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In The Ring
By DAVID CAIRNS
HAVING decided to pro- duce the new Ring in stages, Covent Garden have chosen the right work to begin with This year we have Die Wal- kiire. Next year GOtter- diimmerung will be added, and in 1963 Siegfried and Rheingold. The Ring is a world and should be embraced in a from single arch of experience the first protoplasmal E flat on the double basses to the last cleansing chord of D flat major, With the minimum of distraction from the mere business of living. But if any of the four parts exists as a separate, self-sufficient entity, it is t(' Walkiire. Here is the whole myth of The a- Inn, not exactly in a nutshell but compact and articulate—the struggle towards a higher moral 1011sciousness, the power of evil and the impo- tence of good, the inescapable consequences of a Shabby act done for however noble ends, the stupidity of the conservative mind, the glory and the ephemerality of love—brought down to earth and — made the grander for being embodied in "°rtal human shape. Here is our own predica- 'cut the Bomb, the UN, the Red menace, states- onA "IlsniP bogged down by politics, the insistence (11 'rights' and the rules of the game. Fricka's tirade is in detail the authentic speech of a Tory woman delegate: capital punishment and the `cat' i; °r -Juvenile offenders, public-school-bred distrust kf intellectuals and new ideas, and what was good enough for our grandfathers is good enough for Is(`Mit tiefem Sinne willst du mich tauschen), the sacred burdens and duties of colonial empire Matter how unfashionable in these lax times Von Menschen verlacht,' etc.). If only for this reason, Wagner in this work t'nfi,lever for a moment dull : the music-drama 44-,"ges one's whole consciousness, reverberates °ugh it in ever-widening circles. Even those notorious operatic bores the first two scenes of Wagner second act of Die Walkiire (in fact they are t at his finest, musically and psychologi- t.11Y) ought never to weary us—least of all when there are artists of the force and grandeur 'and Passion s, 11011 of Hotter and Rita Gorr on the stage, When Solti is conducting. The orchestral play- ing under Solti on Friday night was among the tlierY best we have heard at Covent Garden since War, the equal of Kempe's Glitterdamineriing the first cycle last year. Kempe mixed his tso i°urs more subtly, Solti with a greater richness and brilliance. The prelude to Act 2, to take one ,x 4 -13,e, had a savage splendour and driving momentumaMentum that were thrilling, and with the entry t OFr the galloping Valkyrie music at the fiftieth we heard the deep-funnelled fundamental call L„ the contrabass tuba, the keynote of the even- se,- Solti, in fact, has restored the bass to its prime bee in Wagner's tonal scheme. Again and again Makes us conscious of the cellos and double basses and the lower brass instruments under- scoring the musico-dramatic argument. For in- stance, when Siegmund is about to defy Briinn- hilde's summons for love of Sieglinde, the cellos' pizzicato chords under the violas' tender melody have a weight of meaning and resolution which (while remaining pianissimo) exactly conveys Wagner's meaning at this point. Throughout the long dialogues and monologues Solti is contin- ually pointing and intensifying the psychology of the drama with vivid and significant detail. On Friday the flatness of the first oboe in Act 1 and a few unpleasantly rasping trombone chords were rare exceptions to the superb technical quality of the orchestral playing.
Where Solti is still less than great seems to me in a certain lack of breadth and tragic intensity at those moments when Wagner pauses and sums up the meaning and emotion of the scene : the dignity and poignancy of the orchestral passage just before the arrival of Hunding in Act 1; the solemn statement of the Volsungs' great theme at the death of Siegmund; the soft echo of the love theme, for the last time, as Siegmund bends over the sleeping Sieglinde, where the music should stand still for an instant, in timeless com- passion. Mr. Solti's conducting rarely stands still; but it is so imaginatively and, powerfully and stimulatingly in motion that regrets are short- lived. Such things as the marvellous phrasing of the violins in the duet of Brtinnhilde and Sieg- mund and the intensely brilliant, excited playing which accompanies Briinnhilde's sudden change of heart heighten one's awareness of the scope and humanity of Wagner's music in Die Walkiire.
The cast, without being exceptional, is strong. Hotter still assumes the godhead with contemp- tuous majesty, unaffected by the new cares of producer; though once, when he turned towards Briinnhilde at the supreme moment of reconcilia- tion, I felt the intrusion of conscious deliberation in his gestures. He now wields a more ordinary- looking spear, and his flowing locks have been replaced by a fuzzier style which gives him the air of a tormented Abraham. In his monologue, at the terrible phrase `Das Ende' he took on the outlines of an Epstein Christ; you had the illusion of huge square hands carved from monumental marble. The subtlety with which, by a slight in- clination of the head, leaning on his spear above the body of his son, he suggested an eternity of grief, was unforgettable. The voice is still power- ful and to the point, except in its loudest utter- ances; the declamation unequalled. Declamation is the only weakness in Rita Gorr's magnificent Fricka, which is sung with ringing grandeur and portrayed with withering scorn and an almost stifling sense of self-righteousness. Claire Watson is a passable Sieglinde, most successful in the conversational exchanges at the beginning of Act 1, wanting in beauty of tone in the more lyrical music. Jon Vickers could be a so much better Siegmund than he is that he hardly deserves to be praised for the many qualities of his per- formances. He sang like a man in a dream, phrases of splendid vigour alternating with others that trailed away into inaudibility. The new and very young BrUnnhilde, Anita Vallki, has a less sumptuous voice, but a very intelligent grasp of the role; I was not thrilled by her, but I liked her. About the more vexed question of the staging, as well as about the controversial produc- tion of Carmen at Sadler's Wells, I hope to write next week.
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