ROH: Ring 2018

[Conchis]

I'm surprised he wasn't sued for breach of contract over that, but I suppose they preferred to play the long game and have him back at a future date. The excuse he came up with was so feeble, though, (an operation on his son's finger) that it seemed a calculated insult. It was probably a combination of marital woes and struggles with the role..

I think you are right about the combination. He had, of course, sung Wotan in the single stagings of Rheingold and Walkure the previous year (which were both televised, I think) but the exposure and expectation of a complete cycle may have unnerved him. Covent Garden would have been well within their rights to sue him for breach of contract and I'm sure it was contemplated - but I suppose they decided they didn't want to lose him forever as an attraction. I do dislike superstar opera politics!

[Darkbloom]

I saw Treleaven sing Tristan in Hamburg a couple of years before the ROH Siegfried. At that time, he struck me as barely acceptable and I rolled my eyes when I saw him pencilled in for Covent Garden. He's a Bayreuth veteran but, as others have said, that means not a lot these days. To be brutally frank, there is a whole raft of singers who might be called 'Make Do' Tenors - Robert Dean Smith, Treleaven, Stig Andersen - who basically have careers because opera houses need to programme these operas and they are all that is available. Does anyone remember Wolfgang Muller-Lorenz who sang Tristan for Haitnk back in 2002? I've never seen a singer more cruelly exposed and I had serious worries that he wouldn't be able to do Act 3 at all (he couldn't, but he just about got through it in one piece). I've often wondered how these singers must feel, rubbing shoulders with international basses and sopranos, knowing they are basically there as a last (only) resort......

I remember Wolfgang M-L. As if that wasn't bad enough he was paired with Gabriele Schnaut, who had all the vocal allure of a pneumatic drill. Terrible production too, with red and blue boxes. And yet, it still remains a defining live experience for me, all because of Haitink's conducting. He was even better in the revival; the sound he got from that orchestra is something I will never forget.

On the subject of terrible tenors, let's not forget Wolfgang Fassler, who sang in the Haitink Gotterdammerung. Execrable. A few years later I read he died in a road accident.

[Conchis]

I remember Wolfgang M-L. As if that wasn't bad enough he was paired with Gabriele Schnaut, who had all the vocal allure of a pneumatic drill. Terrible production too, with red and blue boxes. And yet, it still remains a defining live experience for me, all because of Haitink's conducting. He was even better in the revival; the sound he got from that orchestra is something I will never forget.

On the subject of terrible tenors, let's not forget Wolfgang Fassler, who sang in the Haitink Gotterdammerung. Execrable. A few years later I read he died in a road accident.

The first time I saw that Tristan (a horribly misconceived production by Heribert Wernicke), Schnaut was paired with Robert Dean Smith: not a great night out and my companion (who'd never seen Tristan before) came away wondering what all the fuss was about. When it was revived, at the performance I saw Schnaut was replaced by Lisa Gasteen, who was excellent - dramatically committed and vocally secure - and made WML seem even worse than he actually was. I think on the basis of that stand-in, she was offered Brunhilde in the first Warner Ring. Sadly, illness seems to have prematurely ended her career.

Haitink's conducting in 2002 was, as you say, exemplary.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Very encouraging to hear this. I hope they’re all still firing on all cylinders by the second half of October when I’m seeing cycle 3.

Pretty much my reaction -

https://bachtrack.com/review-siegfried-royal-opera-vinke-stemme-siegel-lundgren-pappano-september-2018

[underthecountertenor]

Pretty much my reaction -
https://bachtrack.com/review-siegfri...september-2018

[Nevilevelis]

Pretty much my reaction -
https://bachtrack.com/review-siegfri...september-2018

Great to see this - getting into the mood for Act II of Götterdämmerung tonight!

NVV.

[Conchis]

I notice from the reviews that the Valkyries standing on cows' skulls idea has been retained.

To me, this made for a very flat and (literally) static stage image when the music calls out for MOTION!

Any ideas as to what was behind Warner's thinking here? It's a long time since I've bought programmes, so I missed any explanation that might have been in there.

[Conchis]

Sniffy review of Siegfried in the Guardian today, in which Vinke is praised with faint damns.

Stemme gets a rave, though.

This tends to undermine my faith the reviewers - does she know nothing about singing?

Vinke's acting seems to be criticised but a lot of is down to the 'unlikeability' of the character.

As a production (a few caveats aside), I thought this was the strongest of the Warner Ring.

[Cockney Sparrow]

The reviewer is an Academic:

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/music/people/acad/willson.aspx

I always have the ticket by the time the review appears, so why condition my reaction to the performance? When I read reviews afterwards, too often my own experience bore no relation to the reviewers depiction. If I bother to read reviews beforehand, I'm particularly aware of damning with faint praise - a pernicious technique in reviews of any sort IMO because it means the reviewer escapes challenge on their assertion but nonetheless are sticking the knife in.

Not sure what the above biography of the reviewer implies - doesn't exactly show any great insights from performing experience or long practice of attending performances.

I'm not the person to put any reviewer forward - but can others suggest reviewers who are insightful and report reliably on opera performances?

