I have put off writing about Wagner as I really do not know where to begin, but in the words of the great Julie Andrews 'start at the very beginning, that is a very good place to start' so here goes.
My love of Wagner started in the 1970s when I had a very good friend Cliff, a total Wagner fanatic who was raving about a ring cycle, in English, at the Coliseum, new home of the English National Opera. The conductor of this project was Reginald Goodall, a tiny shy gnome like little man with large horn rimmed glasses who barely spoke to anyone, and was practically anonymous. For years he had been a repetiteur at the Opera House, beavering away in a little room at the top of the House, aptly named Valhalla, totally ignored and undervalued by the music staff at Covent Garden, until the English National Opera gave him his golden opportunity.
Purists say Wagner should only be sung in German and I have no objection to this, but for me, listening and learning my Wagner in English was the best thing to do. No matter how well one knows the stories and how often one goes to see the operas, and I have now been to a lot of performances, the nuances in the language can pass you by. Having the words so clearly projected in this wonderful production enabled me to really understand what was going on and helped my future Wagner watching enormously.
There were many jewels in the crown in this Cycle. Rita Hunter as Brunnhilde, despite looking like everyone's idea of an old fashioned opera diva (in other words very large) sang simply superbly. She just stood there and the voice poured out of her. Not a huge input in the way of acting, she was hampered for obvious reasons, but to listen to that glorious sound was enough. Alberto Remedios was her Siegfried with a rock solid technique and a golden heldentenor voice. The picture here shows them in the last act of Siegfried. As both he and Rita Hunter were great football fans they admitted that in quiet moments when there was a gap in the singing and the orchestra were playing, they chatted about their favourite football team…
But out of all the jewels, the one who shone the brightest, for me anyway, was Norman Bailey who sang the role of Wotan. Not only was his voice superb, but he portrayed the tortured guilt ridden god with real humanity and warmth.The last act of Die Walkure (The Valkyrie) when he bids farewell to his beloved daughter, Brunnhilde, is one of those golden passages that occur in opera and each time I saw him sing it at the Coliseum (some 12 times in all) he moved me to tears. I met Norman Bailey on a few occasions after performances when I lurked at the stage door and found him to be a delightful man, kind and thoughtful. No diva like tantrums for him. In some ways, his personality got in the way of some of his more 'evil' parts as when he played the governor of the prison in Fidelio. He was just too nice and not at all believable.
Though his Wotan was magnificent, for me the night I shall always remember, is a performance of Die Meistersinger (The Mastersingers) at the Coliseum. The performance I attended was on Midsummer's Night which is the same night on which the story of the Mastersingers is set, and it was one of those glorious, unforgettable nights in the opera or concert hall that only happen very occasionally. The conductor will lift his baton and suddenly by some strange osmosis everyone just knows that this is going to be a special occasion. The role of Han Sachs fitted Norman Bailey like a glove, the wise cobbler living in Nuremburg, and when he was on stage he was not Norman Bailey, he WAS Han Sachs. The applause at the end of this performance went on for some 45 minutes and I emerged into St Martin's Lane in a state of total bliss and walked home about six feet above the ground.
Since then I have been fortunate to hear Bryn Terfel sing in the Ring Cycle and I think he is the best Wotan since Norman Bailey, but that is another story.....
