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The Niblung's Ring: A TRI-logy...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 07/18/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

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The Niblung's Ring: A TRI-logy...

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The incisive Irishman G. B. Shaw was true in his shrewd critique of Wagner's magnum opus, The Niblung's Ring: it is in fact a trilogy consisting of The Rhine Gold, The Valkyrie, and Siegfried--a perfect allegory of the sickness of industrial capitalism in its pursuit of sterile material, and the vibrant catharsis of metaphysical transfiguration by attainment of the full measure of humanity via unification in love--largely told in classical Greek dramatic style where there are no more than two players on the stage at any time.



(This Shavian reading sees Night Falls on the Gods as a thing apart, anticlimactic to the preceding victorious trilogy--a grand opera with vocal ensembles and chorus relating a separate story in and of itself.)



Siegfried is THE Nietzschean über-mensch--"that heroic man [who] will hew the way of his own Will through religions and governments and plutocracies and all the other devices of the kingdom of the fears of the unheroic."



The essential joy of the union of Siegfired and Brünnhilde expresses the wish "that the supreme good of love is that it so completely satisfies the desire for life that after it the Will to Live ceases to trouble us, and we are at last content to achieve the highest happiness of death." This is "love as the fulfiller of our Will to Live and consequently our reconciler to [the inevitable] night and death. Enlightening love and laughing death involve each other so closely as to be virtually one and the same thing."



The climax of the trilogy in Siegfried concludes with the transcendent unity of humanity's being in the consummation of love.

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In Wagner's orchestration the human voice is seen as equal to all other instruments.

This raises questions concerning recorded sound, orchestras and vocalists.



Firstly, we have differences between recorded `live' performances and studio realizations.



Famous studio versions include those conducted by Solti (1958-65); Karajan (1967-70); Janowski (1980-83); Levine (1987-89); and Haitink (1988-91).



Famous `live' versions include those with Böhm (1967); Boulez (1980); Barenboim (1991); and Thielemann (2008). [The most recent Conlon (2009-10) cycle is not yet on CD.]



Open-minded enthusiasts will value both studio and `live' recordings each for their distinctive perspectives.



Then there's the question of recording balance between vocalists and orchestra.

(By means of a pit with an acoustic overhang, Wagner's Bayreuth stage casts the orchestral sound waves onto the stage as the vocalists' sound waves are projected directly at the audience.)



Finally, there are the vocalists themselves whom some hyper-"aficionados" attempt to handicap like throughbred racehorses--which is an arrogantly ungrateful and ungracious attitude totally wrongheaded and inappropriate to art appreciation.



Assuming that only qualified vocalists are invited to perform with the best players at the finest venues, one may safely enjoy the uniqueness of all Ring readings: open-minded enthusiasts will appreciate the singular individualism of each performance--which includes the distinctive timbre and tessitura of each vocalist's instrument and the use s/he makes therewith.



Jess Thomas, Birgit Nilsson, Siegfried Jerusalem, Hildegard Behrens, Gwyneth Jones, Jane Eaglen, Éva Marton, Wolfgang Windgassen, Helga Dernesch, Jon Vickers, Plácido Domingo, Thomas Stewart, Gustav Neidlinger, James Morris, Hans Hotter (to name but a few) are all great Wagnerian vocalists.

Currently the most active Wagnerian heldentenor and dramatic soprano are John Treleaven and Linda Watson (marvellous!).

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In conclusion, to pick any three performances to form the trilogy, enthusiasts are encouraged to consider:



The Rhine Gold:

Solti Das Rheingold (Complete) (Comp)

Karajan Das Rheingold (Complete) (Comp)

Levine Das Rheingold



The Valkyrie:

Leinsdorf Die Walkure (Dig)

Böhm Die Walkure or Die Walkure

Karajan Die Walkure (Complete) (Comp)



Siegfried:

Böhm (this page)

Solti Wagner: Siegfried

Karajan Siegfried (Complete) (Comp)

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Karajan's complete Ring Der Ring des Nibelungen / Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic

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