A Key Flaw

If 'Das Rheingold' becomes a comedy,
by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

If the morning sky is an indication of the rest of the day's weather, Das Rheingold, seen at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo on 22 January 2013, anticipates an interesting Ring, but one quite distant from Richard Wagner's own intentions. The decision of Teatro Massimo to stage the full Ring on its own (eg without any other opera house as a partner) and within a single season (two operas at the beginning of 2013 and two at the end) is to be applauded. It is a good way to celebrate the bicentenary of Wagner's birthday. Not even La Scala and the Berlin Staatsoper have dared that much [read 'High Expectations', 22 May 2010]. Nonetheless, the Prologue (Das Rheingold), which I saw and heard on the splashy opening night, fell short of the quality of other recent fully staged Ring cycles I've seen -- eg the intimate yet grand Aix-Salzburg-Berlin Philharmoniker production, the Köln-Venezia production, the Firenze-Valencia production and the Tyrol-Erl production, not to mention the Berlin-La Scala staging which will be completed in May 2013.
A key flaw is the dramaturgy (as seen in the 'Prologue'). It is entrusted to Graham Vick, highly regarded and often bestowed with Prizes and Awards. (Sets and costumes are by another star, Richard Hudson.) Vick already has two Ring productions in his bag. Firstly, Birmingham's simplified version, arranged twenty years ago by Jonathan Dove for an orchestra of nineteen (rather than a hundred and twenty), reduced to nine hours instead of fifteen and looking like a TV mélo, was revived recently in Reggio Emilia. Secondly, some ten years ago, there was a full Ring in Lisbon, where this complex work was presented in circus style, with the orchestra on stage, the action in the stalls area and the audience in the boxes. In both stagings, Vick seemed more interested in bewildering the audience than in grasping Wagner's philosophical and religious underpinning of what he himself named 'a sacred festival event in a prologue and three days'.
In Palermo, here we go again. The action is in an unspecified land in 2013. The plot revolves around power and sex, but not around the breaking of the basic rules; this would condemn the old German Pantheon to its own downfall in order to open the way to a fair and merciful Almighty. The acting is excellent and there are many good and ingenious ideas, but Das Rheingold becomes what playwrights call 'a comedy for adults', extolling even good and sincere laughs from the audience, but far from Wagner's intentions.

Sergei Leiferkus as Alberich (standing) with, from left to right, three rhinemaidens: Ana Puche Rosado as Woglinde, Christine Knorren as Wellgunde and Lien Haegeman as Flosshilde, in Wagner's 'Das Rheingold' at Teatro Massimo. Photo © 2013 Franco Lannino. Click on the image for higher resolution

We will see how the rest of the project develops (with an increasingly tragic and philosophic-religious tint in both the text and the music). M&V readers will probably already be aware that I do not mind innovative staging and changes to the period of the action, provided the composer's basics are respected (especially when he is Wagner -- one of the gods of music).

Franz Hawlata as Wotan, Sergei Leiferkus as Alberich and Will Hartmann as Loge in Wagner's 'Das Rheingold' at Teatro Massimo. Photo © 2013 Franco Lannino

Musical direction was entrusted to young and promising Pietari Inkinen, who did a competent job, albeit slowing the tempi: this 22 January Rheingold lasted two hours and forty five minutes. The fourteen soloists in the cast were generally of good standard; in the women's group, Anna Maria Chiuri as Fricka and Ceri Williams (Erda) stood out, and in the men, Will Hartmann as Loge.

From left to right: Franz Hawlata as Wotan, Stephanie Corley as Freia and Will Hartmann as Loge in Wagner's 'Das Rheingold' at Teatro Massimo. Photo © 2013 Franco Lannino. Click on the image for higher resolution

Franz Hawlata, the protagonist, Wotan, the King of the gods, either had a bad night or is ripe for retirement from major roles; it's difficult to see how he would cope with the four long duets in Die Walküre.