2017 International May Festival - Wagner's Ring Cycle in Wiesbaden (Siegfried, Götterdämmerung)

As I pointed out in the previous Das Rheingold, Die Walküre review, it is not so often that Ring Cycle takes operagoes throught specific time period, historical events or in this case such vast period – from enchant time to the present-future time.

That is the case with Wiesbaden's Siegfried and Götterdämmerung productions. Siegfried being set in to me 1970's, 1980's poor district of a town where in a very old-fashioned kitchen settings as we can see in the Act 1, Mime plans his lifelong revenge, maniac love/hate pretended feelings towards Siegfried who's interested only in his "hippie lifestyle" – very keen on his walkman / headphones music (do you still remember those?) While Wanderer is portrait here as a man out of town in a suit, and a suitcase. To me raher overmodernized Act 2 takes us to a bank where Siegfried tries to win Fafner's Ring by first of all winning a computer game to enter the building and then defeating his enemy and taking the Ring with him. Not disturbing but rather interesting staging made me think about why it hasn't already been staged similarly before. Third act as we all know returns to Brünnhilde’s statue where she sleeps. The most moving moment of the opera for me was Wotan's meeting with Erda when both of them sit on the edge of the statue – being so close to their beloved daughter and yet so far from her and from each other in reality. Brünnhilde gets her hero and is awaken from her sleep, all ends well.

And all starts well again (in Götterdämmerung) where after a glorious number with three Norns, daughters of Erda, weaving laser pistols instead the rope of destiny, singing beautifully, we already see the couple's house, a modern feng shui style type of condo with somehow museum pieces placed in the corners, reminding us of the past heroic moments of both lovers – Brünnhilde’s helmet, Siegfried's sword Notung. What I liked about this production of Götterdämmerung was the minimalistic staging of Act 2, you clearly again realize that there is no need for huge stage decorations and oversize costume which often been the case in other continental productions. And I can't forget about one more rather personal moment that stayed with me – Siegfried just before his dead seeing and remembering “his life in pictures”, surrounded by things he had, remembered a lived through as a young boy in Siegfried and as a grown up man later on in Götterdämmerung. The end was simply magnificent on all levels. So was the whole Ring that brought a new meaning, view on such epic work that will always have something to say...

Siegfried

Conductor Alexander Joel
Director Uwe Eric Laufenberg
Stage Designer Gisbert Jäkel
Costume Designer Antje Sternberg
Lighting Designer Andreas Frank
Video Falko Sternberg
Dramaturgy Katja Leclerc

Siegfried Andreas Schager
Mime Matthäus Schmidlechner
The Wanderer Jukka Rasilainen
Der Wanderer Thomas Hall
Alberich Thomas de Vries
Fafner Young Doo Park
Erda Bernadett Fodor
Brünnhilde Evelyn Herlitzius
Waldvogel (the woodbird) Stella An

Statisterie des Hessischen Staatstheaters Wiesbaden, Hessisches Staatsorchester Wiesbaden

Götterdämmerung

Conductor Alexander Joel
Director Uwe Eric Laufenberg
Stage Designer Gisbert Jäkel
Costume Designer Antje Sternberg
Lighting Designer Andreas Frank
Video Falko Sternberg
Chorus Master Albert Horne
Dramaturgy Regine Palmai 

Siegfried Andreas Schager
Gunther Samuel Youn
Alberich Thomas de Vries
Hagen Albert Pesendorfer
Brünnhilde Evelyn Herlitzius
Gutrune Sabina Cvilak
Waltraute / First Norn Bernadett Fodor
Second Norn Silvia Hauer
Third Norn Sabina Cvilak
Woglinde Katharina Konradi
Wellgunde Marta Wryk
Flosshilde Silvia Hauer

Chor, Extrachor & Statisterie des Hessischen Staatstheaters Wiesbaden, Hessisches Staatsorchester Wiesbaden