Metropolitan Opera Preview: Siegfried

The third part of Wagner's Ring presents the greatest challenge for the tenor voice.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Deborah Voigt wakes up on the Machine in Act III of Siegfried.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

Although it's part of the Met's much-hyped Robert Lepage production of the Ring Cycle, Wagner's Siegfried might have the worst reputation among the ten operas that are considered to be the German composer's main body of work. Wagner conceived the opera as the "light-hearted" section of the Ring. (In all fairness, it does have a happy ending!)

Opera Review: The Ghost in the Machine

With a clank and a clatter, the Met revives Das Rheingold.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

"Whaddya mean it's busted?" Wotan (Mark Delavan, standing) assaults
Alberich (Eric Owens) in Scene Four of Das Rheingold.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Robert Lepage production of Wagner's Ring has returned to the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. Yes, the "Machine" is back, that multi-million dollar unit set with 24 rotating planks that serve as acting area and projection surface for Mr. Lepage's digital scenery. And for the first half of Das Rheingold on Saturday afternoon, things were going pretty well. Mr. Lepage's high-tech story-book approach proved surprisingly engrossing, carried along by the brisk conducting of Fabio Luisi.

Then the Machine malfunctioned.

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.

Once More Unto the Planks

Gearing up for another Ring Cycle.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Siegfried (Jay Hunter Morris, left) rows up the Rhine as the Gibichungs look on.
Act I, Scene 1 of the Met's production of Götterdämmerung.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

I wasn't all that enthusiastic about seeing the Ring again.

I'll admit that in the buildup to the 2010 premiere of the Metropolitan Opera's new Robert Lepage production of Der Ring der Nibelungen, I was excited, even enthusiastic. I had enjoyed the concerts and theatrical productions that I'd seen him put on: Peter Gabriel's Growing Up tour, the Met's fully staged 2008 Le Damnation de Faust and Cirque de Soleil's Ka in Las Vegas.

Waiting For the World to End

A Superconductor Editorial.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The final conflagration at the end of the Met's new Ring Cycle.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera has announced the release date for its DVD and Blu-Ray sets of the company's Robert Lepage production of Der Ring des Nibelungen:

September 11, 2012.

The sets, which are re-packagings of the Met's Live in HD performances of Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, are scheduled for general release on the 11th anniversary of attacks on New York and Washington, DC that destroyed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon.

Movie Review: Behind the Planks

Documentary Wagner's Dream shines (some) light on the Lepage Ring
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Wagner's Dream offers an inside look at the Met's new Ring Cycle.
Image from Wagner's Dream © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

There are many memorable moments in Wagner's Dream, the new documentary by Susan Frömke, delving into the inner workings of the Metropolitan Opera's multi-million-dollar mounting of Wagner's Ring Cycle. However, nothing is more telling than what happens after Deborah Voigt fell off the set.

The soprano, who was making her debut in the key role of Brunnhilde took her tumble in the opening moments of Act II of the premiere of Die Walküre. The movie shows the build-up to the accident, and the fall itself. The cameras track Ms. Voigt afterwards, recording her embarrassment at tripping over her long Valkyrie skirt, and her determination to have that precarious entrance altered in the following performances.

The next day, her decision was abruptly overruled by Met general manager Peter Gelb.

A Blogger Walks the Plank

Met management fights to defend the Ring...from reporters.

by Paul Pelkonen

Women and bloggers first. Lego® sculpture by Sir Dillon.

Like the whirring, clanking planks that make up the set of its new multi-million dollar production of Wagner's Ring, Metropolitan Opera's general manager Peter Gelb has been spinning in recent weeks. His object: to draw audiences to the company's new production of the Ring Cycle in  following a scathing critique from Alex Ross in the pages of the New Yorker. The latest victim of the hype is WQXR blogger Olivia Giovetti.

Ms. Giovetti is one of the writers of OperaVore, the classical music station's blog covering the ups and downs of our fair city's opera companies. (It's kind of like this blog, without the humor and snappy color scheme.)

