The conductor Christian Thielemann, who stepped in at short notice, was frenetically celebrated on Sunday evening at the start of the new “Ring” production at the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden. Due to illness, the 63-year-old took over the musical direction at short notice from the General Music Director of the State Opera, Daniel Barenboim.
Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production was greeted with shouts of “Bravo” as early as the closing curtain. The Russian director and his team did not show up during the applause for the first of four operas. The State Opera’s expense was also intended as a symbolic birthday present for Barenboim, who will be 80 in November.
The Wagner specialist Thielemann, chief conductor of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden for another two years, is also considered a potential successor candidate for Barenboim when his contract ends in 2027.
Four premieres in one week
The “Rheingold” is the prelude to Richard Wagner’s (1813-1883) “The Ring of the Nibelung”. The four premieres within a week are already considered the highlight of the opera season that is just beginning. “Valkyrie”, “Siegfried” and “Götterdämmerung” will follow until Sunday. Beyond Bayreuth, the premieres of this mammoth work – the work comprises around 16 hours – are usually divided over several seasons.
The presentation is also due to Tcherniakov’s concept, who already realized “Parsifal” or “Tristan and Isolde” with Barenboim. The celebrated director wants the story of the almost unstoppable end of the world to be told in one play. He sets the action in a contemporary research laboratory whose numerous rooms, corridors and cellars seem to pick up on Wagner’s confused history.
Drama without much stage magic
Alberich (Johannes Martin Kränzle) is a test subject of the Rhine daughters – like the rabbits in the mezzanine. Tcherniakov also largely reduces Wotan (Michael Volle), his fellow gods, the giants and dwarves, to their human characteristics. Wagner’s mythical abysses are thus given an everyday grimace, the drama develops without much fanfare and transparent stage magic, above all from the libretto, music and the ambiguous play of the actors.
It was well received by the premiere audience. There were many “Bravo” shouts and sustained applause for the soloists, in addition to Kränzle and Volle, especially for Anna Kissjudit as Erda and Mika Kares in the role of Fasolt. Rolando Villazón’s box met a mixed mood in the parquet. Thielemann and the Staatskapelle were celebrated with ovations.
Info about the ring
