Der r ing Des nibelungen
After nearly five years of tireless effort, the
Met will unveil its first new production of Wagner’s
complete Ring cycle in more than 20 years.
Robert Lepage discusses the final phase of opera’s
supreme directorial challenge.
Completing the Circle
By Elena Park
Last season, Robert Lepage and his team at Ex Machina
collaborated with the Met to produce the first two installments
of the Ring—Das Rheingold and Die Walküre. With the final two
operas set to premiere this season—Sieg fried on October 27 and
Götterdämmerung on January 27—the Met is poised to present
full cycles in April and May of 2012, conducted by Maestro
James Levine. Over the last few years, pre-season workshops
have taken place at a warehouse in Varennes, a small town
northeast of Montreal. This is where Lepage, his team, and
members of the Met’s production staff have immersed them-
selves in the technical challenges presented by Wagner’s monu-
mental, four-part Gesamtkunstwerk. The space is large enough
to house “the machine,” as Lepage’s flexible 24-plank, 90,000-
pound set has been nicknamed. As finishing touches were
GREEN MACHINE
being put on the Norns’ rope of destiny last July, Lepage took The natural world of
Siegfried, seen here
a break to talk about his vision for Wagner’s cosmos. in an early technical
rehearsal, is rendered
at times in 3D.
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How did you develop your
approach to staging Siegfried,
the cycle’s third installment?
Siegfried was, of course, the character
that fascinated Wagner and prompted
him to write this whole saga. It was all
The images of video artist
written backwards, beginning with Pedro Pires are projected
Halfway through the cycle, “Siegfried’s Death,” which would become on Carl Fillion’s set, left
how have your thoughts about Götterdämmerung. After writing about and below, seen in early
technical rehearsals.
the Ring evolved? the death of the character, he decided
Well, it’s one thing to come up with to go back in time to try to understand
concepts and ideas and your interpreta- his youth, and then his parents, and then
tion of what the Ring means. It’s another the gods. You feel, as you’re studying
thing to be there working with singers Sieg fried and trying to understand how
and bringing the piece to the stage. For to stage it, that it is really the heart of
me, the exchange of ideas and informa- the whole project, that he’s really the
tion with the singers has been the most character Wagner idealized and was
enriching part of the whole experience. intrigued by the most. The whole Ring
As a director, you must have a rigorous revolves around this hero.
concept, but you cannot have a vision
that’s stifling. Your vision of this incred- How do you see the character
ible work cannot exist in a closed way if of Siegfried?
you want something alive and rich and In a certain way, Siegfried is a very naïve
emotional and poetic to come out of character, because he knows no fear.
rehearsals. In Buddhism, they say your At times, his presence can turn a dark
obstacles are your friends. So one might plot into a farce. Of course, we’re not
say I’ve made a lot of friends staging the going to do a farcical version of Sieg fried,
first two parts of the Ring! but there’s something extremely naïve
throughout the opera. You can under-
stand that a totalitarian vision of society
would idealize somebody like Siegfried,
Robert Lepage studies because, from a Nietzschean perspective,
Siegfried’s sword. he’s above morality. He’s like a perfect
hero who doesn’t look forward or back-
ward and just imprints his own will by
Left: Deborah
his actions. But there’s a side of Siegfried Voigt as Brünnhilde
that’s also very endearing. He craves and Gary Lehman
companionship. He sings to the bird, as Siegfried,
photographed by
and they have this beautiful dialogue. Brigitte Lacombe
Siegfried doesn’t know what fear is, but
that doesn’t make him a bloodless,
emotionless character. On the contrary,
I think he understands things through
the senses, and that’s why he has such an
easy dialogue with nature.
How will we see sensuality
on stage?
We’re bringing the production into a
kind of hyperrealism. It was important
to do that if we wanted to deal with the
natural world. The presence of water,
the presence of grass, of moss—we want
people to smell the forest. Of course,
the orchestra will help to trigger those
senses. You should feel how mysterious
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and dangerous this world is, but, at the
same time, how luminous, and how it
makes the light rays seem to only be
seen through the mist. Some of the class-ridden system. In this context, a
imagery is inspired by the Fritz Lang pure and naïve hero like Siegfried can
film of Sieg fried—certainly the presence only be destined to be trapped and
of earth, wind, and water. Siegfried is a betrayed, and a character as faithful and
young adult who has cravings. When valiant as Brünnhilde can find no place
you’re a teenager, sex is very beautiful in the corrupt system man has created
and luminous, but it can also be scary. It for himself.
can have a very dark side.
