Die Walküre at the Royal Opera House

18/10/2012

Due to extreme busyness I am really behind with reviews - but I'll write about this Walkure for completeness sake. This was the last opera of Keith Warner's Ring that I saw, and I have to say that of the four operas, I found this staging the most disappointing. In theory, Walkure should be the easiest to stage - fewer special effects than the others, the emotional drama is the most direct and immediate, the music is consistently thrilling - all in all the most obviously likeable of the Ring operas. So what went wrong?

This production is relentlessly dark, even more so than Warner's other instalments and the poor lighting made it very dull visually I thought. The subtlety is all in the characterisation and there were many wonderful moments. Bryn Terfel's Wotan was involved in the lion's share of these, and though I had seen him do some wonderful work in the dire Met production broadcasts, it was in this production with this director that he first essayed the role, and surely established his interpretation. (He also said in a recent interview that he preferred working in the ROH production to the Met one because here he was given direction, and at the Met everyone was left to their own devices). The way he cradled Siegmund's head after his son's fatal battle was exceptionally moving, and his two big scenes with Brunnhilde also provided a brilliant wealth of psychological and emotional riches. When Brunnhilde asks him what is wrong, he draws himself up, holds her face in his handswith a fearful intensity, but then looks away, lost inconsolable - he cannot face up to the reality, and Brunnhilde's face itself is a reminder of his failings. Later, before he lays his daughter on the rock, there is a wonderful intimacy to their final moments together. Wotan marches off into the uncertain future in another with a resignation and sadness that is palpable: simple things that have a huge effect. I also really liked the way that Brunnhilde bounded off stage after her first entry, and almost runs into the imperious Fricka, which reveals an interraction between them which is only implicit and in the "background" of the libretto. (Fricka doesn't like Brunnhilde, but she does respect her, even although they are very different women.)

There is clumsyness too however, and it's not infrequent - when Wotan actually puts Brunnhilde into her sleep, making her a woman, it is done behind a screen, just as at the end of Siegfried when the eponymous hero wakes her up. This emotional and dramatic climax, the midpoint of the Ring, the inexorable result of all the events already witnessed, and with consequences for every subsequent event, is too important to get wrong like this. What was Warner thinking? The ride of Valkyries we see them all onstage at the beginning, they perform some resurrection ceremony (with a horribly naff projection) then run offstage, then arrive onstage again one by one, greeting each other. The hell? In Act 1, Hunding's house and the place where Fricka and Wotan meet occur on virtually identical sets - the tables and chairs and chaise longue are the same, and in both, husband and wife argue across a table. Is Warner suggesting that their fight is fundamentally the same? Or just that both marriages are unhappy? Either way, neither is particularly illuminating or insightful. Why also does it take Brunnhilde five minutes to cross the stage to reach Siegmund? I understand that there might be a hesitancy, but that surely needs to expressed in body language as well as the speed of approach!

As well as his superb acting, Bryn was vocally on top form, by far the best of his three portrayals in the Ring operas. Although the Walkure Wotan seems superficially to be the most taxing in terms of length and intensity it fits Terfel like a glove, and the range of vocal and textual nuance he brought to it, as well as his impressively stentorian climaxes, were a real treat. Timbrally he seemed just right here too - I had complained of him sounding overly baritonal and metallic in Siegfried, which is a lower and much louder part, especially in Act 3, as the intervening 12 years meant Wagner's orchestration had thickened due to his discoveries in Tristan and Mesitersinger. The Walkure Wotan might turn out to be Terfel's finest Wagner role, and I would travel to see it again.

Fricka can either be played as a woman wronged by Wotan's philandering, or as a force of reason and logic. I prefer the latter as it's more revealing of the themes of the Ring, and allows for a more interesting portrayal - not least because the music tells us that she is more than just the nag that she is commonly described as. Somehow Connolly had it both ways, producing a rounded portrait, though I have to say, she really is at least one size category too small vocally to do this small but majestic role full justice. When not hard pressed by the dramatic writing, her phrasing was very beautiful indeed, but Fricka is meant to be a force of nature capable of standing up to Wotan, King of the gods, and I just wasn't quite convinced. Acting wise she was excellent though.