[Conchis]

The reviewer is an Academic:

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/music/people/acad/willson.aspx

I always have the ticket by the time the review appears, so why condition my reaction to the performance? When I read reviews afterwards, too often my own experience bore no relation to the reviewers depiction. If I bother to read reviews beforehand, I'm particularly aware of damning with faint praise - a pernicious technique in reviews of any sort IMO because it means the reviewer escapes challenge on their assertion but nonetheless are sticking the knife in.

Not sure what the above biography of the reviewer implies - doesn't exactly show any great insights from performing experience or long practice of attending performances.

I'm not the person to put any reviewer forward - but can others suggest reviewers who are insightful and report reliably on opera performances?

Specialist reviewers who work for magazines like Opera Now probably have a more intuitive understanding of the issues faced by singers. Possibly because many of them are ex-singers.

I get the impression the Guardian does not take Opera altogether seriously, in common with most of the dailies.

[underthecountertenor]

Sniffy review of Siegfried in the Guardian today, in which Vinke is praised with faint damns.

Stemme gets a rave, though.

This tends to undermine my faith the reviewers - does she know nothing about singing?

Vinke's acting seems to be criticised but a lot of is down to the 'unlikeability' of the character.

As a production (a few caveats aside), I thought this was the strongest of the Warner Ring.

The review of Die Walküre in The Stage (by Edward Bhesania) had a very odd final paragraph. After criticising Lundgren and the staging of the Ride, he continues:

'But Nina Stemme is predictably wondrous as Brunnhilde, Sarah Connolly coolly perfunctory as Wotan’s wife Fricka; and Stuart Skelton’s suitably heroic Siegmund is matched by Emily Magee’s vulnerable but robustly sung Sieglinde.'

The context would suggest that he is praising all the performers named, but 'coolly perfunctory' does not sound like praise (and nor would I say that it is at all a fair or accurate description of Connolly's performance), leaving me to wonder whether the reviewer knows the meaning of the words used.

[Conchis]

The review of Die Walküre in The Stage (by Edward Bhesania) had a very odd final paragraph. After criticising Lundgren and the staging of the Ride, he continues:

'But Nina Stemme is predictably wondrous as Brunnhilde, Sarah Connolly coolly perfunctory as Wotan’s wife Fricka; and Stuart Skelton’s suitably heroic Siegmund is matched by Emily Magee’s vulnerable but robustly sung Sieglinde.'

The context would suggest that he is praising all the performers named, but 'coolly perfunctory' does not sound like praise (and nor would I say that it is at all a fair or accurate description of Connolly's performance), leaving me to wonder whether the reviewer knows the meaning of the words used.

I agree. That's exactly the kind of 'assessment' guaranteed to demoralise a performer if they read it and fill them with insecurity ('Does he mean I'm not engaged with the character? Does he mean I'm not pulling my weight?'). It's ambiguous: it could mean he thinks that Connolly plays a cold fish very well but I thin most readers will perceived it as a slight.

[underthecountertenor]

I agree. That's exactly the kind of 'assessment' guaranteed to demoralise a performer if they read it and fill them with insecurity ('Does he mean I'm not engaged with the character? Does he mean I'm not pulling my weight?'). It's ambiguous: it could mean he thinks that Connolly plays a cold fish very well but I thin most readers will perceived it as a slight.

[gurnemanz]

I agree. That's exactly the kind of 'assessment' guaranteed to demoralise a performer if they read it and fill them with insecurity ('Does he mean I'm not engaged with the character? Does he mean I'm not pulling my weight?'). It's ambiguous: it could mean he thinks that Connolly plays a cold fish very well but I thin most readers will perceived it as a slight.

I watched the Castorf Bayreuth Ring via German TV on a satellite dish and was impressed with Connolly's Fricka, as was the reviewer at Wagneropera.net:

Sarah Connolly’s Fricka was a tour de force of vocal acting; her disquiet, yet her need at some point to reconcile herself with what was going on, whatever her distaste (her character’s distaste, that is) for the sub-Dallas antics around her, were powerful, provocative, partly on account of their lack of exaggeration.

I can't imagine that her ROH interpretation can be hugely different or that she has become uninvolved or uncommitted, which the negative interpretation of "perfunctory" might imply. I assume it means a good interpretation of a character performing coolly amid mayhem. Anyway ... I shall find out for myself later this month.

I noticed that Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Flosshilde at that Bayreuth Ring, has been "promoted" and has been highly praised as Erda in the current show.

[Darkbloom]

I agree. That's exactly the kind of 'assessment' guaranteed to demoralise a performer if they read it and fill them with insecurity ('Does he mean I'm not engaged with the character? Does he mean I'm not pulling my weight?'). It's ambiguous: it could mean he thinks that Connolly plays a cold fish very well but I thin most readers will perceived it as a slight.

I wonder whether they meant punctilious rather than perfunctory, Fricka being all about observing the rules. Opera reviewers are often guilty of trying to sum up singers with a few ill-chosen words. David Nice in the Arts Desk was more appreciative, he also mentioned that Lundgren was feeling ill for the first two operas and that Vinke will be giving his 100th performance as Siegfried during this run.