Das Rheingold

The production of Der Ring des Nibelungen staged in the Mariinsky Theatre in 2003 is unique: it was the first performance of Wagner’s tetralogy presented on Russian musical stage in its original language. Being radically different from dozens of European “Rings” where the mythological plot has been modernized and brought up to date, the Mariinsky tetralogy, based on a concept by Valery Gergiev and Georgy Tsypin, is demonstratively archaized and turned to the “propamyat” (“forememory”) of the human race through symbols of various ancient civilizations. This production earned the Mariinsky Theatre a reputation of a true “House of Wagner” (the Theatre repertoire has the unprecedented for Russia number of Wagner’s operas which apart from Der Ring des Nibelungen includes such performances as Der fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal).

The European premiere of the Mariinsky “Ring” (Baden-Baden, 2004) was noted by German mass media as a historic event in the music culture. Besides Germany, the Mariinsky cast performed Wagner’s tetralogy as a part of its tour in Russia (Moscow), South Korea, Japan, the USA, Great Britain, Spain, Slovenia, and Kazakhstan. Currently, the full version of Der Ring des Nibelungen is being recorded at the Mariinsky Theatre Label. The already released Das Rheingold and Die Walküre thanks to the magnificent cast of soloists and “the first-class performance of the Mariinsky Orchestra” (BBC Radio 3 CD Review) conducted by Valery Gergiev immediately gained wide critical and audience acclaim. The first tetralogy release – the opera Die Walkure was awarded “Diapason d’Or de l’Anné”, “Diamant d’Opéra”, five stars from Audiophile Audition Magazine, as well as the most prestigious Germany’s classical music award “ECHO Klassik” for the best opera recording of the year. And the Mariinsky Theatre’s Das Rheingold earned a “Choc de l'année” award from the reputable French magazine CLASSICA.
Maestro Gergiev has gained international recognition as one of Wagner’s most prominent interpreters and a number of the Mariinsky Opera soloists have become world class Wagner singers, including Evgeny Nikitin, Mikhail Petrenko, Mlada Khudoley, Olga Sergeyeva, Larisa Gogolevskaya.

In his many years at the helm of the Mariinsky Theater, Valery Gergiev has set for himself many challenges, but few have required the commitment, stamina and artistic vision of his bid to ensure that the theater reclaim its reputation of long ago as a Wagner house. An epochal production of Parsifal in 1997 initiated a remarkable series of new productions of eight Wagner operas, including the mighty Ring des Nibelungen. It was a burst of Wagnerian activity not seen in Russia since before World War I and its success confirmed the Mariinsky’s strength in repertoire beyond Russian fare. In those bygone days the operas were sung in Russian translation. Now they were sung in the original German. Indeed, the Mariinsky Ring was the first staging of a German-language Ring in the history of Russian theater.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Mariinsky’s production of the Ring and its first performances as a complete cycle. Much has happened in these years. Most opera houses that have succeeded in mounting this most challenging of operatic creations pride themselves simply on having done so, but the Mariinsky not only produced the Ring but compounded the challenges by taking it on tour. Baden-Baden, Germany; Cardiff, Wales; Costa Mesa, California; Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain; London; Moscow; New York; Seoul and Tokyo are among the array of cities that have seen the Mariinsky Ring. It has to be the most widely traveled Ring cycle in history and has brought Wagner’s sprawling epic to countless new audiences.

It is also one of the most distinctive, with its own unmistakable identity. Not surprisingly, given the lack at the time of Wagner expertise in Russia, Gergiev initially imported Western specialists for the Wagner productions, including a diction coach from the Bayreuth Festival and especially stage directors. The original idea for the Ring production called for a German director. The experienced Johannes Schaaf initiated a production with Das Rheingold in 2000, but he and the theater had a parting of the ways and Die Walküre was staged by the set designer Gottfried Pilz. Dissatisfied with the first two installments, Gergiev decided to begin anew. This time prominent foreigners were absent from the production team. The experienced Russian-American set designer George Tsypin, who was born in Kazakhstan but has long lived in the United States, took the laboring oar. He had already developed a major reputation for his work at the Mariinsky and other international opera houses.

Along with the departure of the German directors went the prospect that the Mariinsky Ring might resemble just another Central European Ring. Instead, it opened the door to a wholly different take on the Ring, one with a very different look, a look redolent of Russian antiquity and folk tradition as it evokes in its own way the legendary antiquity of Wagner’s setting. Its primordial appearance has been likened to Diaghilevera stagings still in the Mariinsky’s repertory.

The dominant images are of immense, prehistoric, mummy-like structures of human or animal forms, and sometimes an eerie mix of the two. Most scenes have three or four of these creatures, sometimes combined with massive stone slabs that can be lowered to the stage to form a platform for the singers. In addition to the overall Russian tone of the sets, certain details are suggestive of places within or outside Russia, including Africa and Ossetia (where Gergiev grew up). The vibrant lighting, rich in coloristic variety, by Gleb Filshtinsky’s is essential to the overall appeal, as are Tatyana Noginova’s imaginative costumes, which draw on a variety of folk traditions and include such novelties as Day-Glo hair colors. The production also pays its respects to Russia’s ballet tradition by introducing choreography at key moments of the action. Dancers represent the magic fire in Die Walküre and a dancing crew forge the sword Nothung for Siegfried.

No Ring staging will please everyone. Some critics complained that the sets were conceived with budget constraints in mind; others objected to details they regarded as whimsical, like having Hagen dressed clad in what looked like a dress. Probably the most widespread criticism concerned the absence of a firm directorial hand to oversee the stage action. Following the departure of the German directors, two Russian directors were engaged, Julia Pevzner for the first two operas and Vladimir Mirzoev for the second two, a strategy that perhaps by design on Gergiev’s part worked against having an overarching “concept” impressed on the entire cycle. Later the names of these directors were dropped, and when the Ring was given in New York in 2007 the staging was reported to be a joint concept by Tsypin and Gergiev, who was listed as production supervisor. For its 2009 London outing, the production was credited as being “revised” by Alexander Zeldin. The plus side of Gergiev’s approach is that it precluded the possibility of distortion of the drama by a strong-willed director. Indeed, the Mariinsky Ring stands for a rejection, for better or worse, of the all-important role played by the director in modern Wagner stagings and is important for that reason alone.

Gergiev’s masterful performance on the podium came as no surprise to anyone who had heard the Mariinsky’s earlier Wagner performances or, indeed, his Wagner in other theaters. To match the production’s new look, Gergiev brought something fresh and original to the score. Overall, tempos were not particularly quick, yet Siegfried moved along at such a pace that its running time was quicker than that of Die Walküre an energetic treatment of an opera of the called the scherzo of the Ring. Elsewhere Gergiev would linger over expressive passages and was consistently alert to musical details, which validated his slow tempos. The great orchestral highpoints, from the close of Das Rheingold to the Funeral Music of Götterämmerung and beyond resounded magnificently. The superb playing of the Mariinsky orchestra demonstrated that it is the equal of any ensemble in this music, both for its technical flair and for the breadth and richness of its coloristic palette.

By the time the Mariinsky Ring was assembled, operas audiences around the world had become accustomed to seeing Russian names on cast lists in prominent roles but rarely in Wagner operas. The Ring and the theater’s other Wagner productions decisively changed this, as a whole new crop of Wagner singers essaying their roles for the first time emerged. Strikingly enough, the singers were all Russian, though not all came from within the Mariinsky. Olga Sergeeva, an exciting Brünnhilde who went on to sing the role in Die Walküre at the Metropolitan, came from the Bolshoy, but she, like other Russian singers from outside the Mariinsky, decided that Gergiev’s offer could not be refused.

Not all of the excellent singers who have sing in Ring performances over the years can be mentioned here, but several who have gone on to sing Wagner with other major international opera companies deserve to be mentioned. Among them is the splendid, laser-voiced Mlada Khudolei, whose impassioned singing as Sieglinde evoked comparisons to Leonie Rysanek. Larissa Diadkova, a commanding, rich-voiced Fricka, and Nikolai Putilin, a menacing Alberich of ample voice, also made vital contributions. Vladimir Vaneev, Mikhail Kit and Alexei Tanovitski, all of whom have performed as Wotan, have also sung Wagner in Western theaters.

The bass baritone Yevgeny Nikitin and the bass Mikhail Petrenko have had especially big careers in Wagner beyond the Mariinsky. Nikitin made headlines when he dropped out of the cast of the Bayreuth Festival’s 2012 new production of “The Flying Dutchman,” in which he was scheduled to sing the title role, because he supposedly had a swastika tattooed on his chest. Subsequent reports indicated it wasn’t a swastika at all and in any case the episode, far from damaging his career, perhaps won him sympathy.

Petrenko was spotted early on by Daniel Barenboim and brought to the Berlin Staatsoper. From there he has taken his portrayals of the Ring’s bass roles to a number of other theaters, including La Scala. Leonid Zakhozhaev’s rather grainy voice is not that of a heldentenor, but his Siegfried proved notable for his amiability and staying power, and other opera companies quickly engaged him.

As exhilarating as the performances by these singers new to their roles often was, the occasional presence of an experienced Wagnerian of star quality among them might have helped to galvanize the casts. Now as Gergiev and his orchestra begin to commit the Ring to compact discs, such stars are present in abundance. The first installment, Die Walküre, which was released earlier this year, has a cast that is as good as it gets these days: Nina Stemme, Anja Kampe, Ekaterina Gubanova, Jonas Kaufmann, René Pape and Mikhail Petrenko, plus a fine array of Mariinsky valkyries. This acclaimed release is a fitting way to celebrate the Mariinsky Ring’s tenth anniversary and ymbolizes the potential that can be achieved in its second decade.