ATLANTA — This city has become a destination for Wagnerians. Atlanta Opera recently finished a run of Götterdämmerung at the suburban Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, thus completing, over four years, what the company bills as the first Ring cycle in the American southeast. The June 5 performance (the one I saw, along with other members of the Music Critics Association of North America) was streamed live. To see the entire cycle, you will have wait until June 2029.
It will be a radical Ring — if that modifier can be applied to conservative as well as avant-garde undertakings. In a pre-performance panel discussion, Atlanta Opera artistic and general director Tomer Zvulun described his approach to Wagner as moderate, but the impression I had was of a stage director who adhered closely to the instructions of the libretto and showed uncommon respect for the romantic origins of the story. Eurotrash this was not.
Some of the imagery conjured by scenic and projection designer Erhard Rom could fairly be called retro. The gauzy filaments and dusty books in front of which the Norns recount the backstory would not have seemed out of place in a production from the 1970s. The fabrics made to undulate by the Rhinemaidens brought to mind the stagecraft of the days of Wagner himself. The same could be said of the rock situated center stage for much of the outdoor action and the game brought back by the hunting party. Siegfried wielded a sword that looked like a sword and took his fateful drafts from a drinking horn. Images of the moon loomed large.
There were a few well-thought-out modernisms. The hall of the Gibichungs combined brutalist columns with a rectangular array on an LED rear wall that evoked something of the multidimensional look of a print by M. C. Escher. The Gibichungs themselves were dressed in fascist black. It was a good way to underline, without exaggeration, the malevolence of this royal clan. When Siegfried approached Brünnhilde in the guise of Gunther — always a potential source of confusion for the audience — his voice was amplified to emphasize the supernatural agency of the Tarnhelm.
Of course Götterdämmerung is much more than a Germanic son et lumière. Despite the formidable umlauts and double consonants of the title — and a running time of five-and-a-half hours, two substantial intermissions included — this opera is mostly about flawed and fallible human beings and their frequently tragic interactions.
A carefully chosen cast made this abundantly clear. Hagen as embodied by the American bass David Leigh was a villain of Shakespearean depth. His leonine sound was aptly complemented by the rich tones of the Chinese bass-baritone Le Bu as Gunther. Equally impressive was the Ukrainian-American baritone Aleksey Bogdanov as Alberich, the odious dwarf who appears to his son Hagen in a dream, urging him on. It was one of a few simple scenes that Zvulun got just right.
Female supporting roles — notably the American soprano Sylvia D’Eramo as Gutrune and Canadian-born American mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford as Waltraute — were also well attended to. The chorus of 57 (43 of them men) sounded stunning as prepared by Walter Huff. Make that chilling when their martial stage maneuvers are factored in.
And what of the principals, Siegfried and Brünnhilde? The German heldentenor Stefan Vinke and the American dramatic soprano Lise Lindstrom were sympathetic actors with the stamina to deliver, alone or together, some of the most taxing music in the operatic repertoire. I can probably blame my own unhelpful bel canto expectations for finding Vinke a tad leathery and Lindstrom edgy at fortissimo.
All the same, these were vivid, full-hearted performances, ably supervised from the pit by Roberto Kalb, the Mexican-born music director of Detroit Opera. Götterdämmerung is a tapestry of leitmotifs, and Kalb made sense of them all. The orchestra of 81, playing the popular reduction by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1903-75), sounded well drilled, a few traces of brass congestion notwithstanding. No one was heard to complain that there were two harps rather than six.
One more note about the production. The concluding Immolation Scene promises fire and flood and the destruction of Valhalla, with Brünnhilde mounted on a horse for good measure. The Atlanta solution to the problem was to pull out all the audio-visual stops, even adding the sound of tumbling walls to the general clamor. I wonder how well these special effects will age. Perhaps a more symbolic style is indicated in a world that is accustomed to cinematic sensation.
Zvulun has time to think about it. The cycle of 2029 will be led not by Kalb but by Atlanta Opera principal conductor Iván López Reynoso, who has limited experience as a Wagnerian. It will probably be the first Ring overseen by a conductor whose professional resume includes work as a countertenor. No matter. As this lustily applauded Götterdämmerung made apparent, Wagner is for everyone.