Tell us more about the character of
How is the dark side of moving set. So even though you’re not Brünnhilde.
nature going to be expressed actually seeing 3D images, you’re seeing I think she’s an extraordinarily tragic
in your production? images and shadows that are so much in heroine. She’s being punished by her
We were playing around with the set sync with the movements of the set that father in Walküre because of a paradox
and saying, well, if we’re hyper-natural- you get the illusion of 3D. It adds to the within her, which is that she is made to
istic, why don’t we show the two sides of whole sensual experience. obey and to be faithful, but at the same
Siegfried’s world—which is this beautiful, time she is valiant and she believes in
lush, almost Magic Flute kind of environ- in Götterdämmerung, we move what is just. So, emotionally, she’s an
ment, and then there’s this whole dark away from the sensual world… amazing, complex character to perform,
side to it. Every time we had a transition, What strikes me when I see a produc- because she’s always confronting a
we tried to show the underbelly of nature, tion of Götterdämmerung or when I contradiction—whether she’s a god, a
full of worms and bugs, where the roots listen to the music is how we’re entering demigod, or a human being, she has
are rotting. And so, under every beau- the world of society, of social organiza- that in her DNA. She, not Wotan, is the
tiful, pastoral image, there’s also a dark tion. The telluric forces, the powers of victim of destiny—and probably, in all
side, which is the story of how Siegfried nature, the realm of the gods and the of the Ring, the most tragic character.
only sees the outer side of things. No demi-gods—which have been the matter I think that’s why she’s the character
wonder he knows no fear—he’s not aware of the prologue and the two first days you identify with the most. She’s the
of all the hidden vermin. of the cycle—are now harnessed by one who jumps into the fire, because
man. It’s the only piece that actually like the tragic characters in Greek
Tell me about the new technology has a chorus, and that, in itself, says a myth, she is confronted with the impos-
you’ll be using to create this setting. lot about the new order. Everything sibility of living. So it can only end in
When you have a few years to work on has been whitened, varnished, sculpted, a sacrifice. As with any great hero, she
something like the Ring, technology and manicured. So that’s why all the carries with her the redemption of the LiVe in HD:
catches up with you. An interesting sets and all the castles look like they’re world. She’s doing more than leaving Siegfried,
breakthrough was when we found a made of wood, which has been selected destruction and mayhem behind her; November 5, 2011
new approach to generate 3D imagery. for its purity, for its correctness. Man’s she’s giving a chance to whatever new
Götterdämmerung,
It’s actually an optical illusion more than control over nature is well represented world order to start. At the very end of
February 11, 2012
it is an actual 3D effect. If we’re talking during the hunting scene, where the Götterdämmerung, the world and Valhalla
about a sensuous world, this was a way of men come in with tied-up animals. And have been destroyed and burned, and
creating something beyond, for example, then there is the spiritual vacuum of a the waters of the Rhine have over-
rocks projected on a flat surface. They society that has relegated spirituality flowed. And now we’re ready for life to
actually feel as if they’re sticking out, to superstitious rituals and represents start again. And what have we learned
that, if your hand touched it, you could gods by statues on an altar. I think to from these 16 hours of opera? Basically,
feel the jaggedness. The perception of understand Götterdämmerung well, you to rebuild anew. MetTalks
3D comes from the way the images and have to accept the way that Wagner rein- Robert Lepage, Gary Lehman,
and Deborah Voigt will
pixels are used and the way the informa- terpreted the mythology and eventually Elena Park supervises all creative content
participate in a pair of panel
tion is in dialogue with the data of the gives it a human incarnation in a social at the Met. discussions about the new
The Hall of the Gibichungs, Ring, focusing on Sieg fried
seen here in an early on October 18, 2011, and
Siegfried opens on October 27, 2011. Götterdämmerung opens on January 27, 2012. Three complete Ring cycles will be Götterdämmerung on January 20,
technical rehearsal, is
rendered to look as if it’s presented in April and May 2012. For more information about the new Ring production, including performance clips, synopses, 2012.
made of wood. interviews, a fun leitmotif quiz, and more, visit metopera.org/ringcycle.
