<\/strong>Lyric Theatre, <\/strong>Queensland Performing Arts Centre<\/strong>
December 1, 3, 5, 7, and until December 21
<\/strong>Reviewed by PETER McCALLUM
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Director Chen Shi-Zheng\u2019s digital production of Wagner\u2019s 16-hour, four-part Der Ring des Nibelungen<\/i> swirls with vivid, sometimes gaudy colour, reimagining the allegorical world Wagner created from Norse myth as a \u201cmultiverse\u201d of science-fiction and fantasy.<\/p>\n
Gone are the symbols of Teutonic culture, the spare austerity of European postwar Ring<\/i> productions, dark sociopolitical critique and the anarchic fragmentation of post-dramatic theatre. This futuristic production is full of gorgeous light from designer Matthew Marshall, beckoning the wide-eyed awe of delighted laughing children (as the goddess Fricka describes the appeal of the gold).<\/p>\n
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The arrival of the Valkyries prompted cheers from younger audience members.<\/span>Credit: <\/span> <\/cite><\/p>\n At moments we become those children, captivated by technological spectacle or by the older theatrical devices of trapeze artistry and stick puppets magically animated to living form and grace.<\/p>\n In the first evening, Das Rheingold<\/i>, Rhine maidens dive and splash against eddying green light around a large rock of Queensland coral from associate set designer Maruti Evans. For the rainbow bridge in the final scene of that opera, digital designer Leigh Sachwitz and flora&faunavisions create a scene like something from 2001: A Space Odyssey<\/i>, the gods walking magisterially towards the luminous radiance of distant stars.<\/p>\n In the second evening, Die Walkure<\/i>, the arrival of the Valkyries aboard a metallic-feathered \u201cphoenix jet\u201d, in a meretricious burst of crimson indulgence, prompted cheers from younger audience members and disapproval from captious Wagnerians.<\/p>\n The final scene of the last opera (on the fourth evening) Gotterdammerung<\/i> exploded in stage wonder and immersive video, realising Wagner\u2019s impractical aspirational stage directions with greater fidelity than he probably imagined was possible.<\/p>\n All of that, however, would not sustain 16 hours of engrossing music theatre over four nights were it not for an outstanding cast and the subtly nuanced, rewardingly varied textures of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra under conductor Philippe Auguin.<\/p>\n As Brunhilde, Lise Lindstrom moved from flashing wildness, gleaming vitality and glowing humility in Die Walkure<\/i>, vulnerable warmth and joy in Siegfried<\/i> on the third night, through to riveting vengeance and sweeping transcendence in the close of final opera Gotterdammerung<\/i>.<\/p>\n Stefan Vinke sang Siegfried in the last two operas with unflaggingly robust strength and indefatigable stamina. His voice is well polished but not narcissistically so, its natural contours shaping the surface the way grain gives beauty to seasoned oak. Their love duet at the end of Siegfried<\/i> on an inverted rock, cross-supported with spears, was a towering highlight, starting at a tense and awkward distance as they negotiated intimacy, and a thrilling strength at the close.<\/p>\n Digital video adds another dimension for reinforcement and intensification.<\/span>Credit: <\/span> <\/cite><\/p>\n Daniel Sumegi\u2019s Wotan was part patrician, part guru, part CEO, his voice worn, phlegmatic and fierce in crisis-management mode, gradually assuming a wider grain and loftier hue as self-awareness grows. As Fricka, Deborah Humble had rounded complacency in Das Rheingold<\/i>, finding insistent vocal strength in her confrontation with Wotan in Die Walkure<\/i>.<\/p>\n Warwick Fyfe discovered multifaceted complexity in the gold-stealing Alberich, singing the first scene with surprisingly congenial affability for one intent on world domination, before finding a memorably fierce edge as he laid a curse on the ring. His scenes with Sumegi in act two of Siegfried<\/i> and with Andrea Silvestrelli as Hagen in Gotterdammerung<\/i> were tensely etched studies in dramatic darkness. Silvestrelli sang with the roughness of gravel and the strength of stone, creating an aggressive Fafner, a brutally violent Hunding, and a wearily malevolent Hagen.<\/p>\n In the first act of Die Walkure<\/i>, in which the love of Sieglinde and Siegmund, incestuous parents of Siegfried, develops, the set was a single augmented bonsai tree with the digital screens quietened, allowing Rosario La Spina, singing Siegmund with well-finished expressiveness, Anna-Louise Cole (Sieglinde) and Silvestrelli (Hunding) to create a taught love\/hate triangle, eventually overflowing with lyricism.<\/p>\n Cole, who is to sing Brunhilde in the final cycle of this season, cowed at Hunding\u2019s violence but had wonderfully open warmth and power. In the final act of Die Walkure<\/i> she delivered a brief but spellbinding moment of intensity at the point where Brunhilde tells her she is going to have a baby boy \u2013 a musical hapax legomenon<\/i> in that the theme only occurs once before the very final scene of the cycle two operas later. Lorina Gore, Jane Ede and Dominica Matthews gave the Rhine maidens an even, golden sound and quasi-symmetrical phrasing without flirtatious surges of pace.<\/p>\n A scene from Das Rheingold.<\/span>Credit: <\/span> <\/cite><\/p>\n With impressive dreadlocks and fingers like plant roots from costume designer Anita Yavich, Liane Keegan, as Erda, rose like an exotic herb pulled from the ground to deliver warnings of gloomy firmness. Andreas Conrad articulated the peevishness of Mime with pointedly focused voice, and Hubert Francis sang Loge with impish impertinence and light, crisp tone.<\/p>\n Luke Gabbedy had broad vocal strength to portray the weakness of Gunther and Maija Kovalevska sang Gutrune with true clarity. Conductor Auguin was unhurried but precise, allowing for excellent diction from the singers, and rhythms that matched speech patterns as Wagner intended.<\/p>\n Occasionally, as in the opening of Das Rheingold<\/i> and Die Walkure<\/i>, one felt the music could have surged forward more capriciously or impetuously. Although the aerial trapeze dancing was captivating, I found Akasia Ruth Inchaustegui\u2019s choreography on the ground less convincing, particularly the thigh slapping at the close of Das Rheingold<\/i>, which emphasised the foursquare structure of Wagner\u2019s phrases and made them sound trite.<\/p>\n Recent digital productions have sometimes overplayed technical wizardry to the point of distraction, like someone playing with a new computer program. For me (though perhaps not for the solitary boo-er at the final curtain) this was avoided here by letting the digital screens fall silent at times and elsewhere synchronising image and dramatic action.<\/p>\n Although he espoused the idea of a Gesamtkunstwerk<\/i> \u2013 a complete art work \u2013 Wagner largely built the ebb and flow of dramatic tension on the three pillars of text, voice and orchestra.<\/p>\n Digital video adds another dimension for reinforcement and intensification not unlike that which Wagner conceived for the orchestra and, as Shi-Zheng showed here, offers a brave new world of possibilities and artistic challenges.<\/p>\n The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from books editor Jason Steger. <\/i><\/b>Get it delivered every Friday<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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