Opera North: Ring

[Nick Armstrong]

I've been looking forward to the ferney-update! Will have to read at leisure as dashing out now, but already thanks for more detailed dispatches from the Rhine and its mythical environs...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... thanks for more detailed dispatches from the Rhine and its mythical environs...

And I even managed to resist the temptation to speak of Siegfried's First Act aria.










I got plenty o' Nothung

[Once Was 4]

* - Robert Ashdown; apologies for not mentioning.

One correction: he is Robert ASHWORTH - a pupil of the late great Sydney Coulston and you cannot get better than that!

* - Robert Ashdown; apologies for not mentioning.[/QUOTE]

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

One correction: he is Robert ASHWORTH - a pupil of the late great Sydney Coulston and you cannot get better than that!

- my thanks to you and apologies to him. It was an impeccable performance.

[Nick Armstrong]

You quite liked it then, ferney?







.




OT: just had a similarly revelatory evening as regards orchestration - downwind of the Philharmonia horn section in Sacre du Printemps, Salonen making all sorts of colours and combinations tell, in a way I've never heard before, in a visceral, sense-sharpening performance (R3 tomorrow evening. Tune in at the interval - the first half was ****...!)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

You quite liked it then, ferney?

A bit, yeah.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Gotterdammerung

One problem is, of course, that you run out of superlatives - especially when the same words are used so frequently to describe run-of-the-mill decent performances. Another is that with something as good as this was, there's too much to say - it's not that I'm speechless; more that I could just keep babbling on and on about all the things that excited and moved me. Twenty-four hours on, and the whole experience is still with me - I keep saying how the resonance of Wagner's Music creates a lasting physical effect; not just in the ears and the memory, but in the guts and feet and neck, too. Quite, quite extraordinary.

Plaudits all round, from Kelly Cae Hogan's seering performance as Brunnhilde to Heather Shipp, standing in at the last minute as Waltraute (a remarkably similar voice to Hogan's - if with less penetrating power - you could tell they were sisters! ) - AND performing as Second Norn in the Prologue. Mati Turi was Siegfried (as he was for ON when I last saw this production two years ago) - more "tenorish" than Lars Cleveman's more "baritonal" voice last week, but just as able to soar melodically over the huge artillery of Wagner's orchestra (oh, but that devil knew how to score - it sounds as if everybody in the band's belting away, but resources are carefully rationed, and matched with the singers' registers). Some signs of tiredness creeping in in his "My Young Life" "aria" in the last act - just - but he died wonderfully melodiously.

Giselle Allen was rewarded for having done what she could with Freia in Rheingold (easily the most thankless role in the Ring - possibly in all Wagner) by delivering a Gutrune caught and destroyed by her own devious behavour: Brunnhilde's expression of sympathy for her at the very end (so often an expression of sarcastic contempt) rang with genuine feeling at the remorse of the woman who was used by Hagen. The chorus of ON (mainly the chaps - the women sing about a dozen notes in the whole thing!) made you wish Wagner had included more for them to do in the cycle - Leeds Town Hall was made for this sort of sound! Steerhorns and spacially-separated Horns gave the timbres and sonorities quite different from the earlier operas.

Picky? Well, Mats Almgren (the terrifying Fafner of Rheingold and Siegfried) delivered Hagen with a most disconcerting wobble in his voice (which I don't remember from two years ago - and I would've done!) - perfectly in tune, and with that magnificent resonance that really grabbed the solar plexus - but sounding rather ... odd.

But again, highest praise possible for the Opera North orchestra - when they give of the standard of last night, there is no finer orchestra in Britain. Bass Clarinet, Cor Anglais, Horns ... the entire 'cello section ... just everybody, giving their all to ensure the success of the performance and production. (I think that there was a different principal Timpanist last night - one more prone to the "slave galley ship" school of drum-bashing! But he - and the second Timpanist - were as dedicated as the leader of the first violins - an array of different-headed beaters hanging from their stands; each giving an individual sonority, carefully chosen to match what the drama and the Music needed.

Great staging, again from Peter Mumford, too - flames, river currents, clouds, ravens, blood - and the walls of the Gibichung closing in on Hagen's playthings. (Ooh! AND the way Alberich emerged from Hagen's dream at the beginning of Act Two!! It really did look as if he emerged from thin air. And Hagen's night terrors as he encountered the vision of his father - a very real insight that Alberich hasn't treated his son any better than he has his brother or the other Nibelungs.)

And to Richard Farnes, of course, the final accolade: inspiring players and singers to give so much to the Music, and to present so much of the intricate detail of these magnificent scores in so powerful and moving (lots of tissues appeared after the final sounds had faded away - and not just my own) and convincing a way. The long standing ovation for everyone was token of the audience's gratitude; starting at 3:30 in the afternoon, it ended at 10:00 pm - and it all seemed a single, glorious moment.



What the hell do I do with my Saturday nights from now on???????????!!!!!!!!!!!

[Beef Oven!]

Saturday nights? And no MOTD until August, you’ll have to settle for H&N

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

But again, highest praise possible for the Opera North orchestra - when they give of the standard of last night, there is no finer orchestra in Britain. Bass Clarinet, Cor Anglais, Horns ... the entire 'cello section ... just everybody, giving their all to ensure the success of the performance and production.

Indeed they may well be - the Vienna Phil of Britain, perhaps. When they play as a concert orchestra, their experience/responsiveness, from working in the pit, is apparent at all times, in the same way as the great Viennese orchestra.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Indeed they may well be - the Vienna Phil of Britain, perhaps. When they play as a concert orchestra, their experience/responsiveness, from working in the pit, is apparent at all times, in the same way as the great Viennese orchestra.

- the parallel had occurred to me, too - but I didn't want to "jinx" them with such expectations/comparisons.

[ARBurton]

I read somewhere that the Sage Gateshead performances are being carried on Radio 3 - which is nice!

[jonfan]

I read somewhere that the Sage Gateshead performances are being carried on Radio 3 - which is nice!

Yes 5 to 10 July live. The 10 July performance will be Richard Farnes final as Opera North director.
I'm half way through the Leeds second cycle and endorse fervently all that ferney has said so eloquently on this thread about the total experience. Seeing the orchestra emphasizes all the more the brilliance of Wagner's orchestration in a way that a theatre performance would not where the mechanics of the production are withheld from view. In particular how much is chamber music where lingering, hushed solos especially for cor anglais, bass clarinet and timpani, hold the attention; and in particular last night the exquisite woodwind choir on their own after the Valkyries depart and Brunnhilde makes her appeal to Wotan in Act 3 of Die Walkure.
The orchestra: what a joy and privilege to hear from start to finish!

[bluestateprommer]

I read somewhere that the Sage Gateshead performances are being carried on Radio 3 - which is nice!

Plus (and apologies if this has already been mentioned), ON and The Space will evidently be working on a filmed version of the ON Ring, for streaming later this year:

https://www.operanorth.co.uk/news/a-ring-for-everyone

I gather that this week's live performances in Leeds will be filmed/are being filmed for this streaming video production.

[Prommer]

When are there going to be some returns for the London performances?!

These wonderful reviews have got the musical mouth watering...

[bluestateprommer]

When are there going to be some returns for the London performances?!

These wonderful reviews have got the musical mouth watering...

From the South Bank Centre's site, they are planning streams to the Clore Ballroom of the RFH performances, apparently:

Rhinegold: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/wha...ingold-1001568

Walkure: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/wha...3%BCre-1001569

Siegfried: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/wha...gfried-1001570

Gotterdaemmerung: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/wha...merung-1001571