MET Götterdämmerung

Ok, so I tried to sell my ticket for May 12th performance but got no buyer. I decided to stay for Act 1. I thought Dalayman would be singing Brünnhilde but it turned out Deborah Voigt will be singing Brünnhilde. I had watched the HD Live performance earlier this year.

1. The Norns (Maria Radner, Elizabeth Bishop, Heidi Melton). I enjoyed their singing especially Radner and Melton; big voices.
   
2. Siegfried (Stephen Gould). Jay Hunter Morris sang this in the HD Live performance. I really liked Gould in Siegfried and I still like him here. He even did a pretty good imitation of Gunther in the abduction scene.
   
3. Brünnhilde (Deborah Voigt). Her voice sounded much better today than on Monday. Today, she managed to keep the "granny" sound to a minimum, and her voice seemed bigger. Her voice doesn't have warmth so the love duet was somewhat meh. But she gave us a nice big high C at the end of the duet. It sounded far better than those hojotoho she gave us in Die Walküre.
       The Waltraute scene is Voigt's launching pad. Here she is getting into her element; Voigt's voice shines for fury, fear, and despair. Her confrontation with Siegfried was very exciting. When she curses Wotan for her situation, it was very convincing; and that scream she delivered when Siegfried seizes her ring was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately Act 1 ends and I had to leave. I wish I could have stayed because in the HD Live performance Voigt was even more impressive in Act 2.
       I have not heard Dalayman in Götterdämmerung but I'm not sure she could do better than Voigt here. Though Voigt's voice is not as stable as Dalayman's, I feel Voigt is more expressive.
   
4. Hagen (Hans-Peter König). Big voice and reliable as usual.
   
5. Gunther (Iain Paterson). I didn't think much of his acting in the HD Live performance. But in the opera house his body language was surprisingly good.
   
6. Gutrune (Wendy Bryn Harmer). Her singing is convincing.
   
7. Waltraute (Karen Cargill). Waltraud Meier sang this in the HD Live performance. Not sure if the choreography changed but it seems better this time around; perhaps because there were no closeups shots to disorient me. I thought she sang very well.
   

John Keenan was the conductor. The opera started at 11am. I think it might have been too early for some of the brass players. There were more odd sounds coming from there than I heard before. I also thought some of the section were slow; should have picked up the tempo a little.

As in Das Rheingold, the Machine was better in house than on the theatre screen. The colors were all more vivid. Also I complained about the gloominess of the cliff scene in the theatre but it is nicely brighter in the opera house. The Gibichung wood pattern on the skirt looked pretty good too. When the magic fire flare to yellow in the abduction scene, I don't recall noticing in the theatre. The purple patterns shown during orchestral breaks are more complicated than I remember and I actually thought they were blue not purple in the theatre. But they used the same purple pattern twice. Couldn't they change the colors or patterns for each orchestral break?

So I said I vowed never to see Siegfried or Götterdämmerung again until a worthy Brünnhilde comes along. I take my words back. I will correct myself and restrict my vow to Siegfried because Brünnhilde is the big payoff in that opera. All in all, I wish I had watched the whole thing because it started off pretty well.

(Image from 101Thing's blog entry on Open Salon. However I believe Siegfried in that image is Morris not Gould)