STUART SKELTON SHINES AS SIEGMUND

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

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Let us first establish a couple of ground rules before we move on to reviewing the OPUS ARTE 2018 video recording of Wagner’s Die Walkure: one – no sarcasm or snark, two – no soft pedaling or pulling punches.

Now, with video recording the first thing I do is look at the cover of the DVD, the photographs that are used, how the whole thing entices me as a consumer and reviewer to tear off the shrink wrap and open up the package. In so doing I was not visually pleased by what I saw, starting with the ungainly wigs and costumes by Marie-Jeanne Lecca that do the singers no favors and fail to distinguish the mortal plebeians from the royal gods.

Once the music that opens Act One began to play I became totally enthralled by the sound of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, which led by Antonio Pappano plays superbly through the opera’s four hours. So swept up was I by the sound of the ensemble and by the heroic vocalism of Stuart Skelton, arguably the finest Heldentenor in today’s Opera business that I forgot that I was supposed to be watching a video.

But I soldiered on.

By the time Siegfried/Skelton got to his Welse, Welse outburst I was hooked and oblivious to the puzzling set of scenic designer Stefanos Lazaridis and most of the directorial capriciousness of Keith Warner.

Emily Magee is a spectacular Sieglinde, whose vocalism is a thing of wonder. When she opens up with Der Männer Sippe she forces me to turn down the volume on my CD player. Skelton’s impeccably sung Wintersturme is immediately followed by Sieglinde’s Du bist der Lenz, both Wagnerian tours de force that call for a panoply of vocal colors from Skelton and Magee both of whom generously deliver with a perfect balance of lyricism and stentorian singing.

The superb black-voiced bass Ain Anger is all contained evil as Hunding.

Act two begins with a brief scene for Wotan (the excellent John Lundgren), Nina Stemme, who valiantly makes her precarious entrance down a long metal stepladder and Sarah Connolly – most effective as a visually elegant Fricka. But somehow I keep waiting for Skelton to come back. He does for a few moments until he gets dispatched to Walhalla by the wife-deprived Hunding.

The rest of the opera is at 2 hours to go a bit of a slug for this listener, which puzzles me, as I never experience this with opera, other than Wagner with his endless moments of conversation.

The sound and visuals of the video are top notch. But get those singers some decent costumes.

Rafael de Acha    http://www.RafaelMusicNotes.com

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”