13895 Wagner News 174 - Wagner Society of England

FULHAM OPERA DIE WALKÜRE
25th May 2012
Robert Mansell
How extraordinarily ambitious, if not downright audacious, to attempt to produce a Ring
cycle at one’s local church! But that is what Benjamin Woodward is doing at St. John’s
Church on North End Road in Fulham. So far I have attended Rheingold last year and
now Die Walküre this year, both of which were extremely fine. I see that Siegfried is
planned for next February and I will certainly be there.
I am not a fan of updating Wagner to modern times and dress. It never seems to
work well, so that part of the production, albeit quite imaginative, was not really my thing,
but musically the performance was outstanding. Under Musical Director Ben Woodward
the singers were almost all exceptionally fine; even if, admittedly, it is much easier to
sound wonderful in a ringing acoustic such as that in this somewhat dilapidated church,
rather than it would be in a large opera house. His piano accompaniment was exciting and
at times almost more thrilling than a full orchestra, for example his pounding triplets at
Wälse! Wälse! Hardly ever did I find that I missed listening to a bigger sound. In fact
perhaps on the contrary it made the singers much easier to understand. I have never
attempted to play Wagner on the piano, but it certainly must be extremely tiring to play
straight through Die Walküre several times in daily succession, especially the Ride of the
Valkyries and the Magic Fire Music – talk about a lot of notes!
Taking the singers in order of their appearance: Siegmund was well sung by Jon
Morrell. His Wälse! Wälse! was particularly thrilling even if the actual vowel sound was
rather strange, but after that I did feel that his voice was becoming slightly tired and the
ends of long phrases were perhaps not quite strong enough. Sieglinde, sung by Laura
Hudson (who I believe was a past member of the Mastersingers programme), was
beautifully sung and especially well acted. Oliver Hunt’s Hunding was powerfully fierce
and vocally threatening. Brünnhilde was splendidly sung by Zöe South, especially her
final scene leading up to a lovely Auf dein Gebot on her knees; but, without wishing to
make personal comments on her physical shape, she would certainly not be tall enough
for a major opera house (and her costume I thought was somewhat unflattering). Wotan
was commandingly and beautifully sung by Ian Wilson-Pope (there could not have been
a dry eye in the house at his wonderful Leb’ wohl outburst) and Elizabeth Russo’s Fricka
was theatrically and musically excellent.
The Valkyries riding in on their bicycles was amusing and visually effective
(especially with their colourfully varied attire) and their vocal octet was just fine – but I
didn’t understand why they came back soon after Wotan had despatched them “never to
return to this rock” all dressed in white, rather like vestal virgins! Otherwise the direction
by Fiona Williams was good.
Four hours is a very long time on the particularly hard seating at this church (but
then so it is at Bayreuth!) however, I would most happily do it all over again – and at only
£20 a ticket one can certainly afford to return. I was disappointed that the audience wasn’t
larger; I think the production deserved a full house every night, but a couple sitting near
me had come all the way from Oxford and enjoyed every minute.
In 2013 Fulham Opera present Siegfried on 11th, 13th, 15th and 17th February
and two full Ring cycles from 20th to 25th May and from 27th May to 1st June.
www.fulhamopera.com
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