{"id":33514,"date":"2016-01-25T08:14:10","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T13:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=33514"},"modified":"2016-01-25T08:14:10","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T13:14:10","slug":"scrutiny-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2016\/01\/25\/scrutiny-6\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Superb Musical Values Make Revival of COC Siegfried a Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Canadian
Stefan Vinke in the title role slaying Fafner the dragon in the Canadian Opera Company production of Siegfried, 2016. (Photo: Michael Cooper)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Canadian Opera Company: Wagner’s\u00a0Siegfried. <\/em>Saturday, February 23 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.<\/h3>\n

In the mind of many Wagnerites, Siegfried <\/em>is the \u201cproblem child\u201d of the Ring Cycle.\u00a0 Even seasoned fans would sometimes grumble about the longueur of the first two acts \u2013 sitting through those four hours is seen by some as a price one has to pay to finally hear Brunnhilde in the fifth hour. \u00a0I recall reading some musicological analysis that labels Siegfried<\/em> as a scherzo<\/em> of the tetralogy, dominated by male characters and their antics. Then there\u2019s the not inconsiderable problem of Siegfried himself, an anti-hero whom only his mother \u2013 or in this rather absurd situation, his aunt Brunnhilde \u2013 could love. \u00a0As the late Anna Russell was so fond of saying: \u201cYou can do anything in opera as long as you sing it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that I consider myself a \u201cRing Nut\u201d many times over, I\u2019ve learned to appreciate Siegfried <\/em>for what it is, a kind of necessary dramatic exposition that sets up the action culminating in G\u00f6tterdammerung<\/em>. \u00a0Even if one isn\u2019t so fond of the goings-on in the first two acts, the music is first-rate. Act Three Scene Three, with its glorious 40-minute love duet is decidedly cathartic, not to mention long (!), probably the lengthiest love duet in all opera. \u00a0Wagner ratchets up the drama and the music to a fever pitch at the end, with both principals hitting a high C, leaving the audience exhilarated and emotionally drained. \u00a0With the great cast here to do it justice, this work is hardly the \u201cproblem child\u201d any more.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had the good fortune of having attended a working rehearsal a couple of weeks ago, followed by the final dress, before last evening\u2019s premiere. I can say unequivocally that this is a much stronger cast than ten years ago.\u00a0This is German heldentenor Stefan Vinke\u2019s 16th<\/sup> production, an extraordinary statistic. By contrast, American soprano Christine Goerke is singing her first, having only previously sung the Walk\u00fcre<\/em> Brunnhilde. \u00a0The rest of the cast are almost all seasoned veterans.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Quebec stage director Francois Girard returns for the revival. An interview of Girard at a Toronto Wagner Society meeting gave me more understanding of his vision for this opera.\u00a0 When Siegfried is sitting on the ash tree stump, over his head is a gigantic \u201cthought bubble\u201d with hundreds of fragments that represent the collective history of his ancestors, perhaps hardwired into Siegfried\u2019s DNA, something that explains his urge to know his origins and his destiny.\u00a0 In Act 2, a change in visual perspective has the audience looking down at the top of his head, suggesting that we\u2019ve entered into his cognitive world. We are the silent witness as he slowly gains self-knowledge.\u00a0 I find this quite clever and totally original, yet this design presents certain physical limitations in the staging. There\u2019s no fire and no forging of Nothung as we know it.\u00a0 The dragon, the flames and the ring of fire in Act 3 are all people-powered \u201clow tech\u201d solutions.\u00a0 Novel and original?\u00a0 Sure, but somehow I missed the magic that only intricate stagecraft can provide.<\/p>\n

Musically, it was one of the finest evenings at the COC in recent memory. The only word to describe Stefan Vinke is indefatigable. He sang full voice at the dress rehearsal, and three days later he did it all over again, unflaggingly! On opening night, Vinke offered clarion tone, with well-judged dynamic variations. His easy top meant there was never any fear of his not making a high note. In fact, he sang a high C at the dress, repeating it on opening night albeit with less power. Given he\u2019s been going at it for nearly five hours at that point opposite a fresh-voices soprano, it wasn\u2019t exactly a level playing field! A good actor, Vinke captured Siegfried\u2019s impetuous nature well.\u00a0 On purely vocal terms, he has a curious tendency to suppress the consonants, but it\u2019s a minor quibble.<\/p>\n

The Siegfried Brunnhilde is a short, if intense role, and Christine Goerke sang it with powerful, secure and penetrating tone, with her trademark fast vibrato particularly in forte passages. Her Brunnhilde was sympathetic and full of womanly warmth. At the dress rehearsal, the translation of Siegfried\u2019s line \u201cDas ist kein Mann\u201d brought gales of laughter from the student audience. Mercifully, the offending line in the projected surtitles was removed on opening night.<\/p>\n

American bass-baritone Alan Held, a frequent COC guest artist, gave us a beautifully sung Wanderer, with plenty of gravitas but also vulnerability and eventual resignation in his Act 3 encounters with Erda and Siegfried. \u00a0Austrian Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke is rightly considered the leading Mime today. His acting of this character role was appropriately conniving and slimy, but he sang it with uncommon beauty of tone, as much as the role would allow. British baritone Christopher Purves, was a ringing-voiced Alberich. If any role is short-changed in this production, it\u2019s Fafner (sung by Canadian bass Phillip Ens), who never appears on stage, and the amplification of his voice destroyed any semblance of the fidelity of his sound. Young American contralto Meredith Arwady impressed with amazing low notes as Erda. Former COC Ensemble soprano Jacqueline Woodley made a welcome return to the Company as a pure, clear-voiced Forest Bird, but her placement so far upstage worked to her disadvantage.<\/p>\n

Kudos to COC Music Director Johannes Debus for his brilliant Siegfried debut. One would never have guessed, given the beautifully paced, lyrical reading of the complex score, that this was his first. There were moments when he \u201clet it rip\u201d a bit too enthusiastically, and the sound from the pit threatened to obliterate the singers. But in the auditorium, it was undeniably exciting. Debus\u2019 contract renewal to 2021 was one of the best piece of news I\u2019ve heard this season. A final word of praise to the huge number of supernumeraries in this show for their excellent work, but particularly the six men that made up the dragon.<\/p>\n

Now I can\u2019t wait for the G\u00f6tterdammerung<\/em> next season!<\/p>\n

Wagner’s\u00a0Siegfried runs through February 14, 2016. For tickets and show times, see www.coc.ca<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Now that I consider myself a \u201cRing Nut\u201d many times over, I\u2019ve learned to appreciate Siegfried for what it is, a kind of necessary dramatic exposition that sets up the action culminating in G\u00f6tterdammerung.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":33523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5723,43,52],"tags":[204,628,5278,825,2838,5805,5834],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/Siegfried-1045-1078.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-8Iy","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33514"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33536,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33514\/revisions\/33536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33514"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=33514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}