Bulgaria Wagner, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung: Soloists, Refrain and Orchestra of Sofia Opera and Ballet / Evan-Alexis Christ (conductor). Sofia Opera, 18 & 20.6.2024. (GT)
Usually thought to be the darkest and least in style of the cycle, Siegfried is probably an interregnum between Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung, which possess larger drama and extra distinction. The opera is dominated by male voices, whereas the feminine characters of Brünnhilde, the Woodbird and Erda are much less distinguished. There are a lot of passages of nice magnificence, most distinctly within the Forest Murmurs music, the Forging Scene and the invention on the finish by Siegfried of the sleeping Brünnhilde.
On this revival of the 2023 staging, an innovation launched by Plamen Kartaloff is a quick prequel; earlier than the Prelude, Mime crosses the stage earlier than the curtain rises, then chases the boy Siegfried, and once more repeats chasing him as a teenage boy, and once more as a younger man. The curtain rises in the course of the Prelude to Act I, and we see the pregnant Sieglinde enter and provides delivery on the raised plinth, and Mime takes care of the kid. The primary scene is set in Mime’s workshop with an excellent anvil and a pathway past and one other anvil on the precise. The colors are grainy but successfully enticing bathed in purple, and blue shades with the nice triskels dominant.
The superb characterisation of Mime by Krassimir Dinev reveals a heartless, self-seeking dwarf eagerly attempting to make use of the boy, while the Siegfried of Kostadin Andreev will increase in authority by portraying the juvenile delinquent successfully and growing his function by means of the night with nice vocal powers within the dramatic finale. His questioning of who he’s, and his origins perplex him, but he finds most pleasure with a bear. Wotan, disguised because the Wanderer, enters the pathway past Mimi’s area, but he brings an excellent globe that represents the world of his powers. The dialogue of the three questions was nicely offered, but the nice globe appeared inhibiting. The forging of the sword was wonderful and marvellously accompanied by Evan-Alexis Christ’s route of the orchestra rising to each nuance of the drama on stage.
Act II opened with the dreamlike imagery of the forest backed by a colourfully lovely backdrop, and the drama of the killing of Fafner was nicely enacted, as was the brutal homicide of Mime. The Woodbird gave an lively show suspended above the stage and there was great, coloratura singing from Maria Pavlova.
A excessive level is the entry of Erda of Vesela Yaneva at the beginning of the third act, whose refined contralto was fantastically acceptable in her warning – with each nuance of her voice dramatically menacing; the scene was equally chilling and spellbinding. On this act, the Siegfried of Andreev matures – once we see him as a younger man who desires to find and conquer worry, and the breaking of the spear by Siegfried is startling, assured by superb performances by the Wanderer and an outstanding finale with Siegfried’s awakening of Brünnhilde on the mountain prime.
The Wanderer of Krisztian Cser was finely portrayed by means of his singing and characterisation as a extra worldly determine than the omnipotent God. The Alberich of Plamen Dimitrov was masterly in his portrayal of the grasping, craving dwarf. The Mime of Krassimir Dinev was one of many stronger performers, at one second, dastardly – after which kind-hearted – in the end, his wickedness will get the higher of him.
Kostadin Andreev’s Siegfried was efficient each in voice and portrayal, and he appears to have made this function his personal by capably portraying the ageing of Siegfried from a younger hooligan by means of to maturity and discovering love. Yaneva’s Erda was astonishingly nicely portrayed together with her generally strident center voice and projection dulcetly hinting on the forthcoming disasters beckoning for the Gods. She has an excellent vocal expertise and will get higher in each efficiency. The Brünnhilde of Radostina Nikolaeva has a peerless soprano and an excellent stage presence, and as she is woke up by Siegfried, their love scene is fantastically portrayed.
Most of all, Plamen Kartaloff’s manufacturing of Siegfried has overcome lots of the hurdles of this advanced stage work and has made the opera a extra accessible a part of the cycle; there are touches of genius and mastery in each the units and within the interaction between the varied characters. The color projections and media imagery added much more to this darkish opera and infrequently created superb scenes – much more spectacular than final 12 months – it was all enhanced by nice appearing and excellent singing and led the viewers to keenly anticipate the climax of the cycle.
Two days later because the Prelude to Götterdämmerung was heard, as soon as extra, the producer Kartaloff launched lovely visible projections to boost the opening Prologue as a imaginative and prescient of the Tree of Life appeared. This ready us for the three Norns showing in a spellbinding scene of their narrative, and the motion between the nice round geometric constructs was charming because the Norns wound by means of the Rope of Future till it broke, additionally one other innovation was the small, colored globes forged away in despair.
Within the second scene, Brünnhilde and Siegfried’s lovemaking was enacted splendidly with magnificent singing, and as Siegfried determines to hunt additional glories. The journey down the Rhine was spectacular with Grane – encircled by one of many triskels – slowly moved off to superb orchestral enjoying. The revolving triskel encircling the nice purple horse with Siegfried astride was much more spectacular than final 12 months. In Act I, the Corridor of the Gibichungs, the surroundings was extra balanced than earlier than, with a chess board dominated by a throne, while one other nice triskel comprises a devilish contraption (much like an African exhibit in Sofia’s Gallery of Arts) which portrays evil and wickedness. On the centre of the stage was Petar Buchkov’s Hagen, one of many terrific performances of the night; his voice is a darkish husky bass, and his portrayal has taken on a far larger depth and scale than in final 12 months’s manufacturing. His eyes, facial grimaces and bodily actions enhanced his portrayal of wickedness, notably in his ‘Hier sitz’ ich zur Wacht’.
