By David Rubin
http://cnycafemomus.com/David_Rubin.html

Audience members attending the Met’s May 5 performance of Wagner’s Die Walküre came with at least three questions. Would the company’s ailing music director James Levine conduct, as advertised? Would Robert Lepage’s wildly expensive, computerized stage machinery bring some scenic magic to the production? And would the cast, so strong on paper, sing like the gods many of them are?

Starting at the top, Maestro Levine cancelled on fairly short notice. One orchestra member said she learned of the cancellation when she arrived at the house. Audience members were informed with a sign in the lobby and an insert to the program. I doubt anyone, at this stage of the game, was surprised, or even annoyed.

In his place was Derrick Inouye, who has considerable experience with the Met dating from 2003, when he stepped in for Levine to conduct Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini. (I happened to be there for that, too.) Inouye delivered a very satisfying performance of Walküre. Many orchestra members turned to applaud him from the pit during the final curtain calls, and the audience received him respectfully, if not with the rapture that greets Levine.

Inouye’s performance was, like Levine’s, on the slow side, particularly in Act 2, which needs all the prodding a conductor can provide. The justly famous first 30 minutes of Act 3, with the Valkyries collecting the remains of dead heroes and then protecting their errant sister Brünnhilde, were thrilling. Wotan’s closing "Farewell" to Brünnhilde was touching, if not quite as heart-wrenching as it should be. The opening of Act 1 was appropriately urgent as Siegmund staggered into Hunding’s hut.

In short, Inouye proved to be a skillful substitute who nailed the big moments.

Puzzlingly, Lepage’s stage set was put to even less use in Walküre than it had been in Das Rheingold earlier this season. At this point everyone in the opera world is aware that Lepage built a set consisting of panels that can lay flat, rise vertically and move independently to create a variety of playing surfaces. He can also project images onto the panels and use them as a movie screen. Yet for much of the second and third acts the planks were in vertical mode, forming a mountainous backdrop to the action. This could easily have been achieved in a less-costly fashion.

Lepage did offer some striking images. A vigorous snowstorm blew in with Siegmund in Act 1. The individual planks were arranged vertically to suggest large trees in a forest through which Siegmund was running to escape his enemies. One of the planks served as the ash tree from which Siegmund withdrew the sword Nothung.

In Act 3 the Valkyrie sisters, positioned high above the stage, held onto the reins and "rode" the planks, which moved up and down like bucking broncos. When their ride was over, they slid down the planks, perhaps twenty feet to the stage floor. Some executed this maneuver with aplomb, others with a look of terror on their faces. It was great fun to see, and the audience loved it.

At the close, when Wotan surrounds his favorite Valkyrie with a ring of fire to protect her from all but the most heroic of men, Lepage substituted a body double for Brünnhilde. With the set in vertical mode, suggesting a mountaintop, Wotan led this substitute Brünnhilde to the very top. He then anchored her by her ankles to the planks as she lay on her back, with her head pointed straight down to the stage floor. The audience viewed Brünnhilde as if we were eagles flying high above her. As the mountain was lit with yellow and red "flames," Lepage left the audience with a spine-tingling image.

At that point one could claim the enormous cost of this production was perhaps worth it. But these effects, spaced out over a five-hour evening, do not overcome doubts that Lepage’s imagination is more limited than we Wagnerians had assumed. Perhaps our hopes for scenic magic were unrealistic to begin with.

Lepage has yet to demonstrate that he has any view of the characters in the Ring or any particular statement to make about it –– political, social, economic, or otherwise. Those who loved the previous Otto Schenk Met production because it was "realistic" and permitted the audience to find its own meaning need not have worried. Lepage’s is equally blank.

At least Lepage did a slightly better job directing his Walküre characters than he had in Rheingold. The grouping and stage movements of the Valkyries in Act 3 as they tried to shield Brünnhilde from the raging Wotan was quite effective. The interplay between Wotan and Brünnhilde in the "Farewell" scene of Act 3 was touching. Siegmund and Sieglinde were a passionate and believable love match. Still, the Great Stage Machine has engaged Lepage’s attention more than character development.

