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

Audience reaction to the first two operas in the Metropolitan Opera’s ongoing new Ring cycle, produced by Robert Lepage, has been close to unanimous.

The Met orchestra, under both James Levine and Fabio Luisi, has played at a level even Wagner, exacting as he was, would have admired. Much of the singing has been the best the world can offer today, especially the booming Alberich of Eric Owens in Rheingold, the clarion Fricka of Stephanie Blythe in Rheingold and Walküre; and the virile Siegmund of Jonas Kaufmann in Walküre.

Lepage’s massive, computerized machine of a set, also massively expensive, was supposed to provide a Star Wars experience. But only occasionally has he offered jaw-dropping effects and stage pictures; the machine has just as often rumbled and grumbled and stopped altogether. As a director of flesh and blood characters, Lepage has failed utterly, leaving the gods and demi-gods to fend for themselves. If Lepage has an overall conception for his Ring, other than to make it eye-popping, it has eluded me.

Now comes Siegfried, the "chamber" opera of the four, impossible to attempt without a credible Siegfried who can handle Wagner’s punishing dramatic and vocal demands. Arguably there is no one in the world today who can sing this part nearly as well as the Met orchestra can play it.

The Met originally cast Gary Lehman, who withdrew during rehearsals, pleading a virus. Up next was Jay Hunter Morris, a Texan with a twang, who sang the young Siegfried in San Francisco this past summer in the Francesca Zambello "Eco-Ring" to good reviews, this critic among them.

Had Morris not been available, that wonderful New Yorker cartoon would have played out for real on Saturday, with the stage manager standing in front of the curtain to ask, "Is there anyone in the house who can sing Siegfried?"

But Morris didn’t cancel, and there was definitely no need to call for help. Morris delivered a performance that was stunning for his vocal assurance and power and his confident stage presence. Here is a true Wagnerian heldentenor who, somehow, has not made his way for years through the roles of Lohengrin, Stolzing, and Siegmund to prepare for Siegfried, the challenge of all challenges. Six months ago in San Francisco he was a cover artist, only called into action because the tenor originally cast (Ian Storey) opted out. Now he has already triumphed at the Met. This is not supposed to happen. The Met audience recognized what they had just heard and awarded Morris with an ecstatic standing ovation (fortunately not so common).

Morris told interviewer Renée Fleming in an intermission feature that he learned from a voice teacher his loudest notes are not necessarily his most beautiful notes. He has clearly taken that advice to heart. He never seems to strain. His face betrays no performance anxiety. He really seems to be having the fun he claims he is having. He wasn’t even sweating until his Act 3 confrontation with the Wanderer, his grandfather. The forging scene in Act 1 was rhythmically precise. So often this goes off the rails, but not here. He eases comfortably into his high notes. He tired a bit in the final love duet with Brünnhilde and his voice turned a bit tight and nasal. But for five-plus hours he was a pleasure to hear, and to see.

Morris is built like a linebacker with strong arms and a hefty chest. He is clearly in great shape. He has the chiseled face of a western cowboy hero. He acts better than John Wayne. (OK, that’s not saying a whole lot.) He did not try to play Siegfried as the gawky teenager. Morris offered dignity and presence immediately, but he did age subtly through the three acts so that he was indeed ready for his first encounter with a woman — and the mystery of sex.

I offer one caveat. I heard Morris in San Francisco, where he delivered an equally satisfying performance. However, his voice did not carry live in San Francisco quite as strongly as it came across in the HD telecast. It is dangerous to judge how a voice sounds live in the house based on the HD relay. Judging from the boisterous Met audience, however, they must have heard him just fine.

Overall this was a great afternoon of singing, the reason opera fans are opera fans. I attended with three people who had never seen any Ring opera before, and this is not the one I suggest for starters. But all three were fully engaged by what they saw and heard.

Gerhard Siegel sang Mime with a strong tenor voice. He was not as mobile as some Mimes, perhaps because of the treacherous set. Most of his acting was in his highly expressive face. This production presents him as a hunchback with spectacles, wispy hair, and a nervous facial tick. He held his own vocally with both Bryn Terfel’s very strong Wanderer in the exchange of riddles in Act 1 and with the cavernous Eric Owens as his brother Alberich in Act 2.

Terfel was more comfortable vocally as the Wanderer than he was as Wotan in the two earlier operas. Perhaps he identifies with the world-weary character who finally comes to embrace his fate. His performance grew stronger as the afternoon continued. His voice is sturdy, secure, and impressive from top to bottom. It is, however, a bit characterless in color. Perhaps it’s my fault that I don’t have a "Terfel sound" in my ear to compare with, say, James Morris’s sound, which is instantly recognizable. But Terfel delivers the goods.

In her thirty minutes in Act 3 Deborah Voigt was an ardent, secure, and soaring Brünnhilde, only shorting the very last note of the ecstatic love duet. She looked with genuine affection on her amazing young lover-to-be.

The rest of the cast made strong contributions: Patricia Bardon as an Erda with a voice of velvet; Mojca Erdmann as a sweetly piping woodbird; and Hans-Peter König as a thundering Fafner.

Fabio Luisi adopted much quicker tempos than has been the case with James Levine. Coordination between singers and conductor was, for the most part, excellent. The Met Orchestra continues to play Wagner as only it can — for Levine and now Luisi.

Which brings us to the production. Sadly, Lepage offers no more insight to Siegfried than he did to Rheingold or Walküre. Some of his stage pictures worked, including the projection of a forest floor crawling with bugs and snakes, a wall of flames surrounding Brünnhilde, and an image of the Wanderer, at the beginning of Act 3, rising high above a lake on the stage, creating a wave with his spear. Most amazing was Lepage’s ability to create a reflection in the stage water in Act 1 so that Siegfried could see himself. This reflection was clearly visible to the audience. One of Lepage’s assistants explained during an intermission feature how they pulled this off digitally, but he lost me.

But so many important moments flopped. The splitting of the anvil at the end of the forging scene wasn’t equal to fireworks at a backyard July 4 celebration. The dragon slain by Siegfried could have been created for a 1950 production and wouldn’t frighten elementary school children. (He did have lively yellow eyes, however.) The climactic moment when Siegfried breaks the Wanderer’s spear, signifying the end of the old order, was botched because the Wanderer was lying on the set and the audience couldn’t see the spear. At this point the Wanderer wasn’t even blocking Siegfried’s path, as the music signals he must.

So the problem with this Ring remains: too much time and money spent on meaningless technology, and not enough time spent on thinking about how best to present the key moments in the drama, or even on what the drama is about.

But so what? With singing and orchestra playing like this, put them all in evening clothes and let ’em rip.

Details Box:

What: Wagner’s Siegfried, Simulcast Live in HD
When: November 5, 2011
Who: Metropolitan Opera
Running time: About 6 hours, including two intermissions
Where: Metropolitan Opera House, New York
Encore performance: Not yet determined