Vanemuine’s Das Rheingold – An Extraordinary Achievement in Estonian Opera History
When Wagner wrote in 1849 about music theatre as a synthesis of the arts, or Gesamtkunstwerk (a term already coined in 1827 by the German philosopher Karl Friedrich Eusebius Trahndorff), he envisioned a form whose complete success depended equally on directing, scenography, costumes, architecture, lighting, and, of course, the orchestra and vocal art. He later had precisely this ideal in mind when creating his Ring of the Nibelung. The first work of the tetralogy, Das Rheingold, presented in Kuressaare on 18 July as part of the Saaremaa Opera Days, fulfilled these criteria to perfection – this day will go down in the history of Estonian opera in letters of gold.
First performed in Munich in 1869, Das Rheingold was heard in Estonia for the very first time. It also marked the beginning of a multi-year project to present all four operas of The Ring of the Nibelung as a joint venture between the Vanemuine Theatre and Eesti Kontsert at the Saaremaa Opera Days (artistic director Ain Anger).[1]
Conducted by Vanemuine’s music director Risto Joost and directed by the renowned Dutch director Michiel Dijkema, Das Rheingold is epoch-making in the history of Estonian opera, establishing a qualitatively new standard for the reception of Wagner’s operas. Nothing comparable has previously been seen in Estonian music theatre, and the authors’ enthusiasm is all the greater because the production, featuring an ensemble consisting predominantly of Estonian soloists, is of an absolutely international standard in every respect. The music flows without losing transparency; the orchestra and singers respond flexibly both to nuances and to the work’s long developmental arcs. Joost’s interpretation embraces the work as a grand whole while remaining rich in detail. The Vanemuine Orchestra demonstrated that its musicians are highly motivated and determined to give the maximum of their skill and emotional commitment. Particularly noteworthy was the attention paid to the verbal and conceptual clarity of the sung text – without this, Wagner’s music dramas cannot be performed adequately (the responsible concertmaster and répétiteur was Toomas Kaldaru).
Dijkema is also responsible for the set design and lighting, and his Das Rheingold is characterised by conceptual coherence and a production worked out down to the smallest detail, stylistically interpreting both the drama unfolding in the world of mythical beings and its mythological environment. Dijkema notes in the programme that he approaches “the story directly, remaining faithful to the characters and the score”. The entire stage interpretation is psychologically convincing and possesses considerable power of generalisation. Today’s theatre-goer can easily find a point of contact with the world created by Wagner and Dijkema – a world defined by the tensions surrounding love, gold, power, violence and freedom. The video at the beginning of the production also helps to establish this connection, showing children talking and drawing their understanding of the story of Das Rheingold.
Every scene in the production carries and supports the meaning of the mythical narrative: the Rhinemaidens (Kadri Raalik, Sandra Laagus and Annaliisa Pillak) swimming and singing beautifully in a pool representing the Rhine; Alberich (Rauno Elp) climbing along the steep banks of the river; the Nibelungs’ underground dwelling; the transformations made possible by the Tarnhelm; the substantive use of the revolving stage; and the imaginative and spectacular costumes by Dutch costume designer Martijn Kramp. At Bayreuth and in many other places, Das Rheingold is customarily performed without an interval. In the circumstances of the Saaremaa production, however, the decision to have an interval before Scene 3 was justified.
The soloists chosen for these vocally demanding roles – drawn from different theatres as well as from the freelance world – proved exceptionally well suited to their parts, both vocally and in terms of character. Among them, Rauno Elp created the triumph of his career to date, revealing himself as if born to be a Wagnerian singer. One is also reminded of his deeply felt portrayal of Amfortas in the Estonian National Opera’s Parsifal in 2011. In recent interpretations of Das Rheingold, the character of Alberich has increasingly been portrayed as complex and tragic, as, for example, in Tobias Kratzer’s production at the Bavarian State Opera. Elp’s portrayal retained, however, the grotesque dimension that we associate with the dwarf, or Nibelung, after whom the entire tetralogy is named.
Alongside Elp’s Alberich, the Icelandic singer Hrólfur Sæmundsson stood out as a compelling interpretation of the chief god Wotan, his powerful bass-baritone fully embodying the role. Annely Peebo’s musically and theatrically radiant and thoughtfully conceived portrayal of Fricka, goddess of the hearth, gave no indication that the singer was performing with her leg immobilised in a cast due to a fracture. Mati Turi brought both cunning and comic elements to the role of Loge, the god of fire – Wagner’s works contain considerably more humour than is generally assumed. Memorable characters were also created by Juhan Tralla (Alberich’s brother Mime), Taavi Tampuu (Donner) and Roland Liiv (Froh). In Dijkema’s production, one can see how Mime closely follows the ring’s journey – in the next-but-one part of the cycle, Siegfried, he attempts to acquire the ring for himself.
Ain Anger and Kristjan Häggblom’s giants Fasolt and Fafner are simultaneously powerful and awkwardly tender-hearted – both are enamoured of Freia, portrayed by the guest artist from Latvia, the first-class soprano Liene Kinča. Monika-Evelin Liiv’s dark and deep vocal timbre brought out the primeval nature of Erda, goddess of the earth. The chorus singers also deserve recognition, as on this occasion they took on the role of percussionists, striking anvils during the Nibelung scene.
The visual conception of Dijkema’s Das Rheingold, together with Martijn Kramp’s costumes, is a masterpiece in its own right. Rationally functional on the one hand, it simultaneously makes a strong contribution to semantic diversity. The multi-level, revolving structure made of poles and branches resembles, aesthetically, the setting of the post-apocalyptic science-fiction film Waterworld (1995), while the vibrating column of light rising from the centre of the stage evokes associations with a reduced image of Yggdrasil, the cosmic tree of Germanic folklore.
At the end of the performance, the column of light changes into the colours of the rainbow, alluding to the rainbow bridge along which the gods are supposed to travel to their new dwelling place, Valhalla. In the production, however, they leave along a winding path positioned on the right-hand side of the stage – a figurative double projection.
Although water has been used as a decorative device in several productions of Das Rheingold, to our knowledge the action has never before been staged on such a large scale and with such substantive justification in a real pool. The three Rhinemaidens swimming in the “waters of the Rhine” appeared extraordinarily organic!
The use of steam to envelop characters or the stage space was also well justified – this old and rather commonplace theatrical device was entirely at home as part of the mystical stage imagery. Kramp elegantly combines in his costumes the sensual kitsch of the nineteenth century, the gold and silver garments reminiscent of those in Rembrandt’s paintings, and the otherworldly appearance of the characters from The Lord of the Rings. The result is wonderfully timeless, while also bringing to mind the tastes of King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
The central symbol of the work – Alberich’s ominous magic ring – was represented by finger puppets that could fit around all the fingers, resembling a knuckle weapon associated with the criminal underworld. The clumsy, monstrous giants, tottering on platform shoes with a single horn growing from their foreheads, and the tree of golden apples carried on the back of Freia, goddess of love and youth, once again provided symbols perfectly suited to the mythical characters.
Das Rheingold was a powerful opening statement for the Saaremaa Opera Days.