July 16, 2005, Act 1 of Die Walküre and Act 3 of Götterdämmerung, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra conducted by James Levine; Sieglinde and Brünnhilde: Deborah Voigt; Siegmund: Clifton Forbis; Hunding: Stephen Milling; Siegfried: Christian Franz; Gunter: Alan Held; Gutrune: Melanie Diener; Hagen: John Cheek

The Tanglewood concert was reviewed by two members. Larry Bell, who by his own admission has been a “Ringhead” since 2000, was present at the performance. Joseph Manley, a bass, listened to the concert on the radio in Montréal.

A New Brünnhilde Is Born

A new Brünnhilde was born tonight, and she was the offspring of James Levine, the god of opera, and of Tanglewood, the earth mother of music. Deborah Voigt sang her first Brünnhilde in a concert performance of Act 3 of Götterdämmerung. Even more exciting was the orchestra—not the BSO but the fresh faces of the Tanglewood Music Center Fellows. It was a resplendent triumph for all.

      The concert started with the first act of Die Walküre, with Voigt as Sieglinde, a role she’s performed with great success at the Met and elsewhere; Clifton Forbis as Siegmund; and Stephen Milling as Hunding, who substituted for the ailing Kristinn Sigmundsson. Levine placed the soloists behind the orchestra as in an opera house. But since there is no pit at Tanglewood, the orchestra formed a formidable visual and auditory barrier that the singers had to work extraordinarily hard to break through. Milling’s huge voice, stature, and total mastery of the role (he looks the part even dressed in a tuxedo) gave him more than adequate tools to shake the audience, even in the rear of the Koussevitzky Shed. Forbis did a good job with the role of Siegmund but took every chance he could to sit down and towel the sweat off his face. It was a hot and muggy night in the Berkshires, and it must have been especially so under the stage lights in the shed. Voigt is comfortable and accomplished in the role of Sieglinde and, except for skipping a line, turned in a top-notch performance.

      Although I love fully staged productions and the visual imagery helps me remember aspects of the story, I’ve become a big fan of concert performances of Wagner’s operas. In a concert performance, singers don’t have to worry about falling while walking on the rocky surfaces of a steeply raked set or what to do if the sword stays stuck in the tree. The focus is totally on the music, as is the audience’s. The Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra played as well as the BSO or better.  From “Winterstürme” (Winter Storms) to the closing notes of Act 1 of Die Walküre, this student orchestra mastered the mounting intensity of the music and brought the house to its feet at the end. Nearly everyone was whistling or humming “Winterstürme” in the men’s room during the intermission.

      In the second half, the program turned to the final act of the Ring, with Brünnhilde sung by Deborah Voigt, Siegfried by Christian Franz, Gunter by Alan Held, and Gutrune by Melanie Diener. John Cheek replaced Kristinn Sigmundsson in the role of Hagen, but he did not have enough power to cut through the orchestra the way Milling, as Hunding, had done in the first half of the program. The three Rhinemadens were ably sung by Lyubov Petrova, Maria Zifchak, and Jane Bunnell. Held and Diener sang their brief Act 3 parts with confidence and skill. Men of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus formed the Gibichung hunting party with convincing effect. This chorus is one of the real blessings of living in the Boston area.

      It was a delight to hear fresh voices, untired by the hours of singing that usually precede Act 3 of Götterdämmerung. Franz did a good job with Siegfried, but Voigt’s entry was the moment that everyone was waiting for, and she did not disappoint. She exuded confidence and a delight in her new physical appearance, having lost considerable weight recently. This delight was not totally in keeping with her role, but it was perfect for a diva demonstrating her mastery of this extraordinarily challenging role. Her tone was beautiful through the low and middle ranges as well as at the top. She hit the high notes with the force needed to toss them to the back of the house. Although this performance was not a full demonstration of Voigt’s future success in this role, it was a delightful tease and suggested to everyone lucky enough to be at Tanglewood on July 16 that we have much to look forward to.

      And that goes double for the members of the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra. What a workout it must have been to pull this concert together so early in the summer season!  What an achievement for the young musicians onstage! This was a fully committed, moving, powerful performance at fortissimo and at pianissimo, in the solo moments and in the gigantic, cataclysmic moments. 

