My colleague Gavin Dixon reviewed Das Rheingold from Frankfurt a while ago and
made it a Recording of the Month. I haven’t heard
it but having played this Walküre I can understand
his enthusiasm for the conducting of Sebastian Weigle. I heard
him direct Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Bayreuth
some years ago and was impressed. Katharina Wagner’s staging
of was controversial, to say the least, but musically it was
everything one could wish. Weigle belongs amid those conductors
who let the music speak without adding ‘clever’
interpretative details. Really good music doesn’t need
that help. What we have here is a reading that obeys Wagner’s
intention and makes the drama unfold naturally. In that respect
he has a lot in common with Marek Janowski, whose Ring
cycle has stood the test of time better than some more illustrious
sets. The stormy prelude to the first act is menacing, there
is flair in the Ride of the Walkures and the Magic Fire music
in the last act burns with an intensity that is almost blinding.
The Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester is in excellent
shape and the impact of their playing is further enhanced by
the recording, where one can pinpoint the location of every
instrument without the feeling of artificial highlighting.
Being boiled over by the overwhelming orchestral and aural sound-feast
I had great expectations of the singing. Alas, they were not
fulfilled - not to the degree I had hoped. But let me start
with the good things.
Terje Stensvold and Martina Dike were Wotan and Fricka in the
Stockholm Ring 5-7 years ago and here they are united
again, with equally grand success. Stensvold hasn’t the
most voluminous voice but he projects well. He has the important
lower notes that most baritones more or less lack and he is
expressive with words. His tone is also admirably steady. Martina
Dike is plainly glorious and the verbal duel with Wotan in the
second act is a real thriller. In the first act Ain Anger is
a suitably evil Hunding with steady dark tones.
Alas, steadiness is in short supply with the remaining soloists.
Frank van Aken’s Siegmund is baritonal and manly. There
is steel in his tone and he is an excellent actor with the voice.
Few tenors I have heard in this role have been so sensitive
to words and so nuanced. He can sing softly without losing the
edge and there isn’t a dull moment in his reading. The
fly in the ointment? You guessed it: unsteadiness. It varies,
fortunately, and sometimes it is hardly noticeable at all, at
other times it develops into a wobble. Overall it is anyway
a good reading.
Eva-Maria Westbroek has made a name for herself as a leading
singing-actor. A year ago she created the title role in Mark-Anthony
Turnage’s opera Anna Nicole at Covent Garden. Like
her husband, Frank van Aken, she knows how to colour the voice
and create a believable character with vocal means alone. That
said, the tone is all too often squally and wobbly.
The Walküre herself? Susan Bullock is reputed to be one
of the foremost dramatic sopranos, which unfortunately also
means that she is constantly in demand for the voice-killer
roles: Isolde, Brünnhilde and Elektra. Such an unbalanced
diet takes its toll. Here she is wobbly throughout and some
of her top notes are painful to hear. Against this can be said
that her powerful voice conveys both warmth and dignity. Anyone
who can, so to speak, listen through the shrillness and
wobbles will find a deeply human Brünnhilde.
Unfortunately this set is is ruled out due to some less than
attractive singing but the orchestral playing and sensitive
vocal acting still makes it a version to return to occasionally
- and then take the best plums.
Göran Forsling
See also review by Gavin
Dixon
Masterwork Index: Die
Walküre
Siegmund - Frank van Aken (tenor)