Wagner: Siegfried [DVD] [2010]

Even if you are not enamoured of this sort of modernist production of the Ring, you have to see this Siegfried for the Mime of Graham Clark. Gone is the whining, slimy creep of most productions, to be replaced by a hyperactive, demented insect, continually chattering and rushing about, his every thought and plot vividly brought to life in voice and facial expression - a gift to the roaming camera. Sensational!
Unfortunately, he is pitted against a Siegfried who hardly acts at all - probably he would look OK in an old-fashioned `stand-up-and-sing' production from a distance, as the character is really little but a stupid dolt, but the close camera reveals all too clearly that the singer is rarely dramatically engaged in the action. However, he really can sing - he has the right kind of heldentenor voice and is unflagging to the end, when usually the freshly woken Brünnhilde easily overwhelms the exhausted, gasping `hero'. Jeannine Altmeyer is again excellent in voice and physical expression, so that the final duet is as well-balanced and moving as it should be, but rarely is.
The detailed playing of the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Hartmut Haenchen is powerful and clear - perhaps not as `beautiful' as some performances by greater orchestras, but not as sentimental either.
Anne Gjevang is strong of voice and expresses more personal anguish at the disastrous prospects than some Erdas. The Woodbird is charming if you can tolerate a boy's voice instead of a well-developed coloratura soprano and he clearly delights the audience. So does their local singer, John Bröcheler, as Wotan. His confrontation with Alberich works vocally and dramatically very well - each the shadow of the other.
The themes of darkness and light are well played out in George Tsypin's bold, semi-abstract set, which consists mainly of a series of ramps and platforms surrounding the orchestra, with much use of coloured, sometimes dazzling lighting, smoke and flame. The positioning of the orchestra doesn't distract from the action as much as you might suppose, because of the concentrated detail of the action supervised by Pierre Audi, which is ideal for DVD. Screen projections lend an air of menace and psychological tension. Fafner is well sung, and the dragon is an interesting piece of construction - not really scary, but not quite silly either, though Siegfried doesn't seem sure how to tackle it. The forging scene also has some interesting props, appropriate for the finicky Mime, though perhaps too fussy to mirror the accumulating power in the orchestra accompanying Siegfried's hammering.
Again vocally strong and well played, this production fits in well with Audi's overall concept of the Ring, and is compulsory viewing on its own account for the revelatory Mime.

This 1999 Amsterdam 'Ring' is well directed by Pierre Audi, and features colourful Japanese-inspired costumes, but is a huge let-down as far as the singing is concerned. The worst soloist here is Altmeyer, miscast at this point of her career as Brunnhilde (naturally, no match for her 'Ring' roles under Boulez and Janowski): in addition to a more-or-less acceptable wobble, most of the top notes are simply beyond her, as when she sounds so tired towards the end of the 'Gotterdammerung' duet that she quickly runs out of breath and even chokes on the final 'Heil!', which her partner sustains superbly; other no less embarrassing moments recur throughout this opera, as well as in 'Siegfried' (to some extent tolerable, given the role's brevity) and 'Walkure', where the beginning of each of the repeated verse of the battle cry is delivered hoarsely (you'll cringe on hearing 2.54 and 4.16 on DVD 2 of the opera); when she just manages to hold a top note, her body begins to convulse (extremely painful to watch and hear); she looks rather astonished during her thunderous curtain calls at the end of the cycle, as if saying: 'I'm glad the ignorant applauding bunch didn't notice anything out of the ordinary'. (I cannot believe that these passages were left intact: the least that could have been done was to re-record them in sound to cover up the defects.) Not that the other members of the cast are on top form either: of the well-known soloists (except Clark, though still not his former self as Mime at Bayreuth), Secunde (Sieglinde), Merritt (Loge), Brocheler (Wotan), Schone (Gunther), Bundschuh (Gutrune), and Rydl (Hunding and Hagen) are frankly past their best, while (apart from Kruse's fine Siegfried and Runkel's outstanding Fricka) newcomers like Keyes (Siegmund), Gjevang (Erda and Waltraute), and Smit (Alberich) are vibrato-ridden performers, the rest (including Rhinemaidens, Valkyries and Norns) ranging from good to average. Though the close singer-audience interaction is highly successful (due to the ring-shaped stage), the fixed set begins to grow monotonous as one act follows another with almost little variation throughout the cycle, but that's a minor quibble, compared with the production's overall vocal quality, despite a superb chorus and orchestra (the supplied documentaries, though highly informative, are small consolation). The accompanying printed matter features a short article by Haenchen on the variations included in the score he used (the Woodbird is sung by a boy): only a few examples are being sampled, and the same article appears in each of the four booklets enclosed in each opera case (I had expected generous extracts from the individual operas appearing in the booklet of the work in question). Misled by the bombastic 5-star reviews here (separate releases) and on the US site, I regret having purchased this set and still don't understand how or why it deserves such a rating, unless one watches with the mute button on. Doubting that even those who are new to the cycle will find it satisfactory, I hardly think that 'Ring' fans who know the work by heart will find it worth the addition to their DVD library.