So, this leaves the singing, and when it is this good, who cares what the Great Stage Machine is doing? This was a night of vocal splendor. All who attended will remember it for a long, long time.

Tenor Jonas Kaufmann has been receiving ecstatic reviews all over the world, and for good reason. His instrument is warm, caressing to the ear and powerful. He reminds one of the American James King, who sang Siegmund in this house, except that Kaufman’s voice is sweeter and no less powerful. He is handsome to behold and a good actor. He delivered "Winterstürme" with great confidence and beauty. His plea to his absent father Walse to provide a sword in his hour of need rang out over the auditorium so long and with such power that the audience was breathless. Just that one note was worth the whole evening.

Kaufman has the looks of the late Peter Hoffmann; the musicianship of Placido Domingo; the power of James King; and the magnetism of Jon Vickers. Was there ever a better Siegmund?

His sister-bride Sieglinde, sung by Eva-Maria Westbroek, was just as compelling. A tall, handsome woman (who had just played Anna Nicole Smith in London in a new opera), Westbroek is a skilled actress. She shrank from her brutal husband Hunding, was ecstatic in expressing her love for Siegmund, and proud when told by Brünnhilde that she was carrying in her womb the hero Siegfried. Her voice is not quite the laser beam that is Stephanie Blythe’s (the Fricka in this production), but it is close. She is always on-pitch, without any of the wildness of Leonie Rysanek, who was much beloved in this part. For my money, I’ll take Westbroek.

Blythe delivered her relatively short part in Act 2 sitting on a chariot seat with rams’ horns as arm rests. Clearly she can sing anything (probably Siegfried, if the Met asked her to). Her mezzo is rock-solid from bottom to top, and she can easily fill the cavernous Met with sound, reducing it in size to a mere salon. Lepage didn’t ask her to act. She just sat and sang, which was plenty. Blythe’s voice is a trumpet; other mezzos in this part are clarinets.

Earlier this season Bryn Terfel was not well costumed or directed as Wotan in Rheingold. Matters improved considerably for him here. Gone was the stringy, filthy hair that covered one eye. He looked more god-like. He was permitted to move around the stage and interact with the other players, rather than remain hunched in a corner, stage left.

Problems remain, however. He was not made up to look old enough to play Wotan. His characterization is unrelentingly fearsome, with no humor and little pathos. (That is not likely to work well when he takes up The Wanderer in Siegfried, a comic part.) His bass-baritone is powerful and beautifully produced if a bit anonymous in character. He did not seem to tire at all in this the longest of the Wotan roles. Good as Terfel is, it will take more exposure to his Wotan to determine if he is the heir to James Morris.

Hans-Peter König held his own in this starry company as Hunding, boasting a huge voice and a huge mid-section. He looked every inch a menacing, wife-beating Viking warrior.

The eight Valkyries were spirited, on pitch, and clarion. Many of them have solo Wagner careers in their futures. Their cavorting was great fun to watch in Act 3.

Last, but hardly least, is the Brünnhilde of Deborah Voigt. Her best work came in Act 3 at the point she tries to convince Wotan that his sentence is too harsh ("Was it so shameful what I did?"). She may have been saving herself vocally for this moment because her soprano sounded stronger and fuller than in Act 2. From this point until the end of the opera Voigt sounded most like the Voigt of old, a combination of power and vulnerability. She was an eager, confident teenager in her Act 2 interactions with her father. In Act 3 her pleas to Wotan to save her from a mere mortal were heartbreaking.

The Siegfried Brünnhilde next season should pose no problems for her, but the Götterdämmerung Brünnhilde, based on this performance, will be a real test of her stamina and ability to project into the Met auditorium.

This Walküre will be telecast into movie theaters worldwide from the Met on Saturday, May 14. Don’t miss it.

Deborah Voigt, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Stephanie Blythe, Jonas Kaufmann, Bryn Terfel, Hans-Peter König, Derrick Inouye (conductor)
HD Live Simulcast: May 14, 2011, 12:00 noon