{"id":2864,"date":"2023-12-18T23:45:06","date_gmt":"2023-12-19T04:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=2864"},"modified":"2023-12-18T23:45:09","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T04:45:09","slug":"tannhauser-take-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2023\/12\/tannhauser-take-three.html","title":{"rendered":"“Tannh\u00e4user” — Take Three"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Ride of the Valkyries, from Francois Rochaix’s Seattle “Ring”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emails continue to roll in, responding to my two Tannh\u00e4user <\/em><\/em> blogs<\/a><\/strong>. Here\u2019s one from a former member of the Met orchestra:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour two articles pretty much describe what I observed at the Met during my 40-plus years with the Met Orchestra. The best performances I had a chance to experience, and the privilege to be part of, were the ones presenting a complete art form. During these rare occurrences, the sum total created an unforgettable night, bigger than the components would suggest. In particular, then Carlos Kleiber conducted, the whole approach was: everything is organic, it all has to work together. Then you get to Lepage \u2013 who was not the only one who didn\u2019t care, by the way.  There have been many of those for whom \u2018theater\u2019 meant placing the singers where you can\u2019t really hear them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s remember that the members of an opera orchestra \u2013 a competent one \u2013 are not just following the conductor. They\u2019re listening to the singers. Many of them can also see the singers and observe the staging. When you hear those old broadcasts from the thirties and forties, the energy in the pit is nearly bewildering. It\u2019s evident, I would say, that the players love the operas \u2013 they\u2019re not just drawing inspiration from a baton. And of course the caliber of the singing was very high. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To again reference Robert Lepage\u2019s Met\u00a0Ring<\/em>: Wagner\u2019s\u00a0Siegfried<\/em>\u00a0ends with one of the most psychologically complex love duets in opera. It documents sexual awakening. Siegfried is na\u00efve and immature. Brunnhilde is vulnerable and scared. Over the course of some 35 minutes, they wind up in the same place. Lepage did not even attempt to stage this sequence. The singers weren\u2019t blocked \u2013 they stood and sang. At either side, electric squibbles signified the Magic Fire. But both music and libretto tell us that the Magic Fire through which Siegfried has passed is now wholly absent. Lepage\u2019s indifference to music, and to the marriage of music and words, is here absolute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most memorable Ring<\/em> in my experience was staged by Francois Rochaix in Seattle in 1986. I\u2019ve written about it extensively \u2013 in The Post-Classical Predicament<\/em> (1995) and Wagner Nights <\/em>(1994). It shows how a bold exercise in Regietheater can at the same time remain keenly attuned to Wagner\u2019s synthesis of the arts. I write in The<\/em> Post-Classical Predicament <\/em>(reprising a long article \u201cOn Staging Wagner\u2019s Ring<\/em>\u201d in Opus<\/em> Magazine, April 1987):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo underline Siegfried\u2019s coming of age, Rochaix inserts a touching pantomime . . . just after Siegfried penetrates the Magic Fire: he envisions his father\u2019s murder, his mother\u2019s death in childbirth, Fafner\u2019s warning, and the Forest Bird\u2019s summons. Fortified by new self-knowledge, he tentatively kisses Brunnhilde. Rochaix\u2019s handling of this long final scene is so honest that for once Siegfried\u2019s astonished exclamation \u2018Das is kein Mann!\u2019 is astonishing, not comic. Disregarding Wagner, Rochaix has Siegfried flee his awakened bride; when Brunnhilde sings \u2018Wer ist der Held, der mich erweckt?\u2019 [\u2018Who is the hero who has awakened me?\u2019], he stands, terrified, well outside her field of vision. Brunnhilde\u2019s gradual transformation from goddess to woman, Siegfried\u2019s coming to terms with adult feelings, their growing proximity, mutual awareness, and commitment — Rochaix\u2019s detailed understanding of all of this, his use of blocking and gestural detail to bind the momentous, compressed emotional scenario, is a triumph of creative empathy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany at Seattle found Siegfried\u2019s interpolated pantomime\/vision intrusive. The problem is partly Wagner\u2019s; his layoff partway through act 2 of Siegfried<\/em> created discontinuities in the Ring<\/em>. In particular, Siegfried and Brunnhilde became somewhat different personalities. Rochaix\u2019s masque intelligently attempts to explain the new Siegfried, whom Brunhilde eventually praises for his loyalty and valor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rochaix had never before directed a\u00a0Ring<\/em>\u00a0production. His preparations, documented in reams of notes and advisories he doubtless shared with the singers, were prodigious. Lepage\u2019s preparations were self-evidently wasted on complexly intrusive stage machinery in service of a\u00a0Ring<\/em>\u00a0made more \u201ctheatrical.\u201d Re-reading my Opus<\/em> essay of 36 years ago, I discover this, by Thomas Mann: \u201cWagner experienced modern culture, the culture of bourgeois society, through the medium and in the image of the operatic theater of his day. He saw art reduced to the level of an extravagant consumer product . . . he watched with fury while vast resources were squandered, not for the attainment of high artistic purpose, but for that which he despised above all else as an artist: the easy, cheap effect.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ride of the Valkyries, from Francois Rochaix’s Seattle “Ring” The emails continue to roll in, responding to my two Tannh\u00e4user  blogs. Here\u2019s one from a former member of the Met orchestra: \u201cYour two articles pretty much describe what I observed at the Met during my 40-plus years with the Met Orchestra. The best performances I had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-Kc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2864"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2869,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2864\/revisions\/2869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}