Staatsoper unter den Linden: A Götterdämmerung with emotions

© Monika Rittershaus

Staatsoper unter den Linden: A Götterdämmerung with emotions

The Ring comes to an anti-climactic end. Thanks to the singers and orchestra, it is still an evening well worth attending. Having reached the last evening of the Ring der Nibelungen, audience members are always curious as to how a stage director tackles the grand collapse of society envisaged by Richard Wagner with the reurning of the Ring to the Rhine. How will stage director and designer Dmitri Tcherniakov handle it? In terms of stage design, the E.S.C.H.E. (Experimental Scientific Centre for Human Evolution) set, with its sterile corridors, meeting rooms and assembly rooms remains the same as on all the other evenings. Costume designer Elena Zaytseva has continuously and subtly updated the costumes over the four evenings – we now no longer have pearl necklaces or blouses with bow ties. But other than these details, nothing has changed - neither the cold lighting by Gleb Filshtinsky, which can still be classified as working light, nor any props. The surroundings remain sterile, setting the scene but also hinting at no development, no real insights from the protagonists or the director.

Tcherniakov sticks to his concept of deconstruction of any well-known interpretations, scene directions, poetry or romanticism. Instead, there are many absurdities that simply have nothing to do with the plot as set forth by the composer. Which is not to say that Tcherniakov did not work with the singers and elaborate his view of the story with them. Their acting skills are not in question here. Hagen, for example, vocally grandiose by Mika Karres, is the team captain of a green-shirted basketball team and leads his team with an iron hand. Out of nowhere, he grabs a the team’s flagpole and fatally stabs Siegfried with it. Siegfried drags himself into the stress laboratory and onto a hospital bed to breathe his last, surrounded by all the participants and extras such as doctors, nurses, administrative staff and the Norns as silent onlookers. Gunther, powerfully voiced by Lauri Vasar, is portrayed as a schemer under the clear influence of Hagen. Likewise Gutrune, here portrayed by Mandy Fredrich as a hedonistic girlie. The by now aged Waltraute sung here by mezzo Violetta Urmana delivers her message to Brünnhilde with conviction but to no effect. The Three Norns Noa Beinart, Anna Samuil and Kristina Stanek are as portrayed as old aunties drinking tea and pondering fate. The Rhine maidens Woglinde, Wellgunde and Flosshilde sung by Evelin Novak, Natalia Skrycka and Anna Lapkovskaja respectively, appear again as nurses with clipboards.

Johannes Martin Kränzle is grandiose as the centenarian Alberich who now appears naked with diaper-like underpants, trying to persuade his son Hagen to get rid of the ring, to no avail. The interpersonal relationships in this scene are a small theatrical gem. And as in Siegfried, Andreas Schager's singing is top notch, with no inkling of any vocal fatigue, thankfully also with great diction. Brünnhilde, kneeling alone at Siegfried's side, begins her final aria Starke Scheite schichtet mir dort ... with such tenderness, and with a bit of a strain in her voice, but that makes her expression all the more endearing and authentic. She is the only one who escapes from this research centre at the end - surprisingly - after she throws the ring towards the audience. With the final strains from the pit, she steps onto the now empty stage with her backpack and walks as Erda, comes towards her with Siegfried’s toy bird. The ground plan of the E.S.C.H.E. research centre fades away on the lowering curtain. Brünnhilde stands in front of it and looks into the audience. Just as she began her human existence in Walküre, so here she goes her own way at the end of Götterdämmerung into an uncertain future.

Thomas Guggeis again demonstrates his understanding and love of Wagner's music in Götterdämmerung. He elicits a dark mood from the Staatskapelle which nevertheless allows brilliance in the many instrumental passages without forgetting the great arc of the drama. As in the other parts of the tetralogy, he proves that, as a conductor, he listens to the singers and expresses utmost sensitivity during the many stretches of the distinctively strong orchestration, without disadvantaging the subtle nuances in between. What do we take away from this new production of the Ring? What is the point of the supposed experiments on human beings in this Experimental Scientific Centre for Human Development? Unadorned boredom - because it would make no sense if it weren't for the ever-grandiose music of Richard Wagner. As on the previous evenings, standing ovation for the singers, conductor, orchestra and choir. As this was the second cycle of the Ring, the directing team did not step in front of the curtain, so there was no booing as was the case during their appearance after the first cycle.

Zenaida des Aubris