Wagner – Die Walküre

Siegmund – Peter Wedd
Hunding – Ante Jerkunica
Wotan – Gábor Bretz
Sieglinde – Nadja Stefanoff
Fricka – Marie-Nicole Lemieux
Brünnhilde – Ingela Brimberg
Helmwige – Katie Lowe
Gerhilde – Karen Vermeiren
Ortlinde – Tineke Van Ingelgem
Waltraute – Polly Leach
Siegrune – Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur
Rossweisse – Christel Loetzsch
Grimgerde – Iris van Wijnen
Schwertleite – Lotte Verstaen

Orchestre symphonique de la Monnaie / Alain Altinoglu.
Stage director – Romeo Castellucci.

De Munt – La Monnaie, Brussels, Belgium.  Saturday, February 3rd, 2024.

And so it continues.  With this Die Walküre, Romeo Castellucci’s production of the Ring at La Monnaie – De Munt reaches its second instalment, following the success of Rheingold last fall.  Expectations were certainly raised by the Vorabend, thanks to the striking visual world that Castellucci created, and the superb musical performances, both vocal and orchestral, that we were treated to.  This time around, both Gábor Bretz and Marie-Nicole Lemieux return as Wotan and Fricka respectively, while Ante Jerkunica, Fasolt last time, returns as Hunding, all under the direction of house Music Director, Alain Altinoglu.

As was the case with Rheingold, this Walküre is an extremely visual evening in the theatre.  Some of the visual effects that Castellucci creates are stunning.  Fricka makes her first entry in a very imposing large white costume, trailed by an entourage, and the way that the entourage is placed on stage, fanning out to make varying shapes, makes it feel that Fricka not only has a following, but her influence is significant.  Act 1, has furniture moving around the stage, as if to reinforce the fact that the twins are not in control of their own destinies.  This is further brought out by the fact that at one point in Act 1, the twins seem to be crushed between items of furniture, seemingly reinforcing Sieglinde being trapped in her marriage to Hunding.  That said, I did wonder whether it was deliberate to have Hunding make his first entrance emerging from a closet.  I also found how Siegmund and Sieglinde were trapped in a grassy mound at the end of Act 2, with the mound taking shape to be Hunding’s henchmen, to be also extremely impressive.  That said, having Fricka kill what appeared to be a couple of live birds on stage (or at least very convincing models), during her dispute with Wotan, was seriously disturbing.  Perhaps that was the point, to disturb us.  I just can’t say I was at all comfortable with it.

Castellucci’s staging abounds in so much visual detail, yet there also now seems to be a consistent thread coming out of this production: the idea that not even the gods can fully control their and others’ destinies.  The evening opens with Siegmund and Sieglinde standing in a large circular patch on stage, both drinking from the same long tube, perhaps representing an umbilical cord uniting them.  Similarly, they close the act, covered in blood, celebrating their shared bond.  Wotan gives his long Act 2 narration with a group of actors behind him carrying flags. Initially, one might think the letters on this flag spell ‘dio’; but no, they spell ‘idiot’.  I found this to be an extremely compelling idea that makes Wotan’s putting Brünnhilde to sleep on the rock, surrounded by fire, to be as much about him taking back control as much as wanting to protect his daughter.  Often it can feel with Castellucci that personenregie takes a back seat to the visuals, something that in this part of the Ring, with its focus on human relationships could be debilitating.  And yet, Castellucci does something quite daring in the closing act.  He takes away the busy visuals, instead giving us the farewell scene between Brünnhilde and Wotan on a bare stage, focusing all of our attention on the tenderness between the two characters.  Yes, he does put Brünnhilde to sleep in a giant tanning bed, but this scene has even more impact, simply because all of our focus is on those closing moments between father and daughter.

