Terfel leads starry cast in Lepage's 'Walkuere'

[TER1310]

"This time, Lepage has turned Wotan loose (and given him a shorter haircut and an eye patch.) "The Machine" still creates some dazzling effects — it turns into a forest for the opening scene and into horses for the Ride of the Valkyries — but they're far better integrated into the action. So now, when the planks take the shape of a mountain slope, Terfel is able to climb up and down at will.

The effect is to liberate him dramatically and vocally. The Welsh bass-baritone creates a Wotan of tremendous power and poignancy, a god keenly aware of his own imminent demise and helpless to stop it. The role is an endurance test for any singer, and Terfel at times pushes his voice to its limits but never quite over. He ends his long scene of farewell to Bruennhilde in Act 3 sounding as fresh as when the evening started."


http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=642770&affid=100055&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
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Björg

[TER1280]

Just Glorious!!!!

...can hardly wait to see it at the movie theater on May 14!

Phyllis

[TER1310]

http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/photos/6785c3684d9c46f4bc4665295d334f2e/110412186410/

Love the picture of Wotan and Fricka, but the sleeping Brünnhilde seems a bit strange.
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Björg

[TER1310]

Mr. Terfel is a dark and stormy Wotan.

http://super-conductor.blogspot.com/2011/04/opera-review-machines-back-to-humans.html
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Björg

[TER1280]

Another review...

Terfel takes on one of opera's most demanding roles and, while filling the tough dramatic requirements, made the assignment seem like a short dash. From first to last, his bass-baritone rang through the hall as if he were chanting it to the hills in his native Wales. And whereas in Das Rheingold, he had a Veronica-lake coiffeur to suggest Wotan's impaired eyesight, now his hair has been pulled back and -- all to the good -- he wears an eye-patch.


http://www.theatermania.com/new-york/reviews/04-2011/die-walkanduumlre_36496.html

Phyllis

[TER1280]

Another review...New York Times

It is always interesting to read the viewpoints of various reviewers....


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/arts/music/walkure-opera-review.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Phyllis

[TER1310]

Pictures from the Met.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/04/25/arts/music/20110425-walkure.html
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Björg

[TER1310]

The New York Post review.

After some melodramatic lurching early in the opera more appropriate to Sweeney Todd, bass-baritone Bryn Terfel joined Voigt to build the emotional third act father-daughter encounter into the opera’s musical and dramatic highlight. In sumptuous voice, he capped the evening with a lyrical account of Wotan’s "farewell" aria.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/met_die_walkure_is_cursed_BKUn7nqC83Aa47HdiB5XaK#ixzz1KTTczBct


The Bloomberg review.

Key scenes went unexplored. Teetering close to a perilous drop, Stephanie Blythe, the Fricka, boomed from the safety of her chair, leaving the more athletic Bryn Terfel to climb around her. He’s found a better barber since “Rheingold,” and sang with emotional range and magnificent tone, especially in Wotan’s heartbreaking farewell to his beloved daughter.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-24/sick-diva-tripping-brunnhilde-enliven-met-walkure-manuela-hoelterhoff.html
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Björg

[TER1310]

Bryn Terfel's Wotan is a force of nature, the Welsh bass-baritone continues to transform himself into one of our best commanding Wagnerians. His hefty tones may not have the majesty of singers of the past, like a George London or a Hans Hotter, but his musicianship and his perfect diction add a noble character to his performance.


http://wagneroperas.blogspot.com/2011/04/die-walkure-at-met-been-there-done-that.html
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Björg

[TER1310]

Curtain call at the Met.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uis3ztXtDnQ
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Björg

[TER1280]

Hi, Bjorg,

Thanks so much for posting the curtain call for Die Walkure. I had read about it but it was great to see it!

Phyllis

[TER1310]

For the German speaking Terfeliads. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praises Bryn.
- the opera should be named Wotan
- he (Bryn) sings like a god

http://www.faz.net/s/Rub4D7EDEFA6BB3438E85981C05ED63D788/Doc~EEC3F6FDD68FC4AE3A561BCB027EDBB8D~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html
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Björg

[TER1280]

Another review...

Bryn Terfel's precise, lean baritone is a break from the high-amplitude German basses, and he used it with a dramatic precision that truly brought home the dilemma of supreme power: As chief of the gods, he has made a mess of his world with legions of illegitimate children who practice their own forms of free will. And as someone whose inner whims are physically manifested in the outside world, his Wotan is utterly sick of himself.

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/arts/120681699.html

Phyllis

[TER1324]

This review, "Where Intimacy Walked the Plank" is from the Wall Street Journal, and seems to have a clear fix on some of the difficulties imposed on the actor/singers by the set. Bryn was generally commended:

Mr. Terfel was much more engaged in "Die Walküre" than he was in last fall's "Das Rheingold," singing with power, commitment and presence. There was tremendous raw passion in this commanding portrayal, like the moment at the end of Act II when he cradled the dying Siegmund and snarled "Go!" at Hunding.....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704132204576284911746214404.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Eaviane

[TER1324]

Yet another reviewer who has good things to say about the singers, but feels they are too often 'upstaged' by the set:---

.....Wotan has been forced, harrowingly, to disown his favorite daughter, Brünnhilde. She lies on the ground in shock; he has turned away in grief. Our attention should be fixated on the tortured pair as the orchestra swells in solemn sympathy, but instead we watch in awe as the massive set—a series of enormous, seesaw-style beams that together weigh about 45 tons—noisily creaks its way upward. It's only after 30 seconds or so, when the passage is over, that we remember that there are two people onstage in desperate pain. That Mr. Lepage has chosen to draw us away from them at this crucial interval turns out to be disastrously typical of his costly production.....


.....Later,[earlier in the opera, later in the review] when Wotan tells Brünnhilde the dark story of the Nieblung's ring, Mr. Lepage has an eyeball emerge from the floor; onto it he projects, dutiful as CliffsNotes, the narrative's key images. But when you have, as Siegmund and Wotan, two of the world's greatest singing actors—the tenor Jonas Kaufmann and the bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, respectively—you need to guide them and focus their emotions, not distract from them or compete with them for the audience's attention....

http://www.observer.com/2011/culture/bored-ring-wagners-cycle-loses-its-shine-robert-lepages-timid-visionless-production

Eaviane