Eva Maria Westbrook's career is currently going from strength to strength, singing the biggest roles in many big houses. ROH audiences seem to love her but I have to say that I think she is already past her prime - though she remains very much in control of her voice, the vibrato and basic sound has become unattractive and rather hard in the past few years. Interpretively I also find her bland, with rather little variation in approach to any role that she sings and too little attention to textual subtleties. This is a very critical appraisal, but I always feel I should be enjoying her performances more than I actually do - the good things are that she's mostly very committed on stage, and can sing every note that she is supposed to sing. There was one moment of pure electricity: as she ecstatically thanks Brunnhilde at the beginning of Act 3 ("O hehrstes Wunder!") she revealed more mettle and heft than I thought she could muster, and with a thrilling sheen in the sound. She is scheduled to do Isolde in Bayreuth in a few seasons time, and though I've never seen her as a hoch dramatisch soprano, this one moment may point the way to what she might be capable of.

Simon O'Neill started out as an OK Siegmund though hardly of the first rank - his top is famously pinched and strident, but this role lies rather low in the tenor range so we didn't get to see much of this this time. Sadly the bottom is underpowered, and by the end of Act I he was barely projecting above the orchestra. He wasn't announced as ill, but he wasn't a match for his Sieglinde.

John Tomlinson sang a good Hunding, sounding more comfortable vocally than with his superb Hagen, though Hunding is of course a far less interesting character, and doesn't allow for the wonderful wealth of characterisation that Tomlinson imbued Hagen with. There was a particularly lovely moment when Wotan kills Hunding and there was a (perhaps frivolous to mention) sense of some sort of transferral of power between Tomlinson and Terfel, surely Britain's next great Wotan.

The Valkyries made a magnificent noise, each clearly trying to outdo the others with volume, excitement and energy, which made for a thrilling Act 3 opening. Unfortunately Susan Bullock seemed to be struggling even more here than in the other operas, and didn't once match transcend her vocal failings to produce the intensity that she had mustered in Gotterdammerung.

I was very disappointed by Pappano's contribution in the pit - he resigned himself to the role of an accompanist, only coming fully alive in Act 3, but it was too late - Act 1 and 2 had given us too little to care about musically - too little was at stake. The orchestra, which had been sounding so magnificent in Siegfried and Gotterdammerung sounded tired and bored, with truly awful playing from the brass section, particularly principal trumpet. As I say I can only imagine that it was fatigue as they were sounding so great in the previous cycle, but this was a very disappointing showing and a real embarrassment for what is supposedly one of the finest opera house orchestras in the world.

Siegfried at the ROH

08/10/2012

I have tickets to all the Ring operas! Annoyingly I'm seeing them out of order (Rheingold, Siegfried, Gotterdammerung, Walkure), so it will be difficult to appraise the cycle properly as a piece of story telling, but better this than nothing!

On the whole I really enjoyed Siegfried. I usually find that Act I drags until the forging song, because up until then it might uncharitably be described as an argument between a malevolent midget and an angry simpleton, but here I was completely captivated throughout, both by the dramatics and the music. In the opening minutes of the opera we are shown chronological slices of Siegfried's youth from pram to adolescence with Mime's increasingly desperate attempts to forge him a sword. Gerhard Siegel offers a Mime that combines his humorous patheticness with a genuine pathos and sadness. He is disturbing not because he is evil, but because his normality is just a shell: he has many of the familiar drives that we have, but at his core there is a vacuum, where something very fundamental is missing (In this he is a much like Hagen). There is no doubt, for instance, that his scheming for the ring is only half the story - there is a genuine desire towards parenthood, even if he can only be a terrible parent. We question what Mime's own awful upbringing might have been like with Alberich, and what psychological scars is he trying to heal with his "own" son. Siegel put this all across in a rather understated way and vocally his truly perfect diction, power and sensitivity are a model for the other singers.

Siegfried's own inarticulate longing for his mother are ravishingly captured in the music of Act II, and one wonders even whether there is not some erotic tension present in the music as well, what with his already sexually confused heredity, and him sharing direct lineage with Brunnhilde in the form of Wotan; indeed he confuses her for his mother in Act III. (As an aside, because of the incestuous genetics, both Brunnhilde and Siegfried have half of Wotan's genes. Second aside: It has been noted by feminist writers that the physical between a mother and her child is an erotic one, centred on the breast, and that intense pleasure is often derived from both parties.) Staging wise, this bit is the best thing about Act II: Siegfried disappears down a hole in the middle of the stage, the roof of which then rises to reveal a star lit sky and green paddock: apart from anything it's just a rather beautiful, if typically quirky image. I heard grumbles in the interval about the deer on wheels that appear, but Keith Warner's slightly light hearted aesthetic is very firmly established by this point, so I didn't find it jarring. The difficult to stage dragon scene is acceptably presented - the dragon head is quite scary, and moves with a threatening air, though the fight is rather perfunctory as usual, and though Siegfried is meant to see the whole thing as a sort of joke, at one point he just runs round the stage to make the scene last longer it seems, which is clumsy and undramatic.

Stefan Vinke's Siegfried is a very different matter from Siegel's articulate, needy Mime - Vinke never once genuinely connects with another person on stage, and although I don't think this is an intentional acting choice, it works as an interpretation: the only human contact that Siegfried has had has been from his emotional cripple of a parent, and so he would clearly be a rather underdeveloped or even damaged young man, incapable of the normal range of human emotions. He feels closer to the animals he sees, and what saves him is his radiant energy, love of freedom and instinctive feeling that Mime's actions are wrong. I like this almost autistic interpretation - but if this was the intention it could have been more precise, definite and troubled. Vocally it's not exactly the most exciting voice, but this is an impossible role, and he sings all the notes, largely in tune, and can even sing quietly when needed. He was clearly saving himself for the final duet in which he truly erupted volume wise, and I don't think I've ever heard an ovation so loud at the ROH.

Wagner of course broke off after Act II, as he felt he couldn't yet compose the music he needed to for the close of Siegfried, and so honed his skill with two little compositional exercises commonly referred to Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg. The abrupt and inevitable change in style between Act II and Act III is hard to complain about when the later music is of such manifest inspiration and consistent beauty and power: Act III combines the ecstatic erotics of Tristan, with the magnificent grandeur of Meistersinger, making it one of the most sheerly pleasurable Act of any of Wagner's operas in terms of aural beauty. What also changes though is the pacing - Wagner slows things right down, and suddenly psychology and philosophy are meant to do the heavy lifting drama wise. I liked Wotan's casting aside of his books and objects of power as he prepares to reject the Will, though the scene with Erda is slightly underwhelming. He does hurry along his desire to end the gods' power by goring her which was rather strong. Vinke's goonishly smiling Siegfried is well contrasted to Terfel's wracked Wanderer though again the scene didn't quite resonate with the energy it needed. Then the fated meeting of Siegfried and Brunnhilde: this is where Warner's staging begins to falter, and he finds it difficult to consummate the eroticism that is in the text and music. First is the botched scene when Siegfried awakens Brunnhilde - it all occurs behind a large wall, which Siegfried pops out from behind occasionally to tel the audience about what he's thinking/doing. When Brunnhilde has actually woken up and the duet occurs they are barely touching, let alone interracting - often they are stationed at opposite sides of the stage singing about the feel of warm breath and bodies. Does Warner not believe in their genuine attraction? At one point we see them either side of a table: Brunnhilde's domestication - the transformation from goddess to woman, but still there's no intimacy. Strangely her horse is dead, and only the head remains - are they both delusional about this? Is it a clue to the rest? (This doesn't resolve itself in Gotterdammerung either...) The ending then is unsatisfactory and a disappointment after the compelling first two acts.

Terfel's Wanderer is quite interesting - subtly acted and with a lot of vocal nuance - but also problematic. He doesn't quite register with the quiet import that he should, and though he can more than sing all the notes, the timbre is very bright and metallic for a bass baritone - not quite what we have come to expect in this role. Having missed Susan Bullock's Brunnhilde in Walkure (I'm seeing it 18th Oct), my first experience of her was much less bad than the reports I had been hearing. She certainly wasn't too quiet as so many have claimed, at least from where I was sitting, though she is clearly working quite hard, and can't truly "ride" the orchestra in the fashion of the truly great Brunnhildes. It's not a very beautiful sound and there is significant wobble on the high notes which are squally and metallic, but she can sing quite beautifully in the quiet moments, and anything below about a g above the staff is basically OK. Her diction is good and she manages to get the text across quite well. (I liked her more in Gotterdammerung, so will talk more of her there.) Similarly to Rheingold, I thought Maria Radner had the right colour, but not enough weight for Erda. I really don't think Sophie Bevan is cast well when doing these light, high lyric coloratura roles (as here with the Woodbird)- she can sing the notes, but the voice is heavier and darker than is ideal. Wolfgang Koch and Eric Halfvarson both more than did the job as Alberich and Fafner.

Pappano takes an almost Straussian delight in the wonderful orchestral effects of the first two acts and makes them exciting and surging, while sensitively accompanying the cast. The orchestra are sounding magnificent under him at the moment, and the warmth and beauty of Act 3 was quite wonderful. It's not the grandest or deepest Wagner you've ever heard in terms of long range structure or shape, but that possibly wouldn't play ideally to the slightly fragile cast. In the purely orchestral sections he really lets the orchestra go, and the momentum and power is infectious - I couldn't wait for the conclusion in Gotterdammerung (which I have now seen).

Das Rheingold at the ROH

Das Rheingold is an opera that's easy to like but hard to love. As an exposition to the Ring it works very well of course, but the lack of a romantic storyline, and lack even of much emotional content, is reflected in the music which is composed in short cinematic scenes, without much lyricism, and without the feeling of the large harmonic paragraphs that are such a feature of the preceding Lohengrin, and become ever more a feature of Wagner's dramatic construction in Walkure, Tristan and Meistersinger.

What it does provide is action at a rather rapid pace, at least by Wagnerian standards, and opportunity for directors to impress us with their ingenius solutions to the works numerous problems of staging (giants, transmogrification, a rainbow bridge, a river of gold). And to say there is no lyricism is unfair: the opening is one of the most glorious in all opera, the longest orchestrated crescendo before Ravel's Bolero, and one of the most evocative things the Ring. I've always seen this as a depiction of creation, so it was pleasing here that it was accompanied by images redolent of this idea. And the final 20 minutes, from Erda's warning onwards are truly gorgeous music, and a relief from the relative terseness of what came before, a slowing of pace, and return to the beauty of the opening.

What strikes one most about Keith Warner's production is how many jokes there are. Freia is an airheaded bimbo who regularly drifts into lala land, keeps forgetting about the dangers of her captors, staring at them through the glass and at one moment hilariously letting them in again just as the others have locked them out. The giants (a mole and an industrialist respectively) are sort of comedy characters too - a large top hat is removed to reveal an equally large and bulbous egg-head. Froh is nervy and camped up as is often done, and he also keeps playing with his lighter. There are lots of other little moments of comedy. Only Fricka and Wotan are "seria" characters in this divine comedy, and they all act as petty squabblers rather than gods of all creation. Design wise the aesthetic is vaguely steam punk, or maybe Harry Potter like if you prefer that comparison - Freia and Fricka are dressed as Mozartian Countesses (they are the reactionaries), whereas Wotan is in more modern attire and the rest are in some sort of steam punkish 19th century limbo. Alberich is a onesie wearing tyrant, with a science lab that is reminiscent of the early 20th century, certainly "future" compared to the rest. The sets are mostly very dark and shiny (disastrously in the case of the centre circle where Wotan is seen crouching under the stage in a reflection and stage hands are seen passing up various objects.)

A fantasy setting then. But it's not that atmospheric, and the boxy, contained feeling of the set reflects the non-epic scale of the story telling - it's engaging but nothing seems that important. At least not yet. Maybe things will gain in gravitas as the cycle evolves, and I do want to find out what happens. Of course I already know, but you know what I'm saying. (Sadly I may not beable to due to other commitments).

I've been worried lately that Bryn Terfel has started shouting a bit when singing loud, but here he was in very good form. The voice has lost some of the rich lustre and beautiful depth of ten years ago, but he is still very in control, can sing a lovely piano, and his textual acuity and beautiful German diction remain as keen and clear as ever. He is also a good actor, far better than the ham that people sometimes take him for, and his Wotan I am sure will continue to gain depth as he moves further into this repertoire.

Sarah Conolly was as good as expected as Fricka, and made the most of the little she has to sing in this opera. Here she was imperious and proud and in Wallhalla, seemed as much in charge of the gods as Wotan. So far she has largely focussed on lyric roles as her beautiful mezzo doesn't have the steel for truly dramatic singing, but she was quite at ease here and never once seemed underpowered. Her one truly lyrical phrase bemoaning the fate of the gods revealed a gorgeous legato line which made me thirsty to see her in the great Fricka scene in Walkure which will surely be a treat (I really hope I manage to get to see it).

Maria Radner has a lovely alto voice, and probably gets the best music to sing in the opera, but doesn't quite have the vocal heft to make Erda's appearance the earth shattering, soul stirring experience that it should be. Why not Eva Podlés!? I don't know how she's really sounding these days, but she was certainly impressive as the comedy role of the mother in Massenet's Cendrillon two seasons ago. No one ever sings Alberich's music beautifully, and Wolfgang Koch does well in this part, though is maybe a little bit too much of a comedy foil (though he has his very sinister moments, such as an attempted rape on a dissection table). Iain Paterson and Eric Halfverson manage fine as Fasolt and Fafner though neither exactly boom. Nothing too much to complain about though, and Rheingold is hardly a "singers" opera anyway.

Brynfest at the Royal Festival Hall

05/06/2012

Ho hum, sort of a hum drum evening this. I don't know why I'm surprised... I saw the repertoire, didn't book the first time despite the singers, but couldn't resist the £20 Timeout offer. They were filming it which explains the desire to fill seats, but there were still loads of empty ones. Is it that Bryn no longer has the power to fill the RFH? Or was it just the poor repertoire?

(Please note that the Royal Festival Hall has a very strange accoustic which does singers no favours, so bear that in mind with the comments - I have too)

The repertoire choices were a bit mystefying - Mostly italian, with a few French things (and the Eugene Onegin Waltz of all things). Although he's always sung this repertoire, it's not exactly what he's known for - I would have thought that a bleeding chunk from Wagner, and possibly some Mozart (does he still sing this?) would have been more appropriate as the main body of this evening, with some French and Italian stuff chucked in. As it was, we got a series of very short, rather light snippets that never seemed to amount to much. Bryn himself was in rather leathery voice and I don't know if this just reflects his current vocal condition or whether he was having an off night. It's lost colour and resonance, and I don't like that he shouts so much, not something he used to have to do, though the sound is still recognisably him. A little disappointing as I would consider myself an ardent fan of his in the right rep. That said, look below for the underwhelming repertoire choices - Miei rampolli femminini from La Cenerentola? Really? Why?

Here's what was performed, just because I don't want to talk through it piece by piece. Maybe I should do this anyway in future reviews.

