“The way the will sometimes takes matters into its own hands can be seen in me. It had its ideas for me, and since I should have otherwise stopped cooperating, it brought us together in real life – independent of the fact that outside of time and space we belong to each other anyway – with the result that I started cooperating again” Richard to Cosima Wagner – February 26, 1872 (Cosima Wagner’s Diaries. Trans: Geoffrey Skelton)
There is an ongoing, heated, but friendly, debate taking place over on the Facebook page of wagnernet at the moment. The warring sides have been split into two opposing armies: those that think Wagner opera staging should remain faithful to the text (let us call them the Cosimas) and those that think opera directors should be free to stage Wagner’s operas in any way that represents whatever their own interpretations of said operas might be (let us call them the Katherinas). This of course is a debate that started at least at the end of the 19th century and one that continues to this day. If you are unfamiliar then simply take a quick look at the clips from two very different productions of the Ring Cycle.
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Girl’s fiancé is murdered by a handsome knight. Girl swears revenge but then ends up healing said knight and falls in love with him. Knight loves girl but sense of honor compels him to bring girl back to his king as his future wife. It’s a “dark and stormy night” at sea, girl calls for revenge. Knight hints he loves girl but she doesn’t seem “to get it”. She seeks to kill him and herself using poison. He sees through it but takes “poison” anyway. Girl drinks too. But faithful servant has used love potion instead. Intrigue, subterfuge, disloyal friends, loyal friends, sword fights. Knight mortally wounded. Knight is rescued by friend. Last minute dash by girl to save hero, loyal friend of hero waits in fear, misunderstanding leads to more sword fights and death, wise king arrives but too late.
Good lord! This could be the plot of any number of highly successful Hollywood blockbusters. And yet time and time again, I hear the same thing: “Wagner’s operas are boring” “Nothing like Verdi, or Puccini” . “Lots of standing around talking” Where is the passion? Where is the drama? Where is the sheer nail biting tension? And time after time opera companies and stage directors repeat the same formula – with variations - that repeat this misconception. So, where is the drama? Where is the emotion? On Thursday night it was found at Grange Park Opera.
This is not to say everything “worked” of course. There were one or two moments that…but more of that later.
Thursday, 30th June 2011
Production
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Mellor portrays this most human of Isoldes wonderfully – she is hurt, mortified, angry. Her Wille demands satisfaction: first with Tristan’s presence and devotion and then with his death. She cannot believe that either she did not kill him when she discovered who he was, or that he has now, as she sees it, betrayed her by taking her to King Marke to be married . Right from the beginning Isolde is all Wille, the very epitome of Romanticism. But she is also a very human woman. This is not the metaphysical construct of so many operas, or the unbelievably irrational, angry Isolde of others or even the slightly “icy” Isolde of the legendary Nilsson. No, Mellor makes this Isolde someone who you can sympathise with. This is a very human Isolde indeed.
Before the “love potion”, Steele’s Tristan , with the odd moment of “weakness”, is the embodiment of military control – loyal to his King, royal to his country, patriotic above all else, emotions kept under tight control. He is keeping his true feelings fully in check and yet occasionally, under the surface...
Flagstad, Suthaus, Furtwangler 1951.: Love Duet: Part 1
Kurwenal is less formal, but as Tristan’s friend, is all heroic bravado. There may be the occasional “chink” in Tristan’s “armor” but this is not found in Gadd’s heroic and confident Kurwenal . This is a man firmly of the enlightenment . And again, within the setting, this is fully plausible.
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Flagstad, Suthaus, Furtwangler 1951.: Love Duet: Part 2
Act 2 is Tristan and Isolde’s act and some of the most beautiful love duets ever written, sustained and intermingling, never-ending (if only). Both Tristan and Isolde seek the dark, for it is in the night that not only can they be together in a physical sense (away from prying eyes) but it is here that they can begin to leave the phenomenal and grow closer to their real goal – to become “one”. The day is Wagner’s representation of the phenomenal world and night – the dark – allows him to represent the noumenal, both unknown and unknowable , reality – or at least bring the lovers closer to it. Here there is no Tristan, is no Isolde (as they both keep telling us), indeed there are no “things” only “one” - Schopenhauer’s “reality” – although altered by Wagner. Indeed, it is here, once the lights are extinguished and the sun sets, that the stage no longer needs to represent the phenomenal world, instead the staging can finally attempt represent what we have been hearing in the music all along - and this is what Fielding does.
And so, to the final act: I had of course seen images of the final act and have to say that I was concerned. Was it “realistic” – or even just warranted - to have Tristan lie dying in a rubber dingy which itself was in a boat house? But I need not have worried, for it actually works. Again, the set design sets the mood of the piece. Once again, lighting is both subtle and fantastic.
