Concert Review: A New Hope

The Jaap van Zweden era begins at the New York Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Jaap van Zweden emerges, Orpheus-like.
Photo by Roger Neve © 2018 The New York Philharmonic.

Opening night at the New York Philharmonic is a yearly tradition an occasion for fat cat donors to dine on the Promenade of Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall, and for ordinary critics (like your humble scribe) to put on suits and hobnob with each other before the performance. This year's ceremonies, held Thursday night, were also notable as it marked the long-awaited official debut of Jaap van Zweden, the orchestra's new music director.

The Wagner Project: Die Walküre

The second chapter of the Ring remains its most familiar.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

James Morris (standing) as Wotan in the final scene from Die Walküre. 
Jane Eaglen (lying prone) is Brunnhilde.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2004 The Metropolitan Opera.

This is the opera people think of when they think of Wagner. The Ride of the Valkyries. The Magic Fire scene. Thick orchestrations. Pulse-pounding passions. And some of the composer's best and most enduring music. There's nothing quite like Die Walküre. On a good night (or in a good recording) this is a four hour story that unfolds with the pace of a breakneck car chase--one involving flying horses.

Concert Review: From the Depths to the Heights

The Philharmonic is bringing Wagner back.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A couple of swells. Eric Owens (left) and Alan Gilbert at the Japan Society in 2008.
Photo by George Hirose for AlanGilbert.com

The New York Philharmonic tested its reputation as an opera orchestra on Thursday night, with the first concert of an ambitious program featuring most of the third act of Richard Wagner's Die Walküre, the most performed and best-loved episode in his mythological magnum opus Der Ring des Nibelungen. This concert was the first new program of 2016 under the baton of Alan Gilbert and marked Eric Owens' first New York appearance singing the role of Wotan.

Recordings Review: A Flying Start

Valery Gergiev starts a new Ring with Die Walküre.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

"And this, children, is how Wotan lost his eye." Valery Gergiev on the podium.
Photo by Alberto Venzagos © 2012 London Symphony Orchestra.

Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra make their case as a premier Wagner ensemble with this new Die Walküre, released on February 12 of this year. With an all-star cast of Wagner singers and the enthusiastic Mariinsky players working under tightly controlled conditions, this may be the finest recording of this opera to  to emerge in this young century. In other words, it's damned good.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Götterdämmerung

The last chapter of Wagner's Ring returns for another burn.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Gibichung Hall in Act II of the Met's new Götterdämnerung.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

The six-hour final chapter of Wagner's Ring is in some ways the most conventional opera of the four. That's because Götterdämmerung (the title translates as Twilight of the Gods, though the opera was originally called Siegfried's Death) was the first libretto written. Twenty-four years later, this was also the last opera of the Ring to be completed, so it has the most complex music.

Opera Review: The Brother From Another Opera

Siegmund falls early; the Met revives Die Walküre.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Wotan, (Mark Delavan) Brünnhilde (Deborah Voigt) and (at right) a plank of the "Machine."
Scene from Act II of Die Walküre. Photo by Ken Howard © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

There were no technical problems with Saturday morning's matinee performance of Richard Wagner's Die Walküre. In fact, the Metropolitan Opera's revival of the second chapter in Robert Lepage's production of Der Ring des Nibelungen went off without a glitch from the "Machine," the 45-ton set that occasionally upstages the gods and mortals that inhabit this mythic German drama.

On Saturday morning, the problem was...allergies.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Die Walküre

Robert Lepage's high-flying Wagner circus continues.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Nine girls and a machine in Act III of Die Walküre.
(That's Deborah Voigt bringing up the rear.)
Photo by Ken Howard © 2010 The Metropolitan Opera.

Like every opera in Robert Lepage's version of The Ring, Die Walküre takes place on a massive unit set with 24 rotating planks above the Met stage. Over the course of four hours, the "Machine" (as stage-hands call it) transforms into mountain-tops, buildings, trees, and even a gigantic flying wing for the Ride of the Valkyries.

Opera Review: A New Machine, Part II

A Second Look at the Met's Die Walküre

The assembled Valkyries in Act III of Die Walküre at the Met.
At the top of the set: Deborah Voigt as Brunnhilde with Eva-Maria Westbroek as Sieglinde.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera

Monday night's performance of Die Walküre at the Metropolitan Opera showed considerable improvement from the opening night. The cast continued to settle into their roles, and the performance went off without any technical glitches from "the Machine", the multi-million dollar mechanical set that is repeatedly reconfigured into appropriate backgrounds for the action of the opera.

This performance also afforded a chance to hear Eva-Maria Westbroek as Sieglinde. Ms. Westbroek was ill at the premiere, and did not sing in Act II and III. Restored to health, she displayed a powerful, rounded soprano that turns round and full in her lower register and rises to an impressive height at the top.

She is also a good physical onstage match for Jonas Kaufmann as Siegmund, and their love scene, conducted with fervor by James Levine, brought the first act to a thrilling close. However, she sounded pinched in the third, and "O heiliges wunder" did not bloom fully as it should. Mr. Kaufmann repeated his excellent portrayal from the opener. With singing like this, one regrets that his character dies at the end of Act II.

Deborah Voigt plays Brunnhilde as a spunky, enthusiastic teenager in her opening scene. The character underwent a harsh schooling in the long monologue by her father Wotan (Bryn Terfel.) Ms. Voigt displayed flawless "Hojotohos", maintaining lyric line through those difficult leaps. The Annunciation of Death was beautifully sung, though taken at a glacial pace by Mr. Levine. She also seemed to find more depth in her interpretation in the third act, displaying a deep emotional connection with Mr. Terfel.

