The premiere of Wagner's “The Ring of the Nibelung” surprises. And not just because director Valentin Schwarz created the opera as a “Netflix series”.
Not only this boy is captured in the current Ring production
When a new Ring of the Nibelung is due in Bayreuth, expectations are high. After all, at 16 hours Wagner's Ring is one of the longest opera cycles in the world, for which the composer had a special festival hall built.
One thing was already clear in advance: Valentin Schwarz kidnapped the audience in his ring – like Richard Wagner once did – into a world of gods, dragons and water mermaids, from which the dwarf Alberich steals a pot of gold. There is indeed a treasure here, but not of gold; this is already known from other major productions of modern director's theater, in which content and symbols are reinterpreted and adapted to the present day.
In Frank Castorf's last Ring production in 2013 in Bayreuth, the treasure was valuable oil. With Valentin Schwarz, the treasure turned out to be a child at the premiere of “Das Rheingold” to the great surprise. A boy in a yellow T-shirt with a yellow baseball cap is snatched from the Rhine mermaids – this time as a nanny – by Alberich, an old man in a leather jacket.
Family drama with traumata
Richard Wagner conceived the Ring of the Nibelung as a socially critical drama about love, greed, baseness and corruption. His figures originally come from Nordic sagas, such as the Nibelungen saga. Intrigues and betrayal lead to the collapse of the world of gods around the God Wotan, people have to take their destiny into their own hands at the end of the cycle.
Valentin Schwarz, on the other hand, raises Wagner's “Ring des Nibelungen” as a great family saga. Like in a “Netflix series”, he wants to accompany the family members over several episodes. Each opera of the Ring, “Rheingold”, “Valkyrie”, “Siegfried” and “Götterdämmerung” corresponds to an episode. “For example, we don't just see a villain in a character,” explained Valentin Schwarz in an interview with DW. “We show that we are all influenced by family conflicts, professional experiences or trauma.” In later episodes, it becomes clear why someone became a villain in the first place.
Like a series format, Schwarz peppers his ring with surprise effects and inconsistencies that only become clear over the course of the season or at the end different than initially assumed.
The children as a treasure of the earth
In the house of the “Wotan” family, who played golf as a bon vivant (completely left) occurs. On the right “Loge” presents his plans to the family.
For Valentin Schwarz, “Das Rheingold” is, so to speak, the pilot film of the (opera) series. What will develop from this is still open. During the overture, two embryos are seen swimming in an amniotic sac. One punches the eye out of the other, who in turn retaliates with a kick in the testicles: two brothers, two dynasties who will fight each other. There are many indications that black here on the – in the legend alludes to the one-eyed God Wotan and the Nibelung dwarf Alberich. Are the two twin brothers? On the resolution like in every series, you will have to wait.
In the first scene of Schwarz' “Rheingold”, the Rhine is an open-air swimming pool, where the mermaids in nanny uniform play with the children entrusted to them and tease Alberich. Alberich, on the other hand, is after the treasure, the boy, whom he finally kidnaps.
In the next scene, Wotan – in Schwarz not a god, but a rich bon vivant – is waiting with his wife Fricka and her sister Freia in a modern bungalow for the giants Fafner and Fasolt. In the case of Valentin Schwarz, there are two mafiosi who want to collect the money for their services: they created “Walhal”, Wotan's great empire.
The model of Wotan's empire, a glass pyramid
Wotan, however, cannot pay, so he hands over his sister Freia to Fafner and Fasolt as collateral. The only way to redeem Freia seems to be to steal Alberich's “treasure”: the kidnapped boy. So Wotan sets off with his companion Loge, who in the actual legend is a demigod.
Child trafficking ring?
Change of scene: the kidnapped boy is sitting with some girls in pink pinafore dresses in a glass room furnished like a kindergarten. They are guarded by an older man, Alberich's brother Mime. The children sit at small tables and all have to paint the same picture. With the sounds of hammer and anvil in the background, the whole thing looks like a camouflaged labor camp. The kidnapped boy defiantly throws paint pots and pens around.
Mime looks after the girls behind glass walls
Not only because of the allegations of sexism that are currently being raised in Bayreuth, Mime's old-fashioned kiss on a girl's forehead leaves a queasy feeling. The association of child trafficking is obvious. Wotan and his helper Loge snatch the boy and a girl from the kidnapper Alberich and take both of them with them. Wotan leaves the boy to the mafiosi and gets his sister-in-law Freia back in return. What happens to him – or the girl – remains uncertain at this point.
The boy is in the production a “treasure”, a symbol for the future of mankind, but at the same time he becomes not treated like something valuable. On the contrary, the adults are only concerned with their own well-being and their own advantage.
Wagner's leitmotifs point the way
At the premiere there were more weapons than necessary, even in the hands of children. There was a lot of waving around with pistols and threats, sometimes shooting, including a corpse. After all, the effects and moments of shock were precisely tailored to Wagner's music. Wagner's “leitmotifs” are tailored to specific characters or actions, so the sound of the motifs gives an idea of what will happen next.
Richard Wagner is considered the great opera reformer of the 19th century
Valentin Schwarz was inspired by it. “As a great psychologist, Wagner thought this work together musically. That was motivation for us to present an overall story,” he says. New leitmotifs would emerge from core motifs with more and more references to one another, like children who in turn would have children again. “That also corresponds to this generational picture that I used, where we accompany this family in their conflicts over several generations in the ring.”
Valentin Schwarz as a newcomer at the Bayreuth Festival
< p>The Austrian Valentin Schwarz studied music theater direction in Vienna. In 2017 he received the Ring Award Graz at the international directing competition – together with his set designer Andra Cozzi, who also designed the stage design at the Ring. As one of the youngest directors in Bayreuth, the 33-year-old is staging a Wagner opera at the Bayreuth Festival for the first time.
Black fills the ominous scenes sometimes dramatically with the use of weapons, sometimes humorously: The golf ball that Wotan's son shoots into the room accidentally hits a lamp and turns off the light. With Wagner, the darkness is a premonition of the upcoming “Götterdämmerung”. . But that only comes at the end of the cycle, and it remains exciting how Valentin Schwarz will solve the many open questions, such as who the sweetheart boy is or what kind of empire Wotan will build and what will become of the girls.
Can “Erda” save the little girl?
Even if some things in this premiere remained inconsistent and confused, the cliffhanger with the open questions about the next episode, “Valkyrie”, is definitely a success. There was great applause for the singers, especially for the mezzo-soprano Okka von der Damerau as “Erda” and for the baritone Ólafur Sigurdarson as Alberich, who also showed his acting talent: as a fooled oaf in the Rheinnixen and as a kidnapper who is cornered. There was a special round of applause for the conductor Cornelius Meister, who had stepped in at short notice for the sick Pietari Inkinen and skilfully accompanied the scenes in music drama. There were a few boos for the overall production. Valentin Schwarz has not yet appeared on stage.