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The arrival of Kasper Bech Holten's acclaimed staging of Wagner's epic Ring Cycle on DVD is a cause for rejoicing on many levels. For a relatively minor opera house to deliver such a world-beating staging with a cast, bar one exception, assembled from its roster of in-house singers is a phenomenal achievement and makes this Ring essential viewing for anyone interested in opera as living drama.
A woman stumbles into a library and lights a candle. She feverishly pours over the contents of several dusty books; desperately trying to find out why she has been betrayed by the man she loves. She is looking for something in her history that explains who she is and how she arrived at this point in her life. The woman in question is Brünnhilde, and as the first E flat of the Rheingold prelude is heard, we join her in her journey of discovery.
Not since Chéreau's hydro-electric dam in his centenary Ring at Bayreuth has a Ring cycle begun with such an arresting image and throughout the ensuing 14 hours or so, the innovation and imagination of Kasper Bech Holten and his designers Marie í Dali and Steffen Aarfing never, well hardly ever, falters. Despite some brilliant flashes of ingenuity, Das Rheingold is the least satisfying of the four stagings, but that's because the overall standard in the following three operas is so high.
This preliminary evening is set in the 20s – the Rhinemaidens are dressed as flappers, teasing a drunk Alberich in what one assumes is a disused swimming pool. A naked youth, seen swimming in a tank, represents the Rheingold. Interesting idea but how would Alberich steal the gold? Simple – he rips out the boy's heart, his blood turns the water red and so the first, bloody act of violence in the Ring is perpetuated. From this moment on, the viewer is left in no doubt that this is going to be a Ring like no other and, whilst the literal-minded unadventurous Wagner purists out there are probably already recoiling in horror, it somehow works.
Violence underpins the whole work and it's just one of many strands of this multi-layered work that Holten brings to the fore. Wotan slices Alberich's arm off at the elbow to win the ring, and then dispatches Loge at the close of Das Rheingold; Siegmund meets a particularly grisly end as does Mime whilst Alberich is murdered by his own son, Hagen in Götterdämmerung. OK, so it's not in the text and doubts do linger, but one is swept along by the brilliant stagecraft and direction of the singers – each living their role as if their lives depended on it and delivering performances of unbelievable truthfulness and honesty.
Johan Reuter has a decent stab at Wotan whilst Michael Kristensen is outstanding as a chain-smoking Loge who is forever looking for a light – a deft touch. There's a mellifluous trio of Rhinemaidens, whilst Sten Byriel makes his mark as a wonderfully oleaginous Alberich. Under music director Michael Schønwandt the orchestra plays competently, but no more.
Where this Ring really comes into its own is in the remaining operas. Each takes place in a different decade; Die Walkure (1950s), Siegfried (1960s) and Gotterdammerung (1990s) and Holten and his designers give scrupulously detailed accounts of each one – indeed I don't think I've seen a finer Siegfried, whilst the remaining two operas give other versions currently available on DVD a really good run for their money.
The urbane setting for Act One of Walküre works well with Gitta-Maria Sjöberg as Sieglinde and Stig Andersen as a virile Siegmund sparking off each other. Add the baleful presence of Stephen Milling as Hunding, orchestral playing at fever pitch and you have a sure-fire winner. The tension never sags throughout the remaining two acts – Holten drawing fine performances out of James Johnson (the only guest artist) as an authoritative Wotan and Iréne Theorin as an unusually febrile, headstrong Brünnhilde. She, like her Valkyrie sisters , is replete with wings and in a moment of unbearable poignancy, Wotan rips them off as he kisses her Godhead away – later using them to shield her as he her puts her to sleep.
The magic fire, like all the other special effects, is jaw-dropping. Siegfried is set in 1968 – that infamous year of revolution. The opera opens with a polo-neck wearing Mime hammering away at a type-writer rather than trying to forge the broken sword Nothung – his frustration is writer's block. It works brilliantly and I can't work out whether it is intentional or not but Bengt-Ola Morgny bears an uncanny resemblance to Reginald Goodall. Andersen is on thrilling form and the entire opera takes fire and burns incandescently from start to finish.
Before being put to sleep in Walküre, Brünnhilde had released a dove, only for it to reappear in Act Two of Siegfried as the Woodbird – one of many intelligent directorial touches that Holten employs throughout. For me the undoubted highlight of the entire opera is the beginning of Act Three with Wotan angrily awakening a mordantly ill Erda (Susanne Resmark on blistering form) in her apartment. He's carrying a bunch of flowers and cuts a pathetic figure as he desperately tries to rekindle their relationship but realises that he has run out of time. It may sound mundane but it's unbearably poignant. Stig Andersen is an unbeatable Siegfried whilst Theorin sings with abandon in the final scene.
An hilarious trio of Norns gets Götterdämmerung off to a memorable start but rightly Holten stages this as the darkest opera in the Cycle – we are in the 90s – a decade of genocide which is reflected in an unflinching representation of greed and boredom where life counts for nothing. Dramatically Peter Klaveness' Hagen is the stuff of nightmares – it's just a shame that his voice isn't up to the demands. The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent with Andersen ardent and tireless as Siegfried, whilst Theorin is noble, moving and unerringly musical.
It's at the point of her betrayal that we see her in Wotan's library – where Rheingold began. She delivers a wonderful Immolation Scene – and the fact that Holten presents us with a pregnant Brünnhilde adds another dimension to the entire opera. Some commentators have labelled this "the feminist Ring" but that demeans many other aspects of this extraordinary undertaking. Yes there are better played and sung Rings available on DVD but for ingenuity, painstaking preparation, an outstanding ensemble cast and wonderful playing this Ring remains unique. A wonderful, enlightening experience that deserves to be seen by anyone who believes that opera is living drama.
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