Germany Wagner, Die Walküre (live performance efficiency): Dresdener Festspielorchester, Concerto Köln / Kent Nagano (conductor). Internationales Musikfest Hamburg, Elbphilharmonie, 1.5.2024. (DMD)
Forged:
Sieglinde – Sarah Wegener
Siegmund – Maximilian Schmitt
Hunding – Patrick Zielke
Wotan – Derek Welton
Brünnhilde – Åsa Jäger
Fricka – Claude Eichenberger
Gerhilde – Chelsea Zurflüh
Ortlinde – Karola Schmid
Waltraute – Ulrike Malotta
Schwertleite – Jasmin Etminan
Helmwige – Natalie Karl
Siegrune – Ida Aldrian
Grimgerde – Eva Vogel
Rossweisse – Marie-Luise Dressen
This live performance efficiency of Die Walküre marks the second stage of 4 within the venture wherein musicians (instrumentalists, singers, conductor) work with musicologists of their try at creating an auditory expertise of what Wagner’s operas would have gave the impression of after they have been first carried out – what did the orchestra sound like, what did the singers sound like, then in contrast with now. For that goal, theorists and practitioners labored collectively, sought to know one another’s methods of pondering and to study from and in relation to one another. The Dresdener Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln collaborated below the baton of Kent Nagano. They performed on interval devices, with a live performance pitch at 435 hertz (the present worldwide normal is 440 hertz), intestine strings have been predominant and among the interval brass devices allowed for enjoying at a a lot decrease pitch than up to date devices. The music actually sounded totally different – troublesome to explain, maybe ‘earthier’ captures it finest. That appears extra correct than ‘darker’ or ‘rougher’, which could carry connotations that don’t apply on this context.
Within the strategy of growing the efficiency, singers would first sit collectively to learn the libretto – solely the textual content, with out the rating, to debate their characters, very like stage actors in rehearsal, with the assist of linguists and phonetics specialists who had studied Wagner’s expectations as to his singers’ pronunciation. The singers would then learn the libretto to the orchestra, thus bringing them as much as the identical stage of understanding of the plot and the character interpretation. So the musicians not solely learn the libretto, they have been additionally made conscious of the textual work the singers had engaged in and knew the place language had an impression on points of rhythm and tempo. It is very important notice that this method absolutely acknowledges that due to the leitmotif shifting ahead and again via the movement of the narrative, the orchestra all the time is aware of greater than the characters.
Kent Nagano led the mixed orchestra with a stage of depth and application that I missed in a few of his current, extra routine work at Hamburg State Opera. His forged was recruited from the subsequent era of the world’s best Wagner singers – artists at earlier levels of their careers with many very promising years forward for them and for us. Sarah Wegener as Sieglinde impressed with radiant tones, safe and well-focused; she is efficiently growing the decrease registers of her voice and can develop into the lengthy arcs of Wagner’s music to make them much more placing. As Siegmund, Maximilian Schmitt proved that he’s a most dependable singer, who will develop extra power in the course of his voice to assist each decrease and better registers. A excessive stage of musicality was clearly in proof, and his cries of ‘Wälse!’ confirmed a lot promise for his additional improvement within the Wagner repertory. Patrick Zielke can be impressively growing his profession: his Hunding’s darkness of voice corresponded effectively to the earthy sound of the orchestra for the Hunding motif.
Derek Welton has a robust, well-focused voice for Wotan, untiring, with loads of reserves to attract upon for a splendid Farewell, with out having to save lots of up his power. The voice works with ease, enabling many nuances, and isn’t overshadowed by its personal sheer weight. Claude Eichenberger as Fricka has the flexibleness throughout the vary of her voice that may permit her to develop larger mezzo or decrease soprano roles in equal measure of success. Her appreciable breath management enabled her to savour the lengthy phrases composed for Fricka. In consequence, Fricka’s argument turns into way more highly effective than when a singer’s respiration obliges her to shorten her phrases. Åsa Jäger was merely beautiful as Brünnhilde. She gave her function debut in 2022. The voice may be very sturdy, projected with ease, agency throughout registers, with a greater than stable foundation that permits her to soar and float within the prime notes. The timbre is heat general, which permits her to open out to extra metallic sounds on the prime of the voice with out ever sounding shrill or slim. The eight singers of the Valkyries have been all superb, rounding off the spectacular forged. In 2025 and 2026, we are going to see the outcomes of ongoing work on Siegfried and Götterdämmerung – I’m trying ahead to these.
Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe
