Stream: Birmingham Opera Company: RhineGold
It’s not every RhineGold which starts with a news flash about a demonstration against Wotan’s wealth and his plans for Valhalla. “We live in squalor - he builds Valhalla!” they chant. Nor is it usual for Alberich to tell a Rheinmaiden to look out for the “eel up her arse.” Welcome to the Birmingham Opera Company RhineGold from September 2021, now available to stream free on Operavision. If you’re not able to travel in search of an opera fix this autumn, I suggest you try this lucid, intelligent, well-sung production.
Under their late director Graham Vick, Birmingham Opera Company’s annual production became legendary. They took place in unorthodox spaces, with local volunteers acting and singing alongside professional singers. Last year’s opera was intended to take place at Port Loop, part of a redevelopment site, but continued Covid restrictions moved the action to the Birmingham City Hall. As rehearsals started in July, Graham Vick died of Covid at the age of 67, one of the greatest losses to music in the UK during the pandemic.
Richard Willacy, who’d collaborated with Vick, directed RhineGold, which attracted ecstatic reviews last year. I have never seen Birmingham Opera company so was delighted to find this online. The emphasis on inequality seen in these demonstrations underpin the action. When we first meet the gods, Wotan and Fricka are having manicures, their masked beauticians kneeling, before Wotan is interviewed on camera by the Fake News Channel. They are dressed in the clothes of today’s young (and not so young) wealthy celebrities – street clothing with added bling. Wotan is in a gold lame jacket, with Fricka in white designer dress. In the first scene, the Rheinmaidens wave from high seating, then shimmy onto the stage in silver sequins. They pose for selfies as Alberich crawls onto the side wearing an orange work overall.
The performance takes place on a slightly raised oval stage. The 87-piece orchestra is at floor level behind them, with their young conductor, Alpesh Chauhan, doing a terrific job marshalling the forces from a podium level with the stage. The audience is conventionally seated in front of the performance space. The sound quality seems good though I suspect that in the auditorium, the less-prominent orchestral sound may help the singers’ voices to project. The British and American cast is excellent. There are no weak links in the singing and the plain-spoken English translation by Jeremy Sams suits the production perfectly. There are titles on screen and, I assume, in the auditorium, but the diction is well-nigh perfect.
Eric Greene, as Wotan, is the only singer I’ve seen before. He was Scottish Opera’s Richard Nixon in their production of Adams’ opera in 2020. His fine voice and autocratic bearing make him ideal for the role. Two other performances stand out for the way the singers develop their characters. US tenor Brenden Gunnell as Loge is resplendent in black leather, with goggle-like shades, and studded dog collar and knuckle dusters. His red string vest is perhaps an indication of his status as Fire God! He clearly relishes his role as Wotan’s fixer and enforcer, both the clever stuff which involves outwitting Alberich, and the heavy lifting when he lends his muscle to piling up the onstage gold for the Giants. Clearly annoyed when he fails to take the Ring for himself, he becomes sceptical about Wotan’s project, holding back from the final rejoicing of the other gods, addressing his cynical observations to the audience. It’s in the text, but I’ve never seen it acted, or indeed sung, with such clarity.
The Giants, like others of the underclass, wear orange work wear and helmets. They, however, stand upright and British bass-baritone Andrew Slater’s Fafner is clearly a shop steward to be reckoned with. Andrew has been around a while, as his genial biographical notes tell us. Fafner takes Freia, not because he’s interested in her but because she’s a means to an end – to get the payment which he feels is rightfully his. (The Tory newspapers favourite gibe of “holding the country to ransom” comes to mind here.) He despises his brother, Fasolt’s, weakness in lusting after Freia, but it helps to enlist his powerful muscle to the cause. He’s a firm and reasonable negotiator, and his strong measured singing underlies this implacability. After he oversees the accumulation of the gold (in plastic basins), the Helmet and the Ring seem to be an afterthought. But as soon as the deal is struck, the sudden brutality with which he kills Fasolt comes as a profound shock. Some directors have shown bloodier demises – here it’s a simple blow to the head with one of the rods which measured the gold. The curse of the Ring, we might say, but this is a production which looks for psychological motivations rather than magical ones, and Slater shows us the pent-up violence in the character, of the kind which often shows us shocked neighbours in TV interviews struggling to account for the murder next door.
The conquest of Alberich, deprived of his blingier-than-thou jacket by Wotan and Loge, was celebrated wordlessly by some of the protestors during the music leading up to the next scene. Yet, undeterred by this and by Fafner’s possession of the Ring, the Gods ascend to Valhalla, where their rainbow bridge is provided by workers in all colours of work clothes who crawl, as ever, up the side of the stage…
This thought-provoking production succeeds on many levels. It’s well worth watching, and if there are any ‘Ring-phobes’ out there, give this one a try. It may win you over!
Stream here.
