Wagner's “Rheingold” was the founding piece of the Tyrolean Festival in Erl in 1998. Brigitte Fassbaender has now succeeded in producing a subtle, lifelike new production.
As soon as Erda appears, in a tightly cut costume and exuding cool eroticism, it dawns on Fricka: This will be the next flame from husband Wotan.
And they and the audience understand in this second: You won't be able to prevent him from doing that either, just like before with the building of Valhalla, for which the midlife man plunged himself into expense and misfortune.
It is less the story of a falling father of gods that is being followed here, but rather one of those guys who sacrifices the family and ultimately the most important thing for a new offer and thus for an allegedly so important opportunity, namely their love of life.
So it's not just about moving to a new location, as the half-wrapped furniture and suitcases on the right edge of the stage suggest.
It's about breaking new ground, from which once again only the man benefits.
An ensemble made up only of role debutants
To stage Richard Wagner's “Rheingold”, the first part of the monumental “Ring des Nibelungen”, as an analysis of a clan falling apart and less as a prelude to a world plan, others have already done that. But at the Wotans you seldom think you are as close as in the Erl Passion Playhouse. And this is less due to the fact that the orchestra is playing on the backstage, as always, and the staff are playing in a wide area in front of the audience. None of this has to do with a soap, with a Germanic variation of the Denver clan. It is the great art of the staging opera legend Brigitte Fassbaender that nothing is reduced, trivialized or sacrificed to the quick gag.
Humor and insanity, yes. But it is wisdom that manifests, never point pressure. And this goes up to the text treatment of this wonderful ensemble, which consists only of role debutants: When Alberich initially cursed love for the Rheingold, which here is table gold of an upper class, he takes the decisive L-word back into the piano. One is frightened of himself and of the offense that triggers everything.
This is a historic premiere for the Tyrolean Festival.
The “Rheingold” was the founding piece in 1998, which was followed by a legendary, often repeated “Ring”.
Gustav Kuhn, the director who was later killed, conducted and staged.
You don't miss his hand-knitted helplessness as a director.
But how he steered the festival orchestra in the amazing acoustics of the Passion Playhouse through the scores and fired it.
We know today that this and other acts of the boss were accompanied by choleric behavior and abuse.
In 2023 the Erler "Ring" will be completed
With Erik Nielsen, the current “Rheingold” conductor, the music is cooked on a smaller flame. Nielsen is more of a friendly administrator. He relies on the creamy, soft sound quality of the orchestra and is a hot candidate for the "Rheingold" slowness record. It's amazing that the singers' lungs can do that. It's a cast without failures. You can also experience the unusually bright timbred, slim and direct design Wotan by Simon Bailey. The heroic, never over-the-top nuance artist Ian Koziara (Lodge), Thomas Faulkner as the bitter-sensitive Fasolt and Anthony Robin Schneider with his warm Fafner abundance. Or Craig Colclough, who draws an Alberich of tragic (over) size with a lot of verbal awareness and even more baritone potency. Manuel Walser discovered surprisingly song-like elements in the thunder,Dshamilja Kaiser (Fricka) and Judita Nagyová (Erda) let their characters shimmer vocal three-dimensionally.
You can tell from the performance that Brigitte Fassbaender and her outfitter Kaspar Glarner were not allowed to draw on excess. In the Passion Playhouse with the missing side stage and rudimentary overhead machinery, theater remains a compromise. This is counterbalanced by the water, mountain and sulfur yellow blurring streak videos by Bibi Abel, but especially by the analytical and motivational art of the Fassbaender.
The fact that the all-too-human becomes the most important thing without scenic trinkets plays into your hands anyway. Every figure is sympathetic. All actions and reactions are traceable. There are countless small gestures and looks, also cryptic, never intrusive ideas such as Wotan's range of spears or the eponymous circlet as brass knuckles that support this. Only the splendid rainbow bridge finale remains a bit pale. When you leave the house after the premiere, the sky behind the Tyrolean mountains shines in a thunderstorm-poisonous red as a substitute complete cycles are shown. Wagner friends know what to do in July in the future.
Further performances
on July 16 and 18, Tel. 0043/5373/810 00 20.