BELLAVITÆ

From Reuters:   

La Scala’s production of Richard Wagner’s “The Walkyrie” drew a 15-minutes ovation on the opening night of the opera house season on Tuesday, though the climate of austerity sweeping Europe clouded the starry event.   

With tickets costing as much as 2,400 euros ($3,200), the opening night at the 18th century opera house is one of the most popular cultural events on the calendar of the rich and influential.   

German mezzo soprano Waltraud Meier, who played the passionate Sieglinde, won particularly loud applause.   

From the Associated Press:   

La Scala’s exacting audience — filled for the season premiere with leading political, cultural and business figures — showered Barenboim, the singers and director Guy Cassiers with 14 minutes of applause and bouquets of flowers after the performance.   

Cassiers’ use of video, including the opening scene where Siegmund and Sieglinde discover each other, reportedly angered some of the singers who worried the character’s emotions were being overshadowed.   

But Cassiers said after the performance that reports of discord were exaggerated. In fact, mezzo-soprano Waltraud Meier who sang the role of Sieglinde walked over during the curtain calls to bring Cassiers out on stage.   

Cassiers said his goal is to bring all disciplines and technologies together on stage “to create a universe.”   

“The most important thing for me on stage is not the set, is not the light, is not the visuals. It’s the singers. The singers are the guide … to stimulate you, to get you as close as possible to the material Wagner offers,” Cassiers said recently.   

Lighting director Enrico Bagnoli, whose work often gave a sense of motion to the set, said he was surprised by how well the production was received.   

“I always thought it wasn’t a very technological show. We used the media of today to tell a story. I am happy that the public understood. This is a group that didn’t want to create provocations. They wanted to do suggestive images to create a state of mind,” Bagnoli said.   

“Die Walkuere” stars some of the most famous Wagnerian singers, including soprano Nina Stemme as Bruennhilde and mezzo-soprano Meier in the soprano role of Sieglinde — both of whom received shouts of appreciation. New Zealand-born tenor Simon O’Neill appears as Siegmund and Ukrainian bass Vitalij Kowaljow as Wotan, while Ekaterina Gubanova sings the role of Fricka and John Tomlinson is Hunding.   

Opera Chic:   

Before the final curtain call on December 7th — a few minutes after the conclusion of five ginormous hours of Wagner’s Die Walkure that opened La Scala’s new season on Milan’s holiday to celebrate the city’s patron saint, Sant’Ambrogio — the night was engraved as a triumph before the first strains of Wagner’s famous leitmotifs hit the adoring, vaguely taxidermied, Milanese public. Maestro Daniel Barenboim’s victory was sealed when he stepped from the orchestra pit onto the platea floor to inaugurate the evening and spoke out, in Italian, quoting the Italian Constitution (art 9.) to defend the future of culture in Italy, and deafening applause ensued (which was also directed to Palco Reale where Milan’s Mayor, Letizia Moratti kept company with Italy’s President, Giorgio Napolitano).   

As Barenboim entered the orchestra pit at the beginning of Act II and Act III, preemptive cheering for La Scala’s “Maestro Scaligero” guaranteed the final triumph and today’s newspaper headlines, the Italian press creeming themselves in phrases like, “Il trionfo della Valchiria”, “Quattordici minuti di applausi”, “Scala, il trionfo di Barenboim” (massive headlines also addressed the out-of-control student protests which flared-up around Piazza della Scala/Palazzo Marino where the city’s most official post-opera Gala takes place.   

Continue reading “Wagner’s “Die Walküre” at La Scala: The Reviews are In” →