Overall, Castellucci’s staging of the work is rather dark, so much is gloomily lit, amplifying the score’s nocturnal tinta.  This is something that also comes through in Altinoglu’s conducting.  His reading is based in a big, thick string sound, anchored by the cellos and basses, and strengthened by the low brass.  He gives us a sound world that is so rich and thick, yet also encourages the strings to experiment with vibrato, to further expand the range of colours available to them.  Once again, the orchestral playing is absolutely superlative.  I counted three split brass notes and two ragged entries during the entire, five-hour long running time.  I did find Altinoglu’s tempi to be on the slow side in the first two acts.  He dared to pull back, building each act up slowly in an organic arc.  And yet, I missed a sense of the kind of dynamism I associate with his conducting.  That said, the dynamism seemed to be more than present in Act 3, which brought out the best in Altinoglu and his forces: waves of sound surging through the auditorium, combined with a vibrant and distinctive use of orchestral colour.  Indeed, the way that Altinoglu, in collaboration with his orchestra, ‘voiced’ the orchestral lines fully, throughout the evening, brought out the ambition of Wagner’s writing.  A special mention also for the distinctive winds, with piquant oboes, and fruity clarinets.

It did strike me that one reason Altinoglu’s reading of Act 1 lacked somewhat in dynamism was due, in part, to Peter Wedd’s Siegmund.  Wedd’s isn’t the biggest voice to have essayed the role.  The tone is soft-grained, lacking in metal, with his ‘Wälse’s seemingly sung in what sounded like voix mixte.  Both he and Nadja Stefanoff’s Sieglinde did communicate a lot through the text, and all through the evening, the text was clear across the board.  It did, however, feel that Wedd’s tenor is a size or two too small for this music, and the top was problematic, lacking in ping, even with a sensitive conductor in a medium-sized house.  Perhaps it was an unannounced indisposition.  Stefanoff was a real find as Sieglinde.  She started off as a mezzo and this was evident in her rich, warm middle and juicy chestiness.  Her soprano has a pearly beauty on top, although the top is rather narrow, with her ‘hehrstes Wunder’ not quite opening up as one might expect it to.

Ingela Brimberg brought her familiar soprano to the title role.  Her Brünnhilde was generally securely sung, once past her opening ‘hojotoho’s, which seemed to emerge only through sheer determination – although she did give a creditable stab at a trill.  Her soprano has youthful sheen and she was an energetic stage presence.  As is often the case with Brimberg, I find her to be a lyric soprano pushed to be a size bigger.  Again, her intonation came and went, at times sharp, at others flat, the voice sitting around the note rather than on it.  I also found there to be a touch of dryness in the tone compared to the previous occasions on which I’ve heard her – hopefully not a sign of the taxing repertoire she undertakes taking its toll.

Lemieux was a superb Fricka.  She injected her music with so much meaning, digging deep into the text, spitting it out with determination and in impeccable German, the top emerging with ease, the bottom rich and warm.  She lit up the stage, fully succeeding in putting her own stamp on the role, despite the dominant visuals.  We were left in no doubt that Wotan would listen to her.  Jerkunica brought his huge voice to the role of Hunding.  The bottom seems to fill the house with ease, while the top does taper off somewhat.  Still, he was a menacing and dominating presence on stage.  We also had a very strong group of Valkyries, who made a tremendous noise in their Ride, including several decent trills in their midst.

Then there was Bretz.  I have to admit a little nervousness in advance, given that Bretz has one of the most beautiful bass-baritone voices out there, and the role of Wotan is a killer.  And yet, I found him to be a revelation.  He sang the role true to his instrument, never trying to force it, always aware of what it can, and can’t, do.  Over the years, I’ve heard so many Wotans run out of steam half-way through Act 3.  Not so with Bretz.  He sang it as if it were bel canto, based on long, lyrical lines, finding a consoling warmth in the tone that made his reading even more moving than one usually hears it.  Similarly, he illustrated his Act 2 narration by colouring the tone most intelligently, at times finding a steely determination in the core of the sound, at others a warm introspection.  This was an intelligent and moving piece of singing.

This Walküre is a visually audacious piece of theatre.  One that sought to reflect the musical darkness at the core of the work, while also focusing the final act on the tenderness of the relationship between father and daughter.  There were several very striking ideas, although I did leave with a sense that the evening only truly came together in the final act.  Vocally, it wasn’t quite at the level of the Rheingold, although Lemieux, Jerkunica, Stefanoff and, above all, Bretz were excellent.  Still, Altinoglu and his magnificent orchestra gave a great deal of pleasure.  It’s hard to imagine the score better played than we heard it tonight.  The audience responded at the close with an extremely generous ovation.