We attended the Met season premiere of Siegfried this weekend. Perhaps Wagner has a unifying effect on us.
Elizabeth – The Met’s season premiere of Siegfried appeared to go off without a hitch on The Machine’s part. This installation of The Ring had a good deal of levity and some physical humor that I greatly enjoyed. Gerhard Siegel as Mime, was terrific, a great physical actor, tripping up and down the stairs in his lair shared with Siegfried. His incompetence and neediness combined with his physical appearance made it easy to understand Siegfried’s disgust with Mime. Siegel’s voice was great, powerful and nuanced. Jay Hunter Morris as Siegfried was also terrific, moving from naïve, cocky boy to confident hero.
His humorous scene with the yellow bird, where Siegfried tries to communicate with the bird by blowing on a reed, was very cute and had the audience laughing—until Fafner the dragon awoke. Wotan, disguised as a wanderer, shows up in Mime’s cave and it was great to see a new loner Wotan, wandering and anxious about the fate of the ring and the gods. Mark Delavan’s voice is great and rich, and his stage presence commanding. In this segment of The Ring in particular, he seemed very powerful. The use of the three riddles to be solved by Wotan and Mime was a great device to get those who had not seen (or had forgotten) the early pieces of The Ring up to speed.
Fabio Luisi and the massive Met orchestra were amazing. Seeing the six harps and acres of violinists stuffed in to the orchestra pit amongst all the other instruments was impressive. Even more so when I saw that there was not room for some of the instruments and they had to be brought in during the performance right before their use. I think my first operas this year with Luisi were misleading, as he seemed very much in his element and alive conducting Siegfried. I was completely transported.
Siegfried had so many uses for The Machine, I am completely taken with it. It opens up the opera spinning as the orchestral music transports us layers below ground to Mime’s den. The Machine serves as forest, complete with the panels separated as trees, it has a stream projected onto it, and a part of it lifts up to serve as the roof of Mime’s cave. Later a different section serves as the cave of Fafner (now a dragon). And finally, it serves as the rings of fire surrounding Brünnhilde and the mountaintop where she is sleeping. The various projections onto it are dynamic: the river projected onto the Machine runs red when Fafner is killed, the yellow bird flies around the panels as it directs Siegfried to the ring, and flames of fire leap on it as Siegfried makes his way to Brünnhilde. The result is a production that feels very alive and vibrant, almost movie-like which works perfectly with Wagner’s music. The more of The Machine I see, the more I like and think this is the future of opera. While it is not without its problems, I see The Machine as a vehicle to making opera interesting and engaging to the general public who are not die-hard opera fans.
Shawn – This was my first time seeing Siegfried but my third time seeing The Machine in action. The more I see of it the more impressed I am. I was especially struck in the overture of Siegfried. The Machine transforms into underground, earth level and sky, all three aspects of Mime’s riddles to Wotan and all three planes on which the action of The Ring takes place, while simultaneously depicting the backstory of Siegfried with pantomimed action on the shifting sets. From subterranean realm to earth to sky to cave, all the while visually introducing and setting up the opposing forces in the piece and the Cycle as a whole.
This is the future of set design. The set itself organically changes and shifts with the music as if the music itself is conjuring the settings and images. Which it should. It was beautiful. Does The Machine always work? No. Does The Machine always work even when it operates as it was designed to? No. This could be in part because the Met house cannot fully handle the technical needs of The Machine. The Met is planning extensive technical renovations, but also The Machine is basically a prototype, no? Regardless, it cannot creak and groan and inconsistently shift into place even when it operates as intended. But the core idea is the future of set design. The next generation incarnations will be sleeker, lighter, more fluid, perhaps made of hundreds of moving pieces and able to take almost any form, but Robert Lepage’s Machine is the core idea. And it premiered at the Met. Holograms are great but you can’t sit, stand or climb on holograms. The Machine is physical. And mark my words, it is the future. Albeit in a creaky, bulky, buggy and sometimes ugly embryonic stage.
Once again Mark Delavan wowed as Wotan. I liked this incarnation of Wotan particularly. The Wanderer had a sort of mystical, Clint Eastwoody, Man With No Name quality I adored. Delavan has brought a different essence to each Wotan I have seen while still remaining recognizable as the same character. And his singing is always excellent. Quite remarkable.
Gerhard Siegel as Mime was fabulous. As fine an acting and physical performance as I have seen all year. And Eric Owens as Alberich although appearing only briefly was as excellent as he was in Das Rheingold.Wagner’s music as always is just fantastic. I have been missing out all these years with my single-minded devotion to Mozart, Puccini and Verdi. (Call it childhood trauma.) The Met orchestra under Fabio Luisi is remarkable. True I don’t have any other Wagner experiences to compare it to but I am SO pleased my first was with them. Siegfried’s Act One Forging Song particularly was riveting. Somehow that motif hasn’t found its way into popular culture as much as many of the others so it was a complete joyous surprise to me. Absolutely rhapsodic. I’m actually humming it as I write these words.
