User Reviews

Before I say anything rude about this version of Siegfried, I should just say that it really is very well sung. It is probably the best individual production in the cut-price Ring Cycle from Stuttgart. Perhaps it lends itself to being done on the cheap because there are just eight soloists, no Rheinmaidens, no Valkyries, no Norns and no chorus. The satellite Performance Channel is rather cheekily broadcasting this Ring in competition with the multi-million pounds of wasted taxpayers' money version from Covent Garden that currently being broadcast by the BBC.

This Stuttgart Ring does have its embarrassments, notably in its soap opera version of Die Walküre but Siegfreid works rather well given a similar soap opera treatment. Mime's cave is a dilapidated council flat that just happens to have a furnace in the corner for forging broken swords back together. Mime, engagingly sung by Heinz Göhrig, is a seedy bachelor who we first see peeling potatoes for Siegfried's dinner. Siegfried is sung by Jon Frederic West who has a pleasing heldentenor voice but whom I would back any day against Luciano Pavarotti in a pie eating contest. West seems to be a Tristan specialist and I imagine he could be quite successful in that role, wearing a long, loose robe. However Siegfried's jeans and tee shirt are not the most becoming apparel for a man his size. It is probably a mistake to have Sieg printed on one man-breast and Fried on the other so that he looks like an advertisement for Colonel Wagner's Sieg Fried Chicken.

Wolfgang Shöne has a sonorous voice and sinister presence as Wotan in a leather jacket and baseball cap. He just strolls into Mime's flat but Mime, on seeing him sings: "Who has found me here in the wild wood?" I enjoyed the three riddles scene between Mime and Wotan. This is really just back story for anyone who has not seen the first two instalments of the Ring but I liked the way they chalk their scores up on the wall as they answer each others' riddles correctly, as if they are having a game of darts.

There are effective cameos from Björn Waag as Alberich and Attila Jun as the dragon, Fafner. Fafner's cave is conjured up effectively with just a bit of wire fencing. Of course this production does not run to the expense of a dragon costume. Fafner just wears a tee shirt and jeans like Siegfried's except that his reads dierF gieS across the chest. Maybe this suggests that he is a mirror image of Siegfried, his own mental demon. Also in this scene we see the Woodbird, always my favourite character even though she only has one tune. Gabriela Herrera sings her one tune very prettily and, for some reason I cannot explain, is a blind woodbird.

The scene between Wotan and Erda seems to take place in a maternity ward, maybe suggesting Erda's function of producing daughters for Wotan to serve as Valkyries. Helene Ranada is alternately moving and bloodcurdling in this role.

Finally Siegfried bursts into Brünnhilde's bedroom, no nonsense about magic fire here. He finds none other than Lisa Gasteen who was also Brünnhilde in Covent Garden's disastrous production. Gasteen is more successful here, the smaller venue and Lothar Zagrosek's quieter orchestral accompaniment are better suited to her voice. She wears a silk negligée, slit to the waist and displays ample décolletage. Despite this, the sexually naïve Siegfried first mistakes her for a man. His: "this is no man", exclamation finally comes when he slides his hand between her thighs. The opera ends with 40 minutes of the most sensuous music ever written and in this production the sensuality gets fully emphasised. Brünnhilde gets an extra silk pillow from the wardrobe and puts it beside hers before patting the bed to indicate that Siegfried should join her. They sing their extended lovemaking duet on the bed together. How different it is from the Covent Garden production where Brünnhilde and Siegfried stand at either side of the stage as though Brünnhilde has a bad case of halitosis after her twenty year sleep. Here, Brünnhilde thoughtfully brushes her teeth before climbing into bed.

Lothar Zagrosek conducts what, to me, sounds like an underpowered orchestra. This is something I noticed in the other parts of this Ring. When the orchestra is accompanying the singers the balance is fine but when the sound should well up during the orchestral interludes it just fails to well. This one quibble aside, congratulations should go to the stage directors Sergio Morabito and Jossi Wieler for this witty, Wagner production that is a great treat, both musically and visually. Witty and Wagner, now there are two words that you do not often hear in the same sentence.

Just for the record, I love opera, I love Wagner, and Siegfried is my personal favourite of the Ring Cycle(just edging out Die Walkure). So it's not as if I have some negative bias towards the opera. But I really disliked this production, it's almost as bad as Katharina Wagner's Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg when it comes to productions of any of Wagner's operas.

It isn't all bad though. The music is magnificent helped by the mostly clear sound quality, and there are two performances that are pretty good, Heinz Gohrig as a nasty and somewhat sympathetic Mime(though the masturbating, I blame the stage director rather than Gohrig) was too much) and Bjorn Waag's creepy(if perhaps too attractive) Alberich.

Wolfgang Schone vocally is the best of the three Stuttgart Wotans(in Siegfried in the guise of Wanderer, Wolfgang Probst was powerful but uncontrolled and Jan Hendrik Rootering was too weak-pushed-up-bass in quality. Schone here does have a strong voice, even with some strain and he struggles in his scene with Erda in Act 3, with the most authoritative diction of the three Wotans. Unfortunately I would rate him higher, if he didn't look so embarrassed. Lisa Gasteen as Brunnhilde is also the best of the three Brunnhildes, Behle was shrill and DeVol would have been better if she had done the role 10 yeas earlier, as she is quite excellent vocally. Sadly her costume is unflattering and the production in her big scene between her and Siegfried make her too promiscuous.

The Woodbird has vocal clarity but looks like a blind boy with spiked-up hair. This is an approach that may work well in an Eminem music video but not in a Wagner production, it's just too bizarre. Attila Jun projects his voice much more than he did as Hunding in Die Walkure. The problem of his Fafner was not his singing, but the fact that visually and dramatically he is nowhere near sinister enough, the scene between him and Siegfried doesn't have the impact the music here promises.

Jon Frederic West's Siegfried is a vast improvement over his Tristan under Mehta. The sound is strong, and far less strained and blustery than before. Dramatically he is not as promising, very stolid and unheroic most of the time and he is not helped by his costuming which actually make him larger than he actually is or the inept staging. Erda is not warning enough, looking and sounding old instead.

Musically it is decent enough, but is never outstanding. The orchestra do play with a lush sound, but are underpowered and not alert enough. The conducting is also not bad, more involved than the previous two instalments but still has a tendency to be too bombastic in the climaxes.

Visually, this Siegfried is absolutely awful. I have seen some bad-looking productions, but this one tops it. The costumes either unflatter the singers(especially West) or undermine the tension that the scenes should do(Jun's Fafner). The sets are gaudy in colour and even look filthy, Brunnhilde's boudoir is bad enough but the worst offender was the the Act 3 scene between Wotan/Wanderer and Erda.

The staging is inept, often irritating and comes across as more overly-silly approach than wacky and witty, the latter two I imagine was the objective. Those looking for anvil strokes will see Mime hitting a bowl with a potato peeler instead, the Woodbird acting like the Ghost of Christmas Future and the whole scene between Siegfried and Brunnhilde is an embarrassment, operatic soap-opera at its worst.

All in all, has one or two good performances and the music is wonderful, but visually, staging-wise and mostly characterisation-wise, it is disgusting. 3/10 Bethany Cox