For nearly five hours Tuesday night, the Civic Opera House became Bayreuth by the Lake.
Lyric Opera of Chicago reached phase two of its new production of Richard Wagner’s “Ring” cycle with the most popular music drama of the cycle, “Die Walkure.” The long evening moved with the lusty energy of the Valkyries in full battle formation. The singing, orchestral work and stagecraft fairly glowed with conviction. In fact, you came out of the theater convinced that you could attend Wagner performances all over the world and not hear anything finer, even at the Bayreuth holy of holies.
It wasn’t just that Lyric managed to corner the present market of Wagnerian voices, but that it surrounded them with a production worthy of their mettle and of Wagner’s masterpiece. As with last season’s “Das Rheingold,” director August Everding and designer John Conklin treated this most conversational of the “Ring” operas as a grand domestic drama, an adult myth. The action again was played out within a latticework box of stylized set pieces, subtly lit, with fluid slide projections and neon lasers lending their own evocative atmosphere.
Humor-an element sorely lacking in most “Walkure” productions-raised its playful head wherever it was needed. Wotan (James Morris) engaged in mock spear-play with daughter Brunnhilde (Eva Marton) during her battle cry. The trampoline ride of the Valkyries had a team of gymnasts jumping, turning somersaults and hurling sparklers behind their singing sisters; though not as stunning an effect as last season’s bungee-cord Rhinemaidens, its playfulness served the mythic fantasy.
Morris was that rare Wotan: a god-king who sounded as good at the end of the evening as he did at the beginning. Wotan is, of course, the dramatic fulcrum of “Walkure,” since it is the terrible decisions he makes in the course of the opera that seal the gods’ downfall later in the cycle. And Morris rose to every vocal and histrionic challenge with firm-voiced authority. Such moments as the Act 2 narration and Wotan’s touching farewell to his disobedient daughter rang with tremendous power and emotional force.
If there was a certain extra depth to Morris’ performance, that could have a lot to do with Marton’s experienced presence. Her stentorian war whoops produced some squally singing at the top, but this was a minor liability alongside the fullness and warmth she brought to the so-called Todesverkundigung, the scene where Brunnhilde announces the death summons to Siegmund, not to mention the tireless energy with which she wielded her dramatic soprano right to the end.
Siegfried Jerusalem and Tina Kiberg both were making Lyric debuts as the incestuous Valsungs, Siegmund and Sieglinde. The Danish soprano’s steady, beautiful, strong yet lyrical, always musical singing afforded much pleasure. Jerusalem, Lyric’s Siegfried-to-be, looked like a real Heldentenor even though he didn’t always sound it. He summoned sufficient sinewy heft for the “Wintersturme,” although the voice sounded grainy and worn by the end of the evening. Everding conveyed the erotic attraction between brother and sister in a dramatic pas de deux of finely detailed yearning.
Making her North American opera debut was the Slovenian contralto Marjana Lipovsek, quite the best Fricka this listener has ever heard, live or on records. Grand and imperious but never hectoring, she made it clear in her scene with Wotan who really wore the pants in the Valhalla household. Matthias Holle’s blackly malevolent Hunding completed the splendid roster of principals. The roistering Valkyries sounded vocally rich and remarkably well-tuned.
Zubin Mehta’s conducting stressed gutsy energy over refinement, dramatic surge over lyrical subtlety, muscle over magic. He was particularly good at steering the impressive Lyric orchestra through transition passages, always tricky to manage in Wagner’s operas.