Giuseppe Verdi: Overture, I vespri siciliani
Giuseppe Verdi: Pietà, rispetto, amore from Macbeth
Giuseppe Verdi: Ecco l'orrido campo from Un ballo in maschera
Gaetano Donizetti: Pour mon âme from La Fille du Regiment
Gioachino Rossini: Una voce poco fa from The Barber of Seville
Giuseppe Verdi: Noi siamo zingarelli from La Traviata
Georges Bizet: Je crois entendre from The Pearl Fishers
Giacomo Puccini: Vissi d'arte from Tosca
Giacomo Puccini: Te Deum from Tosca

Interval

Gioachino Rossini: Miei rampolli femminini from La Cenerentola
Gioachino Rossini: Si, ritrovarla, io giuro from La Cenerentola
Gioachino Rossini: Nacqui all'affanno from La Cenerentola
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Waltz scene from Eugene Onegin
Arrigo Boito: L'altra notte in fondo al mare from Mefistofele
Arrigo Boito: Son lo spirito che nega from Mefistofele
Giuseppe Verdi: Tre volte miagola la gatta (Witches chorus) from Macbeth
Pietro Mascagni: Easter Hymn from Cavalleria rusticana
Georges Bizet: Duet, Au fond du temple saint from The Pearl Fishers

Encore: quartet from Rigoletto

Bryn Terfel bass-baritone
Oksana Dyka soprano
Elizabeth DeShong mezzo-soprano
Lawrence Brownlee tenor
Orchestra of Welsh National Opera
Chorus of Welsh National Opera
Gareth Jones conductor

Oksana Dyka was ok - she has a gorgeous top which is huge and very rounded, but in the middle the power falls away, and there's no lower register to speak of. Vissi d'arte was squally, but strangely, L'altra notte in fondo al mare wasn't at all - she was at her best there I thought. Hard to judge properly in such small bursts of singing though, so I suspend judgement.

This is the first time I have seen Lawrence Brownlee live. In a way it's amazing what he can do, but I found him rather dull. I found his tone monocromatic - the vibrato is identical everywhere and he manages to make every vowel have the same colour. It's a rather soft edged voice, and the top comes so easily that it just doesn't thrill. It might just be that the RFH was simply too cavernous to do his voice (or anyone else's) justice. Both he and Bryn were at their best though during the final number - the famous Pearlfishers duet, where both finally seemed a bit freer vocally.


Thank god for Elizabeth Deshong! She jumped in last minute to replace another (ill) mezzo. I've written about her before here and elsewere, but I just need to reiterate how wonderful this voice is. Gorgeously even throughout the range, agile, MASSIVE chest register, ultra shiny radiant top, and charming to boot. I very much like what she does interpretively too, she colours things nicely, her dynamic choices excellent, and the coloratura can be heroic sounding or tossed off (i.e. she can choose to add weight or not) which is very good. I feel the one thing currently missing is textual acuity - if she took more risks with this I would be even happier. On the way home this evening I was wondering whether she'll be the composer in next season's Glyndebourne Ariadne and this thought filled me with joy, but that is somewhere where text is of paramount importance. I'm not sure if it's an ideal Strauss mezzo voice (both the composer and Octavian were designated soprano parts originally and as a result sit very high) but I don't mind finding out.

One thing - both of the arias she sang are meant to be from rather meek, sweet, girlish characters, admittedly both with a strong core, but though she sings them wonderfully, the voice is anything but meek and mild. Rossini seems to suit so well though, so would love to see her in the "serious" Rossini roles. Would she consider Armida? A soprano role officially, but low lying.


Overall this evening was only really worth it for the contributions from DeShong and that lovely final duet. I would not have been happy had I paid full price.

Thoughts on the Met Broadcast Walkure

Die Walkure
14/05/2011
Metropolitan Opera Broadcast


Not a proper review and nothing profound to note; these are just some general thoughts and views on this broadcast more for my future reference than anything.


