Metropolitan Opera Preview: Götterdämmerung

The Ring comes to a curiously old-fashioned conclusion.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

The three Norns (Elizabeth Bishop, Ronnita Miller, and Wendy Bryn Harmer) weave the rope of
destiny as the Machine "looms" above. Photo by Ken Howard © 2019 The Metropolitan Opera.

The last and longest chapter of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Götterdammerung (”The Twilight of the Gods”) also had the longest gestation period. (Wagner wrote this libretto first, but the music was the last part of the project to be completed.) This opera demands commitment, even from the most fervent Wagnerian. A performance is six hours with intermissions but it goes by with the speed of a bullet train.

Opera Review: All the Pretty Horses

Die Walküre returns at the Metropolitan Opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Fearless: Christine Goerke makes her Act II entrance as Brunnhilde in Die Walküre.
Photo by Richard Termine © 2019 The Metropolitan Opera.

It's hard to believe, but the Metropolitan Opera’s controversial Robert Lepage production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle has been treading the boards at America's largest opera house since 2011. That's ten years that New York's Wagner addicts have had to deal with this technologically innovative but sometimes balky production, set on a hi-tech platform ("the Machine") that uses spinning and rotating teeter-totter boards to create scenery for this massive mythological work. This week marked the return of Die Walküre, the most popular section of the Ring. It was also the only Ring opera to be included in this season's Live in HD schedule. Saturday's matinee, the second performance of the season. was also the opera's broadcast day.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Die Walküre

The Met revives the most popular chapter of Wagner's Ring.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The twins Sieglinde (Eva-Marie Westbroek) and Siegmund (Stuart Skelton)
fall in love under the looming Machine in the Met's production of Die Walküre.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

Part Two of the Ring brings humans into the story, but the Gods have already messed everything up. Wotan, the ruler of the Gods, seeks a hero to lead his forces against the dark elf Alberich. But he finds himself in a position of having to murder that hero Siegmund. This is too much for his favorite daughter, the Valkyrie Brunnhilde. She rebels against him, and then runs for her life.

What is Die Walküre?
Properly speaking, this is the "First Day" of the four-part "festival play" that is Wagner's Ring. (The composer regarded Das Rheingold as a "preliminary evening.) This is the most famous and frequently performed of the four operas that make up the cycle.

What's the plot?
On a dark and stormy night, the Wälsung twins Siegmund and Sieglinde are reunited, seemingly by chance. They fall in love, committing adultery and incest at the same time. (The result of their brief union will be the title character of Siegfried.) Wotan, who is their father, is forced by his wife Fricka (the goddess of marriage) to order Brunnhilde the Valkyrie fight for Sieglinde's jilted husband Hunding. Brunnhilde rebels, but Hunding kills Siegmund anyway. Brunnhilde saves Sieglinde from Wotan. She is then punished by her father, put to sleep on top of a rock in a ring of magic fire.

What's the music like?
Die Walküre is the opera people think of when they think of Wagner. The first act is all passion as Sieglinde and Siegmund find each other and fall madly in love. The second act has a long stretch of Wotan reiterating all the mistakes he made in Das Rheingold to Brunnhilde. Its second half is all action, as Siegmund battles Hunding. The "Ride of the Valkyries" (that's "kill the wabbit") opens the third act. The "Magic Fire Music" ends the opera in a storm of orchestral virtuosity.

Tell me something else cool!
Of the four Ring operas, it is Die Walküre that hews closest to Wagner's theories of opera and drama. There are few aria-like moments, and the opera is composed mostly of dialogue and duets over a thundering orchestra.

How's the production?
These performances mark the  return of Robert Lepage's sometimes stunning, sometimes problematic multi-million dollar stage set, known at the Met as "The Machine." Mounted on two huge towers, the action takes place on a series of gigantic parallel planks that rotate on a central axis. By changing their angles and locking the planks in place, the Machine creates trees, mountains, valleys and even huge flying animals when necessary. Digital projections render the scenery in vivid patterns, a high-tech solution to Romantic 19th century opera.

Who's in it?
These performances star Greer Grimsley as Wotan, and mark the eagerly anticipated arrival of Christine Goerke as his rebellious daughter Brunnhilde. Jamie Barton is Fricka. The twins Siegmund and Sieglinde are reprised by Stuart Skelton and Eva-Marie Westbroek. (They sang these roles in 2012.) Günther Gröissbock is the villainous Hunding.  Philippe Jordan conducts his first Ring performances at the Met.

When does it open?
There are only five performances of Die Walküre this season. Three are being sold as part of complete Ring cycles. The two in March are on March 25 and 30.

How do I get tickets?
The best way to see the Ring is to get a subscription for the four operas. Call the box office at (212) 362-6000.

