A Quick Note On The 2006 Bayreuth Götterdämmerung

I'm going to run through this as swiftly as possible, and I post it only because, given my three previous Quick Note On entries for this Ring webcast, I suspect it would be more conspicuous by its absence.

The Prologue and first act of this Götterdämmerung were unqualified train wrecks musically (and therefore dramatically as well). I'm not talking subtleties here. I'm talking things as rudimentary as off-pitch singing, and singing — or rather bellowing — wrong notes at top volume. I'm talking confused ensemble and clams to spare from the orchestra, and orchestra and singers going their separate ways. Everyone was implicated; no-one absolved. There were no innocent parties here — except, perhaps, the put-upon audience, that is.

Act II brought back a measure of sanity and professionalism and a seemingly different opera company, and things went mostly OK for the duration, the only standout being the glorious singing of the Bayreuth chorus (but when has the Bayreuth chorus not sung gloriously?). My expectation concerning the Siegfried — the young American tenor, Stephen Gould — alas, fell short of fulfillment. While he wasn't defeated by the role as he was by the Siegfried Siegfried, he was nevertheless unable to rise to the first-rate realization I'd expected of him of this far less demanding character. As for Act III, it went pretty much OK as well, and sported three vocally lithesome Rheintöchter as added graces.

And that's all the detail, and all I have to say about this Götterdämmerung. Had I been obliged, however, to sit myself on those hard wooden seats in a 85-degree Festspielhaus for almost five hours — and that after having to wait almost 10 years for tickets — you can bet I'd probably have lots more to say about it.