Here's a bit of what they had to say about the recent Siegfied
production.
Leo.
SIEGFRIED, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 25th. August 2002
MIME Alasdair Elliott
SIEGFRIED Graham Sanders
WANDERER Matthew Best
ALBERICH Peter Sidhom
FAFNER Markus Hollop
THE WOODBIRD Gillian Keith
ERDA Helene Ranada
BRUNNHILDE Elizabeth Byrne
Cond: Richard Armstrong
*************************************************************
Scottish Opera have managed to find a Siegfried who looks as well as
sounds
reasonably convincing! This is British tenor Graham Sanders, who made
a
creditable job of appearing to be a brash youth, guileless (stupid of
course!)
and clumsy - towards the end he did seem to tire rather, and didn't
quite match
Elizabeth Byrne's radiant soaring soprano, but it can never be easy
to peform
Siegfried convincingly. Sanders was at his best in the Forging Song.
Matthew Best continues his portrayal of Wotan as a pensive
intellectual - the
point of SIEGFRIED, of course, (or one very significant aspect of
it....) is
that Wotan is finally learning to withdraw from the action. He SAYS
he is going
to, but he has to make one last attempt to assert his power by barring
Siegfried's way. I was impressed by the confrontation with Alberich
(Peter
Sidhom) in Act II - both singers conveyed the fact that Alberich and
Wotan are
mirror-images of each other - Wotan has previously referred to
himself as
Licht-
Alberich, after all. The Riddle Scene with Mime (Alasdair Elliott)
had its
entertaining aspects - the Wanderer arrives without his spear, but it
appears "out of nowhere" as Mime fails to answer the crucial
question, and Mime
is left cowering under the spear with the light glinting off his
glasses.....The scene with Erda (Helene Ranada) was very intense and
passionate - and at one point Wotan and Erda embrace, reminding us
that they
were once lovers - Brunnhilde's parents, in fact...
The Woodbird was actually portrayed as a red-haired girl (Gillian
Keith)
dressed in white - at first this looked a bit odd, but it actually
made a lot
of sense once one adjusted to it, because it meant that it (she?) was
on stage
nearly all the time, and took an active part in the proceedings -
never far
away during the fight with Fafner, who metamorphoses back into human -
or I
suppose giant! - form after the death blow.
The actual production had some inspired moments, such as the above -
on the
whole it is minimalist, there isn't, for instance, a forest - for Act
II the
stage is dominated by a large obtrusive structure that could just
about be a
giant tree trunk, but is also Fafner's cave - uh, illuminated by a
street-lamp,
which is quite funny I suppose.....
For me the most beautiful orchestral playing came in Act III,
especially the
orchestral interlude which depicts Siegfried's journey through the
fire to fine
Brunnhilde, culminating in the exquisitely peaceful scene on the
mountaintop as
the fire recedes. I've already referred briefly to Elizabeth Byrne's
lovely
soprano voice, and I will just add that she has obviously really
THOUGHT about
this, about what Brunnhilde feels/experiences when she wakes as a
mortal woman,
that it isn't easy for her at first.....
We have to wait a whole YEAR for GOETTERDAEMMERUNG!!! But Scottish
Opera are
doing the entire RING next year -- and I'll be here, of course!!
*
Dr. Jane Susanna ENNIS
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