Siegfried Bayerische Staatsoper München

The new installation of the “Ring der Nibelungen” at the Bavarian State Opera is continuing with the performance of Siegfried.

The artistic duo Andreas Kriegenburg and Kent Nagano are consequently realizing their concept of telling the story of the Gods and related human beings in a very simple and individual way.Andreas Kriegenburg director´s concept is concentrating on an empty stage using a lot of people to represent the necessary decoration or equipment. This is getting very effective but risks to be overdone and too active on stage.This happens in the first act with Siegfried´s famous scene forging and hammering his “neidliche” sword Notung. It is impossible to mark and follow all the scene´s effects and gestures. The public gets overwhelmed with human bodies crawling, running, jumping and even flying around with the oversized bellows.

Quieter and more intimate are the second and third act with lovely elaborated narration of the plot. After a clever realization of Fafner as  the worm,   the appearance and play of the singer of Waldvogel in person on the stage is another well integrated effect. Spectacular the awakening of Erda by Wotan. She is hidden and sleeps under a heap of black colored bodies. They start moving like spiders or crawlers showing their white front. They move mechanically intensifying the image. And then the lovely end when Siegfried the naiv and unexperienced hero finally finds Brünnhilde and his access to love.

The cast is extraordinary. Lance Ryan has a clear high tenor and does fit in the role by voice, youth and shape. He is and sings the young masculine hero. Till the end we do not feel any weakness and enjoyed a wonderful finish with him together with Catherine Naglstad performing a perfect Brünnhilde, her voice being prestine and voluminous. Wolfgang Ablinger Sperrhacke´s Mime lacks interpretation whereas his brother Alberich by Wolfgang Koch is very dramatic and present. Thomas J Mayer is again a very solid and expressive  Wanderer.  In contrast to the exuberant happening on stage Kent Nagano´s conducting starts very simple and calm and less motional. But it gets more vital and fluent over the evening to become a fulminant finale with highly romantic and ample sound discharging over the stage embedded in seductive red cloth. The audience is touched by the spectacle and deeply  grateful.

The new staging of Götterdämmerung as the last evening of the Ring will take place June 30 within the Munich Opera Festival.