Really enjoyed this evening! First things first, the new Met production of the Ring is totally pointless, utterly inoffensive, completely literal, poorly staged, unthoughtprovoking and rather soulless. It's almost not worth discussing. Despite all the technological flummery, it's deeply traditional, not that this is bad in itself, but there's not much beauty and quite alot that is actively horrible to watch, at least at close range. The direction of this broadcast was consistently ill executed with irritating camera angles, constantly panning or tracking shots and loads of extreme close ups (when will opera film/DVD director learn that we almost never want these?).

So this evening was mostly enjoyable for the acting and its musical quality. The extremely starry cast promised big, and basically delivered too. The big question mark was whether Voigt would be able to manage the role, after some reports and rumours that her career was over due to some dubious Minnies she sang around Christmas time. She acquitted herself rather well I thought, and certainly warmed up vocally through the night, though to me it's not really a beautiful sound anymore. The German was pretty questionable too, which surprised me as I'd never noticed before. Maybe her Brunhilde was a bit cute, but she is meant to be childlike in the Walkure, and her joyous playing around with Bryn Terfel's Wotan in the opening scene was great I thought. Eva-Maria Westbrook is another soprano whose voice I don't find beautiful anymore, the vibrato being rather unattractive and there's a basic lack of colour and variation in the sound - the sound itself begins to bore. Additionally I didn't think her acting was great here. Thing is, she's better in the theatre than up close (either on video or on CD) which is probably why she's been recorded so little in the past, so it doesn't seem fair to judge her too harshly. She does a weird thing when she sings loadly too - the mouth always veers to the right, which is distracting and I'm assured is not good technique.

But lets get onto the good bits! Jonas Kaufmann is a frigging god. It's just a gorgeous voice, gorgeously used, simple as that. His Todesverkündigung was magical. I don't like the staring into space thing he does sometimes when he's meant to be addressing characters, but really, he's the greatest tenor in the world at the moment. There really is no question about this. I just want to see everything he does now. (The voice sounds bigger on record than it is in reality though. He's certainly not a heldentenor, and I would question whether he's really a true dramatic tenor either. He seems to be growing into this repertoire however, so we'll see how it develops). Stephanie Blythe played Fricka. The voice is absolutely magnificent, radiantly beautiful, hugely powerful, effortlessly in tune, satisfyingly dark at the bottom and with a glitteringly intense top. And she sings so intelligently too - so many colours, so much interest, such great shaping of the text. I love it.

Bryn Terfel is a very good Wotan, but the voice is definitely sounding damaged these days. He's clearly thought about the role a lot and nothing seems by wrote, again great sensitivity to the text, and well acted, though at the same time I'm not sure he conveys the majesterial grandeur that the king of the gods surely requires, and as a result the torment of his downfall does not quite strike with full force that it should. However, this more human approach means the climactic scenes with his children - Seigmund's death and the farewell with Brunhilde - are extremely moving, the acting and music making of the last half hour of the opera unusually poignant and human (Deborah Voigt equally excellent here).

The orchestral support from the Met band with Levine was just magnificent.

Let's just get something straight here: it's completely moronic to clap during these broadcasts. Right? I'm right aren't I. Yet so many people do it. It actually pains me. Also moronic are the interviews - Joyce Didonato a comically inept and completely charmless host - such shallow questions, and irritatingly screeching faux star struckness (the hilarious Stephanie Blythe taking the thing in great humour and clearly taking the piss). She interviewed the guy in charge of the stage technology ("the machine" had failed causing the show to start 40 minutes late), and finished by saying "thanks for getting it up tonight". And not that these things usually bother me overly, but her hair, makeup and above all her dress were just horrendous - truly mystefying - who made those decisions? And then the equally embarrassing, but more forgivable Placido Domingo as cohost who bumped into Voigt and "lost his glasses in her". And then the behind the scenes crew clearly seen frantically directing the gormless singers. It's all so unslick, but worse it just destroys any suspension of disbelief and any sense of the mysery of the stage. They really need to stop this crap. Why not have prerecorded clips? And why not talk to directors/designers/Wagner experts? Or just have the pre recorded documentary features?