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Opera Review: Her Time is Now

Christine Goerke unleashes Elektra on the Met.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Benched: Christine Goerke and Mikhail Petrenko as Elektra and Orestes in Elektra.
Photo by Karen Almond © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera.

There comes a time in the career of an opera singer when they are the artist of the moment. For Christine Goerke, the American dramatic soprano starring in the title role of Elektra at the Metropolitan Opera, that time is now. Ms. Goerke has sung this part on other stages (including Carnegie Hall) to great acclaim, both here and elsewhere. However Thursday night was a watershed. It marked the dramatic soprano's long-awaited return to a major Strauss roles on America's largest operatic stage.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Elektra

Christine Goerke sings the title role. Go see it.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Say hello to her little friend: Christine Goerke as Elektra in San Francisco.
Photo by Cory Weaver for the San Francisco Opera.

Soprano of the moment Christine Goerke, who has sung Elektra in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and on the stage of Carnegie Hall, takes on the towering title role in Richard Strauss' harrowing take on Greek tragedy.

Concert Review: The Royal Tasting Table

Mozart opera served tapas-style in The Illuminated Heart.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Burning down the house: Christine Goerke (center) sings Elettra in The Illuminated Heart
as Louis Langrée conducts. Photo © Richard Termine for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

For an arts organization trying to interest new listeners in opera, the hardest thing to do is to convert skeptics to the power and beauty of this 500-year-old art form. Presumably, that was the intent behind The Illuminated Heart, a glitzy 75-minute arrangement of Mozart arias and ensembles that kicked off the 50th anniversary celebration of Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center. Exactly the length of an old-fashioned CD, this program reminded one of those Mozart compilations that flooded record shops in 1985 following Amadeus' eight Oscar wins.

The Wheels Off the Bus Go Thump! Thump! Thump!

Superconductor breaks down the 2015-16 season at the Metropolitan Opera.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Politics behind the gold curtain at the Metropolitan Opera in a reworked 1990s movie poster.
Photos of James Levine and Peter Gelb © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

This was the year the wheels came off the bus at the Metropolitan Opera. Not just for the uneasy alliance between music director James Levine and general manager Peter Gelb, but for Superconductor, which only saw nine performances at the big house this season.

Opera Review: The Revenge Business

Christine Goerke’s Elektra rocks Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

So her brother's an axe murderer:: Christine Goerke (in red) sings Elektra in concert
 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra thundering behind her.
Photo by Stu Rosner © 2015 Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Richard Strauss’ Elektra is a 100-minute roller coaster, an opera where bigger-than-life mythological characters race through a collapsing house intent on murdering each other with a bloody axe. On Wednesday night at Carnegie Hall, it was the perfect concert vehicle for the rejuvinated Boston Symphony Orchestra, their sophomore music director Andris Nelsons and its leading lady: soprano Christine Goerke.

Opera Review: Ice, Ice, Princess

Christine Goerke reigns in the Met's Turandot.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A love supreme: Christine Goerke as Turandot.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.

One of the problems with the Metropolitan Opera's 20-year-old production of Turandot is that audiences come not for the singing, but for the sumptuous sets, elaborately costumed choruses and a fantastical vision of legendary China as seen through the Italianate lenses of composer Giacomo Puccini and producer Franco Zeffirelli. This year, though, things are different, and not just in the opening crowd scene and refreshed choreography.

Five from Twenty-Five

The best of the Metropolitan Opera season 2013-2014.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The class of 2013-14: Diana Damrau in La Sonnambula, Olga Peretyatko in I Puritani,
Ambrogio Maestri as Falstaff, Christine Goerke in Die Frau Ohne Schatten
and Joyce DiDonato in La Cenerentola.  All images © 2014 The Metropolitan Opera.
Curtain photo by Jonathan Tischler. Photoshop by the author.

With the 2013-2014 Metropolitan Opera season in the books it's time to go over the very best (and worst) of an uneven year at North America's largest opera house.

The Year in Reviews: Opera 2013

Superconductor recalls the best opera performances of 2013.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A bird in a gilded cage: Christine Goerke in Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Met.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

As the year is ending we are finally getting to our end-of-2013 wrapup. This was supposed be to be a Top Ten list but I think it's going to be a lucky thirteen--it was a pretty good year for opera!

Here are the best opera performances (and operas in concert) that I saw this year in chronological order. All links lead to the full reviews.

Concert Review: Ozawa Returns, War Requiem Transcends

The conductor returns to Carnegie Hall.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

He's back: Seiji Ozawa.

Seiji Ozawa and the Saito Kinen Orchestra concluded their week-long residency at Carnegie Hall on Saturday night with a glowing performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. The concert concluded the first part of the JapanNYC Festival, a Carnegie Hall celebration with Mr. Ozawa at its center.