Flagstad, Suthaus, Furtwangler 1951.: Love Duet: Part 3
Steele and Gadd make a wonderful final act and work well together. I have to admit that I was not however impressed with Fielding’s staging when the young Tristan, his mother and dead father appeared on stage as he narrates the tragedy of his childhood. However, I note that certain viewers liked this a lot. But as I have said, these things vary on “taste”. It did not “ruin” the act the way I felt the cutout skull had nearly done for me in act two, but I did find a little too “clunky” at times and just a little too “literal”.
Once again, the final fight scene here is well choreographed – better than it was on a video available on YouTube especially.
The Liebestod is performed outside of the set – the curtains now drawn while changes behind the scenes take place – and this works wonderfully.
Cast
This production was blessed with one of the finest casts seen in a long time, in one opera house and at the same time in a performance of Tristan.
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In Sara Fulgoni, there is a world class Brangäne in the making. In Tristan she manages to hold her own easily among an exceptional cast – especially when she must spend so much time on stage with the frankly stunning Mellor. Her tone is wonderfully warm and clear. This is especially so in the lower and middle registers She is also a good actress and makes a wonderfully, if somewhat eccentric, and in the early stages of act one an occasionally comically mocking Brangäne. It would be nice to see her perform the first act in a more "traditional" manner in the near future..
Andrew Rees’ holds his own with the rest of the cast, no easy task with an ensemble of this magnitude, and his Melot is well acted and as dislikable and “nasty” as he should be, while wonderfully menacingly sung but with fine tone.
In act two, and from stage left, enters Clive Bayley’s frail, shocked and disbelieving King Marke. The night before I had been listening to Pape’s King Marke and felt this was a mistake. The chance of anyone matching this was most unlikely and surely only disappointment would ensue? . And the frailty of Bayley's King Marke seemed to insure this, but my word was I wrong. This was a world class performance, clear, smooth, emotional and, goddamit I will use the word, velvety. Why oh why is Clive Bayley not to be found all over youtube? Why can I not buy DVD recordings of his performances? I can of course buy CDs,of his performances on Chandos in their Opera in English series but why is he not more recorded and in original language performances? Why he is not performing as King Marke and indeed Gurnemanz in the world’s leading opera houses is beyond me. If you see his name on a cast list anywhere, (In Wagner alone next season you can catch him as Hunding in Opera Norths ongoing Ring Cycle and as Daland in ENO's Flying Dutchman) go to the performance. Even if it is an opera you dislike, simply to hear him.
From the moment that Stephen Gadd ‘s Kurwenal first appears in act one you know you are in for treat. His performance has the best qualities of a star baritone: clarity, power, warmth and expression. His German dictation is excellent but then, perhaps this is to be expected as he has sung Melot at the ROH, Baden Baden and Glyndebourne (Where, for Wagner trivia lovers, he also played Macbeth in 2007 conducted by Glyndebourne’s future Music Director Robin Ticciati). So, he has an excellent familiarity with the text. Although, so heroic was his opening scene I did have concerns as to whether he could then undergo the change that occurs to Kurwenal in act 3, were we find his confidence subdued, full of pathos awaiting the only person who can cure Tristan. But I need not have worried. Not only did he display the vocal and emotional flexibility to carry the change with ease but the acting ability also. The relationship between him and Tristan really shone through in this act- helped greatly by Berkeley-Steele’s Tristan. On the night these two worked wonderfully together.
I can only repeat what other reviewers have said: it took a little time for English Chamber Orchestra to “get going”. I had serious concerns during the prelude which was not what it should be. Wagner of course places a tremendous strain on any orchestra and the ECO, in the confines of Grange Park, are not of the size that you might expect to provide the “lushness” required for Tristan and thus it might be understandable. However, as the first act progressed things changed and by the beginning of the second act they were playing with all of the lushness, power and emotion that you might expect in any performance of Tristan – indeed they presented themselves very well indeed. Wagner is hard work for the world’s leading symphony orchestras and ECO managed to hold their own well. Stephen Barlow seems to have a good grasp of the music. His tempos seemed very fast to me – up there with Bohm and that is no bad thing. But I might be mistaken, as I lost track of the time – so emotionally involved did one become with the performance, time moved very quickly indeed. In no small part is this due to ECO’s power and Barlow’s expert handling of the score.
So, what can one say overall? I certainly was not expecting the performance that greeted me, given that Grange Park Opera is still so young, the size of the orchestra pit and the opera house as a whole - and that they do not receive any Arts Council funding. It was without doubt one of those very special nights at the opera very rarely repeated. Time, as someone once said elsewhere, truly turned into space.
So, what can one say overall? I certainly was not expecting the performance that greeted me, given that Grange Park Opera is still so young, the size of the orchestra pit and the opera house as a whole - and that they do not receive any Arts Council funding. It was without doubt one of those very special nights at the opera very rarely repeated. Time, as someone once said elsewhere, truly turned into space.