patrikpen: Anything Goes in Music and Vision 3 February

lunedì 8 aprile 2013

Anything Goes in Music and Vision 3 February

Anything Goes

A shocking 'Die Walküre',
experienced by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

During the orchestral introduction, a bride -- maybe Sieglinde -- is gang raped by the Neo-Nazi friends of her newly-wed husband. We are in some bleak and dark northern German place, not far from the Baltic Sea, with decaying industrial plant. Siegmund is attracted by Sieglinde's buttocks and makes love to her on the kitchen table. The Gods' Palace, the Walhalla -- is a battered camper near a dump; Wotan, the King of the Gods, is an old poor tramp smelling of beer and commandeered by Fricka dressed in Queen Elizabeth II casual attire.

In the Valkyries' domain -- not a rock as indicated in the libretto but a sunny garden -- anything goes; the young Valkyries try all kinds of sexual tricks on the heroes who have just died in battle and been taken to that Paradise. Some of the heroes appear more interested in one another than in the female element of the afterworld; a young hero just arrived at the place is sodomized front-stage by a more adult dead warier. A redeeming or mitigating element is the final scene when Brünnhilde takes off her clothes very chastely during Wotan's monologue before being put to sleep surrounded by the magic fire -- a true directorial masterpiece.

This is Die Walküre as shown in Palermo by Graham Vick and Richard Hudson within their new production of Wagner's Ring. I was there on the opening night, 21 February 2013. An old timer in the audience commented that the British used to be known for being prude and conservative. No doubt after Rheingold turned comedy ['If Das Rheingold Becomes a comedy', 26 January 2013], this Walküre seems to be inspired by the controversial German movie Die Kriegerin by David Wnendt -- an exploration of violence and sex in Neo-Nazism. Vick disagrees; he sees the Ring as a Greek tetralogy upside down -- eg with the comedy as a prologue. I will be in a position to express an opinion when the 'cycle' is completed in December. I have the strong impression that Vick wanted to shock the Palermo audience -- dressed-up upper class -- more than to imitate Aeschylus.

The musical part is a clear improvement if compared with the 22 January Rheingold in Palermo. First of all, Pietari Inkinen keeps the tempos well and obtains a good orchestral sound (with the exception of the rather undisciplined woodwind family). He gives the production a lyric and melodic emphasis, quite contrasting the brutal staging.

The women's group of voices is of very high quality. Lise Lindstrom debuts very effectively in Brünnhilde's taxing role. Ausrine Stundyte is a passionate and generous Sieglinde. Fricka suits perfectly Anna Maria Chiuri. John Treleaven is sixty-two years old; I have a good memory of his 'Tristan' some thirty years ago; now he does not have either the appearance or the voice to perform the role Siegmund, especially in the legato and in the acute; he knows this and so he emphasizes phrasing.

Franz Hawlata is a tired King of the Gods but keeps his strength for a well delivered final monologue. The cast, the conductor and the director were applauded warmly. But it is fair to say that at the 5.30pm start of the performance, the theatre was full, but that at the end (10.15pm) a few boxes and a few rows of stalls were empty.