– Larry Bell

A Satisfying Siegmund

On July 16, the truly satisfying Wagnerian singing of the evening came from Clifton Forbis as Siegmund, who had a bright, gutsy, and ringing top and powerful baritonal middle and bottom, as well as excellent declamation of the German in his narrative. Despite his stentorian voice, Forbis managed to convey vulnerability. He infused the role with meaning and emotion, dynamic subtlety and phrasing. His stirring “Wälse!” showed both the ringing top and rich depth of his voice. Forbis was unstinting with the low notes at the end of  phrases—often merely a throwaway respite between the display of sustained high notes—and gave them their full value with deep and resonant tone. Not only was the vocal effect more complete, but for once we heard the full shape of Wagner's writing of this passage in all its virile heroism.

      Several months ago Forbis delivered a magisterial Tristan in Geneva. He is the only true hochdrama-tisch heldentenor since Melchior. No, he is not reminiscent of the very particular voice and artistic personality of Melchior, but the only one in the same vocal category, with a worthy voice and artistic personality of his own. We shall see the historical significance of this in Wagnerian performance as his career unfolds.

     Christian Franz, the Siegfried of the evening, is the typical ersatz heldentenor we have had to deal with for decades. He has excellent German diction, a monotonous wavering nasal tone, a strident top, but no heroic size or timbre to his voice. He did sing a dynamically nuanced “Siegfriedstod” (Death of Siegfried), though not a particularly moving one. Franz will sing Siegfried in the Toronto Ring, chosen over the far superior Siegfried of Canada's own Alan Woodrow, notwithstanding the Toronto Wagner Society’s lobbying for Woodrow in the role. Despite a painful injury, Woodrow sang a very satisfying, tonally pleasing, lyrical, but strong Siegfried in the 2001 Seattle Ring, and he will appear there again this year.

     Deborah Voigt was in good form for the evening, but as in her previous Sieglinde’s, she displayed too much vibrato for Wagner. She also had an overly mature and hard timbre for Sieglinde, a character who is all warmth and femininity, however great her inner strength and resolve. Hard and vibrato-ridden high sections in “Der Männer Sippe” (The Men’s Kindred) particularly defeated the drama. She had an obvious command of a role she has done many times, with phrasing and declamation to match. Also, the clean, consistent strength and accuracy of her high notes in Götterdämmerung were a plus vis-à-vis the richer-voiced Jane Eaglen, already an established proponent of the Götterdämmerung Brünnhilde. Voigt’s voice remained monochromatic throughout Act 3, however.  Given the choice, I would prefer Eaglen in the Immolation Scene, with her richer variety of tone and inflection and her commitment to a very definite and powerfully conveyed mood—based on her account during the 2001 Seattle Ring.

      A more serious defect is that in the end Voigt simply leaves me cold in both roles. The femininity and pathos of Sieglinde and Brünnhilde are at the core of the Ring drama, and the tragic Sieglinde in particular must truly move us in order to be a successful portrayal. Voigt's steely, overly vibrant assurance does not achieve this. I have heard Voigt serve up an abundance of warm, luscious, melting, creamy tones in the roles of Agathe and Elsa without compromising dramatic expression; if only we could hear some of those qualities in the Ring roles, if Voigt can still command them. 

      Stephen Milling as Hunding was a less mellifluous and more hard-toned bass than when I first heard him in the 2000 Das Rheingold (as Fasolt) and Die Walküre(as Hunding) in Seattle. Back then he brought real pathos and lyricism to the role of Fasolt as well as an imposing voice and powerful, virile presence onstage. His beautifully produced bass tone and line only added to the drama. His Hunding was also on a superior vocal level, despite his overdoing the harshness of the character. He is now given to barking, shouting, and occasionally singing in a quasi-Sprechstimme, with no legato line in his phrasing—some coach apparently persuaded him that this was more dramatic and the way to get ahead as a Wagnerian bass. Now the whole quality of the voice is compromised, the timbre hard and unpleasant. A bass needs a rich, resonant line, and Kurt Moll, Matti Salminen, Gottlob Frick, and others have shown that this can be equally dramatic and gives more presence and menace to Hunding.

      Levine for once abjured his slow, plodding tempi in Wagner, an affectation of profundity, and his manner of lingering on each note of a leitmotif so long that the shape of the leitmotif is lost—this was so evident in past Met productions. Here he let Wagner’s music come through in all its drama without his usual filter, which defeats the dramatic pace. His is not an inspired interpretation, but it allows Wagner's inspiration to shine through.

      Wagner’s music was the real protagonist in this performance, conveying such springlike freshness and a sense of discovery that I could easily forget how many times I have heard it and feel like I was hearing it for the first time.

– Joseph Manley