Metropolitan Opera – Wagner’s Die Walkure. April 30, 2019.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Balcony (Seat E115, $152.50).

Story.  See previous post.

Conductor – Philippe Jordan; Siegmund – Stuart Skelton, Sieglinde – Eva-Maria Westbroek, Hunding – Gunther Groissbock, Wotan – Michael Volle, Brunnhilde – Christine Goerke, Fricka – Jamie Barton, Valkyries – Kelly Cae Hogan, Jessica Faselt, Renee Tatum, Daryl Freedman, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Eve Gigliotti, Maya Lahyani, Mary Phillips.

The set in all its $40 million glory as the performance was about to begin.

One way to describe the progress of this Ring Cycle after two performances was how CS characterized it (I am paraphrasing here): he found Rheingold a bit underwhelm, but he really like Die Walkure.  This was my fifth Walkure, and I was a lot more engaged than I had expected.

The “story” I put together for my first encounter with this opera – way back in February 2008 – was a short paragraph.  It is still good, but I will add two points: that Siegmund and Sieglinde are twins, and that Brunnhilde disobeyed Wotan (an obvious point).

Some commentaries make a big deal about the twins issue, plastering the word “incest” all over the place.  And indeed Fricka condemned it (never caught that before).  I would say “Common, the story is based on Nordic and German myths; and the story can well be told without this fact thrown in.”  I was, however, a bit confused what was discovered when as that realization unfolded.

There are so many “messed-up” relationships in the story that I wonder why Fricka picked this one out in particular.  To start off, Sieglinde was kidnapped by Hunding, so I imagine her marriage to him wasn’t quick voluntary (at least a manifestation of Stockholm Syndrome), so any reasonable person would try to free her from Hunding instead of calling that particular marriage “sacred.”  To my knowledge, Wotan had several wives: Fricka, the twins’ mother, Erda (Brunnhilde’s mother), and (I am quite sure) one or more women who gave birth to the Valkyries.  So there was a lot to fix on the home front if marriage was such an important thing for Fricka.

As to Brunnhilde’s disobedience, I am still not sure what Wotan really wanted.  As the god of gods he was really pathetic, so I wasn’t sure his edict that Hunding wins was borne of true conviction or fear of Fricka.  He did seem quite resolute that Brunnhilde should be punished, though.

I realized during Rheingold that doubles were sometimes used (most likely, as I couldn’t find confirmation anywhere).  One instance is when Wotan and Loge walked down to/up from the Nibelung world; they used harnesses and were walking “horizontally” at some point).  The second instance is at the end of Die Walkure with Brunnhilde hanging upside down.  She looked different, and it is a risky move that no amateur should make.

The machine worked fine today, with creaks kept to a minimum.  The Valkyrie-horse scene didn’t look as clever as it did when I first saw it, and I came to realize that there is some degree of risk to the people involved.  A leg could slip and be crushed, the harness could break resulting in a fall, and one may run between the wrong planks and get hurt.  For the last scene I could clearly see stage workers in black clothing helping with position Brunnhilde.  Incidentally, my neighbor and I both agreed there was a glitch yesterday: Erda took too long to be raised.

We now come to the singing.  It was great.

What many people wonder about is how well Goerke would do as Brunnhilde.  We heard her as Elektra last year.  Her singing was strong, but Strauss’s work was a bit unscrutinable for us.  Per the Playbill, she also sang Turandot.  I certainly thought she sang well.  While her voice is not as strong as say that of Voigt’s, it has a sweet quality that makes it endearing.  When she first came on (in Act II) and did the war cry “Hojotoho!” she was not so much this towering woman warrior as she was someone enjoying life as Wotan’s daughter.  This quality was put to great use in her dialog with Siegmund when she told him he would die.  She still has some heavy-duty singing ahead of her, I wish her well.  (I am sure reviews are already out there about how she did in Ring Cycle I, but I am resisting the urge to read them.)

As an aside, there is this is YouTube video about Voigt and the little black dress she couldn’t fit into, it appears she has retired from many roles.  She is 59.  Goerke (per Wikipedia) was born in 1960, a bit older than I thought.

The other major characters are of course Sieglinde and Siegmund.  Westbroek sang the same role in my prior encounter with Sieglinde, and she portrayed the role well.  Turns out Skelton was also Siegmund in the Seattle Ring we saw. I didn’t write down how he did, but he was great this evening.  The dialog with Brunnhilde was one of the emotional moments in the opera for me.

Wotan has been great so far.  I thought he would disappear from the story after tonight, but in reading the synopsis for Siegfried, found out he would return as the wanderer.  His monologue gave a lot of background information for the story, which helped.  One thing I didn’t catch was that he pursued Erda to gain knowledge from her, and in return Erda bore him Brunnhilde.  (What kind of bargain is that?)

 Curtain Call, Act 1.  Sieglinde and Siegmund.

 Curtain Call, Act 2.  Hunding, Fricka, and Siegmund.

Curtain Call at conclusion.  Valkyries, Wotan, Brunnhilde, Maestro Jordan, and Sieglinde.

I have chosen to write down every artist’s name in the performance.  I realized even though the Rhine maidens scene felt like an introduction to an introduction (latter was how Wagner himself described Das Rheingold), the three ladies sang for close to 30 minutes, substantial by any measure.

As for this ring?  So far so good.  And to my delight the storylines are quite easy to follow, as long as one doesn’t get bogged down in the minutiae.

The French conductor Philippe Jordan has so far led in an excellent way, including an orchestra that is so integral to this gesamtkunstwerk of Wagner.  And this is a huge orchestra, with six harps, for instance.  He heads up Paris Opera.

We left our house at around 3:30 pm and got to the Lincoln Center area in about an hour.  We decided to buy truck food and eat at the Richard Tucker Park.  Coming back we were so absorbed in our discussion that I missed a Turnpike exit.  It was around 12:30 am when we got home.