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WAGNER: Götterdämmerung BRITTEN: Death in Venice With this Götterdämmerung we have the finale of the recent Ring cycle at La Scala conducted by Daniel Barenboim in a new production by Guy Cassier. Das Rheingold and Siegfried were unenthusiastically mentioned on this site (REVIEW). As with previous issues, spectacular use often is made of projections, although the video director determines what we see, which often is only a part of what the audience experienced. Lance Ryan's Siegfried is a weak unsuccessful attempt to sing a role beyond his capabilities. Irène Theorin's Brünnhilde does not impress. Much of her singing is sotto voce, her upper register slightly insecure. Excessive makeup is distracting. In the final scene she sings to a nonexistent horse, and simply leaps into the projected inferno, which is quite spectacular visually. I find little use for a video of a questionable production with two leading singers woefully inadequate. We all know Prokofiev had a very wild side, but nowhere is this more evident than in his opera The Fiery Angel. This is based on novel by Valery Bryusov about experiences of Nina Petrovkaya, a woman who experienced visions and demonic possession. The young woman, named Renata in the opera, fantasized meeting an angel, Madiel, and fell in love with him only to be rejected although he did say he would return in human form. In her delusion, she thought he might have returned as Count Heinrich von Otterheim—or as Ruprecht, a man she had known for a long time. Her delusions are vividly depicted in Prokofiev's opera including the final wild orgy scene in which a group of nuns and Renata are accused of being possessed by the underworld and condemned to death. The performance on this DVD was filmed in 1993 and has been available on CD for some years. Now we have this spectacular DVD, magnificently filmed with excellent stereo sound. The performance cold not be bettered, with Galina Gorchakova early in her career, perfect dramatically and vocally. She is matched by another sterling Russian, Sergei Leiferkus as Ruprecht—the chemistry between them is remarkable. There is not a weak link in the entire cast, and David Roger's stark sets are effective. Director David Freeman has done everything right, and his staging imaginatively uses the dancers and St. Petersburg Mariinsky Acrobatic Troupe. Nothing is left to the imagination in the orgy scene. Gergiev is a master of this repertory. This is a major opera issue—don't miss it! Benjamin Britten's last opera, Death in Venice, is an acquired
taste, more a theatre piece with very distinctive music than what most
people consider an opera to be. Based on the novella by Thomas Mann, with
libretto by Myfanwy Piper, it relates the sad story of the German novelist
Gustav von Ashenbach, despairing that his creative life had disappeared,
who went to Venice in the hope of restoring it. Ashenbach meets a group of
rather tragic unhappy people except for the young Polish boy Tadzio whose
innocent perfection is in great contrast to almost everyone else. Tadzio
is a non-singing role performed by a dancer, and Ashenbach only admires him
from afar. The opera ends as Ashenbach, weak and disillusioned, having
failed to restore his creativity sadly watched Tadzio as he walks into
the sea.This
is powerful drama and there is no question that Britten's score is a
masterpiece. It is difficult to imagine a performance superior to what is
viewed here in this brilliant imaginative production by R.E.B. (May 2014) |