II- El ciclo de "El Anillo", Kirov 2007.

MUSIC OPERA

Doggedly Running the Laps Demanded by the 'Ring' By ANTHONY TOMMASINI Published: July 21, 2007

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times The Norns in "Götterdämmerung," the last of the four operas of Wagner's "Ring des Nibelungen" cycle, at the Metropolitan Opera House.

When the Kirov Opera ends its residency at the Lincoln Center Festival tonight, Valery Gergievwill have conducted his company in two overlapping cycles of Wagner's "Ring des Nibelungen" over nine days. That is two performances each of the four daunting "Ring" operas with only one night off, last Sunday. Surely this brutal schedule accounts for the frustrating unevenness of the musical performances, not to mention the glitches that kept occurring with the staging. Mr. Gergiev, one of the busiest musicians in the business, has long been described as indefatigable. But during stretches of "Siegfried" on Wednesday night and "Götterdämmerung" on Thursday night, the final two installments in the "Ring," Mr. Gergiev and his players sounded pretty fatigued. Yet despite some bungled solo lines, patches of shaky execution, tentative entrances, especially from the brass, and other mishaps, Mr. Gergiev presided over engrossing accounts, over all, of these works. As in his performances of "Das Rheingold" and "Die Walküre," he emphasized the rhapsodic sweep and volatility of the music. His ear for detail, as well as the distinctive sound and colorings of the Kirov orchestra, especially the dusky rich tone of the strings, brought jolts of freshness to these much-heard scores. In the subdued scene in "Siegfried" when Wotan, who appears incognito as the world-weary Wanderer, exchanges riddles with the cagey Nibelung dwarf Mime, the orchestra played with riveting tension and murky shadings. Thick, quiet chromatic string chords would sneak up on you, swell with sound and turn ominous. Mr. Gergiev took risks that paid off, often daring to conduct slower passages with uncommonly spacious tempos, never forcing or pushing the music. Sometimes, though, in other subdued episodes, this approach did not work, and the musical tension petered out. After a while it made sense that the strongest playing often came in the first scenes of each act, after Mr. Gergiev and his hard-pressed players had had a recuperative break. At its best Mr. Gergiev's work was insightful and electrifying. In the second act of "Götterdämmerung," when Brünnhilde thinks that she has been betrayed by Siegfried and succumbs to the machinations of the brooding villain Hagen, the music pulsed with driving energy and searing sound. The shattering orchestral piece that accompanies Siegfried's death was pushed to the extreme with raspy brass flourishes, savage percussion volleys and darkly weighty strings. Because these final two operas with their grueling lead roles were performed on successive nights, the production had two different couples playing Brünnhilde and Siegfried. Leonid Zakhozhaev in the title role of "Siegfried" may have a rather grainy and undersized heldentenor voice, and his singing was sometimes rough and approximate. On the other hand, he made it through this absurdly challenging role, singing with unflagging energy and projecting the dense impulsiveness of the godly young hero. The soprano Olga Sergeeva, who sang Brünnhilde in the "Walküre" I attended last Saturday, was in shakier vocal condition for the demanding final scene of "Siegfried." The gleam in her tone often turned strident, though, as before, there were sensitive and courageous aspects to her performance.

Larisa Gogolevskaya as Brünnhilde in the Kirov Opera production of "Götterdämmerung."

Larisa Gogolevskaya took over as Brünnhilde in "Götterdämmerung," offering a blazing, raw and impassioned account of the role. She seemed so determined to vanquish listeners with the intensity and cutting power of her singing that no one would care about the dicey pitch and hard-edged tone. Through sheer determination she pulled it off, though if she keeps this up she will not be singing the role much longer. There is a leathery quality in the voice of the hardy tenor Victor Lutsuk, who sang Siegfried in the final opera. Still, he gave an ardent, muscular and incisive performance, though he tired noticeably by the death scene. Evgeny Nikitin, a chilling Wanderer in "Siegfried," was back on Thursday night as Gunther. Other standouts were Zlata Bulycheva as Erda in "Siegfried" and Mikhail Petrenko's earthy Hagen and Valeria Stenkina's vulnerable Gutrune in "Götterdämmerung." For the final two operas the production, jointly conceived by Mr. Gergiev and the set designer George Tsypin, was as baffling as it was in the first two. Still, "Götterdämmerung," I thought, came the closest of the four stagings to realizing the conception, which strives for a timeless, placeless mythological aura while drawing on imagery from the folklore of the Caucasus Mountains, including Mr. Gergiev's native Ossetia. In the opening scene of "Götterdämmerung," the Three Norns have subcontracted the task of spinning the rope of destiny to a roster of limber dancers clothed in reddish, greenish, tattered tights, who hold a long, shiny chain broken up with globular balls, like some mythological rosary. The staging here had primordial allure. Many scenes in this "Ring" production people the story with dancers and mysterious silent figures. Sometimes it can seem fussy and silly. When Siegfried forges the broken pieces of the magic sword, rather than presenting a literal bellows and forge, the flames are depicted by dancing creatures with phosphorescent headdresses. Still, seeing Siegfried lamely waving a towel at the flame dancers to stoke the fire, and then picking up the molten hot sword using only a dishrag was a little ridiculous. Many "Ring" productions have chosen to give a more modern look to the Gibichung family — Gunther, his sister Gutrune, their half-brother Hagen and all their vassals — the first real mortals we meet in the story. This one depicted them as an ancient mythological clan with painted bodies and tribal gowns. Though a novel and potentially rich idea, the actual costumes were hard to take seriously. With his long tribal dress, his tight shirt with jagged stripes and his capped head, the menacing Hagen looked a little like a Navajo princess. And as usual in his work, Mr. Tsypin had an alarming way of asking singers to perform while standing precariously on set pieces, most noticeably here in the final duet of "Siegfried." The scene is staged atop one of the massive totemic mummylike figures that hover over the production. Poor Mr. Zakhozhaev and Ms. Sergeeva had to sing some of the hardest music in opera while striding across this narrow, lumpy set piece, tilted at a 45-degree angle. You kept worrying that they were going to stumble and fall. What "Ring" production has not provoked debate and divided audiences in recent years? Many aspects of this one, especially the music-making, will linger.

Related ArtsBeat: The Kirov 'Ring': Familiar Voices Among the Gods Kirov Brings Russian Soul, and Budget, to Its 'Ring' (July 16, 2007) Kirov "Ring" The Russian opera's production of Wagner's "Ring," presented by the Lincoln Center Festival. Videography by Nan Melville for The New York Times.

Copyright by the New York Times 2007