A Rebel with a Cause in Music and Vision 29 December

A Rebel with a Cause

Teatro Massimo di Palermo's 'Siegfried',
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

In 2013 Teatro Massimo di Palermo decided to present Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen in a new production, especially designed for its huge stage and entrusted to Graham Vick (stage direction) and Richard Hudson (sets and costumes). The prologue and the first episode ('A key flaw', 26 January 2013 and 'Anything goes', 3 March 2013) were reviewed at that time. Due to financial problems and changes in the theatre management, after the first two operas of the cycle, the production was suspended. Now the Ring is back: Siegfried was premiered on 18 December as the last opera of the 2015 season — I was in the audience — and Götterdämmerung is scheduled to open the 2016 season on 28 January. The stage direction, sets and costumes are as designed for the 2013 production but the musical direction and almost the entire cast changed during the last three years. In general, it changed for the better, especially because the current conductor Stefan Anton Reck is a Ring veteran whilst his predecessor Pietari Inkinen was young and rather inexperienced. Among the singers, Thomas Gazheli is, no doubt, a top-class Wotan, while in 2013 Frank Hawlata appeared at the end of his once glorious career.

Thomas Gazheli as the Wanderer (otherwise known as Wotan) in Act I of 'Siegfried' at Teatro Massimo di Palermo. Photo © 2015 Franco Lannino. Click on the image for higher resolution

In my previous articles on this Ring, I emphasized that Vick's production has a strong political message: the action is in some Northern place in modern times, where the environment is badly damaged — with the exception of the still virgin forest — and the élites (ie the German gods) have constructed their royal palace (Valhalla) with treachery and by breaking the rules, but now they are decrepit and wait for the final downfall. In Siegfried, the king of the gods is a poor wanderer and an innocent young man breaks his spear, the only signal of his past power. In Siegfried, Vick adds a new element: a Buildungsroman, a growing up-to-maturity story.

A scene from Act I of Wagner's 'Siegfried' at Teatro Massimo di Palermo: Peter Bronder as Mime and Christian Voigt in the title role. Photo © 2015 Franco Lannino. Click on the image for higher resolution

The protagonist is a tormented and troubled adolescent, like James Dean in the well-known 1955 movie Rebel Without Cause. But Siegfried has a cause: he grew up with the Nibelung dwarf, Mime; he longs to know who his parents (especially his mother) were; he understands that the animals of the forest have partners and children, but he has never seen a woman yet, his sexual pulsations bring him to masturbate in the double bunk bed he shares with Mime in a makeshift house. He grows, and understands what fear is when he crosses the magic fire, awakens Brünnhilde, discovers why a woman is different from a man and makes her his heilige braut (holy spouse).

A scene from Act III of Wagner's 'Siegfried' at Teatro Massimo di Palermo with Meagan Miller as Brünnhilde and Christian Voigt in the title role. Photo © 2015 Rosellina Garbo. Click on the image for higher resolution

The stage direction is brilliant, even though some too explicit sexual moments could have been tamed without damage to the overall scheme. It is fair to say that not all the Palermo audience appreciated it, also because the performance, with long intermissions for dinner buffets and cakes, lasted more than five hours.

A scene from Act II of Wagner's 'Siegfried' at Teatro Massimo di Palermo. Photo © 2015 Rosellina Garbo. Click on the image for higher resolution

On the musical side, the direction was masterly and had an excellent response from the orchestra. On average, the vocal cast is of good quality, ie of the standard of a good level German opera house. But on 18 December, they were unequal. Peter Bronder (Mime) and Thomas Gazheli (Wotan) were excellent, the former with his high register and perfect phrasing, the latter with his ability to go easily to a very low register. Sergei Leiferkus (Alberich) was of good standing. Deborah Leonetti (as the forest bird) was delightful.

Michael Eder as Fafner in Act II of Wagner's 'Siegfried' at Teatro Massimo di Palermo. Photo © 2015 Rosellina Garbo. Click on the image for higher resolution

The protagonist has an impervious role; the musicologist Barry Millington considers the part as the most difficult written for a tenor: he is on the stage for three and a half hours and must sing all the time. On the opening night, Christian Voigt was perhaps sick; I am told he had sung quite well in the dress rehearsal. But his volume was inadequate and his pitch left much to be desired. Meagen Miller as Brünnhilde has only the long final scene; with a better partner she too would probably have been better.

Copyright © 29 December 2015 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy