Das Rheingold Programme - Fulham Opera

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And the Rhinemaidens and Erda belong to and serve Nature, as their music is derived directly from the Nature motive at the start of the opera. One final point that distinguishes Das Rheingold from the other three operas in The Ring is the timescale. Although all three other operas occupy a human time-frame of approximately thirty years, the duration of the events in Das Rheingold could take place anywhere between a single decade and a millennia. The gap between scene one and scene two has to allow Alberich time to forge the ring and enslave his people, and amass the gold and the hoard. The Rhinemaidens mention their father, a water-sprite probably far older than the gods’ themselves, and the gods are not yet secure in their position as rulers of the world. Erda too is an ancient goddess, and has come to warn Wotan of the fate that awaits him if he keeps the ring; such is the power of the curse. Scene two through to the end of scene four is supposedly one day, sunrise to sunset, but to a god how long is a day? How long after the events of Das Rheingold are the events of Die Walküre? The beauty is we will never know, and it is up to each director that chooses to tackle this wonderful piece of total theatre to determine. The myth continues to be ‘inexhaustible in every age’. 6 Sussex Opera’s production of Jonathan Dove’s Tobias and the Angel. He has sung Germont (La traviata) for the Longborough Festival Opera, Beckmesser in a concert performance Die Meistersinger, Act III, for London’s Wagner Society, the Beethoven 9th for Liverpool’s Cornerstone Music Festival, and Germont for Riverside Opera, a role he repeated for France’s Opéra de Baugé in July/August 2009. Later that year he sang the title role in Macbeth for English Opera Singers, and Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte) for English Chamber Opera. In summer 2010 he returned to Baugé for the title role in Rigoletto. Robert recently sang Amonasro (Aida) for Riverside Opera (March 2011), and has recently appeared with Garden Opera as Tonio (Pagliacci) and Germont (La traviata). In the autumn he will sing with New Sussex Opera in their production of Gounod’s rarely-heard Mireille at London’s Cadogan Hall. Elizabeth Russo – Fricka: American mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Russo is well known for her powerful voice and strong stage presence. “It was in Elgar’s ‘Sabbath Morning at Sea’ that we were first treated to the full power of Russo’s impressive voice.” (Danbury News Times) “Elizabeth Russo, with a dark voluminous mezzo, gave a sensuous account of Carmen’s Habanera.” (Classical Singer) Ms. Russo is very excited to be making her UK debut in the role of Fricka in this performance of Das Rheingold. She is no stranger to Wagner, having sung Waltraute and the Rhinemaiden Wellgunde in Götterdämmerung with the Albany Symphony, Floβhilda in Das Rheingold with Manhattan Chamber Opera, and Waltraute in Die Walküre with Opera Dramatica of NYC. She can be heard regularly as Soloist and Cantor with the Classical Music Concert Series at St. Paul’s Church in Greenwich CT, where in September 2010 she was featured along with pianist Eric Trudel in a solo recital of Brahms and Ives songs. Later in St. Paul’s 2011 concert season, she will sing the role of Santuzza in Cavelleria Rusticana with the Manhattan Chamber Opera. Recent oratorios include Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the Garden State Philharmonic and Mozart’s Requiem with Greenwich High School and professional orchestra. With OPERAMICI of NYC, Elizabeth played the roles of Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia and the Witch in Hänsel & Gretel. She was also featured as Mama Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana with Chelsea Opera, Princepessa in Suor Angelica with the Albany Symphony, Azucena in Il Trovatore with the Richmond County Orchestra of Staten Island, and performed the comedic role of Lady Jane in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Patience with the Sorg Opera of Middletown, OH. Since 2006, Elizabeth has been featured in several roles with One World Symphony of NYC, including Herodias in Salome, Amneris in Aida, the Countess in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, and Mama Lucia. Ms. Russo has been awarded the James Humphreville Vocal Prize from Danbury Opera, and was a three-time winner of the Albert P. Victor Foundation Scholarship for Excellence in Voice and Music. She was a finalist in the Rising Star Opera Competition, and at the Classical Productions Vocal Competition at Carnegie’s Weill Hall, she was a top prizewinner for two consecutive years. Ian Wilson-Pope – Wotan: Born in London, Ian studied at Trinity College of Music and was awarded the TCM Ricordi Opera Prize of 2001 for his portrayal as Nonancourt in Nino Rota’s opera Il Cappello di Paglia di Firenze directed by Michael Ruta-Moxham. At TCM he studied with John Wakefield, Peter Knapp and Robert Aldwinckle, and now continues his studies with tenor David Barrell and coaches Kelvin Lim and David Barnard. Ian’s operatic roles include: Title role, Julius Caesar; Don Basilio Il Barbiere di Siviglia; Sharpless, Bonze and Yamadori Madam Butterfly; Counsel for the Plaintiff Trial by Jury; Escamillo Carmen; Alcindoro, Benoit and Colline La Bohème; Baron Douphol La Traviata; Re di Scozia Ariodante; Count Rodolfo La Sonnambula; Aeneas Dido & Aeneas; Wotan Die Walküre (Act III); Henry VIII Anna Bolena; Prince Gremin, Eugene Onegin; Papageno, The Speaker and 2nd Armed Man The Magic Flute; Lorenzo (cover) I Capuleti e i Montecchi; Baron von Würmerhelm and Old Gambler, Prokofiev’s The Gambler; Don Alfonso Così fan tutte; Krušina The Bartered Bride; Father Hänsel und Gretel; Prince Yeletsky The Queen of Spades; Don Fernando Fidelio; Henry Kissinger Nixon in China (Act I); Talbot (cover) Maria Stuarda; Banquo Macbeth; The Voice of Neptune Idomeneo; Potap (cover), Tchaikovsky’s The Enchantress (Charodieika); Vodnik, Dvořák’s Rusalka; Father, Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins; Court Usher & Marullo Rigoletto; Don Marco, Menotti’s The Saint of Bleecker Street; Seneca, Littore, Mercury and Bass Famigliari L’Incoronazione di Poppea; Herr Schultz Cabaret; Nonancourt Il Cappello di Paglia di Firenze; Envy, Purcell’s The Indian Queen; Sam Wauchope, Stephen McNeff’s Sweeney Agonistes; Count Almaviva and Figaro Le Nozze di Figaro; Doctor (cover), Barber’s Vanessa; and Pallante Agrippina. Solo oratorio and concert repertoire includes bass soloist in Maunder’s Olivet to Calvary; Verdi’s Requiem; Haydn’s Nelson Mass and The Creation; Mozart’s Dixit et Magnificat; Requiem; Sparrow Mass and Mass in C “Coronation”; Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël; Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols; Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été; Fauré’s Requiem; Bernstein’s Chichester 11
BIOGRAPHIES – (In order of appearance) Zoë South – Woglinde: Born in England, soprano Zoe South began her career as a professional flautist, and made her professional singing debut as Mrs Herring in Albert Herring for Longborough Festival Opera. As a dramatic soprano, her roles include Ariadne, Brünnhilde Die Walküre, Götterdämmerung, Norma, Lady Macbeth, Turandot (all three endings), Leonore Fidelio, Kundry Parsifal and Ortrud Lohengrin. The dark and dramatic qualities of her voice have also taken her into roles such as Amneris Aida, and Princess Eboli Don Carlo. Concert and recital repertoire includes Vier letzte lieder, Wesendonck Lieder, Rückert Lieder, Stravinsky Les Noces, Prokofiev Aleksandr Nevski, Mussorgsky Songs and Dances of Death, Ravel Scheherazade, the complete Duparc songs, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and the Verdi Requiem, as both soprano and mezzo-soprano soloist. Forthcoming engagements include the Götterdämmerung Brünnhilde (understudy) for Mastersingers/The Wagner Society, the Walküre and Siegfried Brünnhildes for Midsummer Opera, and Leonore Fidelio. Elizabeth Capener – Wellgunde & Freia: Elizabeth Capener is a native of Gloucestershire. She has recently completed a certificate of Higher Education in Opera Performance at Birkbeck College at the University of London, and is studying voice with Robert Presley. She has recently been heard as The Mother in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, has covered Gilda in Rigoletto, and has performed scenes from La traviata and La bohème, as Violetta and Mimi. Concert performances have included the roles of Fiordiligi from Cosi fan tutte and Donna Anna from Don Giovanni. She has sung with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and The King’s Consort, as well as making several recordings and broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, World Service, and Classic FM. She has appeared at the Three Choirs’, Southern Cathedrals’ and Windsor festivals, in numerous cathedrals, abbeys and major venues throughout the UK, and in France, Belgium, Germany, Greece and the USA, including being invited to sing Händel’s setting of the Gloria for solo Soprano in Falmouth in Cape Cod. Her future roles include the title role in Suor Angelica and Lauretta in Gianni Schicci. Away from singing, she is Head of Music at Thomas Tallis School in Greenwich. Sara González Saavedra – Floβhilde & Erda: Sara González Saavedra was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain). She obtained her BMus, MMus and MMP at GSMD and she was a 2009/10 National Opera Studio trainee. She studies with Janice Chapman. Sara has made many solo concert and oratorio appearances including Verdi’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Cherubini’s Missa Solemnis, Händel’s Messiah, Rossini's Petite Messe Solemnelle and Bach´s St. John Passion. Her solo recital repertoire is also wide, including El Amor Brujo at St. John’s, Smiths Square, the Siete Canciones Populares of Manuel de Falla and Mahler’s Rückert Lieder at Barbican Hall. Operatic roles include Dardané Gluck´s La Rencontre Imprevue, Caroline Sallinen’s The King goes forth to France, Fyokla in Martinu's Marriage and understudy of The Third Lady Die Zauberflöte, all for GSMD, Zia Principessa Suor Angelica NOS Cadogan Hall, Mamma Lucia Cavalleria Rusticana at Barbican Hall and Cesena (Italy), Bianca The Rape of Lucretia at Grimeborn Festival, Amneris Aida RO, understudy Arnalta L'incoronazione di Poppea for Glyndebourne Tour 2010. Recent and future engagements include The Sorceress Dido & Aeneas for Opera de Dijon and Mrs Grose Britten’s The Turn of the Screw for Grimeborn Festival. Robert Presley – Alberich: American baritone Robert Presley, a native of the Gulf Coast of Alabama, moved to the UK from San Francisco, California, where for a number of years he was a member of the chorus of San Francisco Opera. Trained at the University of Southern Mississippi and at Kent State University in Ohio, he made his professional opera debut at the age of nineteen with the Mississippi Opera as Betto di Signa in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. He made an acclaimed UK opera debut as Ford (Falstaff) with New Sussex Opera in 2004. He toured England and Wales with Garden Opera in 2005 as Magnifico (La Cenerentola), and sang with that company on its third annual tour to Kenya in March 2006. Later that year he made his debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as soloist in the Beethoven 9th, and sang the role of Ashmodeus in New 10 Traditional Synopsis of Das Rheingold: Background: Wotan, as chief of the gods, seeks to rule the world, and has fashioned a spear from a branch of the World Ash Tree (in Norse Yggdrasil), upon which all the laws and treaties he rules by are carved. This brutal act will eventually lead to the Ash Tree dying and the end of the world. In an effort to obtain wisdom, he has sacrificed one eye to drink from the waters of knowledge that flow from the roots of the Ash Tree. He has also asked the brothers Fasolt and Fafner, (two giants and leaders of their race), to build him a fortress in exchange for their keeping the peace. Wotan has offered them the goddess of love, Freia, in return for this deed, but only because he believes Loge will help him find something else to exchange her for. Scene One – In the River Rhine. Woglinde is guarding the Rhinegold, a piece of golden rock rising up from the riverbed. She is shortly joined by her sisters Wellgunde and Floβhilde. As they swim about, joyously singing, Alberich, a dwarf from Nibelheim (underground) climbs up through a crack in the riverbed. Falling desperately in love with the Rhinemaidens, he seeks to woo each in turn, finding each more lovely than the last one, but his advances are repulsed by Woglinde and Wellgunde. Floβhilde leads him to believe that he may have a chance with her, but again she betrays him at the last, and swims up to join her sisters. Laughing and jeering at the ugliness and awkwardness of Alberich, they sing and swim, still teasing him