Siegfried shines in new Vienna State Opera

VIENNA, Austria - Wotan’s moment of truth has been depicted thousands of times in opera houses across the world since Wagner’s Siegfried” premiered 132 years ago but probably seldom as starkly as Sunday at the Vienna State Opera.
For just a second the chief god stoops, picks up a handful of earth and sniffs at it, in a powerfully telling gesture of what is about to come: an end his rule and with it, oblivion. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. Curtains for one era and the start of a new one.
Director Sven-Erich Bechtolf and his co-creators sprinkle similar deft touches throughout this new production of the second-to-last work in Wagner’s four-part Ring Cycle.
Bruennhilde is encased in a gauzy cocoon as she awaits the liberating kiss of Siegfried. He tears and finally cuts away the cocoon in suspense-filled minutes that build with the power of the music. Erda, the earth goddess summoned by Wotan in a last, desperate attempt to change the course of destiny, is a mayfly like ethereal figure as ageless as the earth.
The boy hero Siegfried’s fight with the dragon takes place in a huge back-projection of the malevolent eye of Fafner, the giant turned giant reptile who guards the ring that has become the bane of the gods and other mythical races that long to possess it.
The scenery is sparse but effective the stage rises on an austere cathedral-like blacksmith’s workshop, with stone-like wall elements that turn up in later scenes serving different functions. And the costumes tend to be timeless garb that fit into a setting at turns mythical and at others functional.
Occasional bold strokes are all the more effective, such as the pastiche of stuffed game densely populating the three walls encasing the forest housing the dragon’s lair.
But to make a five-hour Wagner performance (including two intermissions) a success, even the best visuals and dramatic effects have to take backstage to the music. That was the case Sunday, with stunning singing and orchestral performances that made the night fly almost.
First on the list of bravos had to be Franz Welser-Moest, conducting what sounded like the most seasoned musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic, who rotate to do second duty in the State Opera pit.
With Siegfried” the most sparkling, vivid and richly textured of the works in the Ring Cycle, Welser-Moest and his ensemble found the perfect sound for each scene, passage and phrase, skillfully blending or transmuting Wagner’s numerous leitmotivs that weave through this work.
The orchestra is alternately at its poignant best as Siegfried probes his evil dwarf stepfather about his true origins; then majestic and dignified as Wotan enters the dwarf’s home to the burnished sound of horns and cellos in his guise as The Wanderer; sinister and foreboding when the action moves near the dragon’s lair; or restless and passionate in the final minutes as Bruennhilde transforms from virginal goddess to passionate mortal in the arms of her hero, Siegfried.
And no wonder she melted. Stephen Gould’s powerful and pliant voice and his strong dramatic performance made him the ideal Siegfried in his many guises: The restless adolescent seeking his place in the world; the fearless dragon slayer and possessor of the world-ruling ring; and the conqueror of the heart of Wotan’s most fearless Valkyrie warrior daughter.
Some in the audience were overheard asking each other during the first intermission whether Gould’s vocal power would hold up for all of the evening after his powerful entry.
It did. As did Nina Stemme’s in the role of Bruennhilde.
Admittedly she had a less taxing role, singing only in the latter part of the third and final act. But then she opened up with a vengeance, almost as if to make up for not sharing the action earlier. Her lush and versatile soprano was the perfect match for Gould’s vocal skills.
Juha Uusitalo’s Wotan captured the essence of the role the almighty god caught in a spider’s web of his own making and unable to stem his approaching downfall and that of his race. His vocal skills were matched by consummate acting that is nowhere more present than in the scene where he dazedly lets himself be mocked and banged around by the upstart Siegfried, who has no idea he is abusing his grandfather.
Also very good: Herwig Pecorano as Mime, the scheming dwarf who raises Siegfried with plans failed of using him to gain possession of the ring; his brother, the malevolent Alberich; Ain Anger as Fafner, the giant turned dragon, and Anna Larsson as Erda.
Heard but not seen Ileana Tonca, as the wonderfully warbly voice of the forest bird that counsels Siegfried.
The music to Siegfried pours out of my very soul,” Wagner wrote a friend, as he sat down to write the score to this opera.
The maestro would have been pleased with Sunday’s soulful performance.