Germany Wagner, Die Walküre: Soloists, Chorus and Extras of Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, Oldenburgisches Staatsorchester / Vito Cristofaro (conductor). “Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, 17.1.2024. (DMD)
Production:
Director – Paul Esterhazy
Revival director – Mathilda Kochan
Stage and Costume design – Mathis Neidhardt
Lighting design – Ernst Engel/ Regina Kirsch
Dramaturgy – Stephanie Twiehaus
Cast:
Siegmund – Martin Iliev
Hunding – Sami Luttinen
Wotan – Kihun Yoon
Sieglinde – Ann-Beth Solvang
Brünnhilde – Nancy Weissbach
Fricka – Kathrin Göring
Gerhilde – Joo-Anne Bitter
Ortlinde – Susanne Serfling
Waltraute – Maren Engelhardt
Schwertleite – Maiju Vaahtoluoto
Helmwige – Martha Eason
Siegrune – Nana Dzidziguri
Grimgerde – Sarah Alexandra Hudarew
Rossweisse – Hanna Larissa Naujoks
In Oldenburg, Die Walküre (as part of a complete Ring) is a major artistic achievement, defying any location or company size-related prejudice. Oldenburg State Theatre offers the full range of performing arts: theatre, opera, ballet, music and theatre for children. Opera is mainly presented in the largest theatre space in the main neo-baroque building dating from the late-nineteenth century. With some 500 seats it is among the smaller theatre and opera houses in Germany. The city itself is at a fair distance away from major hubs such as Hamburg. Owing to its location and size, this kind of opera house might be called provincial, always a problematic prejudice! With a budget and staff shared by the entire theatre, staging Wagner’s Ring over a number of years is a very ambitious financial and artistic challenge. The company in Oldenburg embarked on this project in 2017 but plans to present the first three full Ring cycles in the company’s history in 2020 were postponed to 2022 because of the pandemic. Die Walküre has now been revived for three performances.
The director, Paul Esterhazy, received much media praise for a consistent concept across the four parts of the Ring. The sets place much emphasis on several rooms arranged on a revolving stage (an idea I also saw in the Zürich Ring). At the beginning of Die Walküre, running wolves are projected, in silhouette, against the grey outside walls of a wooden building. A man, obviously Siegmund, wearing the wolfskin he later refers to, complete with wolf head, opens the door to that building and runs in. The walls slide sideways, revealing the interior – the door through which Siegmund just entered is at the back of the stage, a hallway leads towards the front, with one room each branching off to the left and right. Further rooms are located next to these, made visible through the revolving stage when necessary. Sometimes the characters move first, as the revolving stage follows their movement, almost seeming to set the agenda. The interior is equally grey, rural and rustic both for Hunding’s abode and for Valhalla. Costumes indicate the roles that the characters play in that world: Wotan and Fricka are wealthy farmers, with Fricka suffering from goitre and in need of wheelchair for longer distances. The first scene in Act II takes place in Wotan and Fricka’s bedroom. Brünnhilde’s horse, Grane, is represented by a very old man in rags and on two walking sticks, who moves about slowly and sits down as much as possible, usually in some dark corner or in the hallways, resting his head on his hands placed on the two walking sticks. Hunding is a war veteran (injured, limping). When he is at home, Sieglinde must not stand upright: she squats when not moving, and crawls on her hands and knees to get around in the house. Physical abuse from Hunding is a daily experience for her. The Valkyries wear bloodied butchers’ aprons, they handle the corpses they receive as if in a morgue, complete with autopsy table and open shelves; if new arrivals are not completely dead yet, the Valkyries unceremoniously, cheerfully and efficiently cut their throats with their butchers’ knives.
The size of the company and the theatre space had implications for the production: from a smallish pit, the orchestra cannot unleash fortissimo playing into a small theatre space for long, for fear of the sound becoming literally painful to hear. Conductor Vito Cristofaro, new to Die Walküre, was keenly aware of this and led his orchestra with great care to lively and energetic but at the same time rather gentle, sensitive and thoughtful playing – without allowing the tension to sag. Some parts of the brass were at first a little shaky but warmed up in due course.
Only Kihun Yoon and Ann-Beth Solvang, the singers of Wotan and Sieglinde, are members of the resident company. Another company member, Melanie Lang, announced as Fricka, had to withdraw at short notice to be replaced by Kathrin Göring, who is singing Fricka at the current Opera Leipzig revival of Die Walküre (review here). The other characters were all sung by guest artists. The directors of Oldenburg State Theatre managed to assemble a cast that was homogenous in terms of achievement – rather than having a more uneven mix of abilities. Yoon sang Wotan with great commitment; he took care not to exceed his abilities, opting for some very calm and laid-back passages in the narrations, thus allowing him to retain the strength needed for a remarkable ‘Leb wohl’ at the end. Solvang sang Sieglinde with equal strength across the registers, with an emphasis on the developing love for Siegmund. Martin Iliev had initial difficulties with intonation and wobble – with considerable improvement after the cries of ‘Wälse’, which seemed to have warmed up his voice. From then on, he sang with much more ease, certainly reliable and even with tonal beauty for some passages. Hunding’s nastiness came across intensely in Samit Luttinen’s acting. It was all the more impressive that his singing was not reduced to shouting and barking: he demonstrated an alert awareness and expression of the beauty of the music Wagner created even for this despicable character. Nancy Weissbach sang Brünnhilde. Her voice is strong – she rides above the orchestra with ease (not only because the orchestra was playing gently). She is a singer with a brilliant, white rather than golden upper register and gleaming, sustained top notes to start with. She has developed similar strength for the well-rounded and full middle and lower registers required for the part of Brünnhilde. Kathrin Göring sang Fricka as beautifully as she had when I saw her in Leipzig a few days ago. The eight guest singers cast as the Valkyries enjoyed both their singing and acting their roles.
Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe
Featured image: Oldenburgisches Staatstheater