mercilessly. As he flails and slips on the rocks, the sun suddenly shines through the river, and the gold starts to gleam in the depths. Asking what it is that glows so brightly, Alberich becomes fascinated as the Rhinemaidens tell him of the power inherent in the gold, particularly if it is fashioned into a ring, it will make the wearer ruler of the world. Floβhilde bemoans her sisters to caution, as their father had cautioned them, but Wellgunde and Woglinde remind her that only the one who will forswear love can obtain the gold, and Alberich is full of lust and desire. Alberich in the meantime has thought deeply, and realising that he cannot be loved by the Rhinemaidens, decides he will forswear love and, in a sudden rage, swims up the rock and grabs hold of the gold. Furiously, he curses love, the gold is released, and he takes it back down into the depths of Nibelheim, as the Rhinemaidens lament its loss. The first orchestral interlude sees the scene change from the depths of the Rhine to a rocky summit above the river. In the background, on the other side of the cliff valley through which the Rhine flows, stands the newly built Valhalla, fortress of the gods. Scene Two – The Rocky Summit. Wotan and his wife Fricka lay resting. Fricka wakes first and tries to stir Wotan, who is dreaming of Valhalla. As he wakes he looks at the magnificent fortress, and sings of how it is just as he dreamt it to be. Fricka reminds him of the price to be paid for it, her sister Freia, but Wotan flippantly shrugs this off. Fricka states how cold and cruel he is to have offered her sister as pledge to the giants, and had she been there at the negotiations she would never have allowed it. Wotan returns that he never truly intended to give Freia to the giants, but did not Fricka also want a home built? This she cannot deny, but counters that it was to keep her husband from wandering and philandering. Wotan rejoins that he must be free to wander the earth to know men’s minds, and cannot be constrained even by the mightiest of fortresses. He reminds Fricka that he offered to sacrifice his one remaining eye to marry her, but it is because he thinks highly of all women that she disapproves. Fricka asks him to stay true to his word and protect Freia, as she runs toward them, pursued by the giants, Fasolt and Fafner. They have come for their payment, but Wotan offers anything other than Freia. The giants are outraged that Wotan would go back on his word, and Fasolt reminds him of the laws and treaties carved into his spear. Fafner cautions Fasolt that the gods will never easily give up Freia, but to ransom her will be good. Wotan is worried as Loge has not appeared. The giants try to take Freia by force, but at her screams her brothers Froh and Donner enter, to protect her from the giants. Wotan averts a fight between Fafner and Donner with his spear, reminding them that his word is law. Finally Loge arrives, much to the other gods’ annoyance, and Wotan’s relief. Loge, when Wotan reminds him that he promised to find another payment to offer the giants, replies that he has thought long but cannot find that which never existed (i.e. a replacement for love). Wotan reminds Loge who, out of all the gods befriended him, and to be careful not to invoke his fury. Loge relates how he has travelled all over the earth, but cannot find anything to replace that of a woman’s beauty and love. Except, he heard from the Rhinemaidens of a dwarf, Alberich, who chose to forswear love and has stolen their magic gold. He promised to relate this to Wotan. Furiously, Wotan asks how he is to help others when he himself is in desperate need, but the giants on hearing this tale begrudge Alberich the gold, as he has often done much harm to them. They say that they will accept this gold in exchange for Freia. Wotan counters that the gold is not his to give them, and the giants’ greed makes them demand too much. After Loge tells them all that Alberich has forged the ring of power, Wotan realises that he has to deal with this threat to his own position. The giants take away Freia as ransom for the gold, and give the gods until 7
Page 1 and 2: Thanks and Acknowledgements: Fulham
Page 3 and 4: Ian Massa-Harris - Mime: Since Octo
Page 5: Psalms; Schubert’s Mass in G; Ros

Das Rheingold Programme - Fulham Opera

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