Reflections on Los Angeles Opera’s Ring Cycle
The end of the world has come and with it a sense of renewal. And so it is with the completion of the Los Angeles Opera company’s complete Ring Cycle. Much speculation and discussion has occurred since the first installment of Das Rheingold was unveiled approximately two years ago with many taking an “either/ or” side on whether they like or abhorred Achim Freyer’s new production. As successive installments were revealed, the gulf between those that liked and those that disliked Freyer’s concept seemed to grow ever wider, culminating in a boycott by some ardent Wagnerians of LA’s production. While I suspect that LA Opera’s decision to elongate the cycle from the usual six days to nine prohibited many from attending, I feel safe in saying that many also chose not to attend due to the controversial staging of Freyer’s production.
It is clear, however, that Freyer has created a unique Ring that will not soon be forgotten. Much like the recent film, "Avatar", in which James Cameron and his staff created an entire new world that included human-like creatures, plants, and animals that transported the viewer into a place we had never experienced before, Freyer has done exactly the same thing in his version of the Ring. Characters are not what we expect them to look like, scenery is not what we expect it to be, and even the interaction between characters (or lack thereof) is not what we expect. But never-the-less, Freyer creates a strong symbolic visual language that is hard to erase from one’s memory even after a month, or more, has passed since viewing the production. One is certain that Freyer’s production will most certainly be remembered in years to come much in the same way the Patrice Chereau’s production is today; controversial at the time, but regarded as an important landmark in production history years later.
This is not to say that everything in Freyer’s production worked, or was easily digested. One certainly was challenged by this staging; nothing was to be taken for granted, nor easily dismissed. Rheingold was a steep learning curve. It was full of an immense amount of inventive and creative visual language, but often these symbols were not immediately understood. It was not until the other operas in the cycle were viewed that this visual language became more clear. Whimsical elements such as the magnifying lenses that enlarged Fasolt and Fafner’s faces, the rainbow colored accordion held by Froh, and Donner’s airplane were easily identifiable, but the parade of characters later in the opera, such as a king rolling a golden Ring, a top hatted, spotted dog, the Charlie Brown-like character who removed his large head, and the prostitute-like figure remained more elusive. And often, many characters were shown with doubles that performed actions while the singer/character often remained stationary. Some of this became clearer later in the cycle, but patience was needed to offset feelings of frustration early on.
Challenging as it may be, it is this abundance of characters and scenery that become more distracting as the cycle progressed. By the end of Act III of Die Walküre, the stage was so littered with props (the Valkyries’ horse/bicycle contraptions that eventually became the fire surrounding Brünnhilde), that it detracted from the poignancy of the scene between Wotan and Brünnhilde as she was about to sink into her prolonged sleep, and many of the scenes in Götterdämmerung seemed so crowded with singers, actors, and other scenic elements that one hardly knew where to focus one’s attention. This created a conflict that seemed at odds with Wagner’s concept of the “total work of art.” Throughout much of the cycle the harmony between visual and aural seemed out of balance and not in proportion to each other. In many ways the music seemed to take second place to the production itself.
By contrast, Freyer’s production seemed to work best when things were simplified. There was a graceful elegance to Act I, scene I of Die Walküre. The action, played on the face of a clock-like surface, seemed to move easily between present and past time as a silent, Lycra clad figure moved the arm of the clock forward and backwards as indicated by the story. The use of track lanes simply, and effectively, conveyed the ideas that everyone in Siegfried was trying to beat out the others in order to obtain the all-powerful Ring, and the prologue of Götterdämmerung was staged in a restrained manner that suggested the eternal cosmos as the Norns moved about the stage while geometric figures of circles and triangles floated around and above them. In all of these scenes, one was able to “relax” which allowed more time to concentrate on the music rather than the visuals.
Freyer’s world is unabashedly visual and theatrical. One only has to look at the costumes of Alberich, Siegfried, and Hagen, to name a few, to recognize the comic book influences, and the deliberately “low-tech” approach to some of the other scenic elements (e.g., Grane) to feel that perhaps Freyer is “dumbing down” of one of the greatest works of art. But Freyer forces us to view the characters and other elements in the Ring in a totally new and different way; a way in which we will never confuse his Ring with any another’s; a way in which our “traditional” view of the Ring is challenged. The scenery and costumes may not be “pretty” but then again, Freyer’s concept of Wagner’s world is not pretty either. It’s a dark world that is full of illusions, greed and evil; a dark world that is equally represented on stage as mainly a single illuminated circle in an otherwise all black environment.
As devotees of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, we are accustomed to the huge demands placed on the singers, instrumentalists and the audience in presenting such a monumental work. In turn, Freyer places no less of a demand on us while viewing his production. Whatever one felt about Freyer’s production, one can not dismiss the idea he had a clear vision about his work, and much time and thought went into presenting a unique Ring cycle that will not soon be forgotten. Perhaps this was the best possible Ring Cycle for Los Angeles. Los Angeles is hardly a city steeped in tradition; it is constantly revitalizing itself with new trends, fashions, and style, and Freyer’s Ring was as untraditional as the city itself. It will be of interest to see if and when Freyer’s Ring will be produced again.