Bryn Terfel sounded more comfortable as Wotan, singing with greater power and warmth. His first scene with Stephanie Blythe's searing Fricka went superbly well, with both singers more comfortable with the precarious set. Mr. Terfel used his strength as a lieder singer to maintain narrative drive through Wotan's monologue, aided by a bulbous, ocular movie screen that rises from the depths– like the god's missing, glaring eye.


He was even better in the third act, raging at the Valkyries and then singing a moving, proper Farewell to Brunnhilde. The annoying mannerisms (like the strangled cry of "Geh!" at the end of Act II) were gone, replaced by a greater warmth of tone and fluidity of line throughout the opera. As Hunding, Hans Peter König remains a scary Santa Claus, singing with a rich, impressive bass that menaces even when his bearing does not terrify.

This production has been plagued by onstage problems, particularly with actors mounting and dismounting the moving planks of the machine set. No slips happened on Monday, although the planks did thud distractingly as they flapped up and down to depict Brunnhilde's flying horse. In the combat scene at the end of Act II,  Siegmund's sword, Nothung, failed to break. Ms. Voigt scooped it up and hid the unbroken weapon (behind her leg) as she escorted Sieglinde offstage.

DVD Review: A Valkyrie with Broken Wings

The Copenhagen Ring: Die Walküre
(This is the second installment in our ongoing review of the Copenhagen Ring Cycle, directed by Kaspar Bech Holten, performed by the Royal Danish Opera conducted by Michael Schønwandt. Read the reviews of Das Rheingold and Siegfried,, also on Superconductor.)

Siegmund (Stig Andersen, left) and Sieglinde (Gitta-Maria Sjöberg) outside Hunding's hut.
Act I of Die Walküre from The Copenhagen Ring
Photo by Martin Mydtkalov Rosne © 2006 The Royal Danish Opera/Decca Classics

This Danish Die Walküre places the struggles of the Gods squarely in a banal world of family drama, like a TV network movie-of-the-week, shot on a low budget. It opens with a striking bourgeois image. Hunding's "hut" is an art deco apartment. Sieglinde as a cowed, bullied hausfrau desperate to get out. When Siegmund (Stig Andersen) enters, and she immediately seizes upon him as the means of escape. Hunding (Stephen Milling) is a loutish, violent alcoholic. The escape from his apartment is quite literal: Siegmund throws a chair through a plate-glass window and they find the sword stuck in a tree in the front yard.

Backdraft: The Musical

Solving the "Magic Fire" in Die Walküre

by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Met's "magic fire" effect in the Robert Lepage production of Die Walküre.
Photo by Richard Termine © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

One of the reasons for the enduring popularity of Die Walküre is the Magic Fire scene which ends the opera. The warrior maiden Brunnhilde is sentenced to punishment by her father Wotan. She is laid to sleep atop a rocky height, and surrounded with fire, a barrier which can only be crossed by the hero Siegfried.

Five Movies Featuring the Ride of the Valkyries

The helicopter attack from Apocalypse Now. © 1979 American Zoetrope Studio/Lions Gate Pictures

In the 20th century, the surging strings and triumphant horn calls that open Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries have transcended the operatic stage and the Germanic gods of the Ring Cycle to become standard Hollywood accompaniment to movie scenes featuring Wagnerian amounts of butt-kicking. Let's take a look at movies that use the curtain-raiser as a different kind of dramatic device.

DVD Review: The Boulez Ring: Die Walküre

Donald McIntyre as Wotan in the Magic Fire scene from Die Walküre.

The second installment of the landmark Boulez/Chéreau Ring is a passionate, fiery performance that rockets forward with momentum, passion, and energy. From Peter Hofmann's entrance, the sense of sexual chemistry between Siegmund and Sieglinde (Jeanine Altmeyer) propels the first act, aided by delicate textures and precise orchestral playing. This is one of the fastest performances of Die Walküre ever recorded, but Boulez does not skip over the big moments--he just gives them a greater sense of urgency.

Hofmann, a sturdy Nordic blonde who looks the part of a Wagnerian hero, does not have the prettiest heldentenor voice--he later went into contemporary repertoire and country music. However, 1980 saw the singer at a personal peak, and this Siegmund is his legacy performance. Altmeyer (who has the distinction of singing Freia, Sieglinde and Brunnhilde in three different video productions of Wagner's operas) expertly conveys the weight of Sieglinde's plight. Matti Salminen is a fine Hunding, portrayed here as the leader of a gang of Mafia toughs who will help him hunt down the hero who steals his wife.

Peter Hofmann and Gwyneth Jones in Act II of Die Walküre

Act II introduces Brunnhilde, sung by Welsh soprano Gwyneth Jones. Jones is a singer with a powerful instrument who, through the course of a long career, was beset by vocal inconsistency. However, she is a consumnate actress, and although her voice isn't always pretty, she sings with passion and power. Few other Brunnhildes capture the character's blend of bravado, innocence and vulnerability. This comes across most strongly in the Annunciation of Death scene. Boulez makes that famous three-note figure shimmer in the air as Brunnhilde confronts (a now shirtless) Siegmund and informs him that he is going to die in the coming fight. This is the scene upon which the whole Ring turns, and the actors are superb.

Donald McIntyre remains one of the most intelligent interpreters of Wotan ever committed to videotape. The famous moment when he stares into a mirror and removes the covering from his mutilated eye remains a signature image of this Ring Cycle. His reliable bass-baritone lacks warmth and some of the sonorous depth associated with the part (although this may be due to Boulez' interpretation of the score.) However, this remains a deeply understood reading of the character that makes perfect dramatic sense. And he dominates the latter half of the third act, singing a moving Wotan's Farewell despite an orchestral accompaniment that wants to make it as brief as possible.




Hunding (Matti Salminen) deals with a domestic issue in Act I of Die Walküre

All photos and video footage © 1980 Unitel/Deutsche Grammophon.