The Met general manager objected to Ms. Giovetti's recent post, Three Things We Learned From Peter Gelb Today. That post was then withdrawn from the WQXR website.

Opera Announcement: Thrönerdämmerung

George R. R. Martin fantasy series Game of Thrones to be staged as opera.

by Paul Pelkonen

The Metropolitan Opera has announced a surprise new project for next season, an operatic pastiche based on the popular George R. R. Martin novel A Game of Thrones. The project, announced in a secret press conference today in the Metropolitan Opera's boiler room, is the first collaboration between the opera company and HBO Films.

Kerplunk!

Machine malfunction mars Met Siegfried.

Grounded: Deborah Voigt (left) and Jay Hunter Morris in the final scene of Siegfried.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

Siegfried didn't get up the mountain on Tuesday night.

According to a report on parterre box, the Metropolitan Opera's multi-million dollar "Machine" Set, the centerpiece of the company's new Robert Lepage production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen malfunctioned in the third act of Siegfried. Singers Deborah Voigt (Brunnhilde) and Jay Hunter Morris (Siegfried) performed the finale from the lip of the stage. No one was injured. 

The malfunction occurred in the third and final act of the five-and-a-half hour opera. The Machine was executing a complicated series of gyrations, transforming itself into the Valkyrie Rock, the fiery sleeping-berth of the heroine Brunnhilde. Siegfried was supposed to climb across the top of the set and wake the Valkyrie Brunnhilde. But it didn't work that way. 

According to the parterre report, the set stopped moving, most likely due to a triggered safety interlock. Ms. Voigt entered from the wings and lay down on the acting surface below the Machine. The two singers sang their 37-minute duet downstage as the empty, stalled Machine loomed above them. As they sang, the "magic fire" effect (computer-generated flames) remained, projected onto the stalled set.

Designed by longtime  Lepage collaborator Carl Fillion, the Machine consists of twenty-four matching metal planks mounted on a horizontal axis between two large towers. A high-tech computer-controlled system allows the planks to be spun, moved and reconfigured to meet the complicated scenic needs of Wagner's myth-based dramas.  In the course of the Ring, this unit set forms everything from the bed of the Rhine River to high mountain peaks, forests, and even a great hall in the last opera Götterdämmerung.

A similar problem happened at last Thursday's prima of Siegfried. In the middle of the same Act III contortion, the Machine paused in mid-movement, jamming visibly and emitting an ugly, audible "thunk." It was later reported (by Daniel J. Wakin in the New York Times) that first malfunction happened when one of the planks hit a not-fully-retracted stage-lift.  Conductor Fabio Luisi slowed the orchestra to a crawl, and the device righted itself. But no such relief came tonight.

This is the latest in a series of technical malfunctions that have plagued this new production of the Ring, a premium event in the Met's calendar that carries a whopping $45 million price tag. The first took place at the Sept. 26, 2010 premiere of Das Rheingold. With just minutes to go in the opera, the multi-ton set stopped dead when a safety interlock was accidentally triggered. The contraption would not configure itself into the castle of Valhalla, which Wagner's Germanic gods move into at the end of that opera.

At the April 22 opening night of Die Walküre, Ms. Voigt slipped while climbing one of the planks at her Act II entrance. The diva slid a few feet and landed on the narrow acting surface, singing her "Hojotohos" from downstage. A more serious problem happened six nights later. On April 28, soprano Eve Gigliotti was playing one of Brunnhilde's fellow Valkyries, who ride the Machine planks like hobby-horses in the famous "Ride of the Valkyries." Ms. Gigliotti fell and hit her head while sliding off her plank and down to the stage. She returned to the stage and finished her performance. 

Siegfried is the third installment in the Ring and one of the most challenging operas in the repertory to stage and sing. The production will be seen in a live Met in HD broadcast on Saturday, Nov. 5. Later this season, the Lepage Ring will conclude with Götterdämmerung, which premieres on Jan. 27, 2012.