A spotlight was that continuously within the background, Alberich lurks and watches the scene because the motion unfolds – a persistent observer of the circumstances of his in search of after his appropriated gold. Scene three, when Brünnhilde is betrayed was once more finely portrayed with much more cruelty than final 12 months, every facet was cautiously enhanced with the assault on Brünnhilde by Siegfried dressed as Gunther.
An surprising bonus was the First Norn of the German mezzo-soprano Anna Werle, who was the Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde right here final 12 months. Her singing was elegant, and her motion was wonderful as she performed with the rope till its breaking, her depth of expression was particularly enhanced by her beautiful black costume, once more one other superb conception by the costume designer of Hristiyana Mihaleva-Zorbalieva. Buchkov’s Hagen impressed me very a lot final 12 months; nevertheless, on this night, he was much more spectacular, extra so, he was Hagen. I doubt if there’s a Hagen wherever in Europe who can match Buchkov’s portrayal. His half was matched by Martin Iliev as Siegfried, and once more, he appears his affinity on this function is healthier than final 12 months; his singing was elegant, and his portrayal was wonderful, particularly in his last love-filled singing ‘Brünnhilde! Heilige Braut!’
The Gutrune of Tsvetana Bandalovska was one other highpoint; her portrayal was wholly within the character of a younger loveless lady charmed right into a pretend marriage ceremony by her brother and the evil Hagen. Atanas Mladenov was wonderful as Gunther within the crafty matchmaking of his sister’s marriage, and his singing/appearing was pretty much as good as final 12 months. Plamen Dimitrov’s Alberich was a sinister determine lurking regularly within the background, watching the occasions unfold in his want to revive possession of the ring – his characterisation was elegant, when imploring his son throughout ‘Schläfst du, Hagen, mein Sohn?’
But the best efficiency of this Götterdämmerung was the Brünnhilde of Iordanka Derilova. Final 12 months, she was the star of this manufacturing and was once more as she managed to excel her earlier efficiency by giving a supreme portrayal – even higher than her Isolde that I noticed final month in Dessau – right here in Sofia; this function belongs to her, and he or she must be singing it at Bayreuth. This was a surprising efficiency of magnificent singing and appearing, which introduced this cycle to a splendid shut together with her ‘Fliegt heim, ihr Raben!’
The Sofia Opera male refrain was wonderful, much more spectacular than final 12 months, with an improved choreography giving larger dimensions and drama to the efficiency. The orchestra beneath Evan-Alexis Christ was magnificent, generally slightly loud however succinct in accompanying the drama on the stage. If something, the American conductor drew out extra from Wagner’s rating than we heard final 12 months. That Evan-Alexis Christ obtained a distinct high quality in Wagnerian sound from Constantin Trinks reveals how good this Bulgarian orchestra is in offering the 2024 Wagner Pageant with a dependable basis for this cycle.
Most credit score has to go to the director Plamen Kartaloff’s stagings: he has masterminded this competition by making a status for excellent Wagnerian singing and efficiency and, in collaboration with Hans Kudlich, they’ve reworked Sofia into the Bayreuth of the Balkans. For a lot of many years, Bulgaria has given the world’s most interesting opera phases a conveyor belt of magnificent singers, each female and male singers of Italian, Russian and French opera. In a rustic beforehand missing a Wagner custom, Kartaloff has created a miracle in staging his third Ring cycle, and by progressively staging the entire Wagner operas; solely Tannhäuser and Die Meistersinger stay of the mature operas, and one can’t rule out his staging Rienzi in future seasons.
There have been guests this 12 months to Sofia’s Wagner Pageant from over 20 international locations, together with Brazil and America, and Wagnerians will hopefully proceed to be drawn to Sofia which might be staging one other Wagner Pageant in June and July 2025 with eight operas, certainly one of which might be a brand new manufacturing of Tannhäuser, in addition to revivals of Parsifal, Lohengrin, and The Flying Dutchman.
Gregor Tassie
Manufacturing:
Course – Plamen Kartaloff
Assistant Director – Yulia Krasteva
Set designer – Hans Kudlich
Costumes – Hristiyana Mihalev-Zorbalieva
Lighting design – Andrej Hajdinjak
Multimedia – Ivan Lipchev, Elena Shopova
Constructive improvement – Georgi Georgiev
Design and Construction – Boryan Belchev
Artist – Christiyan Stoyanov
Forged for Siegfried:
Wanderer – Kriztian Cser
Alberich – Plamen Dimitrov
Siegfried – Kostadin Andreev
Mime – Krassimir Dinev
Fafner – Petar Buchkov
Brunnhilde – Radostina Nikolaeva
Erda – Vesela Yaneva
The Woodbird – Maria Pavlova
Forged for Götterdämmerung:
Alberich – Plamen Dimitrov
Gunther – Atanas Mladenov
Siegfried – Martin Iliev
Hagan – Petar Buchkov
Brünnhilde – Iordanka Derilova
Gutrune – Tsvetana Bandalovska
Woglinde – Stanislava Momekova
Wellgunde / Second Norn – Ina Petrova
Flosshilde / Waltraute – Alexandrina Stoyanova – Andreeva
First Norn – Anna Werle
Third Norn – Lyubov Metodieva