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Robert Lepage’s Deborah Voigt Brünnhilde in Die Walküre, Sieg fried, and Götterdämmerung “Last season’s Walküre was the first time I’d sung
Brünnhilde anywhere. I’ve only been on the first part of her journey so far, so I’m very excited to see where she goes in the next operas. It’s a difficult role
new production to sing, but the timing was right for me… Brünnhilde’s world is falling to pieces. It was this wonderful place that she experiences and enjoys and has no
of the Ring brings fears about. But suddenly she’s being told by the person she adores the most, her father, that her world is about to come to an end, and this absolutely
terrifies her. Of course it’s great to have Bryn Terfel playing Wotan. He’s absolutely magnificent, and he challenges me because he is such a master at
some of today’s drawing focus to himself. I have to really work hard to keep the focus on the ‘Walküre,’ on Brünnhilde herself.”
neW Dimensions greatest Wagner
Robert Lepage’s new
gary Lehman Siegfried in Sieg fried and Götterdämmerung “Siegfried is such a youthful figure. I have to try and put myself back into a
production of the Ring singers to the Met 17-, 18-year-old mind frame. I really like that aspect. But I also want to make sure he’s a likeable character, that he doesn’t come off as too much of a bully.
is the most technologically
advanced in Met history. stage. Herewith, There has to be some kind of humanity so you don’t just see him bludgeoning Mime throughout the first two acts of Siegfried. A lot of the soft moments
And now it’s going 3D. come out when he’s by himself, especially in Act II and the beginning of the Brünnhilde duet, where it’s him surrounded by nature. That’s where he feels
a remarkable the most comfortable in the world, being among the animals. He relates to the simplicity of nature. In Götterdämmerung he is a much more mature person,
cast on their but he still has that youthful exuberance in him. Vocally, it sits lower and is not as frenetic as Siegfried, so I can go back a little bit to my baritone roots.”
WHen THe FiRST TWO PARTS OF THe MeT’S neW RinG
remarkable roles. bryn terfeL Wotan in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, the Wanderer in Sieg fried “Wotan is unique in my repertoire because the
production premiered last season, audiences witnessed cutting- role covers three operas (though this is the first time I’ve sung the Wanderer). Das Rheingold is more of a reactive opera for this character, where you’re
Voices of the Ring
edge, singer-triggered video projections that helped realize observing lots of different characters. But Walküre is a totally different animal. That’s when the exciting moments happen. Fricka comes in and says that
Wagner’s stage directions. This season, the technology behind mortal sentence, ‘Stop looking after Siegmund—take that sword back!’ After that comes the big monologue—Wagner himself wrote that it’s the most
the staging is even more advanced, with certain scenes from important sing of the whole Ring cycle. That’s where Wotan opens up and the audience gets information, about things that happened in Rheingold as
Siegfried using pioneering technology to create 3D effects. well. When I get to the end of this wonderful, fantastic piece of music, sometimes I feel that I can pat myself on the back, but another time I might think,
“We are creating a new paradigm in stage technology,” says ‘I could do it better!’”
Roger Parent, president of Réalisations, the Montreal-based
company behind the interactive digital technology for the four Ring eVa-maria Westbroek Sieglinde in Die Walküre “I had sung in a couple of productions of Die Walküre before I did it here at the
productions. “I have never seen anything on this theatrical scale.” Met, and I always try to find something new, which makes it exciting for me and for other people, hopefully. That’s why it’s been really amazing to work
The first two Ring operas broke ground with the use of what with Robert Lepage, because he gave me a different view of Sieglinde. He doesn’t want her to be only the battered woman, which I’ve done previously,
are known as particles, configured to represent, say, bubbles but also to show her strength more and to really be Wotan’s daughter… What’s so great about this opera is that Siegmund and Sieglinde go on such a
or pebbles during the underwater Rhinemaidens scene, whose journey. There’s so much happening in their minds and in their souls, as you go from being the fearful wife to the moment when they recognize each other,
movement was triggered by the performers via infrared cameras. and she wants him to be the one. She’s waiting for this moment, and you go through all these stages—it’s very exciting!”
