By MIKE SILVERMAN, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago
NEW YORK - As the curtain rises on Wagner’s “Die Walkuere,” the opera’s hero, Siegmund, stumbles exhausted into a stranger’s hut.
There was a second noteworthy entrance as the music drama got under way at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday night — conductor Lorin Maazel returning to the house after an unprecedented absence of nearly 45 years.
And it was a highly successful homecoming for the 77-year-old maestro, who maintains a busy schedule both around the world and next door at Avery Fisher Hall, where he is music director of the New York Philharmonic.
His was an energetic, yet lyrical and often lushly romantic interpretation of this most popular of the four operas that make up Wagner’s “Ring” cycle.
Many of the leitmotivs, or recurring themes, stood out with particular clarity, and there were some magical effects like the stirring of the trees during Siegmund’s greeting to spring in Act 1. Maazel made it sound like a precursor of the famous Forest Murmurs interlude from the next opera in the cycle, “Siegfried.”
He didn’t shy away from the big climaxes, but when necessary he scaled back the orchestra to avoid drowning out the singers, who were an uneven group.
The finest performer in the cast was mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, simply tremendous in her 20-minute scene as Fricka, the demanding wife of Wotan. Her voice has an astonishing amplitude and smoothness from the very top to the bottom of the mezzo range, and when she hurled recriminations at her husband at full volume, the Met’s crystal chandeliers seemed to shake.
Almost in her league was soprano Adrianne Pieczonka as Sieglinde, the sister — and (this being Wagnerian mythology) — bride of Siegmund. She has a clear, silvery lyric sound that easily penetrates the orchestra, and her acting is forthright and altogether winning. A slight wobble was noticeable during some of her high notes, though, and her voice didn’t quite bloom at the top as it should during her ecstatic outburst in Act 3, when she learns she is bearing Siegmund’s child.
The third female soloist, soprano Lisa Gasteen, had a rough night as Bruennhilde, the headstrong Valkyrie daughter of Wotan who dares to disobey him and pays the price.
Like many Bruennhildes, Gasteen came to grief in her first appearance with the treacherous high notes of the “hojotoho” war cries. But as she went on, she continued to sound shakier than she had in the role at London’s Covent Garden last fall, though she partially recovered for a moving farewell scene with Wotan in Act 3. To her credit, she bounded about the rocky set like a trooper and created an endearing portrait of a spirited young woman.
Now in his early 60s, bass-baritone James Morris has inevitably lost some of the power and steadiness that made him the leading Wotan of his generation. But he brought flashes of his old grandeur to his portrayal and poured his heart and soul into the climaxes when it counted.
Tenor Clifton Forbis as Siegmund sang ardently and with impressive power in Act 1, but his confrontation scene with Bruennhilde in Act 2 was disappointing, as neither he nor Gasteen were able to build much momentum.
Mikhail Petrenko was suitably sinister, with a medium-sized but well-focused dark bass voice, as Hunding, Sieglinde’s brutal husband.
The naturalistic production by Otto Schenk is showing its age after more than 20 years, although Guenther Schneider-Siemssen’s mountain crags for the Act 2 set are still imposing. Next season the entire “Ring” is to be revived one last time before the Met begins assembling a new production directed by Robert Lepage during the 2010-11 season.
When the final curtain fell after Monday night’s performance, the Met musicians lingered in the pit long enough to give Maazel a standing ovation as he appeared for his solo bow.
Maazel and the Met both say his decades-long absence was more a matter of missed opportunities than dissatisfaction on either side. He certainly didn’t lack Wagnerian credentials, having the distinction of being the first American to conduct at Bayreuth, home to the annual festival founded by the composer.
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