Having attended the individual performances of the Ring last year at Covent Garden, I am in two minds about booking for the entire cycle. My main reason for my attendance was solely because Bryn Terfel (the Mighty Bryn) was singing his first Wotan, an event I have waited some 20+ years for since I first heard him sing in the Cardiff Singer of the World competition, when he sang the aria from Act One of the Flying Dutchman and made my hair stand on end. He did not disappoint, being particularly superb in Die Walkure, perhaps the most accessible of the Ring operas. A few months later he performed in this opera with Placido Domingo as Siegmund which I was fortunate enough to see. A simply sensational evening.
I had originally decided that perhaps I would skip this Cycle as Bryn had only sung in Rheingold and Die Walkure, but now see that he has added the Wanderer in Siegfried and will, therefore, be performing in three. My reluctance to spend vast sums of money on tickets stems from the production which I found irritating beyond measure. The stage cluttered with extraneous bits and pieces that made negotiating it a treacherous task for the performers. Difficult to concentrate on singing I would have thought when you have to watch you do not fall over something - also distracting for the audience. The dragon in Rheingold was, quite frankly, risible and when it came to Gotterdamerung, the production seemed to bear no relation at all with the earlier operas. I spent most of this particular evening in the House with my eyes shut, just listening to the music, which surely negates the whole point of opera.
I realise I am sounding like one of those reactionary opera goers who one can hear in the Crush Bar in the intervals 'Oh but you should have seen so and so's production in Munich - SO much better darling' (I have to say that the last time I heard a comment like this it was from the lips of ex-Tory cabinet minister Michael Portillo who I seem to bump into every time I attend a Wagner performance at Covent Garden), but cannot help it. The production was awful.
So, I now have a choice. Covent Garden has been pretty sneaky. We have Bryn singing Cycle 1, but not Cycle 2. However, Cycle 2 has Placido returning as Siegmund an event to be highlighted in red in the calendars of opera lovers everywhere. Therefore, I have to make a choice as I simply cannot afford to attend both. Much though I adore Placido, I think I am going to have to plump for Bryn as his Wanderer is not to be missed.
Unfortunately, in both Cycles we have to suffer the truly appalling and wayward singing of John Treleven as Siegfried. This is a total pig of a role and can finish off tenors before breakfast, but surely the world is not so short of Heldentenors that Covent Garden cannot find somebody better?
Just my personal opinion you understand, in case his mother should ever read this.....
