Germany Wagner, Die Walküre: Soloists, Refrain of Saarländisches Staatstheater. Saarländisches Staatsorchester / Stefan Neubert (conductor). Saarländisches Staatstheater, Saarbrücken, 29.6.2024. (DMD)

Manufacturing:
Course, Stage and Costume design – Alexandra Szemerédy, Magdolna Parditka
Lighting design – Thomas Roscher
Video – Leonard Koch
Dramaturgy – Benjamin Wäntig

Solid:
Sieglinde – Ingegjerd Bagøien Moen
Siegmund – Peter Sonn
Hunding – Hiroshi Matsui
Wotan – Thomas Johannes Mayer
Brünnhilde – Aile Asszonyi
Fricka – Judith Braun
Gerhilde – Elizabeth Wiles
Ortlinde – Advantage Nath-Göbl
Waltraute – Judith Braun
Schwertleite – Maria Polańska
Helmwige – Valda Wilson
Siegrune – Johanna Jaworowska
Grimgerde – Clara-Sophie Bertram
Rossweisse – Carmen Seibel
Freia – Elizabeth Wiles
Loge – Mario Ferber

The setting that the group collectively liable for directing in addition to stage and costume design – Alexandra Szemerédy and Magdolna Parditka – had created for the miniature universe of Die Walküre, was that of a laboratory. The corporate had a reputation and corresponding brand, WLLHLL, paying homage to Valhalla (within the German spelling). Freia, and Loge (from Das Rheingold) have been lab assistants, Hunding was a lab physician, Fricka a lab nurse with managerial powers representing an ethics committee of some variety. The twins Siegmund and Sieglinde have been the present major analysis topics, the Valkyries have been the outcomes of former experiments. Wotan dominated supreme because the chief scientist of the lab. All creatures had blond hair that appeared synthetic, the lab employees wore white lab garments, the topics of their experiments wore training-suit-like outfits in black and white. It was all very medical, equally primarily black and white, with the three phrases ‘wird / might be or will change into)’, ‘struggle’ (was, has been), and ‘ist’ (is) organized within the three attainable sequences above and subsequent to one another. There have been many assumed and real entrance and exit choices, some with sliding doorways, some unnoticeable within the partitions. The management room was positioned, and visual for among the scenes, on a stage above the principle lab space the place the experiments occurred. One thing was occurring on this house all through, displays confirmed digital camera pictures of different areas, different screens represented displays of life features, different screens confirmed rotating 3D pictures of the mind, there was a DNA mannequin in everlasting gradual spinning movement, and a modified mannequin human skeleton.

It could take a very long time to relate the methods wherein this directorial idea labored intimately, to analyse how kind of placing concepts emanating from the idea associated to the plot, libretto and rating. What was the importance, for instance, of getting Wotan’s management over the Valkyries represented by him working a sensible watch which apparently triggered a mind implant within the Valkyries? Or that Siegmund and Sieglinde have been bodily separated at first – they communicated solely by means of their brains. Solely later have been the partitions between their lab cells eliminated and so they encountered one another in ‘individual’. On the finish, Brünnhilde’s genetic and mind data was extracted and saved, her physique cremated. All the opposite Valkyries have been launched of their Valkyrie standing, that they had a short second of completely happy shock earlier than they collapsed (and ‘died’?)

There have been thus many visible stimuli, most of which have been clearly apparent as having been supposed by the manufacturing group. For different elements of the manufacturing it was not so clear whether or not they have been supposed or in reality indications that the services obtainable to grasp the idea weren’t fairly as much as the intentions: At instances the sounds of the stage equipment shifting a part of the set interwove with, and even overshadowed the music; cumbersome components of the set crashed into one another noisily, triggering temporary however alarmed glances from the singers, who additionally wanted to watch out until part of the partitions they leant in opposition to was in reality a door that gave approach to their weight. Some smaller partitions, people who initially separated Sieglinde and Siegmund’s lab cells, have been clearly wobbly.

As somebody inquisitive about science normally and science labs particularly, I used to be inquisitive about whether or not all of it ‘labored’ or not. I may think about that somebody not as conversant in the ideas on the core of the manufacturing might have discovered them puzzling, and their multitude each overwhelming and distracting from, fairly than including to, the music and singing. I noticed some members of the viewers sitting with their eyes closed. The music was at a really excessive stage certainly. The efficiency was performed by Stefan Neubert, the corporate’s long-serving First Kapellmeister. He introduced out many refined nuances of the rating, emphasising the complete potential of all of the mild and emotional materials. The quantity was held again for a lot of the night, permitting the louder passages to return to the fore much more strikingly.

The singers have been in a position to have interaction within the refined elements of their components extra simply and thus extra absolutely, fairly than having to pay an excessive amount of consideration to the quantity of their voices in relation to the orchestra. Peter Sonn as Siegmund excelled within the lyrical nature of the music composed for Siegmund with a radiantly vivid higher vary, leaving enough power for well-supported and interesting cries of ‘Wälse!’ He was significantly spectacular within the second act. Ingegjerd Bagøien Moen sounded youthfully contemporary as Sieglinde, with a powerful higher register, whereas the decrease vary of the voice will profit from additional improvement. Hiroshi Matsui as Hunding was convincing along with his very giant, booming bass, which he struggled solely sometimes to maintain in focus.

The vastly skilled Thomas Johannes Mayer was a superb Wotan: his bass-baritone was wealthy, his intonation exact. His musicality allowed him to sing fairly than recite the lengthy Act II narrations, and he and conductor Neubert celebrated the quantity of Wotan’s Farewell, beginning with a towering ‘Leb wohl’. The assistant director introduced Aile Asszonyi’s indisposition at first of the night. There have been solely few uneasy moments of coughing and some dropped excessive notes for Brünnhilde’s opening exclamations, however in any other case any indisposition went unnoticed: this was a really achieved efficiency, most actually among the many better of her friends on this demanding position. Fricka was conceptualised as equally younger and fairly than as a extra mature lady (as in most productions that comply with the libretto extra intently on this respect). Judith Braun introduced out the musical arcs attribute of this position very properly certainly, along with her wealthy and appropriately youthful mezzo-soprano voice. The singers solid because the eight Valkyries sang with joyful abandon

To finish with a curious incident noteworthy on condition that problematic know-how featured so prominently within the manufacturing: at the beginning of the third act, all cell phones within the auditorium that had not been turned off however have been in flight mode, rang with the particular piercing alarm sound from an app alerting individuals to a pure catastrophe, and formally triggered by town administration. On this case it was a serious gale-force thunderstorm with excessive rain. The efficiency was interrupted, a workers member defined to individuals what was occurring and requested them to go away instantly in the event that they wished to take action …and to show off their telephones. No person left. One of many singers had her personal cell phone in her costume, didn’t know the right way to flip it off within the haste and gave it to a workers member offstage to take the place it will not disturb the efficiency any longer. The efficiency resumed after 5 minutes.

Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe

Featured Picture: Saarländisches Staatstheater, Saarbrücken © Martin Kaufhold.