In general, I like the staging of the "green" Ring, in particular, the Rheinmaidens and ALL of Siegfried. I miss the carousel horses from the old Walkure, and there doesn't seem to be as much fire as there used to be (or is that just my memory exaggerating the fiery blasts I felt in the old production?). Still, it was good to see the Ring again, and great that Seattle Opera could afford to stage it once more. The audience was older, better dressed, and of course, more "out of town" than the usual Seattle Opera audience--no sign of the recession among these folks. Thanks for your reviews, Fred--always intelligent, perceptive, and honest.
Maria
Posted Sat, Sep 5, 1:48 p.m. Inappropriate
You know, I don't understand it. I've read many other internet reviews of Baird's singing (Brunnhilda, Isolde, etc.), and all of them I could find were very laudatory (except, of course, for several of those we've read here in Seattle after the "RING").
They often praise the beauty of her voice and its big sound.
If it were just us and our local reaction to her, I would think that perhaps she just had three rather bad performances in a row here.
But that hardly seems likely.
Another puzzling thing is that I heard her in "Elektra" and thought she was very good. But given Elektra's character, strident, uneven singing is not so noticable. Or maybe she really WAS good that night. I'm beginning to doubt my own critical abilities.
No I'm not! I know what I heard.
But the Met seems to like her, as do many opera houses in other parts of the world where she has sung.
How come?
Posted Sun, Sep 6, 10:49 a.m. Inappropriate
It's really very simple. Either:
1/ Janice Baird truly varies wildly from performance to performance, or,
2/ Some of us know what we're hearing and some don't.
Posted Sun, Sep 6, 11:04 p.m. Inappropriate
Small town audiences like their local heros. Mediocrocy loves mediocrocy. Seattle is a small provincial town.
Baird is lucky! They love her in New York, Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg, Rome, Zurich and all over the world.
In my opinion Baird was a sensational Brunnhilde. Her voice is warm and powerful dark and brilliant. A true "hoch" dramatic soprano a la Voight, Marc, Jones. ANd there were many reviews that have said the same.
Marzena you are entitled to your opinion, but it is certainly not a particularly educated one.
Posted Mon, Sep 7, 12:14 p.m. Inappropriate
To seattlejohn:
Thank you for allowing me my opinion. I have a fairly substantial musical background and trust my ears 'n' eyes - no matter what the big-town critics and audiences have to say. Sometimes, our little musical "welt" succumbs to mass hypnosis and/or bandwagon cheerleading. However, I'm sure someone of your education would know nothing about that.
Finally, are you serious about Seattle being "a small provincial town"? Sadly, I think you probably are.
PS
There IS the possibility that Baird was particularly brilliant when you saw her. Perhaps she was relatively free of the ghastly vibrato and numerous other impediments that marred the first cycle for me. If so, you got lucky.
Posted Mon, Sep 7, 6:09 p.m. Inappropriate
It ill becomes anyone, however devoted to a certain singer, to suggest that another person is "not. . . particularly educated" simply because his or her opinion differs from that of oneself.
I've studied and sung with some of opera's greats, i.e., Rose Bampton (voice teacher and coach for three years), Nicolai Gedda (apres dinner parties and one recital), Zinka Milanov ("Norma/Adalgisa" duet at a reception in her honor), Eva Turner (voice lessons), Eileen Farrell (two master classes). Yes, I'm an old lady, and these are singers from the forties and fifties. But they're notably fine and highly regarded as examples of
I also have two masters degrees in music and have heard so many operas (in Europe, Eastern Europe, China, and even Indonesia!) that I couldn't begin to name them all.
Furthermore,I have a Phd in another field and have taught Music History at two universities. Am I uneducated?
It may be that only a relatively uneducated person (and I don't necessarily mean "formal" education here) would make such a remark as was tossed off at "marzena".
Professional musicians are not very likely to condone or agree with such intemperance, their having the informed opinion (rather than what is probably one made by a dilettante), that this sort of comment is not reasonable discourse but is, instead, peevish persiflage.
Posted Mon, Sep 7, 6:14 p.m. Inappropriate
Oops! My second paragraph in the previous post contains an unfinished sentence. Feel free to finish it for me :)
Posted Wed, Sep 9, 7:49 p.m. Inappropriate
To mhimber:
Well, it looks like you helped chase seattlejohn away. That's too bad, I'll miss him.
However, perhaps he'll be happier away from the "mediocracy" that is Seattle. Wherever he goes (New York, Berlin, etc.), i'm fairly certain that he'll continue to be Janice Baird's "john." That's a good thing. Everyone needs their loyal fans/customers.
Posted Fri, Sep 11, 1:15 p.m. Inappropriate
marzena, you likely think, as I do, that discussions about musical performances such as we have had here can be stimulating and informative.
Comparing voices, performances, even personal lives of opera singers is lots of fun. I hardly know anyone who will do it because if they aren't musicians themselves they can get defensive or reluctant to express their own opinions.
But when there is significant disagreement of taste and opinion, and someone descends to the level of insulting, ad hominem posts, that spoils it for the rest of us.
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