I know this is anathema, and will no doubt peg me as a musical ignoramus, but I found the final sequence between Siegfried and Brünnhilde to be the least exciting of the piece. This may be in part due to extreme physical weariness after 5 hours, or perhaps lack of chemistry between Jay Hunter Morris and Deborah Voigt but I found my mind wandering. Strange as I found Jay Hunter Morris riveting as Siegfried. Especially in the aforementioned Forging Song.
Siegfried was, and the Ring thus far has been, a wonderful and emotional artistic and theatrical experience for me. It fills me with great apprehension and excitement that there are still so many Wagner operas yet to see. Quick Siegfried plot question though, why does Wotan say that he will let Siegfried free Brünnhilde in hopes that Brünnhilde will “set everything right” but then try to block Siegfried’s path? Just wondering.
– Elizabeth Frayer and Shawn E Milnes
Related Articles:
Mid-Scene Replacements and The Machine Triumphant (Almost): Die Walkure at the Metropolitan Opera
Wagner and The Machine Infernal: Das Rheingold at the Metropolitan Opera
A Catholic Schoolgirl’s Musings on Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera
Quick Siegfried plot question though, why does Wotan say that he will let Siegfried free Brünnhilde in hopes that Brünnhilde will “set everything right” but then try to block Siegfried’s path?
The Wanderer does not say he will let Siegfried free Brünnhilde. He cannot say that. He says that it will happen anyway.
He is no longer Wotan, powerful and ambitious, he is the Wanderer, relegated to watching and talking. He speaks to Mime, he speaks to Alberich ("Zu schauen kam ich, nicht zu schaffen:"/"I came to watch, not to act" in Act 2, Scene 1), he does not do anything.
He has lost his favorite daughter and his previous hero, Siegmund.
Wotan's power comes from his treaties and he made the deal that gave the ring to Fafner; if Wotan is involved in (or supports) stealing it back then he is breaking that deal and thus loses his power. That is why he lost Siegmund and why he must now be passive.
Just as he is bound to defend his treaty with Fafner he also must defend his punishment for Brünnhilde. The power in the world is shifting from the gods to humans, though and he can no longer defend his decrees, so he loses to Siegfried, his spear is shattered and he slinks off, not to be seen again.
Götterdämmerung, appropriately, has the large chorus and apart from the Norns in the Prologue, no gods.
(I am looking at the end of Act 3, Scene 1, looking here: http://www.rwagner.net/libretti/siegfried/e-t-sieg.html ; it is possible this is an odd translation and it is entirely likely that the Met used a different translation for the titles but the meaning should still be very close).
Thank you for comment and link. Wotan's quote to Alberich speaks to my question. If he came to "watch, not to act" why does he block Siegfried's path?
In Act 3, Scene One, Wotan says to Erda, "He whom I chose, though he does not know me, the bravest of youths, whom I have never advised, has gained the Niblung's ring. Rejoicing in love, innocent of envy, his nobility will quell Alberich's curse for fear remains foreign to him. Brünnhilde, whom you bore me, will awaken to the hero: on waking, the child of your wisdom will do the deed that will redeem the world."
The Met titles were slightly different I believe but the basic meaning was the same. I was quoting from memory but "redeem the world"/"set the world (everything) right" was there.
Again, if Wotan is there to "watch, not act", but also knows Brunnhilde will "set the world right" then why does he try to block Siegfried? That's sure acting not watching. Also, it is part of his punishment to Brunnhilde that "only one shall win the bride, one freer than I, the God" (Walkure Act 3, Scene 3) so is not his blocking of Siegfried also in direct opposition to his own edict?
I will research further. Thanks for info! Additional thoughts welcome. 🙂
I take Wotan's "redeem the world" comment is prediction, it is foresight. He understand what is going to happen. He thought he could raise Siegmund to take back the ring and everything would be cool… but look how that turned out. Wotan is realizing that he is irrelevant and that all that is left for him is ceremony.
Brünnhilde got Wotan to agree to defend her while she slept in punishment, so Wotan MUST defend her. Thus right after he has Loge set the magic fire around Brünnhilde the very last lines of the opera are "Whosoever fears the tip of my spear shall never pass through the fire!"
Wotan must defend Brünnhilde. This is about honor and rigid moral codes in a way that is decidedly against modern sensibilities. Which is almost entirely the point, Wotan and the old order are irrelevant, replaced by Siegfried and freedom.
Or at least that is my take on it. I am working on it myself. I am sure there are many other ways to look at all of this (including just saying hey, Wagner was a bad dramatist more interested in the symbolism)! Thank you for the interesting questions; there is so much to the cycle it is easy to let things slip by.
Also great blog; it is enlightening to read your insights, your takes on these different productions!
Thank you for reading and for your kind words! 🙂