From Kris March in Vallejo:
I was in L.A. for 10 long days (the performance schedule was maddening) for the 1st Ring cycle, and then attended the SF Walküre Sunday June 13; what a difference in tone and approach! The L.A. staging was so confusing and cluttered than I lost my way (this could be chalked up to my mental limitations, however). For example, Fricka suddenly shows up on stage during Siegfried....(well, we shouldn't see her after the end of Act II in DW) so I spent a great deal of mental time and energy trying to figure out what she's doing on stage, what it means, will she sing, etc., while missing part of the opera. There are dancer-Wotans, singer-Wotans and Wotans who just stand around like large puppets; I was confused as to who was what when. I'm sure the artistic vision is quite avant-garde, but Siegfried looked like Bozo the Clown to me (well, okay, he is a bozo, but still....). I must say that James Conlon did a very fine job with the orchestra (and with the pre-opera talks), and that singing from Linda Watson, Graham Clark (as Mime) and Placido (of course) was first-rate. It also bothered me that the singers didn't touch each other or show physical emotion (versus the SF Walküre which was very touchy-feely). I'll be curious to see what others think as I'm probably not a good judge of this type of visualization; it seemed so out-of-focus to me.
Bill Elkins in Long Beach writes:
| I did see the LA production of the Ring Cycle twice and I must take issue with the principal thrust of the reviews concerning its visual aspects. I have attended traditional stagings of the Ring in Vienna and the Met and must say that I found this production to be superb. Conlon and the LA Opera orchestra was very good, the singing ranged from adequate to outstanding (Linda Watson), but the real joy here was the staging. I was mesmerized by the beautiful lighting, stage props replete with Jungian symbolism and the adept manipulation of color and light that made this ring cycle a much more intellectually stimulating experience while retaining fine singing and storytelling. The third and final cycle started Friday and it is a real shame that this production is not being filmed for DVD, because the visual elements of this production are really remarkable.
This production is not perfect, however, LA Opera made a big mistake spreading each cycle over 9 days, instead of the customary 6 days. This resulted in disappointing ticket sales. None of the 3 cycles was sold out, and cycle tickets had to be reduced significantly in an effort to bring more people in.
|
And David Marsten in Calistoga gets the last word:
The Ring in Los Angeles (their first ever!) had some striking imagery as one might expect from respected German artist Achim Freyer {who was designer, director, costume designer, and lighting director}.
The most effective touch was staging Siegfried as a kind of foot-race......with Siegfried himself a late entry ('running' against Alberich, Mime, and Wotan).
The Siegfried (John Trelevan) was inexhaustible vocally....but he also presented one of the strangest characterizations I have ever seen. This Siegfried was weird looking with odd hair - he looked like an escapee from a lunatic asylum. He was pathologically self-absorbed with utterly no interest in the motivation of others. One wonders why
Brünnhilde could conceivably take any interest in this monster (granted he is the result of an incestuous union)
Brünnhilde (Linda Watson) started Die Walküre with some pitch problems but soon found herself securely in the role. She was vocally vibrant throughout (although she and others in the cast complained about the steep rake of the stage). And Freyer had her endure some pretty strange stuff (i.e. the end of Siegfried more resembled the Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome).
Wotan (Vitalij Kowaljow) was a tremendously powerful Bass-Baritone - acted and sang with great potency, despite having to wear some rather silly costumes.
Graham Clark (Mime) and Richard Paul Fink (Alberich) have secured these roles in many halls and never disappoint. They managed to project their voices through clever full masks.
In Die Walküre Michelle DeYoung (who sang Fricka in Das Rheingold) graciously stepped in to sing Sieglinde while Ekaterina Semenchuk took over the role of Fricka masterfully.
The other outstanding vocal role was the Gunther (Alan Held) - sometimes a weaker voice is chosen to reflect his wimpy character.....but Held was heroic.
One especially fascinating touch was the depiction of Hagen (Eric Halverson) - he was personified as a dwarf, realized by Halverson carrying around a diminutive body like a ventriloquist's dummy, but using his own arms in the doll. Very cleverly devised and carried out, and hammering home the concept that Gunther's step-brother was fathered by a dwarf.
The final question might be made about the basic issue that has plagued this whole production. Granted when the company decided to launch the Ring, we were in better economic times.....but once launched, it was hard to stop. The figure of $34 million was spent on special effects (which one could argue did more to distract rather than instruct) and a less than expected sale of tickets could lead this company to a serious impasse.
I reflected that during this First Cycle, the Disney Corporation released a film "The Prince of Persia" to less than glowing reviews....and that film allegedly cost $200 million. Both the Los Angeles Opera and the Disney Corporation are in the entertainment business and both are taking great risks. I think General Director Placido Domingo should be praised for attempting this bold, striking and, at times, brilliant Ring. It does speak to our times.
And for more on the LA Ring...
Here's a YouTube video of an interview with Achim Freyer from 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GjEZw8kNY0
And a pithy Ring article on Huffington Post by Ivan Katz:
How Do You Lose $5,960,000 on an Opera?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ivan-katz-/how-do-you-lose-5960000-o_b_638092.html
Thanks to all who contributed. If anyone else has any comments or rebuttals, I'd love to post them. Send them to trish.wsnc@gmail.com or post them in the comments.
-Trish
