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Does preserving opera on a record or film do justice to the opera performance?
That is one of the eternal questions facing recorded performances. The answer, of course, varies from DVD to DVD, but one can safely say that for the most part, Opus Arte's new release of Wagner's Siegfried certainly lives up to expectations.
Graham Clark, who plays Mime in this production, gives an immense performance, and when Siegfried kills the character in Act 2, we don't really know whether we should detest or feel sorry for him. Compared to Clark's performance, that of John Bröcheler as the Wanderer/Wotan, while technically competent, seems to lack a certain regality that one would expect of the ‘god of gods', or even a wise wanderer.
Heinz Kruse plays the insolent Siegfried who learns fear not from slaying a dragon, but from falling in love. The insolent part Kruse certainly does extremely well, and his chemistry with Mime and Fafner makes the first two acts of the opera highly enjoyable and entertaining. His chemistry with Brünnhilde (Jeannine Altmeyer), however, leaves much to be desired. Love eternal, faithful and true, was at best a form of script reading, and it would be a big pity if one had to watch the plot twists in Twilight of the Gods based on such a weak vow of love.
One questions the judgement of putting the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra on stage behind the opera performance (as was mentioned in respect of the Das Rheingold instalment of this Ring a month ago). This has the effect of making the percussion instruments too loud generally, but overall, the orchestra, under the baton of usical Director Hartmut Haenchen, supports very well.
The costumes by Eiko Ishioka were quite unusual, though in all honesty, not to my taste at all. Having a legendary helmet look like a clown's hat with extra glimmer is certainly questionable, and the dressing up of the songbird is not very song or birdlike at all.
Perhaps it is my inclination towards Hollywood, but I certainly expected a bit more action from Pierre Audi's production. Ancestral swords should be waved around more, and although the scene where Siegfried slays Fafner is an impressive display of pyrotechnics, the manner in which the Last Giant is slain is anti-climactic.
However, the idea of having a television projecting Wotan's eye throughout Act I was a very good idea indeed, and it certainly gives the impression of Wotan as omniscient.
In all, an impressive performance and production. Let's hope the DVD of Twilight of the Gods will be as impressive, and can bring the Ring Cycle to an appropriately thrilling end.
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