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Wagner, Das Rheingold: New production, Francesca Zambello. Soloists, San Francisco Opera Orchestra. Conductor: Donald Runnicles. War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, 19.6.2008 (HS)

Cast:

Wotan— Mark Delavan
Loge— Stefan Margita
Alberich— Richard Paul Fink
Fricka— Jennifer Larmore
Erda— Jill Grove
Mime— David Cangelosi
Fasolt— Andrea Silvestrelli
Fafner— Günther Groissböck
Donner— Charles Taylor
Wellgunde— Lauren McNeese
Flosshilde— Buffy Baggott
Woglinde— Catherine Cangiano
Froh— Jason Collins
Freia— Tamara Wapinsky

Production

Conductor— Donald Runnicles
Director— Francesca Zambello
Set Designer— Michael Yeargan
Lighting Designer— Mark McCullough
Projection Designer— Jan Hartley
Dramaturg— Cori Ellison
Choregrapher— Lawrence Pech
Costume Designer— Catherine Zuber


Michael Milenski has already weighed in with his take on San Francisco Opera's incipient approach to its new Ring cycle. At this point we only have Das Rheingold, which made its debut this month, with the rest to come over the next three years. The production is meant to mine American history to make Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen more relevant to Americans. What there is to see of that idea in Das Rheingold does not bode well.

Musically, conductor Donald Runnicles and the orchestra bring tremendous energy and luminosity to Rheingold. The singers showed some strengths but, as with most Wagner casts, weaknesses as well. The main attraction is baritone Mark Delavan's role debut as Wotan. Vocally secure, his portrayal feels like it needs more seasoning to become as natural as his often-volcanic performances of other big Wagner roles, including The Dutchman and Amfortas. For now, anyway, Richard Paul Fink's Alberich, full of character and effortless singing, and Stefan Margita's brilliantly sung Loge made the best impressions.

On first taste, I find the mixed metaphors of the staging troubling. It will take some serious rethinking and refining to bring out the good ideas in this mess. The big thought, from what I gather after reading director Francesca Zambello's comments, is to use references and icons from American history to portray people and places in the Ring. Plans for Gotterdämmerung, for example, put the Gibichungs in a McMansion. We'll see how that works out. The main link in the Rheingold staging portrayed Alberich as a Forty-Niner gold miner lured by the Rhinemaidens into a river in California Gold Country as he pans for gold. I get it. The gold in the river represents the incessant search for wealth that has led America to compromise our natural bounty and our own souls, much as the characters in the Ring do. I am not convinced this is a strong enough idea to carry the whole drama.

It's especially puzzling that the production plays fast and loose with time. The stage floor is an industrial steel grate, which does not fit with the opening scene in the water no matter how much dry ice vapor floods the stage. Flats jutting from the wings suggest mountains if they are jagged, walls if they are smooth. Rear projections produce images that can be construed as real (water tumbling down river rapids in the Rhinemaidens scene) or allusive (a sci-fi-like tour of the solar system during the long prelude). The Rhinemaidens wear 19th-century dress, but the gods in Valhalla are dressed like the leisure class of the 1920s, as if they stepped out of "The Great Gatsby." Wotan looks like a wealthy construction tycoon. Loge looks like a lawyer. The giants, wearing big heavy elevator boots, are done up like mid-20th-century construction workers in bib overalls. Erda rises out of an opening in the grated floor.

And with all the visual effects experts in the Bay Area's burgeoning film industry, is a weak light projection the best this production can do for a serpent in the Nibelheim scene? Making Alberich disappear when he puts on the tarnhelm needs work, too. You can see his gold-topped head descending amid the child-Nibelungs surrounding him. The toad puppet was cute, but someone please tell Margita (as Loge) not to pretend he's fighting it it. It looks dumb. At the climactic lightning strike in he final scene, the sparklers emerging from Donner's croquet mallet of a hammer draws laughs from the audience. Is that the point? That all our efforts at glory are laughable? If so, it's wrong-headed. Wagner knew what he was doing by setting up a triumphant finish to Rheingold. It makes the downfall later all the more powerful. Telegraphing weakness at this point only undermines the drama.

At the end, the magic bridge for the gods to Valhalla lowers from the wings like the chrome-bannistered gangplank of a luxury ocean liner. Is Zambella suggesting that the supposedly rock solid fortress Wotan has built is as unanchored as a floating boat? That Wotan will drift? As the gods disappear into the wings, Loge remains behind and burns Wotan's contract with the giants.

Lots of ideas, some good, some misguided, but where's it headed? It will take seeing all four productions to see if there's a payoff for all this.

Harvey Steiman