London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski conductor. PJ Harris director. Burkhard Fritz tenor, Siegfried; Svetlana Sozdateleva soprano, Brünnhilde; Albert Dohman bass, Hagen; Günter Papendell baritone, Gunther; Sinéad Campbell Wallace soprano, Gutrune; Robert Hayward baritone, Alberich; Kai Rüütel-Pajula mezzo-soprano, Waltraute; Claudia Huckle contralto, 1st Norn; Claire Barnett-Jones mezzo-soprano, 2nd Norn; Evelina Dobraceva soprano, 3rd Norn; Alina Adamski soprano, Woglinde; Verity Wingate soprano, Wellgunde; Angharad Lyddon mezzo-soprano, Flosshilde; London Philharmonic Choir and London Voices
This is, I think, the 5th live Gotterdammerung I’ve heard in the past 16 years – the others being Halle/Elder (concert), ROHCG/Pappano, Opera North/ Farnes (concert) and the 2022 Valentin Schwarz Bayreuth production. Few of the principals for this performance are singers I’ve come across before – but I have heard Albert Dohman at Bayreuth singing Hagen, and there is the ever-reliable Robert Hayward as Alberich. I never heard Jurowski’s Rheingold and Valkyrie but I did hear him and the LPO performing Siegfried’ in concert form in early February 2020, and had got tickets for what was supposed to be a complete Ring cycle in February 2021- that, as you can tell by the date, never happened. It’s great that Gotterdammerung at least has now been performed. I had much enjoyed the Siegfried performance more than 4 years ago
I enjoyed this performance hugely, and the 4hrs.45 mins or so of performance seemed to speed by – I was barely conscious of time and of anything dragging. When you listen and see this piece live, in one go, you become more aware of how magnificently concise the work is – not at all sprawling This altogether was a far more intense experience in fact than either of the two theatre performances I’ve seen of this work in recent years. There were several reasons for this.
The setting of course was a concert performance but nevertheless those responsible for staging (and there was a director and lighting designer credited) had managed to create a coherent stage picture – everyone knew their lines and there were no music stands, the videos screened on the back wall behind the organ were effective and not over-the-top, exits and entrances made sense, there were a few props (a nice touch being a jacket to symbolise the dead Siegfried) or agreed ways of demonstrating something with hands, and there was some simple projected narration. All the singers reacted to each other and were fully ‘in’ their roles, even seeming to look the part though not in costume – for instance Waltraute’s glittery long dress aptly signalled a visitor from another world when she comes to see Brunnhilde. Finally, there was intelligent variation in the performing space between the front of the stage and the choir area, and exits and entrances were all unobtrusively managed. There were a few oddities – why no video of water (which was used in the Rhinemaidens’ scene in Act 3) when Siegfried reaches the Rhine in the Prologue, and why no narrative explaining the last 5 minutes of the opera? – but these were minor issues…..
The conducting of Vladimir Jurowski and the playing of the LPO were of a very high standard. I was able to compare the rendition of the ‘Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine journey’ and ‘Immolation’ scene with the Vassily Petrenko (another conductor I admire) performances 6 weeks ago at the RAH and there was no doubting the superiority of Jurowski’s handling of the ebb and flow of the music and bringing out its inner voices. The love duet in the prologue was quite slow and measured, with much sweetness of tone from the violins and some beautiful woodwind playing, with a thrilling Rhine Journey to follow. The last 5 orchestral minutes of the work were again grandly slow – one of the most effectively performed endings I’ve heard of this piece, with the Rhinemaidens’ song paced slowly enough to have a real lilt and the ‘redemption’ theme played at a pace appropriate to achieving its full impact. Throughout Jurowski showed this clear and sensitive response to the music – Act 2 as it should be was fast and furious in the wedding scene, and really exciting; the funeral march imposing and among the best I’ve heard – critically it was given space to unfold and wasn’t pushed along too quickly . I was also aware in the big orchestral set-pieces that Jurowski had been very effective in holding the volume back earlier when accompanying the singers – there were really only a few moments when they were submerged in the orchestral melee. I was also much taken by the clarity of detail, the pacing and the delicacy of the Act 3 scene between Siegfried and the Rhinemaidens, which I can sometimes get a bit restless in listening to but which in this performance was absorbing . There many other glorious moments I could mention – I’ll just highlight the scene in Act 1 with Waltraute where again the pacing allowed all the beauty and majesty and passion of the music to come through.
All this was complemented by a really excellent group of singers, all of whom were totally convincing in their roles. There were four stand-outs, but no weak links: Siegfried, Brunnhilde, Hagen and Gutrune. Burkhard Fritz as Siegfried was very impressive – he had a strong voice, made more of an attempt than quite a few to encompass the lyrical aspects of the role and he hit the top notes fearlessly. The narration in Act 3 was outstanding. Only at the very end was his voice maybe beginning to flag a bit – but that’s understandable in such a demanding role. He had a good stage presence – maybe a bit inappropriately relaxed at times – and conveyed very effectively the complacent unawareness of the doped Siegfried in Act 2. Svetlana Sozdateleva as Brunnhilde offered a far more absorbing portrayal of the role than many. She has a beautiful warm voice, very effective in the middle and lower registers, and, in the Waltraute scene and the Immolation was very moving indeed, with some beautiful shadings of her voice for, for instance, Ruhe du Gott’. She was also able to cut through the storm of the wedding scene with some powerful upper notes, and portrayed Brunnhilde very clearly and convincingly in all her different moods – tender, imperious, raging. What she does not have is the ability to ping out the very top notes convincingly – she opted out of the high C at the end of the Prologue love duet and there were a couple of notes in the Immolation scene that were wild grabs at an approximate pitch, almost shouted, rather than anything else. To me, this didn’t matter very much, so convincing, so deeply moving, was her overall performance. Albert Dohman as Hagen was about as good as you can get – he has the right voice, the diction, the height, to be a great singer in this role, and he was! I doubt if I have seen a better Hagen – at least in recent years. He impressed me also at Bayreuth in 2022. And Sinead Campbell Wallace was very effective as Gutrune – a lovely voice, and a very good actor, getting across very effectively to the audience the vulnerability, the innocence, the tragedy of her character. But also Robert Hayward was an excellent Alberich, and there were creditable Rhinemaidens and Norns – plus the chorus was incisive and thrilling in the wedding scene. Gunther Pappendell I am not sure what I would make of in other contexts – perhaps a bit of an under-projected performance and maybe not particularly distinguished vocally -but of course that makes perfect sense as far as Gunther is concerned. I was also very impressed by Kai Ruutel-Pajula as Waltraute – a comanding presence and a gorgeous voice.
I see that Jurowski is starting a Ring at his new job in Munich – I suspect we shan’t see in London another attempt at the cycle projected for 2021, sadly. Will I be around in London for the next likely live rendition of this at Covent Garden in ?? 2027 or 2028. Who knows….though there is the Regents Opera slimmed down version of the Ring to look forward to in February 2025………..
John's musical journey 