13895 Wagner News 174 - Wagner Society of England

oom housing a water cooler, a recumbent clothed skeleton and a birdcage, Alberich in a
wheel chair upturns a chess board after he loses his disputation with the Wanderer, the
proceedings being surreptitiously watched by a nymphette-style Woodbird. In yet another
room Fafner is presented as a seriously obese golden Buddha with gigantic pendulous
breasts and even larger abdomen. Anything less forbidding, much less capable of
instilling fear in the ‘hero’, seems difficult to imagine. After the exhausting business of
despatching Fafner has been concluded, ‘Forest Murmurs’ is played out in a bare room
accompanied by a video back-projection of a few trees with a Bavarian horn player on
stage for the toe-curling scene with the squeaky reed.
In Act III there is more funny business involving the Woodbird/Nurse who watches
the Wanderer awaken Erda in an old style bath chair (none too tenderly) and hand over
her hearing aid. Frustrated by Erda’s evasion the Wanderer tips her on to the ground and
apparently strangles her as he commends her to endless sleep. Still within the same
sequence of rooms, Siegfried arrives with the Nurse and the scene ends as the Wanderer
is seen to break his own spear when threatened by his grandson. For the last scene
Siegfried climbs back into the same room as in Act I where Brünnhilde is lying on a
catafalque (which becomes her marriage bed) with her crash helmet hanging on the wall.
The whole scene is best seen with eyes wide shut. For the climax, Brünnhilde invests
Siegfried with a military-style jacket covered with medals and a peaked cap of which he
divests himself as they get down to business on the bed.
The Norns scene is ingenious as they inspect an immense bound volume on a plinth
overlooked by pillars bearing busts of Richard Wagner, presumably to see if the libretto or
production book will reveal what happens next. The setting for the Gibichung Hall is
redolent of the Berlin of Cabaret and Christopher Isherwood: the Gibichung nobility watch
a transvestite-style Gunther while Hagen is given a massage by Gutrune with whom he
seems remarkably friendly. Alberich, betraying a bloody damaged face, confronts Hagen
who manages to remain almost (if not completely) immobile during the exchange with his
father. The immobility of Hagen during his watch is so vital to pumping up the dramatic
tension. It was achieved in Warsaw in 1989 and New York in 2012. That Alberich calls his
son his hero demonstrates that ‘hero’ doesn’t always mean what we think it should mean,
thus explaining how Siegfried falls rather short of the normal definition.
The assembly of the Gibichung warriors summoned by Hagen to welcome
Gunther and his prize presents an odd sight for they are all garbed in evening dress with
ne’er a weapon to be seen. The idea of this effete crowd defending Gunther or
slaughtering rams and steers was just laughable. Brünnhilde is displayed in a lion’s cage
and looks very much the worse for her ordeal, with a bloodied face, and blackened eyes,
both Gunther and Gutrune being allowed to assault her. During the Vengeance trio
Brünnhilde is seen to snuggle up to Hagen and then to Gunther – preposterous inventions.
The final scene is a complete shambles: a video projection shows a fire supposedly lit by
Brünnhilde with a cigarette lighter, Wotan sitting forlornly in Valhalla, and a tableau of
Gutrune watching Siegfried and Brünnhilde with their bevy of children while the
Rhinemaidens eye the Ring as it descends into the Rhine.
The aura emerging from this production is of the corrupting influence of power,
but one senses that such a focus is merely a byproduct rather than a conceptual
consideration by the responsible artistic team. Even so, the production is not
platitudinous. It does have the merit that it forces one to search for additional layers of
meaning beyond those inherent within Wagner’s score, albeit fruitlessly in this case. As
so often, the music says it all.
– 39 –