Now the team is going one step further, tracking the precise posi-
tioning of each object that’s being projected onto the 24 planks Jonas kaufmann Siegmund in Die Walküre “I literally grew up with Wagner’s music. My grandfather played the piano and had all the
of designer Carl Fillion’s so-called stage “machine” to create 3D scores, so he would be playing the music and singing all the parts, from a high falsetto to the low bass. I would be sitting next to him and just enjoy it…
images for the forest setting of Siegfried’s first act. “We are not Siegmund is an amazing character. It builds up from the beginning, with this guy coming in—he’s a warrior but so weak. And then within a couple of hours,
projecting 3D imagery in the way you would a hologram,” Parent in the hands of such a beautiful girl, you see he really is strong at the end… As much as I love doing Wagner, I wouldn’t want to define myself as a Wagner
says. “We’re projecting imagery that exactly fits the physical move- singer because it would limit my repertory to just this music. To me, the ideal Wagner singer is someone with experience in the French and especially the
ment of an object. The human brain is used to evaluating distance Italian repertory, who can then bring this smoothness and legato and all that beauty of sound to Wagner.”
and movement. Accurate positioning calculations can identify
a precise video frame per degree of rotation, so that as the set stephanie bLythe Fricka in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre “The great thing about Fricka is that this character really does have an arc.
moves, the audience’s perspective adjusts and they perceive the In Rheingold she’s young. They’re both young, she and Wotan. They’re in love. If you don’t believe they loved each other to begin with, then this giant break
object in 3D.” It’s the movement of the set, then, that enables the in Walküre means nothing. But if they were a great couple, you really are going to be devastated when she asks him to make this sacrifice. And she knows
3D effect to come through. that once he’s made that oath to her, she will never, ever be with him again. It’s the beginning of everything going kaflooey at that moment. What’s difficult
If this sounds complicated, it is. Robert Lepage and Ex Machina is that she makes a very strong statement that takes only about 20 minutes, even less. Wagner really distills the entire character, the idea of this relationship,
contracted Réalisations to oversee the interactive technology that into it, so you really have to be strong. She’s the law and he’s the wanderer. She’s a moral compass and has to bring him back home. It’s a bloody hard role!”
would be used to implement video artist Pedro Pires’s images.
Réalisations collaborated with Maginaire, a company run by eric oWens Alberich in Das Rheingold, Sieg fried, and Götterdämmerung “I was an oboe player before I became a singer, and I had been
Alexandru Duru, which focused on developing the 3D tech- a fan of Wagner for quite some time, playing it in the orchestra, so I was familiar with the score of the Ring. The role of Alberich gets successively shorter
nology for the Siegfried staging. In other words, Pires makes the over the course of the three operas he’s in. Das Rheingold is his big tour de force. But then there’s this wonderful confrontation scene between him and
pictures, Duru programs and sets up the 3D, and Parent makes the Wanderer in Siegfried, which is just amazing music. There’s a dramatic shift and I think a heightening of Alberich’s musical values from the beginning
sure these elements fit into the larger interactive framework of the of the cycle to the end. And of course Wagner always harkens back to the music of Rheingold. In the prelude to Act II of Siegfried, almost the entire curse
production. happens within the orchestra. It sort of sets up Alberich’s motivic structure, and it’s a reminder that this curse is hanging over everyone’s head with the
“I like realism and German Romanticism,” says video artist Pires, approaching of Götterdämmerung.”
a regular collaborator of Lepage and Ex Machina, who created
images of forests, underground roots, rocks, and lakes, all of which hans-peter könig Fafner in Das Rheingold and Sieg fried, Hunding in Die Walküre, Hagen in Götterdämmerung “Hagen of
will be rendered in 3D. “So for me, 3D was a way to be reminiscent course is the most fascinating of my three characters, both musically and dramatically. But Fafner and Hunding are very interesting, too, in their own right.
of the very realistic things you’d see in Wagner’s time, but in a Just because they’re shorter doesn’t mean they’re easier to sing. It’s always about bringing together the music, text, voice, and an understanding of who
more modern way.” and what that person really is to create the character. Having said that, Hagen is one of the most demanding roles in the bass repertoire, especially from
So modern that when news of this technological leap first got a vocal standpoint. He has so many facets you need to express. The text is extremely important. If you just play him as a bellowing cardboard villain you
out, other major companies at once wanted to find out about the haven’t understood the character at all. Wagner gave him a lot of soft music to sing, for many good reasons. The music and the various motives create
new technology. “Everybody was phoning us!” Parent recalls. “But the thoughts, the thought creates the words, and the words create the action. In the way he blends these things together, Wagner is really unique among
we wanted to give priority to the Met above all.” —Matt Dobkin opera composers.” —Edited by Philipp Brieler
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