Mid-Scene Replacements and The Machine Triumphant (Almost): Die Walküre at the Metropolitan Opera

We went to the Met’s season premiere of Die Walküre this weekend with great trepidation. After the epic set fails of The Machine at last Saturday’s season premiere of Das Rhinegold we were prepared for the worst. BUT The Machine executed it’s morphing set changes without a hitch….almost. Perhaps the multi million dollar reinforcements of the stage foundations and cutting the brand new Rigoletto set in half to preserve room for storage of The Machine are worth it?

Elizabeth – Before the show began, Peter Gelb walked onstage. Not a good sign. He announced that Simon O’Neill, the tenor playing Siegmund, woke up this morning with bad allergies. Gelb asked that the audience bear with O’Neill as he would like to perform. I can imagine losing that fee would have been a great disappointment.

Andrew Sritheran

And so the show commenced. As last time, I was blown away by the projections onto and movement of The Machine. Die Walküre starts off with a storm gathering of clouds swirling around on The Machine. Slowly the clouds part and The Machine turns into a forest of trees. Each board is a tree and the details of the bark and the individual trees spaced apart create a great sense of depth. Snow projected onto The Machine swirls around. Wagner’s rich music, hinting at what is to come with various leitmotifs (of course, most noticeable was the Valkyrie leitmotif), heightened my excitement.

Of course everyone was apprehensive about O’Neill as Siegmund, and yet when he came onstage, he sounded fine to me. There were a couple moments where I thought he was a little off, but overall I really thought he could make it through to his death. It was then all the more surprising when in the middle of Act I Siegmund showed up with a different costume on and sounded unlike O’Neill. It took a couple moments to realize that O’Neill had hopped out mid-act, leaving fellow New Zealander Andrew Sritheran to make his Met debut mid scene. While he sounded a bit unsure at first, I thought he did great, especially given the circumstances. And wearing the wrong scene’s costume definitely could not have helped.

The other principals were overall great. Martina Serafin, making her Met debut, had a gorgeous and powerful voice. She was wonderful as Sieglinde. Hans-Peter König’s Hunding was rich and deep. Mark Delavan had an amazing sing. His powerful voice was moving, particularly in Act III where he sadly punishes Brünnhilde. All the more impressive considering he was onstage for close to three hours. I enjoyed the character of Brünnhilde, the daring, brave, stubborn favorite daughter of Wotan, but Deborah Voigt seemed tentative and somehow not quite right for the role. Perhaps this tentativeness was due to the season premiere, but it just seemed a bit off. Stephanie Blythe returned as Fricka, and I thought she stole the show. What a gorgeous and powerful, nuanced voice. Wow.

More creative uses of The Machine were deployed this time. Its versatility is impressive. The Machine went from a forest of trees, to the inside of a house, to the roof of a house, to the mountain (complete with avalanches every time Wotan’s anger flared) whose peak Brünnhilde is eventually placed upon surrounded by Loge’s fire. At one point it is also the backdrop for the shadow story of Siegmund’s flight from his foes.

Of course, given the malfunctions last week at Das Rheingold, I was concerned about malfunctions when Fricka was atop a moving chair sliding toward the edge of The Machine. But thankfully, The Machine was in good form yesterday, even if all the singers were not.

I’m looking forward to seeing the spawn of brother and sister next week.

Shawn – After Das Rheingold’s epic set fails and freezes last week, the site of Peter Gelb slinking out onto the stage to address the audience did not bode well. He announced the tenor, Simon O’Neill, was having an extreme allergy attack but would go on. Okay, fair enough. I thought O’Neill sounded okay for the first 20 minutes, then however he stepped offstage mid scene and was replaced instantly by Andrew Sritheran, a full head taller and wearing a completely different costume. I found this confusing but not out of character with Wagner, as characters transform into dragons and serpents and mice, so why not a taller more shiningly clad tenor? My low Wagner IQ notwithstanding, I did figure out it was the same character untransformed and was able to recommit to the narrative. I still want to know how O’Neill signaled he wanted to sub out from the stage. It was pretty seamless if still visually jarring.

The Machine worked admirably I thought. I was also for the first time struck that it was built to work in FOUR operas. I guess I knew that on some level but it fully struck me for the first time in Die Walküre. In that capacity, it is an amazing piece of set design. Watching it, for the first time, morph seamlessly in Act One from a forest into the interior roof of Hunding’s house, back into the forest and into the exterior roof of Hunding’s house was pretty breathtaking. Particularly effective were the shadow animations projected by the Hunding’s hearth onto The Machine as Siegmund tells his tale of action and woe. The use of The Machine in the ride of the Valkyries worked beautifully and the audience cheered as each Valkyrie slid off her horse.

The Machine still looks dangerous to me though. It is a bit distracting as I worried about the safety of the singers often. It looks very slippery. One slat of The Machine was often out of line with the others, which diminished the overall effect at certain points. Regardless it is a cutting edge theatrical device. Eventually I imagine there will be fully fluid set machines able to take whatever form is needed onstage. I found myself thinking of something like a gigantic pin art device, morphing into different three dimensional landscapes and set pieces. Something like that is still a ways off but no doubt some variant is coming and on the drawing board somewhere.

Mark Delavan was again riveting as Wotan. And wow what a sing that is. Martina Serafin was great in her debut. Stefanie Blythe was as booming and regal as she was in Rheingold. Hans-Peter König, who we saw as Fafner in Das Rheingold, was excellent as Hunding. Sadly I did find Deborah Voigt somewhat lacking as Brünnhilde, but perhaps it was the company she was keeping onstage.

As great as everything was there were many empty seats. We had almost the entire back row of Dress Circle to ourselves and there were huge empty gaps in the orchestra.

This was my third Wagner opera ever. I loved it. I am addicted. Now we just have to secure tickets to Siegfried next week and somehow get to Bayreuth this summer damn it.

– Elizabeth Frayer and Shawn E Milnes

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