Germany Bayreuth Festival 2022 – Wagner, Die Walküre: Soloists, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra / Cornelius Meister (conductor). Recorded (directed by Michael Beyer and Jule Geissler) at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus and available on STAGE+ until 14.11.2047. (JPr)
Production:
Director – Valentin Schwarz
Designs – Andrea Cozzi
Costumes – Andy Besuch
Lighting – Reinhard Traub
Dramaturgy – Konrad Kuhn
Cast:
Siegmund – Klaus Florian Vogt
Sieglinde – Lise Davidsen
Hunding – Georg Zeppenfeld
Wotan – Tomasz Konieczny
Brünnhilde – Iréne Theorin
Fricka / Schwertleite – Christa Mayer
Helmwige – Daniela Köhler
Gerhilde – Kelly God
Ortlinde – Brit-Tone Müllertz
Waltraute – Stéphanie Müther
Siegrune – Stephanie Houtzeel
Rossweisse – Katie Stevenson
Grimgerde – Marie-Henriette Reinhold
Grane – Igor Schwab (silent)
Having eliminated all of Wagner’s gods and dwarves – and everything else you might expect to see – from his Das Rheingold (review click here) and introducing us to a dysfunctional family recognisable from US soap operas (such as, Dallas or Dynasty) or that of a former US president (Donald Trump), Valentin Schwarz’s Die Walküre starts rather more traditionally. A tree – yes, an actual tree! – has crashed into Hunding and Sieglinde’s rather shabby home. The gun-toting Hunding might – as with Dmitri Tcherniakov more recently in Berlin – work in security for Wotan, or he might be an electrician since he busies himself at the fuse box trying to get the lights on. Siegmund enters wearing a wolf’s mask and lays down by an electric fire (which characters then seem to forget is on and will put their hands on top of it or sit on it). Sieglinde hobbles in wearing her dressing gown and actually gives Siegmund some water (as in the libretto). Sieglinde can’t drink the mead because she is heavily pregnant: is the child Hunding’s, or worse still, Wotan’s? (Too often Lise Davidsen, as Sieglinde, will forget to waddle during her performance.)
It is not a happy marriage as Sieglinde quickly turns over her wedding photo on the wall. Hunding returns and replaces a fuse and mistreats Sieglinde threatening to hit her before pushing her to the floor. Hunding sits up drinking as Siegmund sings ‘Ein Schwert verhiess mir der Vater’ and his promised sword here is the knife Sieglinde has put in the pocket of his trench coat. Sieglinde is on the floor above holding a black box with glowing pyramid inside it. Hunding is asleep (it is unclear how or if he was drugged) and as memories are rekindled for Siegmund and Sieglinde we see them as faceless children in their wood-panelled bedrooms with toy horses in cupboards. Sieglinde screws up a drawing of a Wagnerian horn-helmeted head and Siegmund claims a gun from the box with the pyramid. As the twins recognise the photos of their younger selves (we first saw in Das Rheingold) they will unite them over their heads as the set recedes and we are back in Hunding’s home as he threatens Siegmund with a wrench.
Act II begins with Wotan in a yellow suit and he has the box back (or are there two?). Blinged-up Valkyries with their designer handbags are mourners at Freia’s funeral which is being held in the mansion. Possibly because she was suffering from Stockholm syndrome Freia must have shot herself at the end of Rheingold. Wotan and Brünnhilde (who looks like a rock chick) are being filmed for social media by their manservant ‘Grane’ as Wotan puts a gold medallion – perhaps representing the laws and treaties on which his power rests – round Brünnhilde’s neck. Fricka in black comes in with Hunding to petition Wotan and leaves satisfied having got what she needs from him. Brünnhilde has been seen sheltering in what looks like a large vivarium to the side of an entrance to a cave. I suspected the presence of some plastic chairs would mean they would get thrown around which Wotan does in his anger before he goes to an upper floor and is shown with an old-fashioned fire extinguisher. The Rubik’s Cube reappears and gets played with by both Wotan and Brünnhilde. She will have a tantrum when ordered to let Siegmund die. At this point Fricka brings in a dark navy suit (as dry cleaning) for Brünnhilde.
