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by Richard Wagner, directed by Michael Levine, Atom Egoyan, François Girard and Tim Albery

Canadian Opera Company, Four Seasons Centre, Toronto

September 12-October 1, 2006

Only three months after the Canadian Opera Company held its formal ribbon-cutting for its new home, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, the first purpose-built opera house in Canada, the company staged as its inaugural production no less than the first complete Ring Cycle ever mounted by a Canadian company.  COC General Director Richard Bradshaw, the guiding force behind both the FSC and the new Ring, turned this enormous challenge into a major triumph.

The COC had already presented the last three operas of Wagner’s tetralogy separately, each staged by a different director but all designed by Michael Levine--Die Walküre by Atom Egoyan in 2004, Siegfried by François Girard in 2005, and Götterdämmerung by Tim Albery in January 2006.  Seen separately, it was difficult to tell how these very different productions would work together as a whole.  Now after seeing all four works in sequence (Sept. 12-17, 2006), beginning with Das Rheingold both designed and directed by Levine, all is clear.  Levine’s conception is absolutely brilliant.  Using relatively simple means Levine fashions a series of strong visual images that parallel and comment on each other throughout all four operas creating an conceptually rich stage imagery to complement Wagner’s text and music.  The result is an intellectually incisive Ring of stark beauty that underscores from the first the illusory nature of the gods’ dreams and their heroes’ power.

To depict the development of the gods and humanity over time, Levine costumes the gods in the first two operas in black Victorian garb.  The “Valhalla” we see in Rheingold is merely the bright showroom for an enormous scale model of Valhalla imagined as an elaborate 18th-century palace.  Valhalla’s retrograde architectural style reflects both the contempt in which Wagner held the Age of Reason and reveals the regressive concept behind Wotan’s notion of a protective bastion.  By Walküre this pristine showroom has fallen into an irreparable decay that matches the gods’ own corruption.  The transition comes in the uniformly white-clad world of Siegfried, set in the mind of the hero who defeats monster, dwarf, and god.  Yet, in Götterdämmerung Levine shows that the contemporary corporate world of the mortals who now rule the world in stylish black suits at enormous desks is simply a modern imitation of the world of the gods in Rheingold, equally rife with corruption and ready for destruction.

In Rheingold Erda plants the seeds of a tree that begins to grow during her doom-laden prophesy to Wotan.  In Walküre this tree now cradling Nothung has already grown to full height, its roots tearing up the tiles of the gods’ showroom, where it has been felled.  In Siegfried we see the stump of the tree, Siegfried sitting on it as its trunk, with a cloud of branches overhead in which bits of the Valhalla model and avatars of Siegmund and Sieglinde are caught in the frozen whirlwind of the past that Siegfried must explore.  In Götterdämmerung instead of trees there are only metal telephone masts hung with cables in a world where communication is used only for deceit.  To be sure, there were directorial oddities in each opera--Wotan discovered asleep on the floor of the Rhine or Wotan’s ravens presenting the dead Forest Bird to the dying Siegfried--but Levine’s overall conception far outweighed such isolated quirks.

Susan Bullock sang Brünnhilde in the first and third of the three cycles with Frances Ginzer taking over the part in the second.  Bullock threw herself completely into the role with ringing if not always lovely tones.  She charted Brünnhilde’s metamorphosis from joyful warrior maiden, tossing off her Valkyrie cries with ease, to jealous lover to solemn seer, carefully coloring her tone to reflect Brünnhilde’s growing maturity and insight.  It was a performance that succeeded through deep understanding of character and sheer vitality.

    

Christian Franz made Siegfried an immensely sympathetic character, not so much a hero as a man to be cherished because of his innocence.  Franz commands a powerful Heldentenor, resorting to the occasional shout only during the punishing finale of Siegfried.  Franz shaded his voice ominously in the Tarnhelm scene, floated it beautifully during the Forest Murmurs and made Siegfried’s death heart-rending as Hagen’s potion wears off and the hero briefly glimpses once again who he really is.

      

As Sieglinde and Siegmund, Adrianne Pieczonka and Clifton Forbis sang gloriously, with Pieczonka’s full-voiced, emotionally harrowing account of Sieglinde’s fears and hopes the highpoint of the entire Cycle.  Two days before the first cycle was to begin, Pavlo Hunka, the scheduled Wotan, withdrew due to illness leaving understudy John Fanning to sing the part in Rheingold and Peteris Eglitis to do so in Walküre and Siegfried.  Fanning does not have the rounded tone of an ideal Wotan but he does have the power to cut through Wagner’s orchestration.  Fanning was already cast as Gunther and the character of his voice suited that complex role perfectly.  Eglitis does have a beautifully rounded tone but not the power to project it fully.  He is, however, a superb actor and this helped to make his leave-taking from Brünnhilde deeply moving.

Among the many other fine performances was Richard Paul Fink as a powerful, dark-toned Alberich, a masterfully comic Robert Künzli as Mime, Phillip Ens with a voice deep as a mineshaft as Hunding and Fafner, Mats Almgren with a vibrant bass and commanding presence ideally suited to the malevolent Hagen, and Richard Berkeley-Steele as a highly effective Loge.  Among the women Julie Makerov was a bright-toned Freia, Mette Ejsing an imposing Erda, Laura Whalen a lovely Forest Bird and Joni Henson an impressive Gutrune.

The star of the Cycle was Richard Bradshaw and the COC orchestra, finally able in their new, acoustically superb hall to play Wagner with the full complement of musicians Wagner demands.  The orchestra played magnificently throughout producing a lithe, spacious, exquisitely detailed sound.  Bradshaw’s brisk tempi kept the dramatic tension high and shaped the score with a keen sense of inevitability.  The conclusion of every act met with torrents of applause and bravos.  In fact, Bradshaw received a prolonged standing ovation before even a note of Rheingold was played reflecting the audience’s profound appreciation of a man whose drive and artistic integrity made this landmark in Canadian musical history a reality.           

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Opera News 2006-12.

Photo: Richard Paul Fink as Alberich in Das Rheingold. ©Michael Cooper.