Sieglinde comes in and looks about to give birth and slumps on some stairs. Maids come in for some tidying up as Sieglinde gets out her knitting, but it is the needles she needs to threaten the baby in her womb before Siegmund grabs them off her. For the Todesverkündigung (‘Annunciation of Death’) Fricka and Wotan are keeping a close eye on Brünnhilde but Wotan storms out as she disobeys him, leaving her exultant with a funeral wreath around her neck. Siegmund put the photo of his and Sieglinde’s younger selves on Brünnhilde’s bump before he heads out to fight Hunding. At this point the weirdest thing we have seen so far happens. Lise Davidsen loses all dignity as Wotan pulls down Sieglinde’s underwear and molests her. During the fight Hunding just stands around and Wotan shoots Siegmund immediately after he has recognised his father. Grane goes off with Brünnhilde and Sieglinde into the cave (or is it a mineshaft?) as at ‘Geh’ hin, Knecht!’ Hunding just walks away.
Act III opens in the former classroom from Rheingold now with a huge rear mirror. Maids are tidying up and serving tea. It has the appearance of an all-white lounge at a surgery specialising in cosmetic enhancement. The faces of the Valkyries are bandaged but they still have their bling and handbags. Helmwige is in a wheelchair and Siegrune has had her breasts enlarged. Selfies are being taken and champagne is being served. Grane enters with Sieglinde who has blood down her legs and clearly has given birth; though this is not what you hear being sung. Grane will hold the baby Sieglinde initially seems to reject. The late-nineteenth century book Walhall: Germanische Götter und Heldensagen by Felix and Therese Dahn is consulted by Schwertleite. Once she accepts her motherhood Sieglinde goes off with Grane. Wotan and Brünnhilde confront each other sitting on a couch and he rips off her medallion and then they step out onto a bare stage as he starts roaming around. Grane returns with a (horse?) blanket that Wotan and Brünnhilde soon get wrapped in and after he throws bandages at his errant daughter Grane protects her. Wotan kisses Brünnhilde as the set recedes and along with Grane she retreats towards a pyramid at the back.
A tearful Wotan is a broken man as a metal screen comes down behind him suggesting Schwarz is already running out of ideas. Fricka trundles on a drinks trolley hoping to celebrate her victory and brings Wotan a black fedora so he is all set for Siegfried. Fricka clinks two glasses as Loge is summoned (‘Loge! Loge! Hierher!’) though there is only a single candlestick on the trolley. The unhappy Wotan drops his wedding band in Fricka’s glass before he wanders (sorry!) off and she goes in the other direction as the opera ends.
The singing (as heard through loudspeakers) was at another level compared to Rheingold. Tomasz Konieczny was an impressive Wotan, almost – if not quite – the equal of Michael Volle in Berlin. Konieczny’s nuanced use of the text, splendidly conveyed his character’s general sense of world-weariness and conflicted emotional nature due to his lust for power. Georg Zeppenfeld’s dark-hued bass made for a flawlessly threatening Hunding, and Lise Davidsen only truly unleashed her powerful, searing soprano voice for an ecstatic concluding ‘O hehrstes Wunder!’ Elsewhere, Davidsen sounded as downtrodden as her character and restrained somewhat by all the indignities Schwarz has Sieglinde suffer. I am a long-time admirer of Klaus Florian Vogt, particularly as Lohengrin, but I wasn’t convinced by his wide-eyed Siegmund and the unvaried, bleached tone of his singing and I longed to a hear something more heroic and ringing. Mezzo-soprano Christa Mayer was stern and assertive when haranguing and harassing Wotan and also sang Schwertleite in the fine octet of Valkyries. Iréne Theorin acted Brünnhilde very well indeed, however, while some notes are still there for her, some aren’t, and her soprano voice occasionally lacked support and became rather screechy under pressure.
From what I could hear the orchestra responded well to Cornelius Meister’s persuasive direction. His Die Walküre sounded carefully balanced and had all the passion and energy one of Wagner’s most ecstatic scores required; even if what we heard did not always match what we saw.
Jim Pritchard